The government on Sunday said the overwhelming global participation in the India AI Impact Summit 2026 underscores India's growing stature as a hub for responsible artificial intelligence innovation, guided by the vision of People, Planet and Progress.
Ahead of the summit, scheduled to be held in New Delhi from February 16 to 20, finalists of three flagship Global Impact Challenges — AI for ALL, AI by HER and YUVAi — have been announced. Launched by the Ministry of Electronics & IT to promote innovative and socially impactful AI solutions aligned with global priorities, the three competitions together received over 4,650 applications from more than 60 countries, reflecting strong international interest.
After a rigorous multi-stage evaluation by domain experts and industry leaders, the top 70 teams have been shortlisted. They will present their solutions at the Grand Finale and Awards Felicitation Ceremony on February 16 and 17 at Bharat Mandapam and Sushma Swaraj Bhawan in New Delhi.
The AI for ALL Global Impact Challenge alone received over 1,350 applications from more than 60 countries, focusing on scalable AI solutions in healthcare, agriculture, climate resilience, governance, education and financial inclusion. The top 20 finalists have developed real-world applications such as AI-driven infection screening tools, soil intelligence systems, climate risk analytics platforms, digital health diagnostics, cybersecurity solutions, industrial efficiency tools, accessible education technologies and AI-enabled governance systems. The ministry said these innovations demonstrate how AI can promote equitable growth and improve public service delivery, especially across the Global South.
The AI by HER Global Impact Challenge, which attracted over 800 applications from more than 50 countries, aims to promote women-led AI innovation. The top 30 finalists include women entrepreneurs developing AI-based solutions in healthcare, sustainability, financial inclusion, workforce development, agriculture, education and digital commerce. Their projects range from AI-powered cancer and retinal screening tools to multilingual clinical decision support systems, voice-to-EMR platforms, precision nutrition technologies, credit intelligence systems, ESG automation platforms and multilingual localisation tools. The government said the initiative reflects its commitment to inclusive digital growth and to placing women innovators at the forefront of the global AI ecosystem.
The summit will also witness the release of India's AI Governance Guidelines, anchored in a 7-Sutra framework to ensure AI serves as an enabler for inclusive development, economic growth and global competitiveness, while addressing risks through proportionate, evidence-based measures. The seven guiding principles are: Trust is the Foundation, People First, Innovation over Restraint, Fairness & Equity, Accountability, Understandable by Design, and Safety, Resilience & Sustainability.
Through this structured and forward-looking architecture, India aims to realise its vision of "AI for All," aligning AI development with the national aspiration of Viksit Bharat 2047. By combining sovereign capability with open innovation — leveraging public digital infrastructure, indigenous model development and affordable compute — the country seeks to drive productivity, social empowerment and strategic autonomy.
Under the IndiaAI Mission, more than 38,000 GPUs have been onboarded through a subsidised national compute facility. AIKosh hosts over 9,500 datasets and 273 sectoral models, strengthening indigenous AI development. The National Supercomputing Mission has operationalised over 40 petaflop systems, including AIRAWAT and PARAM Siddhi-AI. On the capacity-building front, IndiaAI and FutureSkills initiatives are supporting 500 PhDs, 5,000 postgraduates and 8,000 undergraduates, while 570 AI Data Labs and 27 IndiaAI labs across states are expanding grassroots innovation. Nearly 90 per cent of startups in India are integrating AI in some form, embedding it deeply into the innovation ecosystem.
The AI Governance framework adopts a principle-based, techno-legal approach and introduces new institutions such as the AI Governance Group, the Technology & Policy Expert Committee and the AI Safety Institute. Together, these measures aim to balance innovation with safeguards and position India as a global leader not only in AI adoption and capability, but also in responsible, inclusive and trusted AI governance.
(With inputs from IANS)
