Kashmir in India's AI Hour

A window in Jammu and Kashmir frames a larger question: can India's Al revolution truly include every valley and every voice?

- Samiksha Mishra

My phone lights up with updates from the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi. World leaders gather under bright chandeliers. I sit in Jammu and read their words on a small screen.

I study at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. Lectures fill my afternoons, while deadlines crowd my evenings. Headlines about artificial intelligence fill the spaces in between.

The summit feels grand and distant at the same time. That distance settles inside me like an imposing question.

The who's who in the capital conversation move through the news feed. Emmanuel Macron is stepping off a plane with a practiced smile, while Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is joining the circle. Sundar Pichai and Sam Altman are likely to speak about code and consequence.

PM Narendra Modi frames the theme in Sanskrit: Sarvajana Hitaya, Sarvajana Sukhaya. Welfare and happiness for all.

The phrase sounds ancient, but the promise sounds modern.

India stands tall in this tech summit. Eight hundred million people live online here. Digital rails such as Aadhaar and Unified Payments Interface move identity and money with speed and scale. Startups rise fast, data flows wide, and policy follows ambition with steady steps.