The India AI Impact Summit 2026, held at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi, has been marred by chaos, confusion and deception. The events on the ground have produced unintended media headlines for India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi who wants to be seen as the "vishwaguru" (teacher of the world) in the field of artificial intelligence as well. First, there was massive chaos on the opening day, with long lines and sudden unannounced evacuation of exhibitors and attendees from the show floor for several hours. This, the Indian government said, was done for "VIP" security, a euphemism for Mr. Modi's "photo op" as he walked the venue halls alone for the benefit of the cameras for self-promotion. Mr. Modi then declared that "India is not just a part of the AI revolution, but is leading and shaping it". To support such claims, an Indian University presented a "robodog" bought from China as its "innovation", a blatant lie that was immediately caught by people on the social media, leading to the expulsion of the institution from the show.
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| 5-Layer AI Stack |
Let's examine Mr. Modi's claim to be "leading and shaping" the AI revolution. The artificial intelligence technology is a 5-layer stack, consisting of energy, AI chips, infrastructure, AI models and applications. Only two nations, the United States and China, have their own full 5-layer stacks. It's hard to see India as leading in any one of these layers.
Strict security restrictions at the AI summit caused significant limitations on carrying personal items, including laptops and other electronic devices. In spite of such "strict security", some participants reported their exhibits and personal items stolen at the event. The fact that only cash was accepted for food and other services at the venue for the AI Summit makes a mockery of the Modi government's hype about India's digital public infrastructure (DPI).
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| India's Galgotias University of Uttar Pradesh Showed Chinese Robodog as its Own |
There is a significant presence of Americans at the AI Summit in New Delhi. Major "hyperscalers" like Anthropic, Google and OpenAI and Microsoft executives are all attending. The American agenda at the conference was put very succinctly by Sriram Krishnan, Senior White House Policy Advisor on Artificial Intelligence, who said, "...We want to make sure that the world uses the American AI stack...We also want the world to use our AI model...We want all our allies, including India, to leverage our AI infrastructure."
Major US technology firms have announced plans to build large multi-gigawatt AI data centers in India that make enormous demands on energy and water for powering and cooling the energy-hungry beasts. They are facing strong resistance in US cities and towns because of concerns that they will divert precious water and power, increase the rates they have to pay and cause pollution. India appears to be welcoming them for the investment they bring, in spite of significant health and safety concerns. But the Americans will not guarantee "data sovereignty" to the Indian government for Indian consumers' data stored in these data centers.
President Donald Trump has recently scrapped greenhouse gas emission regulations to enable the use of fossil fuels to power AI data centers in the United States. But the local opposition by cities and towns continues to gather steam.
Related Links:
Pakistan to Develop Urdu Large Language Model (LLM)
Algorithm: Origins of Artificial Intelligence in Islamic Age
Digital Pakistan 2022: Broadband Penetration Soars to 90% of 15+ Population
STEM Enrollment in Pakistan Exceeds One Million
Digital Public Infrastructure in Pakistan
Generative AI Buzz in Pakistan
Is Pakistan Ready for the AI Revolution?
Growing Presence of Pakistani Women in Science and Technology
Riaz Haq's Youtube Channel
What using a Chinese dog - a golden cow would have made more sense - perhaps they can convince the Chinese to robotize one.
ReplyDeleteIndia Can’t Spectacle Its Way to AI Power
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2026-02-19/india-can-t-spectacle-its-way-to-ai-power?embedded-checkout=true
Giant posters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and feel-good slogans about artificial intelligence lined New Delhi’s roundabouts for the AI Impact Summit.
The summit was marked by dysfunction, including road closures, long lines, and unexpected venue closures, but also revealed India's appetite for AI and its potential as a market.
India's AI adoption figures are high, but the country faces challenges in moving from being a consumer to a producer of AI, including finding land, water, and electricity for data centers and addressing environmental concerns.
The spectacle of this week also obscures a more immediate, unique risk. Throughout the developed world, policymakers sell AI as a solution to aging populations and labor shortages. India has the opposite problem: a huge, young, increasingly educated workforce that needs jobs. The recent “AI scare” selloff has hit Indian IT especially hard, a reminder of how exposed its software sector is. If AI becomes a substitute for entry-level work before India can generate new opportunities, the social impact could be sharper than in the countries exporting the technology. The challenge of translating the AI wave into livelihoods is a bigger governing test for Modi than collecting selfies with Silicon Valley’s elite.
