India AI summit Feb 2026: Introducing the Advent of the New AI Algorithm

An Al Power Push By India - Maybe A Bit Early, But Definitely Necessary.

AI Summit - India – 16th to 21st Feb 2026 at Bharat Mandapam- New Delhi - AI and Beyond

In February 2026, Bharat Mandapam, India’s largest exhibition and convention ground in New Delhi, which was inaugurated in 2023 and previously hosted the G20 summit, echoed India’s transition to a Sovereign Digital India. Since the emergence of OpenAI in late 2022, it has expanded across domains, from initial handling of coding and chat-related queries to processing multi-step workflow tasks with agentic AI, and now to reasoning tasks as well. The entire AI ecosystem has evolved tremendously.

The growth of AI introduced safety risks, job losses as workflows became autonomous, and, finally, the question of the AI bubble was doing the rounds, with 95% of AI systems not achieving the desired result and 55% of the business community stating that they regret the decision to replace humans with AI and are ready to look back on their decision. Despite all the factors preceding the event and creating headwinds, the India AI summit highlighted the push to move beyond AI risks and make it part of a democratised society, where countries now start accepting AI as the way forward, with the future of AI shifting directly to laptops, smartphones and eye-gears, placing a stress on data autonomy through localised models, improving the contribution to other sectors, and ensuring safety and dependence.

The MANAV framework introduced by the Prime Minister of India was a step towards a more humanised process for ‘M- Moral systems’, ‘A-Accountable Governance’, ‘N- National Sovereignty’, ‘A- Assessable AI’ and ‘V-Valid Operating System’ in the view of developing a Sovereign Digital India landscape. 

‘Sarvajana Hitaya, Sarvan Sukhaya !’, as it was themed, was a digital push by the Indian Prime Minister, Mr Narender Modi, towards making India future-ready. How it shapes up remains to be seen, but the episode marked India's presence on the AI world's diaspora map.

The Indian AI Summit 2026, which concluded on 21st Feb 2026 in New Delhi, was a first-of-its-kind event held in the Global South. The message is clear. India can no longer be ignored in the new world equation and is positioning itself as a strong geopolitical powerhouse in the AI narrative. India, already ranked 3rd in the 2025 global AI vibrancy tool report by Sanford University with a 21.59 score, just after the USA (78.6) and China (36.95), is trying to close the AI growth gap, which is highly concentrated in developed nations, with major world corporations focusing on future AI headquartered in the USA. Before the Summit, India had only a handful of business houses featured in the AI ecosystem. The platform successfully showcased India's readiness, with its 600+ AI startups and technology penetration already making headway worldwide through innovations like ‘Chewie’, a wet kitchen waste dispenser priced at 37900/- by a Bangalore-based start-up, already pre-booked for production till 2027.

Broad Takeaways From The Summit: A Big Snarl That The Future Will Remember

Summarising some of the key Indian contributions witnessed firsthand by the team of Academic Mantra services at the AI summit, which were buried amid the galore of controversy and the kiosks and podiums of global giants.

Amidst the hustle and bustle of some fake narratives, people and companies playing for quick limelight and gain, there was one Robo dog – ‘Svan M2’ – which was actually indigenous but buried under the continuous stream of negative news. An industrial quadruped robot built by IIT Kanpur and Xtera Robotics was showcased by L&T as an industrial robot designed for construction site monitoring. The robot could carry a payload of 5 kg and was equipped with LiDAR and cameras for 3D mapping, thermal imaging, and leak detection. The robot could be seen climbing stairs and navigating rough terrain, typical of construction sites.

Although the summit was a grand premiere for India’s AI future, a few concerns remain to be addressed:

Although online viewership figures are not flagged, a widely publicised event that had the world’s media covering the content live for six days received a mixed response from the community at large. Barring a few disappointments, the AI event was largely a success, with 5 lakh-plus attendees, 118+ country representatives, 20 state heads, 3000 speakers, business leaders, and stalwarts such as Sam Altman, Sundar Pichai, Yan Le Chun, and Yoshua Bengio, who graced the occasion, making it a highly talked-about event in recent days. The AI summit also saw more than 2 lakh young people attend on the first day, accelerating AI adoption among youth. The shift from AI risk to pivoting towards AI adoption was also a key factor for the summit in the AI future roadmap.