The big news in India last week was the India AI Impact Summit 2026 held from 16 to 21 February in New Delhi. Originally slated as a five-day affair, it was extended by a day in view of the rush of visitors.
I am a tech enthusiast, especially when it comes to cutting-edge tools that actually touch the lives of ordinary people like us. So, I was keenly following the proceedings. There was live streaming on YouTube and maximim coverage in newspapers.
No doubt this was a blockbuster event that showcased India as the emerging force in the new Artificial Intelligence era.
BIG NAMES AND NUMBERS
There was a fair amount of hype and publicity, no doubt. That was natural considering around 100 nations participated and there were over 250,000 visitors.
The summit was a "who’s who" of global power, featuring Heads of State or Government from France, the Netherlands, Swiss Confederation, Spain, Finland, Serbia, Estonia, Mauritius, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and UN Secretary-General, besides of course India’s Prime Minister who was the host.
Tech honchos were in full strength. Every big company was there: Google, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, OpenAI, Anthropic, TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Accenture, IBM, KPMG, Zoom, Ericsson, OpenUK, Salesforce, World Economic forum, HCL, Qualcomm, Razorpay, Cisco, NVIDIA, Biocon Group, Coursera … you name it. Many companies were represented by multiple people.
INNOVATIONS AND INVESTMENTS
There were so many interesting exhibits. Here are a few of them.
BharatGen -- India's first government-funded, sovereign, multilingual, and multimodal Large Language Model (LLM) initiative.
Bhashini 2.0 -- Another government initiative, which focuses on building advanced, secure, and scalable multilingual applications for Indian languages.
Then there were the Kaze Smartglasses from Bengaluru-based Sarvam AI, which allow users to interact with the world through AI.
The most interesting was an AI-powered air taxi. It is a collaboration between The ePlane Company and IIT Madras. This electric vertical take-off and landing (e-VTOL) craft promises to turn a one hour traffic crawl into an eight-minute flight.
There were a slew of announcements. Google announced setting up of an AI hub in Visakhapatnam, which will house gigawatt-scale computers and a new international subsea gateway.
There were many similar announcements -- by other big companies like OpenAI, NVIDIA, Microsoft, Anthropic, etc. -- of either major tie-ups with Indian companies or opening of India offices.
All this will open up massive opportunities for the huge number of tech professionals in India. Investments running into billions, which have been committed, will also add to India’s IT infrastructure.
EXECUTION IS EVERYTHING
The summit painted a beautiful picture of the future, but it is important to remember that we aren’t there yet. As the old idiom goes, “There's many a slip between the cup and the lip.”
Here is why I am saying that:
In Bengaluru, we’ve been hearing about a "Common Mobility Card" for the metro and buses for over a decade. It’s a standard feature in many cities around the world. Yet here, despite our world-class tech prowess, it remains a "work in progress".
National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) is a government of India initiative launched in 2019. In 2023, the Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation introduced the NCMC, but till today the authorities have not been able to make it available for the bus commuters!
It’s not a lack of technical skill; it’s definitely because of some "extraneous" reasons, I have no clue about.
In the health sector, we have seen brilliant startups creating the technology for "portable" digital patient records. To be fair, there has been some progress. But the predominant reality on the ground is when you go to a different hospital or even the branch of the same hospital in another city, you start from scratch with a fresh set of expensive tests because the computer systems are not integrated.
A third example is air taxi services between Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport and the two big tech hubs in the city (Electronics City and IT Park) which are around at least two hours by car from the airport. There have been multiple attempts on this front by different companies. Quite possibly because of lack of economic viability, they haven't really taken off.
In the apartment I live, though I have a high-speed wi-fi network which enables me to get connected to anywhere in the world, the mobile phone and internet connectivity is so poor that the cellphone works like our good old fixed line telephone. The calls can be made and received only from certain spots close to the balcony!
DOWNSIDE OF THE AI SUMMIT
The AI summit had its fair share of cringe moments that sort of served as a reality check. The most infamous was the Galgotias University "robodog" bungle.
The university spokesperson claimed that a Chinese Unitree robot was an "in-house innovation". The ever-vigilant netizens called it out immediately, and it became a global embarrassment.
This incident shifted the whole focus from AI to the quality of education in India, especially higher education. It led to discussions on how commercialised education in India has become, and how college managements try to go for hype and publicity rather than focus on actual learning by students. Many were just hoping that various college and university managements would learn a lesson from what happened to Galgotias University.
Then there was the widely publicised crashing of Wi-Fi at the summit, how food stalls accepted only cash payments, long queues to get to the venue, valuables being stolen, etc. There were also complaints of widespread traffic chaos, with vehicular movement being held up for a very long time for VIPs to pass. All these pointed to something that is quite familiar here: organisational mismanagement.
India's Minister for Electronics and IT apologised, and it looks like from day 2, it was a better experience.
JOURNEY HAS ONLY BEGUN
No doubt, the India AI Impact Summit was undeniably a success at many levels, especialy in terms of intent and investment. The conclave highlighted that India is no longer the world's backoffice. Science and technology has made tremendous progress making a whole lot of difference to people's quality of life.
