New Delhi: The India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi brought together political leaders, technology executives and policymakers, sparking wide ranging discussions on artificial intelligence, sovereignty and global cooperation.
Former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak described India as the ideal setting for shaping the future of AI, citing its digital public infrastructure and innovation ecosystem. He said the country’s platforms such as Aadhaar, UPI and Ayushman Bharat provide a foundation for delivering AI driven services at scale. Sunak emphasised that AI safety and progress must advance together and called for sustained international dialogue to ensure the technology benefits both developed and developing nations.
Jeet Adani, executive director of the Adani Group, argued that India must build its own AI infrastructure rather than depend on imported systems. He outlined energy, compute and cloud, and services as three pillars of technological sovereignty. Linking energy security to intelligence capability, he stressed the need for renewable powered data centres and domestic high performance computing capacity. He said AI should first strengthen sectors such as agriculture, healthcare, logistics and manufacturing within India before expanding outward.
Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai called AI the most transformative technological shift of this generation. Highlighting breakthroughs such as AlphaFold, he noted the accelerating pace of adoption and urged governments and industry to collaborate responsibly. Pichai also pointed to expanding investments in India, including plans for a major AI hub and subsea connectivity projects.
Within the political sphere, Shashi Tharoor praised the summit’s global participation, acknowledging minor organisational issues but describing the overall engagement as strong. He underscored the importance of international cooperation in AI development.
The summit, attended by leaders, ministers and technology experts from over 100 countries, focused on ensuring that AI development remains human centric, sustainable and inclusive as nations navigate its rapidly evolving impact.
