The India AI Impact Summit 2026, the first global AI gathering in the Global South, has witnessed unprecedented participation, with over 20 Heads of State, 60 Ministers and Vice Ministers, and 500 global AI leaders. Bringing together policymakers, technology companies, innovators, academia, and industry leaders, the Summit seeks to translate global AI deliberations into actionable development outcomes under the IndiaAI Mission and the Digital India initiative.
At Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the India AI Impact Summit 2026, (16-21 February) marking a landmark moment in India’s digital journey. Addressing heads of state, global tech CEOs, and multilateral leaders, Modi emphasized India’s resolve to make artificial intelligence human-
centric, inclusive, and trusted, guided by the theme “For the welfare of all, for the happiness of all.” The Prime Minister stressed AI’s potential to drive growth, improve governance, and bridge the global digital divide. He also pointed out that the regulations must share rules and international cooperation on safety, ethics, and democratized access to AI resources.
The India–AI Impact Summit 2026 aims to advance an impact-oriented and people-centric approach to Artificial Intelligence, with emphasis on delivering measurable social and economic outcomes. The Summit is anchored on three foundational pillars, known as ‘Sutras’—a Sanskrit term meaning guiding principles or essential threads that weave together wisdom and action. These Sutras define how AI can be harnessed through multilateral cooperation for collective benefit.
The India AI Impact Summit 2026 has cast India as a platform for inclusive and ethical AI in a collective setting with a clear push towards values based on “People, Planet and Progress.” This perspective provides a way for the CSR ecosystem to examine the ways in which AI can be leveraged to broaden access, reduce inequality, and build stronger resilience in society. AI is already seeping into core pillars of India’s development narrative —healthcare, education, agriculture, skilling, urban governance and social protection. AI could also upgrade disease surveillance, bolster diagnostics in resource-poor societies, and assist in early warning systems for epidemic outbreak in public health. For India’s CSR community, this is an opportunity to shift from being the frontline pilots to being a core participant, to help fashion an AI future that is not only genuinely ‘for the welfare of all, for the happiness of all’.
