On Monday, February 16, India’s inaugural AI Impact Summit kicked off.
The AI Impact Summit 2026 will continue till Friday, February 20
Photo Credit: X/@narendramodi
India's inaugural AI Impact Summit kicked off on Monday, February 16. The official summit will be officially inaugurated on February 19; however, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the AI expo, which is currently taking place, today. While no major announcements were made on day one, the Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, JP Nadda, highlighted that two health-focused AI announcements will be made on Tuesday. Here's a quick rundown on everything that happened on the first day of the AI Impact Summit.
The biggest highlight of the first day of the AI Impact Summit was the inauguration of the AI Expo. The AI Expo is one of the biggest attractions of the event, where hundreds of companies, institutions, and industry stakeholders showcase their AI innovations for visitors and members of the media. OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, NeoSapnies, and others are some of the companies hosting booths at the event.
In a post on X (formerly known as Twitter), PM Modi said, “Inaugurated the India AI Impact Expo 2026 at Bharat Mandapam. Being here among innovators, researchers and tech enthusiasts gives a glimpse of the extraordinary potential of AI, Indian talent and innovation. Together, we will shape solutions not just for India but for the world!”
The Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, JP Nadda, will launch two key AI initiatives tomorrow. First is the Strategy for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare for India (SAHI), and the second is the Benchmarking Open Data Platform for Health AI (BODH).
SAHI serves as India's national blueprint for integrating AI into healthcare safely and ethically. It provides a strategic roadmap for governance, data management, and deployment, ensuring that AI adoption remains inclusive and aligned with the country's public health goals.
Complementing this framework is BODH, a privacy-first benchmarking platform co-developed by IIT Kanpur and the National Health Authority. As a digital public good under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), BODH enables rigorous testing of AI models on real-world data without compromising patient confidentiality.
At the sidelines of the event, Anthropic announced its first Indian office in Bengaluru. Marking the second office in Asia-Pacific after Tokyo, the new office will serve as the company's nerve centre in the country and handle all consumer-facing and enterprise operations. Interestingly, the AI giant also highlighted that India is its second-largest market when it comes to Claude usage.
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