Still, the enthusiasm at the summit wasn’t manufactured. I spoke to a couple of college students who came to check it out on Monday. They didn’t mind the crowds or disruptions, saying the chaos simply proved how much people cared. They insisted that Indians aren’t merely using AI, they’re experimenting and building. The optimism was contagious, and it hinted at the nation’s genuine advantage: a massive, ambitious, mobile-first talent pool willing to try new tools fast.
But optimism doesn’t substitute for an ecosystem. A harder question hanging over this gathering is why India, with undeniably deep tech talent, has never had a “DeepSeek moment,” and still lacks a defining foundational research breakthrough. Adoption can scale quickly, but it’s much more difficult to build frontier capability without sustained investment in research, access to compute, and the kind of capital that lets entrepreneurs take bold bets. If the summit was meant to showcase India as an AI builder, the disarray also exposed why so many of its best and brightest are seeking opportunities elsewhere.
AI’s promises and hypocrisies were on open display in Delhi. Under a banner of “democratizing AI,” hotel rooms went for as much as $33,000 a night while homeless people were forcibly moved along the road to the venue. India is a test case for whether AI diffusion empowers everyday people or widens inequality. The rest of the world will be watching closely.
Walking between meetings in downtown New Delhi, I stopped counting the number of Modi posters after I hit 20. India can host the world. It can sell its vision of the future. But it can’t spectacle its way into AI power. That takes the unglamorous work of dedicated research funding, trustworthy institutions, reliable infrastructure — and a plan for the people expected to live with the consequences of this tech revolution.
This is nothing. Indian PM and his party has a long history of scientific research and publishing (list is too long..). Bill gates was smarter and used his own name appearing in "Epstein-ji" files as a reason not to have to pose that funny foto where some ceos forgot to raise the hand. Event is already a success in whatsapp, so Pakistanis are jealous.
ReplyDeleteI was pretty sure Modi Ji's AI Kumbh Mela would be the next post in this blog considering how the whole Galgotia fiasco blew up eclipsing everything else about the mela. :) To be fair, this time even many of the normally pliant national Godi media outlets had a field day in lampooning the Galgotias though they were predictably careful not to let it imply any collateral damage on Modi Ji.
ReplyDeleteBeyond that I have honestly no idea if this summit meant anything in terms of real and beneficial investments for whatever exists in the form of Indian AI ecosystem or if it was just empty hype as usual.
And by the way, I had never heard of this Galgotias before this controversy though I read afterwards that they were in the news back in 2024 over an infamous "Urban Maxwell" protest against Congress party's election manifesto. If we connect the dots...
A summit with such big-shot names has many goals. Publicity was only one of them which went bad. Other goals are valid. India will be gradually slided into US tech ecosystem. Riaz's layer diagram is a good one. Only usa and china are capable of doing all 5 of their own. Others have to sign into it. Given that usa and china divorced, one can have only one of them. You can forget about tech. sovereignty. But you will be able to build layer 5 for your business and citizens without having to build layer 4. India unlike most other smaller countries (rightly so) is trying to make it own mark in Layer 2 by committing capital and political will to build layer 1 and 3 **with US support**. In India, only plutocrats and cronies (AA and Tata perhaps) will profit from layer 1-4 investments where there is lots of money to be made. Layer 5 is more about building AI-powered zomatos and flipcarts and highly competitive and commoditized.
DeleteSandeep Manudhane
ReplyDelete@sandeep_PT
Bro, we all support you, and speak highly of you and Sarvam now, but refrain from making claims that don't stand technical scrutiny. Sarvam is no DeepSeek. There has been no new foundational algorithmic breakthrough, no training on fully indigenous chips, and no step-change in the economics of frontier-scale training. DeepSeek’s low-cost result came from concrete (new) technical advances, novel model architecture choices, deep bare-metal optimization of their hardware stack, and access to massive, diverse global data at scale. Let's not confuse running a smaller regional cluster with executing a global paradigm shift.
We wish you the best.
