Cybercab, which has no pedals or steering wheel, starts production in April https://t.co/yShxZ2HJqp
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 16, 2026
Inaugurated the India AI Impact Expo 2026 at Bharat Mandapam.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 16, 2026
Being here among innovators, researchers and tech enthusiasts gives a glimpse of the extraordinary potential of AI, Indian talent and innovation. Together, we will shape solutions not just for India but for the… pic.twitter.com/G370iXYAXm
The India AI Impact Summit 2026: When the Global South Takes the AI Stage
As of February 16, 2026, New Delhi is no longer just India’s political capital. For five days, it has become the gravitational center of the artificial intelligence universe.
The India AI Impact Summit 2026, organized by the IndiaAI Mission under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), is underway from February 16–20 at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi, with additional sessions at Sushma Swaraj Bhawan and other venues across the capital.
This is not just another technology conference.
It is the first truly major international AI summit hosted in the Global South—an event of such scale and ambition that it signals a tectonic shift in who gets to shape the future of artificial intelligence.
With more than 500 sessions, over 3,250 speakers and panelists, 300+ exhibitors from 30+ countries, and participation from 100+ nations—including heads of state, ministers, CEOs, researchers, and startup founders—the summit is one of the largest AI gatherings ever assembled.
If Davos is where global finance convenes and COP is where climate politics converges, Delhi this week is where the future of intelligence itself is being negotiated.
A Summit of Unprecedented Scale
The India AI Impact Summit is structured as a dense constellation of parallel tracks, roundtables, workshops, research showcases, and policy negotiations. Sessions run simultaneously across multiple halls and venues, creating an intellectual supernova rather than a single linear program.
At its core are three organizing pillars:
People
Planet
Progress
And beneath these pillars, seven thematic “Chakras”:
Human Capital
Inclusion & Social Empowerment
Safe & Trusted AI
Science & Research
Resilience, Innovation & Efficiency
Democratizing AI Resources
Economic Growth & Social Good
The symbolism is deliberate. India is not just hosting a technology conference. It is framing AI as civilizational infrastructure—something that must align with societal values, planetary boundaries, and economic justice.
Day-by-Day: A Nation Sets the Agenda
February 16: Laying the Intellectual Foundation
The summit opened with high-impact keynotes, policy-driven panels, and expert roundtables focused on national and global priorities.
The inauguration of the India AI Impact Expo unveiled more than 300 exhibitors across 10 thematic pavilions—ranging from sovereign AI infrastructure to multilingual models, from agritech to ethical AI auditing.
Selected early sessions included:
The Future of Employability in the Age of AI, featuring India’s Chief Economic Advisor and industry leaders.
Reimagining Gender in Technology, with global development voices and UN representatives.
Safe & Trusted AI at Scale, focusing on governance and infrastructure.
AI for Road Safety, highlighting practical deployment in public systems.
Panels on multilingual AI, sovereign AI, and culturally grounded AI systems.
From the outset, the tone was clear: India intends to shape both the philosophical and practical contours of AI deployment.
February 17: AI for Social Good
If Day 1 set the intellectual framework, Day 2 drilled into application.
The “AI for Social Good” track brought together economists, technologists, and policymakers. Sessions examined:
AI in Health
AI in Governance
AI in Climate and Agriculture
AI and the Future of Work
AI in Education
A standout feature was the launch of Knowledge Compendiums—casebooks documenting AI deployments across:
Health
Energy
Education
Agriculture
Gender Empowerment
Accessibility and Disabilities
The message was unmistakable: AI must not merely optimize advertising algorithms—it must improve maternal health outcomes, crop yields, public service delivery, and educational equity.
The day concluded with a cultural evening titled “India’s Journey from Tradition to Technology”—a symbolic reminder that India’s AI ambitions are not detached from its civilizational roots.
February 18: The Research Powerhouse
Day 3 centered on the Research Symposium.
The keynote by Demis Hassabis underscored the frontier of AI science, while ministers and international leaders emphasized sovereign research ecosystems.
Panels explored:
Building Sovereign AI Infrastructure (with NVIDIA leadership)
Defence AI and national security
Ethics and governance frameworks
AI in agriculture and climate resilience
International education partnerships
In parallel, poster sessions showcased global academic research—bringing together think tanks, universities, and AI labs from across continents.
If the previous days were about policy and deployment, this day was about raw intellectual horsepower.
February 19: Political Gravitas
The formal Opening Ceremony on February 19 was led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, marking the summit’s highest diplomatic moment.
