India's AI gala sidesteps noise to chart roadmap

India's grand artificial intelligence (AI) showcase concluded on Friday after a week of investment announcements and, despite organisational hiccups, was widely seen by industry participants as a valuable platform for networking, partnerships and talent discovery.

- Shouvik Das

The unveiling of a potential New Delhi declaration was extended by a day, with Union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw saying at a concluding media briefing that “over 70 countries” have already signed the declaration.

“By the time the Summit officially wraps up on Saturday, we're likely to see close to 80 countries signing. All parties have already signed it—there's no sign that any major country has not signed it,” he said.

An early copy of the declaration that Mint saw mentioned key points of consensus including charter for democratic diffusion of AI, global AI impact commons, trusted AI commons, international network of AI for science institutions, and voluntary guiding principles on resilient, innovative and efficient artificial intelligence.

The five-day India AI Impact Summit 2026 brought to a close a week in which two of the country's largest conglomerates, Reliance and Adani groups, announced a cumulative $210 billion in data centre investments.

This was bolstered by a coalition of venture capitalists announcing a $1 billion AI startups fund, three Centre-funded startups launching their AI models, and a spate of world leaders making their presence felt in New Delhi.

To be sure, the Summit had its share of controversies. The first day saw a lack of organizational directives, followed by exhibitors highlighting that at least two full days out of five were marred at the expo as a result of security restrictions.