AI Impact Summit 2026 – Delhi, India: India's Global AI Revolution at Bharat Mandapam

The AI Impact Summit 2026, which people refer to as the India AI Impact Summit, represents a major international conference that takes place between February 16 and February 21, 2026 at Bharat Mandapam located in New Delhi. The IndiaAI Mission conference which the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) organized for the first time in the Global South will demonstrate how AI technology can improve various sectors including governance and healthcare and agriculture.

This summit builds on prior global AI gatherings like Bletchley Park (2023), Seoul (2024), and Paris (2025), emphasizing ethical AI, global collaboration, and India's role as an AI hub. The event includes more than 50,000 attendees and more than 20 heads of state and more than 100 CEOs, while running programs such as "AI for ALL" and "AI by HER" which supports women-led innovation and "YUVAi" which helps young innovators.

The AI Impact Summit 2026 focuses on three main areas which include ethical AI deployment, existing governance frameworks and real-world AI applications for healthcare and agricultural sectors.

Key Themes

Ethical AI and governance dominate discussions, focusing on safe, inclusive tech policies for the Global South. The sessions demonstrate AI's application through two fields which include healthcare diagnostics and precision farming in agriculture together with real-world tests of the IndiaAI Mission.

Major Sessions & Initiatives

I for ALL provides a startup accelerator program which supports the development of AI solutions that public services can use at scale.

AI by HER functions as an innovation challenge which women lead to develop AI solutions that advance gender equality.

The YUVAi hackathon challenges young participants to develop next-generation AI technologies.

The Digital India objectives receive support from these initiatives because they create measurable results.

The AI Impact Summit 2026 announced major developments which established India as an international center for artificial intelligence research through its bold initiatives. The main announcement from February 19 establishes New Delhi Frontier AI as the first AI center to develop advanced technologies.

New Delhi Frontier AI Commitments

• The two major pledges establish a framework to speed up ethical AI development.
• India dedicated itself to developing open-source safety standards used for advanced AI models through an international partnership that includes 100 countries. The research targets include developing methods to reduce bias and enhancing transparency for large language models and establishing risk assessment processes for AGI deployment which will be completed by the year 2030.
• The IndiaAI Compute Access Initiative establishes a $1 billion budget for national AI infrastructure which will grant 10,000 startups and researchers free access to GPU resources through a collaboration between NVIDIA and Reliance businesses. The system aims to achieve 1 petaflop processing capacity by the year 2027.
• The Prime Minister's speech demonstrated India's dedication to "AI for Sarvajana Hitaya" (welfare for all) which established India's position as an AI center after the Paris Summit 2025. The two main points of the announcement include:
• The two countries established an agreement through which they will exchange AI professionals and share their data resources.
• The National AI Centre of Excellence opened its Delhi office which will connect with IITs and IISc.
• The IndiaAI Fund will invest $500M in deep-tech businesses that develop healthcare and agricultural and climate artificial intelligence technologies.
• The Digital India program will achieve economic growth through these initiatives which will create 2 million AI positions by 2028 while India will emerge as an AI authority for the Global South region.

The AI Impact Summit 2026 provides India with strategic results that will improve its policy frameworks and create job opportunities while advancing Digital India initiatives.

New Delhi Frontier AI commitments which the summit announced will strengthen India's ethical AI regulations through their connection to DPDP Act and National AI Strategy. They establish India as a Global South AI governance authority through their support of sovereign compute infrastructure and international MoUs.

The IndiaAI Compute Access program which includes a $1 billion fund and National AI Centre of Excellence will create 2 million AI-related job opportunities by 2028. The youth and women will benefit from skill development programs which operate through YUVAi and AI for ALL in sectors such as healthcare and agriculture and startups.

The event supports the IndiaAI Mission through its seven pillars by increasing access to Bhashini and AI Stack and GPU resources for 10,000 innovators. The initiative establishes public-private partnerships through their collaboration with NVIDIA to promote inclusive development and 'AI for Sarvajana Hitaya' in governance and services.

The AI Impact Summit 2026 establishes India's status as a world AI leader through its presentation of the largest AI event in the Global South at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi. New Delhi Frontier AI commitments will establish ethical governance through AI for ALL, AI by HER, and YUVAi programs which will create 2 million jobs by 2028 and advance Digital India initiatives.

What are the dates and venue of AI Impact Summit 2026?

February 16-20, 2026 (main summit 19-20) at Bharat Mandapam, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi.​

What are the key initiatives launched?

AI for ALL (startups), AI by HER (women-led), YUVAi (youth hackathon) to drive inclusive AI innovation.

How is it relevant for UPSC?

Links GS-3 (S&T, AI apps), GS-2 (governance), Essay (ethical AI); note Seven Pillars and New Delhi Frontier AI.