The Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India, unveiled the logo and key flagship initiatives for the India-AI Impact Summit 2026.

Being hosted for the first time by a Global South nation, the Summit is guided by the principles or Sutras of People, Planet, and Progress. The discussions are further centered around 7 thematic Chakras - Human Capital, Inclusion, Safe & Trusted AI, Resilience, Science, Democratizing AI Resources, and Social Good, underscoring how AI can be an impactful force for citizens, communities, and the planet alike.

The logo and key initiatives were unveiled in the presence of Hon’ble Minister of Electronics & IT (MeitY), Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw, Hon’ble Minister of State, MeitY, Shri S. Krishnan, Additional Secretary, MeitY, Shri Abhishek Singh, Principal Scientific Advisor to GoI, Prof. Ajay Sood, COO, IndiaAI, Ms. Kavita Bhatia, and  Prof. Stuart Russell, University of California, Berkeley and other senior dignitaries.

Official Logo

The official logo's identity is the Ashoka Chakra, an emblem of ethical governance, justice, and constitutional values that guide India’s digital and technological journey. From this core, neural network flares radiate outward, symbolizing AI’s transformative impact across languages, industries, and geographies, bridging divides and enabling inclusive progress.
 

 Remarking on the momentous occasion, Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw, Hon’ble Minister, MeitY highlighted, “The India AI mission has made very good progress. If we see from the beginning, our main goal was to give better compute facilities to a large number of students, researchers. We had a target of 1000 GPUs, and today we are at 38000GPUs, which is very good progress.” Further highlighting key initiatives he added, “The AI Data Labs are intentionally located across diverse regions, reflecting our approach to inclusive growth and ensuring that technology is democratized in line with the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s vision of equal access to opportunity. Our target of 570 Data Labs will be spread across the country and open doors for students going forward.

Key Initiatives Launched

The India-AI Impact Summit 2026 will feature a series of flagship initiatives, including:

●    AI Pitch Fest (UDAAN): It will showcase innovative AI startups from across the globe and high-potential ventures from India's Tier 2 & 3 hubs, with a special focus on women leaders and differently-abled changemakers.

●    Global innovation challenges for youth, women, and other participants: The initiative aims to foster AI-driven solutions that address real-world public challenges across sectors.

●    Research symposium: A one-day interdisciplinary gathering set to showcase cutting-edge AI research forum that brings together leading researchers and practitioners from India, the Global South, and the wider international community to present frontier work on the impact of AI, exchange methods and evidence, and forge collaborations.

●    AI Expo: The Expo for Responsible Intelligence will feature 300+ exhibitors from India and 30+ countries with 10+ thematic pavilions.

Launch of eight new foundational model initiatives: Under the IndiaAI Foundation Models pillar, eight pioneering projects have been launched to build indigenous AI models trained on India-specific data. Selected from about 506 proposals, these initiatives span multilingual and domain-specific models, scientific discovery, healthcare, and industrial innovation laying the groundwork for India’s AI leadership.      

●    Avatar AI – Creating specialized “AI Avatars” up to 70B parameters, optimized for Indian languages and domains such as agriculture, healthcare, and governance.

●    IIT Bombay Consortium – Bharat Gen – Developing multilingual and multimodal models ranging from 2B to 1T parameters, with an open-source approach to support applications in agriculture, finance, legal, health, and education.

●    Fractal Analytics Ltd. – Building India’s first large reasoning model of up to 70B parameters, designed for structured reasoning, STEM disciplines, and medical problem-solving.

●    Tech Mahindra Maker’s Lab – Designing an efficient 8B parameter model for Indic languages (with a focus on Hindi dialects), alongside an agentic AI platform, Orion, for government applications.

●    Zenteiq – Developing BrahmAI, a science-driven multimodal foundation model (8B–80B parameters) to advance engineering intelligence, scientific computing, and industrial innovation.

●    GenLoop – Creating small language models (2B parameters) – Yukti (Base), Varta (Instruction), and Kavach (Guard) – to support all 22 scheduled Indian languages with native reasoning and content moderation.

●    Intellihealth – Proposing a 20B parameter model for EEG signal analysis to enable early screening of neurological disorders and advance brain–computer interface research.