A high-level CEO Roundtable brought together global industry leaders, investors, and policymakers to discuss:
Responsible AI development
Capital flows into emerging markets
Investment frameworks for AI infrastructure
Participants included executives such as:
Sundar Pichai
Sam Altman
Jensen Huang
Dario Amodei
Brad Smith
Mukesh Ambani
Shantanu Narayen
Nikesh Arora
Alongside them were prominent AI scientists including Yann LeCun and Yoshua Bengio.
This was not a ceremonial gathering. It was a negotiation table for the future of AI governance.
February 20: Governance and the Global Compact
The final day is dedicated to multilateral coordination.
Council meetings of the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) review progress and cooperation frameworks.
The summit aims to culminate in a Leaders’ Declaration—a shared roadmap for global AI governance emphasizing safety, inclusion, and equitable growth.
A cultural finale titled “Hornbill Dream – Where Tradition Meets Technology” symbolically closes the arc.
Why This Summit Matters
1. The Global South Claims Agency
For decades, AI governance discussions have been dominated by Washington, Brussels, and Beijing.
Delhi is now asserting that AI must also reflect the priorities of Lagos, Nairobi, Jakarta, São Paulo, and Kathmandu.
This summit reframes AI from a tool of corporate dominance to a lever of developmental acceleration.
2. Sovereign AI Becomes Central
The phrase “sovereign AI” appears repeatedly in sessions.
Countries increasingly view AI infrastructure—compute, data, models, and talent—as strategic assets equivalent to energy grids or satellite systems.
India’s approach suggests a hybrid model:
Global collaboration
Domestic compute capacity
Multilingual model development
Strong public-sector use cases
It is neither techno-nationalism nor laissez-faire globalization. It is strategic interdependence.
3. From Ethics Talk to Implementation
Unlike earlier AI summits heavy on philosophical caution, Delhi’s approach is practical:
AI in road safety
AI in agriculture
AI in maternal health
AI in education delivery
AI in climate resilience
This is AI as infrastructure, not spectacle.
4. The Talent Flywheel
With more than 3,250 speakers and thousands of delegates, the summit functions as a global talent marketplace.
Startups pitch.
Researchers collaborate.
Investors scout.
Governments negotiate.
The Expo floor is not just a showcase—it is a matchmaking engine for capital, compute, and code.
A Civilizational Moment
There is a deeper narrative unfolding.
India, home to over a billion people and one of the world’s largest digital identity and payment infrastructures, is positioning itself as:
A laboratory for AI at scale
A voice for responsible AI
A bridge between developed and developing economies
The metaphor is apt: If Silicon Valley built the engines of intelligence, Delhi is now debating the traffic rules.
The summit’s structure—People, Planet, Progress—suggests that AI is not merely a technological inflection point but a societal one.
Artificial intelligence can amplify inequality or reduce it.
It can centralize power or democratize it.
It can automate jobs—or augment human potential.
The India AI Impact Summit is attempting to tilt that balance deliberately toward inclusion.
The Scale in Perspective
To understand the magnitude:
500+ sessions
3,250+ speakers
300+ exhibitors
100+ participating countries
15–20 heads of government
50+ ministers
Global representation from UN agencies, development banks, academia, and industry
This is not just a conference. It is a platform for a new AI multilateralism.
The Larger Question
The real test is not what is said in the plenaries.
It is what is built after February 20.
Will commitments translate into infrastructure?
Will declarations become regulation?
Will inclusion become investment?
Delhi has provided the stage.
The world now watches to see whether this becomes a historic turning point—or simply a spectacular gathering.
Either way, February 2026 will be remembered as the moment the Global South stepped forward to help write the code of the future.
This is a massive global event—the first major international AI summit hosted in the Global South—with over 500 sessions, 3,250+ speakers and panelists, 300+ exhibitors (including the India AI Impact Expo), side events, a Research Symposium, and participation from heads of state, ministers, and tech leaders from 100+ countries. The agenda is tentative and subject to changes; many sessions run in parallel across multiple tracks and venues.High-Level Day-by-Day Agenda (Official Overview)
- February 16 (Monday): High-impact keynote addresses, policy-focused panel discussions, expert roundtables. Inauguration of the India AI Impact Expo (300+ exhibitors from 30+ countries, 10+ thematic pavilions). Focus: Setting the intellectual foundation and national priorities.
- February 17 (Tuesday): High-level sectoral panel discussions, launch of Knowledge Compendiums (casebooks on AI in Health, Energy, Education, Agriculture, Gender Empowerment, and Disabilities/Accessibility), focused Seminar on Applied AI, and a cultural evening ("India’s Journey from Tradition to Technology").
- February 18 (Wednesday): Research Symposium (academics, researchers, think tanks; international showcase and posters) and dedicated Industry Sessions with global tech leaders and startups.
