AI Impact Summit 2026 Day 3 LIVE Updates: Agenda, Events, Key Participants, Insights Into NDTV AI Summit

Global chip major Qualcomm Incorporated plans to invest up to $150 million, or about Rs 1,360 crore, to support India's rapidly expanding technology and AI startup ecosystem, the company said on Wednesday. The investments will be deployed through Qualcomm Ventures and will be made in startups across all stages, with a particular focus on AI for automotive, IoT, robotics, and mobile, the company said in a statement.

Speaking at NDTV's India.AI summit, Pratyush Kumar, CEO and co-founder of Sarvam AI said, "Imagine giving a free tutor to every student in this country, which they can access on a feature phone, on a smartphone. They can say, I just studied this today in class. I didn't understand it. Help me out, and it is personalised. It is at the level of the student in their language and can help them, right? This is not at all a fantasy with very, very low cost. We can provide access to education to all, right? And of course it applies to healthcare and agriculture. But education, especially in this fast-moving world, is going to be a big challenge, and that's one thing that we can solve."
 

Sarvam AI CEO Pratyush Kumar says India is a tough test for AI, but his company is making waves by focusing on Indian languages. "India is a tremendously hard benchmark for what AI needs to get right to work for all of India," he said at NDTV's India.AI summit. Sarvam is optimising AI for Indian languages and scaling it up for the entire population, something few companies can do.

Kumar spoke on that global majors want a piece of the action, but Sarvam's core strength lies in its ability to develop AI solutions tailored to India's diverse linguistic landscape. This approach has enabled Sarvam to outperform global leaders like Google Gemini and OpenAI's ChatGPT in Indian language benchmarks.
 

IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday said India is focused on practical applications of AI, including enterprise productivity, and solutions for population-scale challenges such as healthcare, agriculture, and climate change. Speaking at a research symposium at the AI Impact Summit, the minister informed that about 2.5 lakh attendees, mostly under the age of 30, took part across the exhibition area.

The minister said he was feeling hopeful for a totally new future for India and for the world. The minister asked participants of the symposium to come out with solid concrete suggestions on how to make AI safe. AI is a great tool and should be used for the benefit of humans.

VIDEO | Delhi: Speaking at the India AI Summit 2026, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw (@AshwiniVaishnaw) says " I am feeling really hopeful for a totally new future for our country and for the world. We in India are very focused on AI in the edge, AI for use cases, AI for solving… pic.twitter.com/h023Oco1Ft

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) February 18, 2026

Prime Minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam of Mauritius was warmly received by Minister of State for Jal Shakti Raj Bhushan Choudhary on his arrival in India for the India AI Impact Summit 2026.

Delhi: Prime Minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam of Mauritius was warmly received by Minister of State for Jal Shakti Raj Bhushan Choudhary on his arrival in India for the India AI Impact Summit 2026. pic.twitter.com/Ueq6oyKzxY

— IANS (@ians_india) February 18, 2026

India is not catching up in Artificial Intelligence — it is leaping ahead. As the global AI landscape evolves, the world is increasingly looking to India not just for scale, but for leadership and direction. The NDTV India AI Summit brings together policymakers, industry leaders, innovators, and thinkers to shape an AI future that is rooted in human values and ethical responsibility.

Built on two core pillars — India’s Human-Centric AI Agenda for the World and Safe, Responsible & Impact-Driven AI — the summit champions a people-first approach. It envisions AI as a force that elevates humanity, drives inclusive growth, and safeguards societal well-being while accelerating innovation.

Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind, highlights key barriers to artificial general intelligence (AGI) in current AI systems during his keynote at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi, emphasising the need for continual learning from real-world experiences rather than static post-training models.

He said, "When I look at the current systems and what's missing from them being a kind of general intelligence,  I would say things like continual learning, so learning after they've been trained and put out into the world. In today's systems, we train them, we do various different types of training on them, and then they're kind of frozen and then put out into the world. But what you'd like is for those systems to continually learn online from experience to learn from the context they're in, maybe personalised to the situation and the task that you have for them, and today's systems don't do that..."

#WATCH | Delhi: At the #IndiaAIImpactSummit2026, CEO of DeepMind Technologies Demis Hassabis says, "When I look at the current systems and what's missing from them being a kind of general intelligence, I would say things like continual learning, so learning after they've been… pic.twitter.com/aSiN7PZDxB

— ANI (@ANI) February 18, 2026

The registered delegates are strongly advised to use public transport, metro services, or cabs to reach the venue, due to limited parking space availability.

Entry shall be from Gate No. 2 of Sushma Swaraj Bhawan for pedestrians, metro users, drop off, and self-drive vehicles.

All registered delegates, including invitees, speakers, attendees, and other stakeholders are requested to take note of this revised access protocol and plan their arrival accordingly.

All concerned are advised to cooperate fully with security and traffic personnel and to strictly adhere to the instructions issued on-site to ensure smooth and secure conduct of the event.

Registered delegates are strongly advised to use public transport, metro services, or cabs to reach the venue, due to limited parking space availability.

• Gate No. 4: Operational for entry from 8:00 a.m. onwards for drop offs by cars/cabs.
• Gate No. 10: Operational for entry from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. for delegates arriving by Metro.
• Intermittent traffic restrictions may be experienced between 4:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. in
• and around the ITPO area.
• Gate 5A: Operational for entry by Media from 8:00AM onwards.
• Access through other designated gates shall remain subject to security clearance and
• movement restrictions as per protocol.