But it has to be remembered at the same time that the true "impact" of this AI summit is not in the number of visitors or the big names who graced the occasion or the amount of investments promised.
Succeess will be measured by whether that air taxi not only actually takes flight over Bengaluru but also becomes a regular transport service; and whether an AI model can finally help a small-town doctor save a life.
We’ve seen the pathway to the future. Now, it's time to walk it and reach the destination.
India clearly wants to position itself as a global AI hub, and the energy is undeniable.
ReplyDeleteHi SG - Yes, absolutely. India doesn't want to miss the opportunity.
DeleteIt's is disappointing that Australia wasn't represented, at a high level at least.
ReplyDeleteAirport flying taxi? Ho hum. Build train lines that all can use and afford.
It took Melbourne and Sydney years for stored value cards for public transport to be developed, mainly because everyone wants to reinvent the wheel instead of paying another country for the rights to use and adapt their systems. In Melbourne we still cannot use credit cards to pay fares on public transport. Maybe later this year it will be working.
The food stalls only taking cash is a bit amusing. It can just be instant phone to phone transfer now, without expensive terminals.
I think our medical system is still using faxes to communicate and while medical records can be accessed electronically, this often has to be done on a personal basis rather than using a dedicated electronic storage system.
We are already seeing how the non tech literate are being left behind and disadvantaged. We don't want a world where a large number of the poorest people are disadvantaged by technology, rather it should work to improve their lives.
Hi Andrew - Ya, the PM wasn't there. But quite possibly there might have been a delegation from Australia. What you mentioned about tech-illiterates being left out is true. Ideally, both offline and online options must be there.
DeleteTech glitches at a tech conference? Who woulda thunk it?
ReplyDeleteHi Liz - Yes, quite ironic!
DeleteLike any other technology, AI is good, useful, needed... What scares me is who is going to used it and how and for what? Imagine a malicious government using it against its own citizens!
ReplyDeleteHi Tomi - AI is still evolving at a pace even tech honchos aren't able to figure out. It's a creation of the techies, and techies themselves have been impacted adversely by it. They are losing jobs to something they themselves created! Since there is no regulation at all, the negatives of AI are going to be much more than the positives.
DeleteopenAI has digital patient record storing facility.
ReplyDeleteOkay. I wasn't aware of this.
DeleteHari OM
ReplyDeleteAh yes, that wonderful Indian mayhem of 'organisation'!
It's all very space-age to talk of these helitaxis, but is there discussion of air-way traffic control? Will there be a need to file flight plans? Will they be classed as drones? So many questions arise - while admitting I'd love a ride in one! YAM xx
Hi Yamini - The helitaxi concept is good. But so many things have to be sorted out. That's where we falter. We are good at making plans and announcing it as if we have achieved something.
DeleteI didn't even know it had happened - and what a huge turnout for it! I also didn't realize how much India was getting onboard with AI innovation. I'm still on the fence in regard to where it's all going to end up and whether we're dumbing ourselves and our children down while letting AI think for us. It's moving so fast and hard to keep up with all the changes and advancements - it's actually a little scary...
ReplyDeleteHi Leanne - You are right. Letting AI do things for us, will definitely have an adverse impact on our faculties. Very dangerous. AI can just be of help when we need. That's all. But like you rightly said, it's all very scary. I hope GenZ and Gen Alpha will take corrective measures and put in some regulations.
ReplyDeleteThe future looks exciting, but we have to live through the present first, and sometimes that feels more like the past!
ReplyDeleteThat's very well said. While it is good to have lofty goals, and we can make honest efforts to achieve them, it's important to look at the present state of affairs.
DeleteHi Pradeep, Sorry that I accidentally deleted your comment from my blog.
ReplyDeleteAI is wonderful and scary thing. I'm glad that countries from all around are meeting and discussing it. I was not aware of this conference and found it interesting. Thanks for sharing.
Hi L & L - That's okay. I will post the comment again.
DeleteYes, AI is very helpful but quite scary too, since the techies themselves don't have a clear idea of where it's headed to.
AI technology helping a small-town doctor save a life is a beautiful way to end this post. Bless you and yours, my dear.
ReplyDeleteHi Darla - Thank you.
DeleteGood to read your take on the AI Summit. Each innovation has both the sides, hopefully humans use it for the betterment and not destruction. Thank you for sharing! :)
ReplyDeleteHI Megha - Thanks. Some amount of regulation will also be needed.
DeleteThe summit sounds impressive in scale and ambition, but you’ve captured the gap between vision and everyday reality very well. I like how you balance the excitement of cutting-edge AI projects with the practical reminders that true impact comes when technology tangibly improves people’s lives.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Melody. If technology doesn't help us in a positive manner, then it's of no use. It's on us as well, the choices we make to ensure that tech works well for us, rather than in a detrimental manner.
DeleteAI, like everything else, has its positives and negatives, and let's hope we make more positive use of it rather than negative.
ReplyDeleteYes, Marietta. It's all about the choice we make, is it not?
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