On 8th January, Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a roundtable interaction with leading Indian artificial intelligence start-ups. The meeting signalled the government’s push to position India as a global hub for ethical and inclusive AI innovation ahead of the India AI Impact Summit 2026 which is scheduled to take place between 15th and 20th February.
On 8th January, PM Modi chaired a roundtable with top Indian AI start ups ahead of the India AI Impact Summit 2026, stressing ethical, unbiased and inclusive AI, local languages, data privacy, and calling AI entrepreneurs the co-architects of India’s future. pic.twitter.com/YHBtkKZ9VA
— OpIndia.com (@OpIndia_com) January 8, 2026
The interaction took place at the PM residence at 7, Lok Kalyan Marg. Founders and senior representatives of 12 Indian AI start-ups that have qualified for the AI for All Global Impact Challenge attended the meeting.
Start-ups showcase India’s AI depth
The participating start-ups presented their work across a wide range of domains including Indian language foundation models, multilingual large language models, speech to text and text to audio technologies, generative AI driven 3D content for e-commerce and marketing, engineering simulations, material research, advanced data analytics, and healthcare diagnostics.
The start-ups showcased the rapid growth of the AI sector in India and pointed to the vast future potential of the technology. Several founders present at the meeting noted that the centre of gravity of AI innovation and deployment is steadily shifting towards India and is supported by a robust ecosystem, skilled talent, and an enabling policy environment.
They also commended the government’s commitment to advancing artificial intelligence, stating that India is now firmly placed on the global AI map.
PM called start-ups co-architects of India’s future
During the interaction, Prime Minister Modi stressed that AI would play a transformative role in society and governance. He said India’s hosting of the India AI Impact Summit next month would further strengthen the country’s role in shaping the global technology discourse.
He described start-ups and AI entrepreneurs as the co-architects of India’s future and said the country possesses both the capacity for innovation and the ability to deploy solutions at scale. He urged Indian innovators to build AI models that reflect the ethos of “Made in India, Made for the World”.
Focus on ethics, languages and trust
PM Modi emphasised that trust is India’s greatest strength and said Indian AI models must be ethical, unbiased, transparent, and grounded in strong data privacy principles. He encouraged start-ups to pursue global leadership while promoting affordable, inclusive, and frugal AI solutions.
He also suggested that Indian AI models should actively promote indigenous content and regional languages, ensuring that technological progress remains rooted in local realities.
The meeting was attended by representatives from Avataar, BharatGen, Fractal, Gan, Genloop, Gnani, Intellihealth, Sarvam, Shodh AI, Soket AI, Tech Mahindra, and Zenteiq. Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw and Minister of State Jitin Prasada were also present.
