The Centre of Policy Research and Governance (CPRG) recently hosted a seminar titled "AI for Inclusion in India" at the India International Centre in New Delhi. This event served as a crucial pre-summit dialogue, setting the stage for the upcoming India-AI Impact Summit 2026. The discussions centered on leveraging artificial intelligence to bridge gaps in equity, accessibility, and empowerment within India's rapidly evolving digital landscape.
The seminar, a part of CPRG's 'Future of Society' initiative, explored how emerging technologies are reshaping institutions and everyday life. It brought together a diverse group of experts from government, academia, and civil society to explore AI's potential for social good.
Rajit Punhani, CEO of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, emphasized AI's potential as a "strong accelerator of growth" if designed inclusively. He stressed the importance of reaching rural classrooms to address the digital divide, stating that AI must reach rural classrooms where the digital divide is most visible if India is to grow to the level we aspire by 2047.
Dr. Rashmi Das, Director of Higashi Autism School, highlighted AI's capacity to support diverse learners through public-private partnerships that focus on creating mother tongue materials and strengthening teacher training. Noopur Jhunjhunwala, Trustee and Co-founder of Changeinkk, pointed out that many tools initially designed for assistive purposes, such as audiobooks, have eventually benefited everyone, and AI should follow a similar path, shaped by voices from different communities and grounded in real needs.
Prof. Bipin Jojo from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences emphasized the need for culturally responsive approaches to ensure AI benefits tribal communities and helps protect indigenous knowledge, noting that culturally responsive approaches will be essential to strengthen inclusion and protect indigenous knowledge.
CPRG Director Dr. Ramanand stressed that "Innovation alone cannot carry us forward. AI in India must be designed and governed with inclusion at its core. This dialogue sets the tone for the India-AI Impact Summit 2026".
The India-AI Impact Summit 2026, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will be held in February 2026. The summit aims to highlight AI's tangible impact on sectors like healthcare, agriculture, education, and climate, emphasizing accessibility and ethical innovation. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY)'s IndiaAI mission will host the summit. The summit is expected to convene global leaders, industry experts, researchers, startups, civil society organizations, and multilateral organizations.
MeitY has outlined seven key objectives for the Summit, including democratizing access to AI resources, enabling inclusive development of AI applications and models, harnessing AI for a resilient and sustainable planet, and ensuring AI systems are secure, transparent, human-centric, fair, and trusted. The summit also aims to empower voices from the Global South and bridge the global AI divide.
The AI Impact Summit will feature high-level plenaries, global hackathons, innovation challenges, and an AI Expo. Multi-stakeholder working groups will develop recommendations and action plans, culminating in a Leaders' Declaration. IndiaAI organized a session at IGF 2025 in Norway titled “Catalyzing Equitable AI Impact: The Role of International Cooperation” as part of its lead-up to the IndiaAI Impact Summit in February 2026.
The government is also working to expand the country's AI infrastructure, including improving access to GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) computing power and enhancing the AIKosh Datasets Platform, which hosts more than 1,000 datasets and 208 AI models. The models developed under IndiaAI mission will be made open source to help other startups build applications, especially India specific ones, on top of it.
The CPRG's pre-summit dialogue and the upcoming India-AI Impact Summit 2026 underscore India's commitment to shaping the global narrative on AI governance and ensuring that AI benefits all sections of society.