#Sarvam #DeepSeek #AI
https://x.com/sandeep_PT/status/2025097332208091309?s=20
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Sabeer Bhatia
@sabeer
The Galgotia fiasco is the inevitable end result of what I said about education a while back. When institutions prioritize optics, money, and rote memorization over real learning and critical thinking, failure isn’t an accident - it’s the outcome. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/hotmail-cofounder-sabeer-bhatia-blasts-indian-education-system-we-are-producing-an-army-of-useless-kids/articleshow/120916691.cms?from=mdr
https://x.com/sabeer/status/2024879694701797589?s=20
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Dr Nimo Yadav 2.0
@DrNimoYadav
Galgotias University is the only university in the world that published a research paper claiming that coronavirus gets killed by banging thalis and bells.
And Modi awarded this as Top Private university of India.
God save this country 🙏🏾
https://x.com/DrNimoYadav/status/2024696987820708102?s=20
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Prateek Goyal
@tweets_prateekg
Fun facts:
In just 7 yrs,#Galgotias Universty says it has filed 2,430 patents.
Meanwhile,IIT-Madras,one of India’s most respected public research institutions has filed about 2,550 patents in the 50 yrs since its inception in 1975.
someone needs to patent the word "patent". 1/n
https://x.com/tweets_prateekg/status/2024755147126255854?s=20
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Mint
@livemint
Galgotias University was allotted more space than four IITs' total during the AI Impact Summit 2026. This sparked controversy over the space allocation process, questioning the criteria used to determine exhibitor space at the event aimed at showcasing India's tech advancements.
https://livemint.com/news/india/ai-summit-galgotias-universitys-booth-was-bigger-than-that-of-four-iits-how-much-did-the-scandal-hit-varsity-pay-11771638444321.html
https://x.com/livemint/status/2025053947745153137?s=20
ReplyDeleteBloomberg Opinion
@opinion
Nowhere were the promises and hypocrisies of AI clearer than in India this week.
@cathythorbecke
explains from New Delhi 🎥
https://x.com/opinion/status/2024918460430455010?s=20
Hotmail cofounder Sabeer Bhatia blasts Indian education system: 'We are producing an army of useless kids'
ReplyDeleteRead more at:
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/hotmail-cofounder-sabeer-bhatia-blasts-indian-education-system-we-are-producing-an-army-of-useless-kids/articleshow/120916691.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst
Synopsis
Hotmail co-founder Sabeer Bhatia criticizes India's education system for prioritizing obedience over critical thinking, leading to a workforce of unoriginal individuals. He contrasts this with Western education, which encourages independent thought. Bhatia argues that the Indian system stifles creativity by emphasizing rote memorization and discouraging failure, hindering innovation and producing compliant workers instead of visionary creators.
In a nation obsessed with ranks, marks, and job titles, we’ve forgotten to ask the most basic question: Are our kids actually learning? For Sabeer Bhatia, the man who co-founded Hotmail, the answer is a resounding no. In a hard-hitting interview on the NNP podcast, Bhatia doesn’t mince words, calling out India’s education and work culture for building an “army of useless kids” instead of original thinkers.
At the heart of the problem is a deeply flawed system that rewards obedience over curiosity. “We live in a conformist society—people are often told, ‘Listen to others, do what they say.’ But why follow a path that’s already been walked?” Bhatia questions. Whether it's memorising textbooks or chasing the same startup ideas in saturated sectors, he believes the country is wired to produce workers who take orders, not visionaries who disrupt systems.
Bhatia draws a stark contrast between Indian and Western education. His young children in the US write their own stories and ideas, even if full of spelling mistakes. “Teachers don’t correct those because spelling is irrelevant. What matters is the thought.” In India, however, children are punished for errors instead of being encouraged to think independently. They’re taught not to learn, but to score.
It’s a mindset that starts early and ends up defining careers. Many bright students become engineers or doctors, not because of passion, but because society deemed it safe or respectable. “You can’t suppress the arts, sports, and culture and expect to build a balanced society,” he adds.
And even when Indian youth show entrepreneurial ambition, Bhatia says they’re crippled by the system itself: “You’re never asked to write a paper. You’re asked to memorise 13 chapters and regurgitate them. That is not education.
For innovation to thrive, he insists we need critical thinkers—people who do things, build things, experiment and fail. But the stigma around failure in India is so strong, even someone like Bhatia has been asked, “What have you done since Hotmail?” As if one stumble erases all worth. He believes that until India stops confusing compliance with intelligence, the country will keep losing potential to a system designed for factory workers, not creators.
