India AI Impact Summit 2026: Day 1 highlights
The India AI Impact Summit 2026 is happening this week at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, running until February 20.
With over 250,000 attendees and leaders from OpenAI, Google, NVIDIA, and more, leaders including Prime Minister Modi, France's President Macron and UN chief Antonio Guterres were scheduled to address the summit's opening ceremony on Day 4.
Major announcements on Day 1
Google just pledged $15 billion to boost India's AI infrastructure and announced a new fiber-optic link between the US and India.
The Indian government rolled out BharatGen Param2—a homegrown AI model that supports 22 Indian languages.
Anthropic opened an office in Bengaluru and announced partnerships with groups like Karya and the Collective Intelligence Project, while Google DeepMind is working with Indian researchers on cutting-edge science using AI.
India's approach to AI
India wants to be more than just an AI user—it's building its own models like Sarvam AI and Krutrim that focus on affordability and keeping data local.
There's also a push for "small AI"—simple tools designed for places where internet or tech access isn't great—making sure innovation reaches everyone, not just big cities.