India’s AI Push Built On Partnerships, Scale And Trust: MeitY Secretary

India’s approach to artificial intelligence is firmly anchored in application, scale and partnerships, with the government committed to enabling innovation rather than constraining it, S. Krishnan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), said on Wednesday.

Speaking at ASSOCHAM’s 9th AI Leadership Meet in the national capital, he underlined that India has both the talent and the capability to serve global AI needs.

The meet was organised as an official pre-summit event of the India AI Impact Summit 2026 on February 19-20, a mega event that will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and will bring global leaders, innovators, policymakers, and the industry together to shape a collective vision for Artificial Intelligence.

Krishnan said India’s AI ecosystem is being strengthened through convergence across major national initiatives, including the IndiaAI Mission, the National Supercomputing Mission and the India Semiconductor Mission. “We are bringing together high-performance computing, AI-based computing and semiconductor capabilities. The defining feature of the IndiaAI Mission is that it is built through partnerships — a joint effort of government and industry. The government is ready to support and unleash the private sector in building AI capabilities,” he said.

This integrated approach, he added, aligns policy, infrastructure and innovation. Citing global benchmarks, Krishnan noted that India now ranks third in the world in terms of the number of AI companies, behind only the United States and China. “This is recognition of India’s strengths, particularly in R&D and talent. Our depth in STEM education is a major advantage,” he said.

On regulation, the MeitY Secretary stressed that India is adopting a cautious and enabling approach. “Our AI regulatory framework is deliberately guarded so that it does not come in the way of innovation. We will rely on existing laws such as the IT Act and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, unless there is a clear need for further regulation,” he said. The government’s emphasis, he added, is on responsible use of AI through a preventive, ‘no-harm’ principle, while keeping policies flexible enough to allow innovation to scale.

Echoing the shift from experimentation to deployment, Dr Lovneesh Chanana, Chair of ASSOCHAM’s IT/ITeS Council, said AI has emerged as a key engine for value creation. “Running on India’s population-scale digital infrastructure, AI is delivering impact that is inclusive, measurable, profitable and citizen-centric. We are moving from pilots to profit and from ideas to impact,” he said, adding that India’s vision of ‘AI for All’ can translate into ‘returns for all’.

Dr. Subi Chaturvedi, Global SVP and Chief Corporate Affairs and Public Policy Officer, InMobi stressed that India’s AI moment is no longer about proofs of concept, but about scale, trust and national impact. “India’s AI moment is no longer about pilots and proof-of-concepts, it is about scale, trust and measurable national impact. As we move from idea to impact, our priority is to build AI that is responsible by design, inclusive by default and globally competitive by intent. With the upcoming global AI impact summit, India has already made its claim as a global leader in AI development, innovation and adoption. To achieve our Prime Minister's vision of transforming India into an AI and innovation hub, it is important to align industry innovation with public policy, skilling India’s talent at scale and ensuring that AI serves not just economic growth, but societal good."

Industry leaders also highlighted the organisational shift AI is driving. Senior Director APAC, Fractal’s Rishi Seth said companies must rewire talent, reimagine processes and embed responsible AI to convert excitement into performance. "In this era where intelligence is under continuous evolution this time it is different because it is the technology that understands us, responds to our needs, brings all the knowledge of the world to our use and is getting cheaper day by day. Govt of India’s primary AI strategy is driven through Comprehensive IndiaAI mission, for AI excitement to turn into organization performance organizations will have to rewire talent for AI first organization, reimagine every process with AI and practice Responsible AI".

Highspring India’s CEO and Managing Partner Akhil Choudhary described AI as becoming the “operating system” of modern organisations, reshaping job roles rather than simply replacing them.

“AI Idea to Impact is shaping organizations the way the nervous system shapes the human body, sensing, learning and responding in real time. And this is leading us to a scenario where AI is becoming the operating system of today’s organizations. AI is no longer just a tool, it is the way a business runs. It is not changing how we work, it is changing what work is for people in the organization. AI is about Job role rebirth, it will not replace organizations but organizations that use AI like oxygen will replace those that don’t”.

Summing up the theme, Sandip Patel, Chair, ASSOCHAM AI Task Force and Managing Director, IBM India & South Asia said, 'AI: From Idea to Impact,' is more than a slogan; it is a collective mandate. We have reached a critical inflection point where AI has matured from conceptual ideas to production-grade deployments, delivering measurable value across the globe.

“But for this impact to be sustainable, we must move beyond the excitement of deployment toward the discipline of stewardship. The question is no longer if AI will change our world; the question is how we will shape that change responsibly, equitably, and at scale. “The question is no longer whether AI will change the world, but how we shape that change responsibly, equitably and at scale.”

On the occasion, “Open-Source AI Report” in collaboration with SAM was also released.