As part of its key deliverables post the India AI Impact Summit, Delhi is likely to push for more “democratised” use of AI. A key focus is likely on affordability and access to the technology, a move which government officials say will counter the general direction of AI development in the West, where AI development is concentrated in the hands of a few companies and individuals.
“The pitch is in line with India’s G20 narrative, and a way in which Delhi wants to assert its dominance in the Global South. We want to show that we speak in the interest of the region,” a senior government official said, speaking to The Indian Express on condition of anonymity.
India is expected to reiterate its long standing insistence that AI needs international cooperation and multi-stakeholder engagement across countries. However, such collaboration will take place while respecting national sovereignty.
In the declaration for the AI Summit that Delhi is currently working on, India may also mention a charter for AI diffusion in a “democratic” way, the official said. This could be a voluntary and non-binding framework, but would focus primarily on “promoting access to foundational AI resources,” while “respecting national laws,” the official said.
An illuminated Bharat Mandapam, the venue of the India AI Impact Summit 2026, in New Delhi on Wednesday. (Express photo by Praveen Khanna)
As such, promotion of open-source AI services are also likely to feature in the upcoming Delhi declaration, a signal which counters AI development in the West, where frontier models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini are proprietary services.
“Open-source AI applications and other accessible AI approaches and wide-scale diffusion of AI use cases can contribute to scalability, replicability, and adaptability of AI systems across sectors,” the official said.
India may endorse the development of a voluntary platform to facilitate exchange of learning, knowledge, and scalable practices to advance AI adoption for social empowerment. It could also recommend the creation of a platform to connect scientific communities and pool AI research capabilities across regions.
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A man walks past a signage board of AI Impact Summit, in New Delhi, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (PTI)
India is also likely to nudge countries to recognise, in the declaration, the development of voluntary and non-binding “Trusted AI Commons,” a collaborative platform consolidating technical resources, tools, benchmarks and best practices that all can access and adapt to their contexts. Along with it, a “Global AI Impact Commons” could also be developed, which would be a voluntary initiative that provides a platform to encourage and enable the adoption, replication, and scale-up of successful AI use cases across regions.
The official said that the key idea behind why Delhi would push for the democratising narrative is because the government sees AI having the potential to “genuinely uplift all sections of society by enabling individuals to access knowledge, cross-border AI solutions, information, services, opportunities and enhancing participation in social and economic activities”.
India is also expected to address AI’s growing energy needs and is likely to insert language in the declaration reflecting the importance of developing energy efficient AI systems, and a redoubled focus on renewables to power this effort.
PM Modi at AI Impact Summit
Noting that the promise of AI would require equipping individuals with relevant skills by expanding AI human resource development, Delhi may also endorse specific initiatives on education, AI workforce development, training of public officials, enhancing public awareness of AI capabilities, increasing AI literacy as well as upgrading vocational and training ecosystems.
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There also could be voluntary guiding principles for reskilling and a playbook on AI workforce development.
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