India Has Its Own Unique Recipe for ‘AI Sovereignty’
ReplyDeleteWhile no country can fully decouple from US or Chinese models anytime soon, alternatives are emerging.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2026-02-21/india-has-a-unique-recipe-for-ai-sovereignty-new-economy
Everyone at the AI summit, whether from India, elsewhere in Asia, Europe, Africa or Latin America, likely understood one inescapable fact: They’re all at the mercy of two countries — the US and China — and a small handful of companies that control AI technology.
This, fundamentally, is a matter of sovereignty: Whether a nation’s AI systems can be independent of foreign authority. That danger was showcased in 2024, when members of Australia’s UniSuper pension fund had access to their accounts cut off due to a Google cloud misconfiguration. In October, Amazon.com Inc.’s cloud services — the world’s largest — also suffered a major shutdown, damaging its reputation.
While such incidents were declared accidents, they opened eyes to the possibility the next one might not be.
“We know ‘open’ can become ‘closed’ at any point in time — the moment a CEO decides,” Ashwini Vaishnaw, India’s minister for electronics and information technology, said at a Bloomberg New Economy breakfast on the summit’s sidelines.
That could happen for any number of reasons — a change in corporate strategy, a commercial dispute or a government order.
Even Mukesh Ambani, the billionaire Indian industrialist who ranks as Asia’s richest man and is plowing money into AI, framed the implications of this new dynamic in binary terms.
“Will AI concentrate power in the hands of a few, or will it democratize opportunity for all?” Ambani asked in his Feb. 19 plenary address at the summit.
While no country can fully decouple from US or Chinese AI models anytime soon, alternatives to total dependency are emerging. One recipe came from Rishi Sunak, who as UK prime minister hosted the first AI summit in 2023. He’s now a senior adviser to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
First, a nation could create its own leverage, like the Netherlands with ASML Holding NV, whose equipment no advanced chipmaking operation can do without. As Sunak put it, “Where can we occupy a very strong, ideally monopolistic position in that supply chain?”
Next, diversification. “Avoid vendor lock-in, have a mix of providers, make sure you’re building capabilities that will allow you to switch things in and out,” Sunak said. Add in partnerships — even in a world of geopolitical volatility, there’s room for allies to share knowledge and intelligence that enhance mutual AI sovereignty.
“If you do all three of those things, you can build a strategy that gives your country resilience but also the opportunity to take advantage of this incredible thing that’s in front of us,” Sunak said.
India, meantime, has a vision for AI that’s distinctly Global South. “Welfare for All, Happiness of All,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi proclaims on one of the many billboards in New Delhi commemorating the summit. “Showcasing the Power of AI for Global Good,” reads another.
The country, Vaishnaw explained, has its own multipronged plan to achieve AI sovereignty:
Support the local development of so-called small language models based on parameters critical to the Indian market.
Build a “common compute facility” so students, entrepreneurs and startups have affordable access to AI.
Design and ultimately manufacture its own semiconductors.
Use the AI summit to attract venture capital for Indian startups as well as funding for computing infrastructure such as data centers.
Before the summit began, Vaishnaw said India had obtained commitments for about $5 billion of venture capital investments and $140 billion for AI infrastructure. Days later, that had increased to at least $17 billion and $270 billion, respectively. “Not bad,” he mused.
And enough to bring India one step closer to realizing its grand ambitions.
Riaz Sb, can you please enlighten us where Pakistan's AI ecosystem stands at present? What are the opportunities it has, the challenges it confronts, and how it compares to India's?
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteVineeth: “can you please enlighten us where Pakistan's AI ecosystem stands at present?“
Please read the following blog posts I have done on this & related subjects:
https://www.riazhaq.com/2025/12/pakistan-gets-its-first-ai-data-center.html
https://www.riazhaq.com/2024/11/pakistan-to-develop-urdu-llm-for.html
https://www.riazhaq.com/2024/10/is-pakistan-getting-ready-for-ai.html
https://www.riazhaq.com/2023/08/openai-chatgpt-generative-ai-buzz-in.html
https://www.riazhaq.com/2024/07/pakistans-digital-public-infrastructure.html