India has been officially announced as the host for the next Global AI Summit, following its role as co-host of the recent Paris gathering. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership will likely pivot the international forum toward themes of innovation, access, and Global South priorities, marking a significant geopolitical shift in global AI governance discussions.
From Regulation to Innovation: The Changing Focus of Global AI Summits
The Paris AI Summit, co-hosted by France and India, recently concluded with participation from heads of state, industry leaders, academics, and civil society representatives. While French President Emmanuel Macron’s hosting received substantial coverage, India’s co-hosting role and future plans for the summit have been largely overlooked by international media.
“The structure, focus, and even the nomenclature of the Summit clearly telegraphed an intentional and significant shift from safety and regulation toward innovation and the utilization of AI,” notes Dr. Anita Gurumurthy, Executive Director at IT for Change, a Bangalore-based research organization. “This realignment perfectly positions India to advance its technological agenda on the global stage.”
The Paris event marked the third in a series of global discussions on AI policy issues, covering themes such as AI for public interest, the future of work, innovation and culture, trust and openness in AI, and global governance frameworks. These themes align closely with India’s technological priorities as it prepares to take the helm of the next summit.
Modi’s Vision: Centering Global South and Access Issues
Prime Minister Modi’s address at the Paris Summit, while described by some observers as “mundane,” contained important indicators of India’s future approach. He emphasized that “Governance is also about ensuring access for all, especially in the Global South, where capacities are most lacking—be it in computing power, talent, data, or financial resources.”
This focus on Global South priorities continues India’s diplomatic positioning from its recent G-20 presidency, where it championed digital inclusion and development. According to the Global AI Index published by Tortoise Media, while North America and China dominate AI development with 57% of global investment, the entire African continent receives less than 0.5% of global AI funding—highlighting the access gap Modi referenced.
“India’s leadership creates a genuine opportunity to reframe AI governance away from Western-centric models,” explains Maria Fasli, UNESCO Chair in Analytics and Data Science at the University of Essex. “Under Modi, we’re likely to see greater emphasis on ensuring AI benefits reach developing nations through knowledge sharing, infrastructure support, and inclusive technology design.”
Strategic Advantages for India’s Domestic Agenda
India’s hosting role aligns strategically with its domestic technology policies, which have favored innovation over strict regulation. The country has taken a relatively permissive approach to governing AI applications, even in sensitive sectors like healthcare and surveillance.
“The shift from safety to innovation suits the Indian regulatory state’s approach to governing AI,” says technology policy expert Rahul Matthan, partner at Trilegal and author of Privacy 3.0. “This will allow the Indian government to focus conversations on innovation, investments, and access questions while potentially sidestepping scrutiny of its regulatory framework.”
Recent initiatives underscore India’s AI ambitions. The India AI Mission recently called for proposals to build foundational AI models using Indian datasets, partly in response to perceived competition with China after the open-source release of Deep Seek’s R1 model. According to a 2024 NASSCOM report, India’s AI market is projected to reach $17 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 25-35%.
Digital Public Infrastructure: India’s Technology Showcase
The Modi government has consistently used international forums to showcase its large national technological projects, particularly Aadhaar (the world’s largest biometric identity system) and Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) initiatives.
“During its G20 presidency, the Indian government made a coordinated effort to position its DPI initiatives as exemplar projects,” observes Urvashi Aneja, Founding Director of Digital Futures Lab. “Modi’s reference to DPI in his Paris address suggests that this trend will continue during its hosting of the AI Summit as well.”
Industry analysts expect India to use the summit to promote the India Stack—a set of open APIs and digital public goods that form the backbone of the country’s digital transformation. The Stack includes identity verification (Aadhaar), payments (UPI), and data exchange frameworks that have facilitated over 50 billion digital transactions annually.
Linguistic Diversity and Open-Source AI: Potential Focus Areas
India’s linguistic diversity—with 22 officially recognized languages and hundreds of dialects—positions it well to address one of AI’s most significant challenges: language inequality in development.
“A linguistically diverse setting like India opens the door for more attention to building language models for languages in the Global South,” notes Kalika Bali, Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research India. “There are stark differences in natural language processing capabilities between English and other languages written in the Latin script, compared to prominent local languages in Asia, Africa, and elsewhere.”
The Paris Summit emphasized open-source AI development, a theme Modi reinforced in his address by calling for “inclusive and open-source AI systems.” This focus may continue under India’s leadership, potentially creating opportunities for collaboration between Global South nations on shared technological resources.
Balancing National Interests and Global Governance
The framing of AI within national sovereignty contexts is another area where India’s approach aligns with global trends. As Dr. Amber Sinha, technology policy researcher, notes: “The emotional heft of the word ‘sovereignty’ allows for the centering of national pride in domestic politics, while its contested understanding permits a flexible interpretation of national interest in foreign policy.”
Industry leaders anticipate that India will need to balance its emphasis on sovereignty with the practical need for international cooperation on AI governance. “No single nation can effectively regulate or develop AI in isolation,” says Sameer Nigam, CEO of PhonePe, one of India’s largest digital payment platforms. “India’s challenge will be leading a meaningful global conversation while protecting its strategic interests.”
Looking Ahead: The Global Impact of India’s Leadership
As preparations begin for the summit, observers from technology policy circles worldwide will be watching how India shapes the agenda. The transfer of leadership from a European power to an Asian democracy with strong technological ambitions signals a potential realignment in how global AI governance is conceptualized.
For businesses and policymakers tracking AI developments, India’s hosting offers insights into how emerging economies view AI’s role in development. The summit could influence investment patterns, regulatory approaches, and international cooperation frameworks on AI governance for years to come.