●    Shodh AI – Developing a 7B parameter model for material discovery, integrating AI into experimental workflows to accelerate innovation in material sciences.

Dedication of 30 IndiaAI Data and AI Labs: 30 Data & AILabs have been launched pan-India, forming the first wave of a 570-lab network. The first  27 labs are in partnership with NIELIT, established across key Tier 2 & 3 cities, and three state-of-the-art labs are set up in Mokokchung, Mhow, and Mohali with Intel. These labs will deliver foundational AI and data training courses under the FutureSkills initiative of the IndiaAI Mission.

Foundational courses on data annotation and data curation: Delivered through the Data and AI Labs network, new foundational courses aim to equip learners to participate in the AI economy by offering entry-level training in data annotation (images, text, audio) and data curation (organizing and labeling datasets).

Announcement of IndiaAI Fellowship Program and Portal:  IndiaAI Fellowship Program has been expanded to support 13,500 scholars, covering 8,000 undergraduates, 5,000 postgraduates, and 500 PhD researchers from all disciplines. This brings the IndiaAI Fellowship at par with PM Research Fellowships.These fellowships are now open to students from diverse disciplines across engineering, medicine, law, commerce, business, and liberal arts.The Fellowship Portal will enable digital applications, progress tracking, mentorship, and review. To check your eligibility and apply, visit fellowship.indiaai.gov.in

The India-AI Impact Summit 2026 will be held on February 19-20, 2026 at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi. The large-scale summit is expected to see participation from heads of states, global leaders, policy makers, researchers, industry experts and innovators.

Annexure

Hosted by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the India AI-Impact Summit 2026 will be held on February 19-20 2026 in New Delhi. The global platform is set to showcase the transformative role of AI in enabling inclusive development, sustainability, and fostering equitable progress. The Summit charts a path where AI serves humanity, advances inclusive growth, fosters social development, and promotes innovations that protect the planet.

The Three Sutras

The Summit will be anchored on three guiding principles or Sutras:

●    People: AI must serve humanity in all its diversity, respecting cultural identities, preserving dignity, and ensuring no one is left behind. Focus areas include human development in an AI-enabled world, multilingual and accessible systems, and safe and trusted deployment.

●    Planet: AI development and deployment must be resource efficient while also accelerating climate resilience, environmental protection, and scientific discoveries. AI must align with planetary stewardship and global sustainability goals.

●    Progress: Ensure equitable distribution of AI’s benefits, democratize access to datasets, compute, and models, and apply AI to healthcare, education, governance, and agriculture.

The Seven Chakras

The Sutras are translated into action through seven Chakras, areas of multilateral cooperation designed to deliver tangible outcomes:

1. Human Capital– Address employment, skilling, and workforce transformation. Develop global frameworks for literacy, reskilling, and equitable access to future skills.

2. Inclusion for Social Empowerment– Foster AI that reflects languages, cultures, and identities; ensure accessibility for persons with disabilities; prevent gender and data biases.

3. Safe and Trusted AI – Provide democratized access to safety testing, transparency, and auditing tools; build interoperable governance and assurance mechanisms.

4. Resilience, Innovation, and Efficiency – Promote resource-efficient AI, lightweight and adaptable to local realities, reducing disparities and environmental costs.

5. Science – Expand responsible use of AI to accelerate research and discovery; strengthen ecosystems and partnerships in the Global South; promote open, interdisciplinary research.

6. Democratizing AI Resources – Forge pathways for equitable access to data, compute, models, and critical infrastructure, enabling diverse AI solutions that reflect global realities.

7. AI for Economic Development & Social Good – Identify and scale AI applications in public interest sectors; create platforms for knowledge and resource sharing; enable cross-border collaboration.
    

As AI adoption increases around the world, the AI Impact Summit charts a discourse around measurable impact of AI, highlighting India’s role as a global convener for the Global South and beyond. Bringing together world leaders, innovators, policymakers, and industry pioneers, the Summit will shape a shared vision for AI that truly serves the many, not just the few.

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Dharmendra Tewari\ Navin Sreejith