The India AI Mission bolsters efforts to make India a "global AI producer" and supports the startup ecosystem: Specialists

Industry Leaders Hail India AI Mission as Key to Making India Global AI Hub

Industry leaders and startup ecosystem enablers on Friday hailed the Government of India’s ambitious India AI Mission, describing it as a transformative step toward positioning the country as a global hub for artificial intelligence by the end of this decade.

Speaking at the AI Convergence Summit 2026 in Lucknow, experts said the mission reflects a broader national vision to shift India from a largely consumer-driven economy to a global producer of knowledge, research and innovation.

Nivedan Rathi, founder of Future & AI, said the initiative aligns closely with the Prime Minister’s long-term vision for the country. “For decades, India has largely been a consumer in the global economy, importing more than it exports—whether in commodities, technology or manufactured goods. The new leadership is determined to change that,” he said.

Rathi stressed that research and knowledge creation would be central to achieving global leadership in AI. “We will produce knowledge, thought leadership and research. Without research, there is no knowledge,” he said, adding that India must demonstrate it has the intellectual capital, institutions and ecosystem required to lead in advanced technologies.

Rishabh Nag, founder and CEO of Humanli.ai, said the India AI Mission has been designed to help startups become self-reliant but called for deeper and more comprehensive policy frameworks. “The government should create stronger policies so businesses build solutions for India, by India, and take them to the world,” he said.

Nag added that by the end of the decade, India could become synonymous with AI. “The world will consume the AI we build, and we ourselves will be among the biggest users of this technology,” he said.

Highlighting the role of government-backed infrastructure, Prasad Menon, CEO and President of the CIBA Centre for Incubation and Business Acceleration (ISBA), said access to high-end computing resources has transformed the startup landscape. “As of 2026, thanks to India AI and Compute India, we have access to over 38,000 GPUs,” Menon said, crediting direct government investment for enabling this scale.

He noted that startups no longer need to invest heavily in building infrastructure from scratch, as incubators can now offer access to world-class computing resources—something that was largely out of reach just a few years ago.

The AI Convergence Summit 2026 was organised by Chandigarh University, Uttar Pradesh, in collaboration with the Government of Uttar Pradesh. The event is one of the official pre-runup programmes for the India AI Impact Global Summit 2026, scheduled to be held in New Delhi from February 19 to 20.