Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled India’s human-centric artificial intelligence framework, called the “MANAV” vision, at the opening of the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi on Thursday. The summit marks the first major global AI conference hosted by a nation in the Global South.
Speaking at the Bharat Mandapam convention center, Modi described MANAV as an acronym built on five principles:
M- Moral and ethical systems,
A – Accountable governance,
N – National sovereignty over data,
A – Accessible and inclusive technology, and
V – Valid systems.
“Artificial Intelligence is such a transformation of human history,” Modi said. “What we are seeing today, what we are predicting, is just the beginning of its impact.”
The event drew an international gathering of political and technology leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron and UN Secretary-General António Guterres. Over 20 heads of state, 60 ministers, and 500 industry leaders from more than 100 countries are attending the summit.
Top executives such as Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, and DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis are among the featured speakers. Pichai met Modi ahead of the session to discuss partnerships in AI for healthcare, education, and agriculture. Bill Gates withdrew from delivering a scheduled keynote, though the Gates Foundation continues to participate in the event.
India announced that it expects over $200 billion in AI-related investments in the coming years, with $90 billion already pledged. Nvidia will partner with Indian cloud providers to deploy advanced processors for AI infrastructure. Blackstone committed $600 million to local AI firm Neysa, and AMD expanded its work with Tata Consultancy Services to build large-scale computing capacity.
Modi emphasized India’s ambition to become one of the top three AI superpowers globally, focusing not only on adoption but also on innovation. The summit runs through February 21 under the theme “Sarvajan Hitaya, Sarvajan Sukhaya,” meaning welfare and happiness for all.
