India Leads AI Impact Summit to Democratize Technology Solutions

India is gearing up to host the AI Impact Summit in February 2026, cementing its position as a global leader in artificial intelligence discussions. Announced by the Ministry of Electronics and IT, the event will focus on democratizing AI to tackle real-world problems across various sectors.

Union Minister of Electronics and Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, highlighted India's efforts to create a techno-legal framework for AI regulation. The country is channeling funds into research and development at IITs for projects such as deepfake detection, privacy enhancement, and cybersecurity. Additionally, India is developing foundational and language models based on local data to better cater to healthcare, agriculture, and governance.

The IndiaAI Compute Capacity initiative is improving AI infrastructure by providing access to 34,381 GPUs to academia, MSMEs, startups, and more, at reduced rates. The government supports 40% of the costs, making this resource available at Rs 67 per GPU-hour, significantly below global levels. This aligns with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of making transformative technologies widely accessible.

(With inputs from agencies.)