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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday highlighted the world's trust in India as a key strength and urged Indian AI startups to aspire to global leadership. He stressed that AI models developed in the country must be ethical, fair, transparent and adhere to data privacy standards.
Ahead of the India AI Impact Summit 2026, Prime Minister Modi, who chaired a roundtable discussion with Indian AI entrepreneurs, emphasized the need for distinctly Indian AI solutions that promote local content and regional languages. He added that India has the potential to drive affordable, inclusive and frugal AI innovation on the global stage.
“Start-ups and AI entrepreneurs are the co-architects of India's future,” the Prime Minister said, highlighting the country's capacity for both innovation and large-scale adoption. He encouraged Indian AI ventures to introduce models that reflect the 'Made in India, Made for the World' ethos.
The roundtable included 12 AI startups that qualified for the “AI for ALL: Global Impact Challenge” at the upcoming summit. These companies work across areas such as Indian Language Foundation Models, multilingual LLMs, speech-to-text and text-to-audio/video solutions, generative AI for 3D content in e-commerce and marketing, engineering simulation, advanced analytics, medical diagnostics, and medical research.
Representatives of the startups praised India's strong commitment to fostering an AI ecosystem and pointed to the rapid growth and huge potential of the sector globally. The researchers observed that India has emerged as a key hub for AI innovation and deployment, providing an enabling environment for research, development, and commercialization.
The conference was attended by CEOs, founders and representatives of startups such as Avatar, BharatGen, Fractal, Gan, Genloop, Gnani, Intellihealth, Sarvam, Shodh AI, Soket AI, Tech Mahindra, Zenteiq and others. Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnau and Minister of State for State Jitin Prasada were also present.
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Prime Minister Modi reiterated that India's AI strategy should focus on regional relevance while enabling global impact, positioning the country as a leader in ethical and inclusive artificial intelligence.
