India-AI Impact Summit 2026 to Gather Global Leaders in New Delhi on February 19-20

New Delhi is set to host the India-AI Impact Summit 2026 on February 19-20. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate this significant event, which aims to unite global leaders, innovators, and policymakers. The summit will focus on shaping a collective vision for Artificial Intelligence (AI) in a rapidly evolving landscape where nations are eager to leverage AI for economic growth and innovation.

The India-AI Impact Summit 2026 holds particular importance as it coincides with a global push for safe and ethical AI frameworks. This event will highlight India's role as a key player in the Global South, showcasing AI's potential to drive inclusive development and sustainability. The summit will also aim to foster equitable progress through AI advancements.

AI Leadership and Governance Frameworks

IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw expressed pride in hosting the summit in India, following previous events in the UK, South Korea, and France. Many nations and global leaders are expected to participate, underscoring India's growing influence in the AI sector. The government has announced eight new entities selected to build foundational models, marking a significant step in India's AI leadership ambitions.

These initiatives are part of the IndiaAI Foundation Models pillar, focusing on creating indigenous AI models trained on India-specific data. Selected from 506 proposals, these projects cover multilingual and domain-specific models, scientific discovery, healthcare, and industrial innovation. This effort aims to drive consensus on a global AI governance framework.

Innovative Projects and Collaborations

The selected entities include Avatar AI, which will create specialised AI Avatars optimised for Indian languages and domains like agriculture, healthcare, and governance. IIT Bombay Consortium Bharat Gen will develop multilingual and multimodal models with an open-source approach for applications in agriculture, finance, legal, health, and education.

Fractal Analytics is set to build India's first large reasoning model focused on structured reasoning, STEM disciplines, and medical problem-solving. Tech Mahindra Maker’s Lab will design a model for Indic languages with an emphasis on Hindi dialects and an agentic AI platform called Orion for government applications.

Zenteiq is working on BrahmAI, a science-driven multimodal foundation model aimed at advancing engineering intelligence, scientific computing, and industrial innovation. GenLoop will create small language models supporting all 22 scheduled Indian languages with native reasoning and content moderation capabilities.

Expanding AI Education and Research

Intellihealth proposes a model for early screening of neurological disorders and advancing brain–computer interface research. Shodh AI is developing a model for material discovery by integrating AI into experimental workflows to accelerate innovation in material sciences.

Additionally, 30 Data and AILabs have been launched across India as part of a 570-lab network. The first 27 labs are established with NIELIT across key Tier 2 & 3 cities. Three labs are set up in Mokokchung, Mhow, and Mohali with Intel's collaboration. These labs aim to deliver foundational AI and data training courses under the FutureSkills initiative of the IndiaAI Mission.

The new foundational courses offered through the Data and AI Labs network aim to equip learners with skills necessary for participating in the AI economy. They provide entry-level training in data annotation images, text, audio curation organising, and labelling datasets.

IndiaAI Fellowship Program Expansion

The IndiaAI Fellowship Program has been expanded to support 13,500 scholars across various disciplines. This includes 8,000 undergraduates, 5,000 postgraduates, and 500 PhD researchers from fields such as engineering, medicine, law, commerce, business, and liberal arts. These fellowships now align with PM Research Fellowships.

This expansion signifies India's commitment to nurturing talent across diverse fields while ensuring that students from various backgrounds can contribute to the nation's growing AI ecosystem.

With inputs from PTI