Indranil Banerjie | As We Head For A Brave New World, Best & Brightest In AI Flock To Delhi

The most dramatic transformation in India is the change in attitudes towards technology. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the Father of the Nation, had written back in 1908, echoing his country's deeply traditional mindset, that the railways and hospitals were necessary evils whose natural destruction he would welcome! Decades later, in the mid-1980s, when the government decided to widely adopt computers, the entire country rose up in protest. The year 1984 was dubbed the “Anti-Computerisation Year”. Labour unions precipitated a wave of strikes across the country supported by several political parties, while Indians across the ideological spectrum claimed it would destroy employment, the economy and ultimately the nation. Technology was viewed as a peril.

The complete turnaround in attitudes since then is evident in the widespread adoption of digital technologies across all strata of society and across the country. Computers and modern technology, far from being undesirable, have proven to be huge job creators and a major convenience. Even AI or Artificial Intelligence is not viewed as a threat despite warnings about its potential to make many jobs redundant. Today, the cutting edge of technology is viewed more as an opportunity than a threat, with AI emerging as the centre of a brave new world that India is hurtling towards.

This trend is the underlying motivation for the India-AI Impact Summit 2026, scheduled for February 16 to 26, 2026 in New Delhi. India seems to have fixed its gaze on cutting-edge technology and is preparing to thrust itself into the frenetic AI race that is transforming the globe like little else before it. And the world, for once, is noticing.

The Indian plan is ambitious: it not only seeks to build a formidable national AI ecosystem but also to involve other partners from the Global South to be part of a larger grid of inter-related AI networks. The idea is to pitch for a global AI environment where the developing world will not be left behind. To attract world players, the Delhi AI Summit organisers have come up with the slogan of “People, Planet and Progress”, which talks about using AI for the betterment of humanity, inclusive growth and the safeguard of planet Earth.

The idea of humanity coalescing for the benefit of mankind as a whole is pretty seductive. Not surprisingly, if you are anyone in AI you got to be at the New Delhi Summit. The event organisers claim the event will see some 35,000 participants, including 15-20 heads of government, fifty or more international ministers, and over forty CEOs from major global and Indian tech companies. The big guns of AI, Sam Altman of OpenAI, Google’s head Sundar Pichai, Nvidia chief Jensen Huang and Microsoft boss Bill Gates, among others, will be in attendance. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, French President Emmanuel Macron and Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will also attend.

The summit ties in with India's internal and very purposeful initiative, the “IndiaAI Mission”, being implemented by the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY), headed by minister of state Jitin Prasada, who points out: “What nuclear technology once was to the last century, AI is to this one.” With that in mind, the Indian government has been racing to build its AI ecosystem in order to position the country as a key player in the field.

The challenge was enormous given that India was not capable of manufacturing even the most basic semiconductors or computer chips; it had no mega data centres and no Indian company with AI capabilities. How on earth could it get its act together if it had neither the players, nor the stage and no script? Yet within a matter of a few years, the green shoots of the requisite ecosystem have begun to sprout.

The most dramatic has been the emergence of semiconductor manufacturing capabilities in the last two years. As of January this year, an estimated ten semiconductor manufacturing projects are coming up across six states, some of which are expected to come online this year.

The second spoke of the government’s strategy is to encourage the establishment of mega data centres in the country. Last year, a slew of global technology companies, including Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Digital Connexion, announced multi-billion-dollar investments in AI infrastructure and data centres in India. The third crucial spoke connected with all these efforts is the chip design and software development environment. Indian government cash handouts require all companies, both foreign and domestic, to simultaneously invest in design capabilities in order to build a self-sustaining and composite semiconductor, data processing and AI ecosystem.

Tech leaders are generally bullish about India's potential: Nvidia’s Jensen Huang predicts India’s next generation will be the “back-office for AI delivery”, while Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, believes India has the ability to “push the AI frontier forward”, thanks to its human resources and rocketing AI adoption rates. Already, India is the second largest market for AI frontrunner ChatGPT, whose chief executive Sam Altman admits that India is an “incredibly important market” for AI.

While the AI Summit obviously aims to position India as a global actor in the AI and computing realm, it is at the same time trying to achieve something bigger. It is attempting to emerge as a leading voice in the development of AI and associated technologies in the Global South. It’s a pretty long shot but worth a try. Should it succeed, the summit then would not merely be a celebration of Indian intent but a pivotal moment for the world as well.