With the India-AI Impact Summit 2026 set to take place from February 16 to 20 at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi is positioning itself as the first country in the Global South to host a global, government-led dialogue on artificial intelligence.
Anchored around the themes of People, Planet and Progress, the summit aims to move the AI conversation beyond principles and into real-world deployment, governance and state capacity. The focus will be on how governments build, buy and use AI systems at scale. India’s policies on regulating, deploying and procuring AI are expected to evolve within this broader framework.
At the core of this strategy is the IndiaAI Mission, launched in 2024 with a budget of ₹10,372 crore. The mission is structured around 7 pillars: compute capacity, datasets, innovation centres, application development, future skills, startup financing and safe and trusted AI. These pillars address the full AI lifecycle, from infrastructure and data to governance and implementation.
A major priority is compute capacity. The government plans to enable access to large-scale AI infrastructure, including high-performance GPUs, for public sector projects, startups and researchers. The mission also emphasises high-quality datasets for public use cases in healthcare, agriculture and governance.
AI deployment is closely linked with the Digital India initiative. AI systems are being integrated into digital public infrastructure and data-driven decision-making systems used by ministries, states and municipalities. The summit is positioned as a platform to assess and showcase these deployments rather than announce new policies.
India’s AI architecture builds on earlier efforts such as the National Program on Artificial Intelligence (NPAI) under MeitY. NPAI is based on 4 pillars: a National Centre on AI, a Data Management Office, AI skilling and responsible AI. These now operate alongside the broader IndiaAI Mission.
India does not yet have a unified AI procurement policy. Instead, procurement is guided by revised norms and mission guidelines. In 2024, MeitY reduced minimum turnover requirements for bidders from ₹100 crore to ₹50 crore, and for consortium members to ₹25 crore. Technical thresholds for AI compute procurement were also relaxed. Procurement aligns with Make in India rules, favouring Class I and Class II suppliers.
The Union Budget 2026-27 has strengthened this direction, supporting AI computation and skilling through the India Semiconductor Mission 2.0. The summit is expected to help refine how procurement and governance frameworks support safe, inclusive and accountable AI integration in public services.
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