Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw Unveiled Logo and Flagship Initiatives for India-AI Impact Summit 2026

In September 2025, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has unveiled the logo and flagship initiatives for the upcoming India-Artificial Intelligence (AI) Impact Summit 2026, the 4th edition of international AI Symposium.

• Apart from them, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw also launched 8 indigenous Foundational Projects to build indigenous AI models, launch of 30 IndiaAI Data and AI labs, Foundational courses on data annotation and data curation, and Announcement of IndiaAI Fellowship Program.

About India-AI Impact Summit 2026:

Venue: The Summit is scheduled to be held from February 19 to 20, 2026 at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi, Delhi.

3 Sutras: The Summit will be based on 3 guiding principles or Sutras i.e. People, Planet and Progress.

Key Highlights of the Event:

Key Dignitaries: Union Minister of State(MoS) S. Krishnan, MeitY; Abhishek Singh, Additional Secretary of MeitY; Ajay Sood, Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India (GoI);  Kavita Bhatia, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of IndiaAI, and other senior officials, were also present at the launch event.

Official Logo: The official logo of the summit features Ashoka Chakra, an emblem of ethical governance, justice, and constitutional values.

• From its centre, neural network flares radiate outward, which represents AI’s transformative impact across languages, industries, and geographies, aims to promote inclusive and responsible AI progress in India.

Key Initiatives Launched: The India-AI Impact Summit 2026 will feature 4 flagship initiatives aimed at promoting AI innovation and addressing global challenges.

• AI Pitch Fest (UDAAN): It will demonstrate innovative AI startups from across the world and high-potential ventures from Tier-2 and Tier-3 hubs of India, specifically focusing on women leaders and differently-abled innovators.
• Global Innovation Challengers for Youth, Women and Other Participants: This initiative will promote AI-driven solutions that address real-world public challenges across various sectors.
• Research Symposium: This will be a one-day interdisciplinary gathering which aims to showcase advanced AI research forums, bringing together leading researchers, and practitioners from India, the Global South, and the wider global community to present frontier work on the impact of AI, exchange methods and evidence, and foster collaborations.
• AI Expo: The Expo for Responsible Intelligence will feature over 300 exhibitors from India, and more than 30 countries with over 10 thematic pavilions.

8 New Foundational Models: The GoI has launched 8 key projects under the IndiaAI Foundational Models, to develop indigenous AI models trained on India-specific data.

• Avatar AI: It is tasked to create specialized ‘AI Avatars’ of maximum 70 billion(B) parameters, optimized for Indian languages and sectors such as agriculture, healthcare and governance.
• IIT Bombay (IIT-B) Consortium-Bharat Gen: The institute will develop multilingual and multimodal models ranging from 2B to 1 Trillion (T) parameters, with an open source approach to support applications in agriculture, finance, legal, among others.
• Fractal Analytics Limited: The Company will develop India’s 1st large reasoning model of maximum 70B parameters, designed specifically for structured reasoning, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics(STEM) disciplines, and medical problem-solving.
• Tech Mahindra Maker’s Lab: It is tasked to design an efficient 8B parameter model for Indic languages (with special focus on Hindi dialects). Also, to design an agentic AI platform, Orion, for government applications (apps).
• Zenteiq Aitech Innovations: It will develop BrahmAI, a scientific-driven multimodal foundational model (ranging from 8B to 80B parameters) to promote advanced engineering intelligence, scientific computing, and industrial innovation.
• GenLoop Intelligence Pvt. Ltd.: It will create Small Language Models (SLMs) (2B parameters) namely,  Yukti (Base),Varta (Instruction), and Kavach (Guard). These SLMs will support all 22 Scheduled Indian Languages with local reasoning and content moderation.
• NeuroDX (Intellihealth): It has proposed to build 20B parameter model for electroencephalography (EEG) signal analysis which helps in early detection of neurological disorders.
• ShodhAI: It will develop a 7B parameter model for material discovery.

Other Key Initiatives:

Dedication of 30 IndiaAI Data and AI Labs: A total of 30 IndiaAI Data & AI Labs have been launched nationwide, as part of the 1st phase of a 570-lab network.

• Out of these 30 labs, 27 are established in partnership with National Institute of Electronics and Information (NIELIT), an autonomous body under MeitY, across Tier-2 & 3 Cities in India.
• While, remaining 3 labs are setup with Intel in Mokochung (Nagaland), Mhow, officially known as Dr. Ambedkar Nagar (Madhya Pradesh, MP), and Mohali (Punjab).
• These labs will offer foundational AI and data training courses under the FutureSkills initiative of the IndiaAI Mission.

New Foundational Courses: The newly established Data labs will offer new foundational courses on data annotation (images, text, audio) and data curation (organizing and labeling datasets).

IndiaFellowship Program and Portal: The GoI has expanded IndiaAI Fellowship Program to support 13,500 scholars including 8,000 Under-Graduates (UGs), 5,000 Post Graduates (PGs), and 500 Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) researchers across various streams such as: engineering, medicine, law, commerce, and liberal arts.

• In addition to that, the GoI announced the Fellowship Portal that will enable digital applications, progress tracking, mentorship , and review.

About Ministry of Electronic and IT (MeitY):
Union Minister- Ashwini Vaishnaw (Rajya Sabha member- Odisha)
Minister of State (MoS)- Jitin Prasada(Constituency- Pilibhit, Uttar Pradesh, UP)