India AI Summit pushes ‘democratic diffusion’ of technology: Experts

The India AI Impact Summit 2026 has set a new direction for global artificial intelligence governance by shifting the focus from concentration of resources to what experts call the “democratic diffusion” of AI capabilities.

In a recent op-ed, Kavita Bhatia, COO of the IndiaAI Mission and Scientist ‘G’ at the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY), and from Siliguri Anurag Deb, technology and policy advisor with MeitY-IndiaAI, argued that widening access to compute, data and deployment pathways is essential for developing nations to move from being “AI takers” to “AI makers.”

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“The next phase of AI geopolitics will be defined not only by frontier models, but by who builds the infrastructure for broad participation,” Bhatia and Deb wrote.

The summit, held at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi, concluded with the New Delhi Declaration on AI Impact, endorsed by over 90 countries and international organisations. The declaration emphasises access, safety, skilling and real-world deployment of AI technologies.

Highlighting the global imbalance, the authors noted that high-income countries dominate AI infrastructure, hosting 86 per cent of the world’s top high-performance computing systems, while low-income nations account for less than 0.1 per cent of data-centre capacity.

To bridge this gap, India has begun building public digital infrastructure under the IndiaAI Mission. “Shared compute platforms, national data repositories and multilingual AI models are foundational to ensuring AI works across diverse and non-English contexts,” they stated.

Initiatives such as the IndiaAI Compute Portal and AIKosh aim to expand access for researchers and start ups, while BHASHINI focuses on language technologies across Indian languages.

The summit also stressed real-world deployment, particularly in sectors like healthcare. The IndiaAI-National Cancer Grid’s Cancer AI & Technology Challenge (CATCH) was cited as a model linking innovation with clinical validation.

On the policy front, the authors underscored the importance of trust and accountability through India’s M.A.N.A.V. framework and called for global cooperation on AI safety and evaluation standards.

“The task now is execution ~ at speed, at scale, and in partnership with those who stand to benefit most,” Bhatia and Deb added, stressing the need for sustained international collaboration beyond the summit.