India’s High-Profile AI Summit Ends With Global Pact as Ambition Meets Scrutiny and Democratic Dissent
India’s AI Impact Summit 2026 concluded in New Delhi with the adoption of the New Delhi Declaration on AI Impact. The pact was endorsed by 88 countries and international organisations, even as the high-profile gathering saw political disruption and exhibition-floor controversy that briefly diverted attention from its stated goals.
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| PM NaMo during the CEO Roundtable at the AI Impact Summit. |
Guided by the principle “Sarvajan Hitaya, Sarvajan Sukhaya” — welfare for all, happiness for all — it underscores that AI’s benefits “must be equitably shared across humanity.”
In his inaugural address, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi framed artificial intelligence as a civilisational inflection point, stating, “Artificial Intelligence is such a transformation in human history. What we see today, what we predict today, are only the early signs of its impact.” He cautioned that “the real question is not what Artificial Intelligence can do in the future, but what we choose to do with it today,” arguing that AI “must be democratized” and become “a medium of inclusion and empowerment, especially across the Global South.”
Presenting India’s “M.A.N.A.V.” vision, Moral and Ethical Systems, Accountable Governance, National Sovereignty, Accessible and Inclusive, Valid and Legitimate, he said, “AI is a shared resource for the welfare of humanity,” and called for a “glass box” approach to transparency over “black box” systems.
The summit also produced a series of voluntary initiatives, including a Charter for the Democratic Diffusion of AI, a Global AI Impact Commons and a Trusted AI Commons repository.
India announced that under its AI Mission, “38,000 GPUs are already available” with “24,000 more” to be added in six months. Modi highlighted AIKosh, described as a national dataset platform through which “more than 7,500 datasets and 270 AI models have been shared as national resources.”
On the sidelines, India joined the Pax Silica initiative and signed a Joint Statement on the “India-U.S. AI Opportunity Partnership.” The documents were signed by Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, S. Krishnan; U.S. Ambassador to India Sergio Gor; and U.S. Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment Jacob Helberg, in the presence of Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios.
The partnership aims to promote “pro-innovation regulatory approaches,” strengthen the “physical AI stack,” facilitate industry partnerships and enhance cooperation on compute and advanced processors. Ambassador Gor described India’s entry into Pax Silica as “strategic and essential,” while Minister Vaishnaw emphasized supply chain resilience under the India-U.S. Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership.
Separately, the National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT), an autonomous body under MeitY, signed an MoU with the Government of Andhra Pradesh to establish what was described as India’s first dedicated Quantum and Artificial Intelligence university campus in Amaravati.
NIELIT Director General M. M. Tripathi said the campus would emerge as a “national centre of excellence for research, education, and innovation in quantum technologies and artificial intelligence.”
But the summit’s carefully curated narrative encountered hurdles. On the exhibition floor, Galgotias University faced backlash after showcasing a robotic dog later identified in reports as the Go2 model developed by Chinese firm Unitree, while claiming it as its own innovation.
The university had earlier issued a press release stating it had invested “more than Rs 350 crore toward artificial intelligence,” calling it “the largest AI investment ever made by a private university in India.”
After scrutiny, the institution apologised “profusely for the confusion created,” with Registrar N.K. Gaur stating that a representative had been “ill-informed” and “gave factually incorrect information even though she was not authorised to speak to the press.” The university was subsequently instructed to vacate its booth at the venue.
Wipro also drew scrutiny after a video circulated online showing a robotic dog resembling the same Unitree model. According to BusinessLine, Wipro said its demonstration focused on its InspectAI solution rather than the robot itself, describing TJ, the robot, as capable of conducting inspections in hazardous environments and equipped with an “in-built AI model” to detect harmful scenarios. On its website, Wipro describes InspectAI as a system that integrates computer vision models for inspection, labelling and surveillance, collecting data from UAVs, magnetic crawlers and advanced imaging assets.
A second disruption occurred on February 20, when a group of individuals said to be linked to the Indian Youth Congress staged a brief shirtless protest inside Hall No. 5 of Bharat Mandapam. Delhi Police said around 10 to 15 protesters entered using valid passes or QR codes, removed T-shirts and chanted slogans targeting Prime Minister Modi and the government.
Police detained several individuals and later told a court that it was a “conspiracy to defame the country internationally,” seeking custody to investigate funding and identify others allegedly involved. The accused’s lawyer argued that the protest was peaceful and constituted political dissent.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party condemned the protest as damaging to India’s image at an international forum, while leaders of the Indian National Congress defended it as a democratic expression of youth anger. The episode, which lasted less than ten minutes, was widely circulated on social media.
Despite these controversies, the adoption of the New Delhi Declaration and the signing of bilateral and multilateral initiatives signalled tangible diplomatic outcomes. Modi told participants that “AI must be accessible to all, with Global South priorities at the center of governance,” adding, “When technology and human trust move together, the true impact of AI will be visible across the world.”
The summit’s conclusion thus reflected a push to position India as a central actor in shaping global AI norms, alongside the challenges of managing narrative, security and credibility at scale.
For a country seeking to balance rapid technological expansion with democratic contestation and institutional accountability, the summit showed that global leadership in AI will require sustained attention to transparency, standards and public trust.