India launches New Delhi frontier AI commitments to drive inclusive, multilingual AI for the Global South.

New Delhi, February 19, 2026: At the opening of the India AI Impact Summit 2026, Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw announced the New Delhi Frontier AI Impact Commitments, a landmark outcome aimed at advancing artificial intelligence.

Addressing the summit, the Union Minister outlined India’s AI strategy as one firmly rooted in democratization, scale, and sovereignty.

India has a comprehensive approach towards AI:

He highlighted India’s comprehensive approach across the five layers of the AI stack—applications, models, compute, talent, and energy—with a strong emphasis on real-world deployment in sectors such as healthcare, agriculture, education, and public services.

“AI is a foundational technology that is already transforming how we work, learn, and make decisions. Our Prime Minister believes that the true value of technology lies in ensuring its benefits reach the masses. That is why our country is working across all five layers of the AI stack,” Vaishnaw said.

He added that while harnessing AI’s benefits, it is equally important to collectively address its risks.

“By placing human safety and dignity at the heart of AI, we can shape an AI future of the humans, by the humans, and for the humans,” he said.

The voluntary commitments reflect a shared vision to align AI development with equity, cultural diversity, and real-world needs, particularly in the Global South.

Multiple organizations are participating in the summit:

Participating organizations include Indian AI innovators such as Sarvam, BharatGen, Gnani.ai, and Soket, along with leading global frontier AI firms.

The first commitment, “Advancing Understanding of Real-World AI Usage,” focuses on generating anonymised and aggregated insights to assess AI’s impact on jobs, skills, productivity, and economic transformation.

The initiative aims to support evidence-based policymaking that maximizes benefits while mitigating risks associated with rapid technological change.

The second commitment, “Strengthening Multilingual and Contextual Evaluations,” seeks to improve AI effectiveness across diverse languages, cultures, and real-world contexts.

Participating organizations will collaborate with governments and local ecosystems to develop datasets, benchmarks, and evaluation expertise for underrepresented languages and cultural settings, helping democratize access to high-quality AI globally.

Emphasizing the importance of collaboration, the Union Minister said coordinated action between governments, industry, and research communities is essential to ensure AI serves humanity at large.

He invited participating organizations to advance these commitments as a global foundation for responsible and inclusive AI development.

Also Read: India sets a Guinness World Record for AI responsibility pledge at India AI Impact Summit 2026.

EOM.