Modi pitches India as global AI hub at summit

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday pitched India as a central player in the global artificial intelligence ecosystem, saying the country aims to build technology at home while deploying it worldwide.

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"Design and develop in India. Deliver to the world. Deliver to humanity," Modi told a gathering of some world leaders, technology executives and policymakers at the India Al Impact Summit in New Delhi.

Modi's remarks came as India — one of the fastest-growing digital markets - seeks to leverage its experience in building large-scale digital public infrastructure and to present itself as a cost-effective hub for Al innovation.

The summit was also addressed by French President Emmanuel Macron, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who called for a $3 billion fund to help poorer countries build basic Al capacity, including skills, data access and affordable computing power.

"The future of Al cannot be decided by a handful of countries, or left to the whims of a few billionaires," Guterres said, stressing that Al must “belong to everyone.”

India is using the summit to position itself as a bridge between advanced economies and the Global South. Indian officials cite the country's digital ID and online payments systems as a model for deploying Al at low cost, particularly in developing countries.