- February 19 (Thursday): Formal Opening Ceremony led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, high-level CEO Roundtable (global industry leaders, investors, policymakers on responsible AI and investments), and Leaders’ Plenary (national/international decision-makers on commitments and partnerships).
- February 20 (Friday): GPAI Council Meetings (member countries reviewing progress and cooperation), adoption of a Leaders’ Declaration (shared roadmap for global AI governance), and a cultural evening ("Hornbill Dream – Where Tradition Meets Technology").
- Sundar Pichai (CEO, Google & Alphabet)
- Sam Altman (CEO, OpenAI)
- Jensen Huang (Founder & CEO, NVIDIA)
- Sir Demis Hassabis (Co-founder & CEO, Google DeepMind) — keynote at Research Symposium
- Dario Amodei (CEO, Anthropic)
- Brad Smith (President & Vice Chair, Microsoft)
- Mukesh Ambani (Chairman & MD, Reliance Industries)
- Cristiano Amon (CEO, Qualcomm)
- Shantanu Narayen (Chair & CEO, Adobe)
- Nikesh Arora (CEO, Palo Alto Networks)
- Bill Gates (Chair, Gates Foundation) — mentioned in some reports
- Arthur Mensch (CEO, Mistral AI)
- Alexandr Wang (Chief AI Officer, Meta)
- Prof. Yann LeCun (Executive Chairman, AMI Labs / Meta)
- Prof. Yoshua Bengio (Founder & Chair, Mila)
- Indian leaders: Nandan Nilekani, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Rishad Premji, Salil Parekh, Sridhar Vembu, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, and many more CEOs/ministers.
- The Future of Employability in the Age of AI (West Wing Room 4 A) — Dr. V Anantha Nageswaran (Chief Economic Advisor, GoI), Sanjeev Bhikchandani (InfoEdge), Vineet Nayar (Sampark Foundation), Smita Prakash (ANI), and others.
- Reimagining Gender in Technology (L1 Meeting Room No. 15) — Andrea Wojnar (UNFPA), Ambassador May-Elin Stener (Norway), Soha Ali Khan (UNFPA), and panel from ADB, Snapchat, etc.
- Safe & Trusted AI at Scale (L1 Meeting Room No. 14) — Speakers from STPI, Ministry of Jal Shakti, India AI Mission, d-MATRIX.
- AI for Road Safety (L2 Audi 1) — Experts from IIT Madras Centre of Excellence, Ministry of Road Transport, Volvo.
- Others: Multilingual AI in Universities, AI and the Future of Skilling, Culturally-Grounded AI, Sovereign AI for National Security, AI for Smart Agriculture, etc.
- From Algorithms to Outcomes (9:35–10:20 AM) — Opening: S. Krishnan (MeitY Secretary), Michael Kremer (Nobel Laureate), Iqbal Dhaliwal (J-PAL); fireside chat.
- AI in Health (10:20–11:20 AM) — Ziad Obermeyer (UC Berkeley); panel with Shahed Alam (Noora Health), Tamil Nadu Health Secretary.
- AI in Governance (11:40 AM–12:40 PM) — Dean Karlan (Northwestern); panel with Adalat AI CEO.
- AI in Climate/Agriculture (1:45–2:45 PM) — Maulik Jagnani (Tufts); panel with Anthropic trustee.
- AI in Work (2:45–3:45 PM) — David Yanagizawa-Drott (Zurich); panel with OpenAI, Anthropic, EkStep.
- AI in Education (4:40–5:40 PM) — Speakers from Letrus, Pratham, Google.org, Rocket Learning, World Bank.
- Other Feb 17 sessions: Launch of AI Impact Casebooks (Health & Education), Tata AI Sakhi Immersion, AI for India's Next Billion, Innovation to Impact in Public Health, etc.
- Research Symposium Opening (8:30 AM, L2 Audi II) — Ashwini Vaishnaw, Jitin Prasada (Ministers), S. Krishnan (MeitY), Estonian President, etc.
- Keynote by Sir Demis Hassabis (9:15 AM).
- Building Sovereign AI Infrastructure (with NVIDIA executives).
- AI & Agriculture panel, Defence AI perspectives, Safe and Trusted AI ethics/governance, AI in Education (international leaders from Estonia, France, Kenya, UNICEF), etc.
- Expo & Side Events — Open daily; includes Global Impact Challenges (AI for ALL, AI by HER, YUVAi) winners, startup pitches, and parallel tracks on sovereign AI, ethics, infrastructure, etc.
- Registration/Access — Details on the official site; some sessions are invite-only or have limited seating.
- For the complete, up-to-date list of all sessions and panelists (with live links where available), visit the official agenda and sessions pages: https://impact.indiaai.gov.in/agenda and https://impact.indiaai.gov.in/sessions. The site allows filtering by date, venue, and type.
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