At Impact Summit, PM Modi frames India as key player in AI ecosystem

NEw new delhi: undercoat government minister Narendra Modi on th outlined an honourable, sovereign, inclusive and globally oriented vision of artificial intelligence (AI) as he pitched India as a central player in the global AI ecosystem and called for stronger guardrails to regulate emerging technologies. Inaugurating the India AI Impact Summit 2026 at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi, Modi said the event was historic, underlined the transformative potential of AI, emphasized child safety, and called for more democratisation, wider access and more transparent processes.“Today, at the New Delhi AI Impact Summit, I present the MANAV vision. MANAV means human. M stands for moral and ethical systems. A stands for accountable governance, transparent rules and robust oversight. N stands for national sovereignty - whose data, their rights. The second A stands for accessible and inclusive, not an AI monopoly, but a multiplier. V stands for valid and legitimate. This vision will be an important link in the welfare of humanity,” said the PM.In a 22-minutespeech, he also said India was building a resilient ecosystem ranging from semiconductors and chip-making to quantum computing. He highlighted that secure data centers, a strong IT backbone, and a dynamic startup ecosystem made India a natural hub for affordable, scalable, and secure AI solutions.Also Read | India to join Pax Silica, US-led AI and chip supply chain initiative, on Friday“India possesses diversity, demography, and democracy. Any AI model that succeeds in India can be deployed globally. Design and develop in India. Deliver to the world. Deliver to humanity,” he added.Modi addressed a packed hall of nearly 2,500 delegates, including representatives from 118 countries, including French President Emmanuel Macron, United Nations Secretary General António Guterres, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Bhutan PM Tshering Tobgay, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Netherlands PM Dick Schoof, Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Switzerland President Guy Parmelin, Finland PM Petter Orpo and Estonian President Alar Karis.Also present were tech leaders such as Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis.“We represent 1/6th of humanity. India is the world’s biggest country for youth, biggest country for tech talent pool, biggest tech ecosystem. India builds new tech and adopts new tech,” he said, opening his address.Referring to the large turnout at the summit’s expo, Modi said, “There was enthusiasm over expo, youth came in huge numbers. The solutions presented here reflected made-in-india power, an example of India’s capabilities.”It was estimated that about 200,000 people visited the expo and the sessions on Wednesday. The inaugural session was closed to the public on Thursday. The expo will be open to the public on Friday and Saturday.Placing AI in the arc of civilisational shifts and comparing it to foundational technological breakthroughs, the PM said, “When the first spark came from stones, no one imagined that spark would form the bedrock of civilisation. When voice was transformed into writing, no one knew that written knowledge would become the backbone of future systems. When signals were first transmitted, no one thought the world would one day be connected in real time. AI is a transformation of that scale.”“What we are predicting today is only a small part of what AI will become. AI is not just making machines intelligent; it is, in many ways, making humans more intelligent. The difference now is scale and speed. Earlier technologies unfolded over decades, but the journey from machine learning to the learning machine is rapid, deep, and widespread.”He cautioned that the direction AI takes will depend on the decisions governments and societies make today. Drawing a parallel with nuclear power, he said AI is a transformative technology of similar scale, capable of being highly disruptive if misused, but immensely beneficial if guided responsibly. For India, he added, the benchmark is whether AI advances “welfare for all” and contributes to broader public good, in line with the theme of the summit – Sarvjan Hitay, Sarvjan Sukay (Welfare for all, Happiness for all).Modi struck a note of caution around the concentration of power and data, and talked about democratising the technology.“For AI, humans are only data points, they are just raw material. That is why we must democratise AI. Make it inclusive, especially in the Global South. We must give AI an open sky to grow, but keep the command in our hands. Like GPS that shows us the way, it is still up to us to decide which direction to take.”On employment concerns, Modi argued that AI’s long-term impact will be shaped by policy choices.“Decades ago, when the internet was born, no one imagined how many jobs it would create. The same is true of AI. Today, it is not possible to ascertain how many jobs it will generate. AI’s future of work is not predefined; it depends on our course of action. We are entering an era where humans and intelligent systems co-create, co-work and co-evolve. AI will make our work more impactful, efficient and smart. We will design better, build faster and make better decisions.”In a departure from calls in some countries for tightly controlled proprietary systems, Modi advocated for wider access. Invoking the idea that transparency builds trust, he contrasted India’s approach with that of countries and companies that treat AI as a tightly guarded strategic asset.India, he said, believes AI delivers greater global benefit when development is more open with shared code and wider participation allowing millions of young innovators to improve systems and make them safer.“Sunlight is the best disinfectant…India believes AI will benefit the world only when it is shared…open code and shared development will allow millions of young minds to make AI better and safer,” he said.Modi called for global standards on authenticity and safety in the age of generative AI.“Like how we see labels on food items, we must have authenticity labels on content. We must know what is real and what is AI generated. As and when AI permeates more text, images, the need for watermarking and clear source standards is growing. We must have trust in tech from the get go,” he said. In recent amendments to Information Technology Intermediary Rules in India, the government mandated takedown of deepfakes within three hours, compulsory labelling of AI-generated content, and stricter intermediary compliance.On child protection, he said, “Children’s safety has to be taken seriously.” French President Macron, speaking before Modi, also touched on child safety, as France moves ahead to put a ban on social media for children below the age of 15 and called on Modi to “join this club”.India is looking at an Australian-style model to put a partial ban on social media platforms for people below 16.Modi said that three AI companies launched their models at the summit, calling it evidence of India’s growing ecosystem. “It shows our youth’s talent. India’s solutions show depth and diversity.”The companies include Sarvam AI, Gnani.ai, and BharatGen, each of which unveiled indigenous AI models at the New Delhi summit as part of India’s push to build sovereign, multilingual and globally deployable AI systems.“There are two kinds of people—those who see fear in AI and those who see fortune. India sees fortune and future in AI, backed by talent, energy capacity, and policy clarity.”