**Executive Summary**
The India AI Impact Summit 2026, addressed by Secretary Meity Shri S. Krishnan, focused on leveraging AI to solve diverse, real-world challenges and improve public service delivery and citizen welfare. The summit emphasized translating AI capabilities into scalable public applications with measurable outcomes. The summit was held on February 17, 2026.
**Key Points / Main Content**
* **Summit Purpose and Focus**
* The India AI Mission is modeled to address diverse needs and real-world challenges using AI.
* The India AI Impact Summit focuses on finding impactful AI applications.
* The summit emphasized translating AI capabilities into scalable public applications for public service and citizen welfare.
* Discussions centered on how compute, models, and data must lead to deployable applications.
* **MeitY Secretary's Address**
* MeitY is providing compute, models, and data to build impactful AI applications.
* AI's success depends on its ability to deliver solutions that improve lives.
* Attendees are encouraged to visit the 600+ startups and companies at the expo and witness AI use in various sectors.
* The challenge is to choose what AI works, scale it responsibly, protect privacy, and ensure public money creates measurable outcomes.
* **J-PAL Executive Director's Perspective**
* Rigorous evaluation is crucial for AI's success.
* AI must be tested in the field and scaled responsibly, with people and outcomes at the center.
* **University of Chicago Professor's Insights**
* Early AI impact is visible in traffic enforcement, driver's license testing, health, and education.
* Technology alone isn't enough; improving government services requires philanthropy, government, system-level change, and careful implementation.
**Impact Analysis**
**Stakeholders: Government (Policymakers)**
* **Impact**: Government can leverage AI to improve service delivery and citizen welfare. Government funding and procurement processes have a key role to play in AI adoption.
* **Action Required**: Implement AI responsibly and ethically, scale effective solutions, and rigorously evaluate AI programs for measurable outcomes.
**Stakeholders: Startups and Companies (AI Developers)**
* **Impact**: Opportunity to showcase AI solutions at the expo and contribute to impactful applications.
* **Action Required**: Develop AI applications that solve real-world problems, are scalable, protect privacy, and can be rigorously evaluated for their impact.
**Stakeholders: Citizens**
* **Impact**: Potential for improved public services, better healthcare, education, and overall quality of life.
* **Action Required**: None specified.
**Stakeholders: Researchers**
* **Impact**: Discussions highlighted the importance of structured implementation and cross-sector collaboration in advancing AI-driven service delivery.
* **Action Required**: Deliberate on translating AI capabilities into scalable public applications.
Key Entities Referenced
MeitY: The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the primary ministry involved with the India AI Mission and AI Impact Summit.
India AI Mission: A national initiative focused on addressing diverse needs and real-world challenges through the development and application of artificial intelligence.
India AI Impact Summit: A summit focused on finding impactful AI applications and promoting the use of AI across various sectors.
J-PAL: The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, an organization emphasizing rigorous evaluation of AI's impact.
Ministry of Electronics & IT
India AI Mission Modeled to Address Diverse
Needs and Real-World Challenges: Shri S.
Krishnan, Secretary, Meity
Secretary, Meity speaks at session “From Algorithms to
Outcomes: Building AI that Works for People”
India AI Impact Summit is all about finding impactful
applications that we can create using AI: Shri S. Krishnan
Secretary, Meity urges attendees to visit the 600+ startups
and companies at the expo and witness sectors where AI is
being used
Posted On: 17 FEB 2026 3:42PM by PIB Delhi
The second day of the India AI Impact Summit 2026 opened with a high-impact session that examined the
dual imperatives of people-centric AI and sovereign technological capability.The session “From Algorithms to Outcomes: Building AI that Works for People” at the India AI
Impact Summit 2026 focused on ensuring that artificial intelligence systems translate into measurable
improvements in public service delivery and citizen welfare. The discussion centred on how compute,
models and data must ultimately lead to deployable applications that enhance productivity, strengthen
governance and deliver tangible benefits to citizens.
Addressing the session, S. Krishnan, Secretary, MeitY, said that the India AI Mission is modeled to
address diverse needs and real-world challenges. He emphasized that the India AI Impact Summit is all
about finding impactful applications that we can create using AI. The Secretary remarked, “We are
providing compute, models, and data for one reason only, to build applications with real impact. Whether
AI succeeds beyond the hype depends entirely on whether it delivers solutions that improve lives. If you
walk through the expo, you’ll see hundreds of startups working across healthcare, agriculture, education,
and manufacturing. That’s where impact will come from. Governments will never have enough teachers,
doctors, or judges, but if AI can enhance productivity, service quality can improve dramatically. The
challenge is to choose what works, scale it responsibly, protect privacy, and ensure public money creates
measurable outcomes.” He concluded by urging attendees to visit the 600+ startups and companies at the
expo and to witness the sectors where AI is being used.
The session was attended by Iqbal Singh Dhaliwal, Global Executive Director, J-PAL, and Michael
Kremer, University Professor in Economics, University of Chicago, among other policymakers and sector
leaders.
Iqbal Singh Dhaliwal, Global Executive Director of J-PAL, underscored the importance of rigorous
evaluation, stating, “If you’ve spent enough time in development, you’ve seen many silver bullets come
and go. A technology can look incredibly promising in theory or even in a lab setting, but fail once it
meets the realities of the field. That’s why evidence matters so much. We need to ask not just whether AI
works, but for whom it works, in what contexts, and with what outcomes. Without rigorous evaluation, we
risk mistaking excitement for impact. AI has enormous potential, but only if it is tested in the field and
scaled responsibly, with people and outcomes at the centre.”Michael Kremer, J-PAL, University Professor in Economics, University of Chicago, added, “We’re
seeing early evidence of impact in areas like traffic enforcement, automated driver’s licence testing,
health, and education, including personalised adaptive learning that doubled the pace of student learning
with just one hour a week. But technology alone is not enough. Improving government services is not
always a market with strong private incentives, so philanthropy and government play a key role. Adoption
within public systems is hard, and procurement matters. Evaluation is critical so states can learn from
each other. AI has tremendous potential, but realizing it requires evidence, system-level change, and
careful implementation.”
The session formed a key part of the Summit’s broader agenda, bringing together policymakers,
researchers and industry leaders to deliberate on translating AI capabilities into scalable public
applications. Discussions highlighted the importance of structured implementation and cross-sector
collaboration in advancing AI-driven service delivery.
*****
Mahesh Kumar/ Pawan Faujdar/ Navin Sreejith/ Allen Roy Joseph
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