Self-drive vehicles: Limited parking facility shall be available at the following parking locations:

1. Purana Qila Parking-1.6km
2. Zoo Parking Space-3 kms
3. JLN Stadium Parking 4.8 kms

• Shuttle services will ply from these locations to Bharat Mandapam Gate No. 04.
• Delegates are advised to use designated golf carts provided within the Bharat Mandapam
• complex to reach their respective venues.
• Within campus: Designated golf carts will ply to reach their respective venues within Bharat
• Mandapam.
• Outside campus: Shuttle services will ply outside between Gate 4, 7 and 10.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote, "A fine article by President Aleksandar Vučić of the Republic of Serbia, in which he talks about AI, of course, but at the same time highlights his fondness for India, India’s strides in AI and strong India-Serbia relations!"

A fine article by President Aleksandar Vučić of the Republic of Serbia, in which he talks about AI, of course, but at the same time highlights his fondness for India, India’s strides in AI and strong India-Serbia relations! @predsednikrs https://t.co/5k4yAEUMwI

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 18, 2026

The following timings shall be applicable across the Summit venues on Feb 18, 2026.

• Bharat Mandapam Convention Centre: 9:30 a.m. to 04:30 p.m. only.
• All floating areas must be vacated after 3.30 p.m. All sessions shall conclude by 4.30 p.m.
• Session attendees are requested to plan their exit from the venue accordingly.
• Bharat Mandapam Expo Arena: 9:30 a.m. - 08:00 p.m.
• Sushma Swaraj Bhawan: 9:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
   

Dr Chandrika Kaushik, the Director General (Production Coordination & Services Interaction) at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) told NDTV that Artificial Intelligence is no longer a futuristic concept for India's defence sector but a present-day operational necessity.

Speaking to NDTV's Senior Executive Editor Aditya Raj Kaul, Dr Kaushik underlined that AI will play a decisive role in national security as the volume and complexity of data available to armed forces continue to grow exponentially.

"The amount of data that is available across the defence spectrum today is humanly impossible to crunch and make meaningful sense of in real time. This is where AI plays a leading role," she said.

Huang was among the most prominent global technology leaders expected at the India AI Impact Summit, and in the days leading up to the Summit, there was significant buzz around his participation at the mega event.

Huang, however, cancelled his visit to New Delhi. The company is represented by a senior executive at the AI Summit.

"Regarding some people not attending, this is a personal choice. I would not like to comment on it. Jensen Huang reached out to us, and he said that because of something really unavoidable... he has deputed his very senior executive to join us," Vaishnaw had said during a briefing at the India AI Summit on Tuesday.

Amid questions over CEO Jensen Huang's absence at the India AI Impact Summit, NVIDIA managing director for South Asia, Vishal Dhupar, said the top official was unwell after weeks of extensive travel and has deputed Jay Puri to lead the company delegation at the event. Dhupar said wherever he went, people were asking about the NVIDIA CEO.

"Aren't we all missing Jensen? Everywhere I am going, everyone is asking (about) Jensen," he said.

Replying to a question on Huang's cancelling his visit to India, just ahead of the Summit, Dhupar explained, "Jensen has travelled for three straight weeks, he caught a bug, he is under the weather".

"We hope he is well soon, but we are delighted that we have Jay Puri leading a delegation to come here in India and celebrate this very important week where the India AI impact summit will demonstrate the power of India," he said.

(Source: PTI) 

Here's the full agenda of NDTV Ind.AI Summit 2026:

• 09:35–09:40 a.m: Imagine. India. AI – A Musical Journey
• 09:40–10:00 a.m: AI – Creating in India, For India by Pratyush Kumar, CEO & Co-Founder, Sarva.m. AI

10:20–11:00 a.m: Investing in the AI Advantage

• Ashutosh Sharma, India Head, Investments and M&A, Prosus
• Aakrit Vaish, Founder, Activate
• Manav Garg, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Together Fund
• Vikram Vaidyanathan, Managing Director, Z47
• Harshjit Sethi, Early Stage Investor

11:00–11:30 a.m: Open Questions with OpenAI

• Chris Lehane, Chief Global Affairs Officer, OpenAI; Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in AI 2025

11:30–12:00 p.m: Building the AI Stack of the Future

• Jay Puri, Executive Vice President, NVIDIA

12:00–12:20 p.m: India’s AI Mission: People. Planet. Progress

• Jitin Prasada, Union Minister of State for Commerce & Industry

12:20–12:30 p.m: Building the AI Stack: The India Advantage

• Deepak Dhanak, Co-Founder & COO, Rocket AI

12:30–01:15 p.m: Should AI be Sovereign?

• Raffi Krikorian, CTO, mozilla.org
• Arun Subra.m.aniyan, Founder & CEO, Articul8
• Siddharth Bhatia, Co-Founder & CEO, Puch AI
• Manu Chopra, CEO, Karya
• Anagh Prasad, Vice President, Accel

01:15–02:00 p.m.: Lunch

02:10–02:30 p.m: The Working Intelligence: AI & the Enterprise

• Arvind Jain, Founder & CEO, Glean

02:30–03:10 p.m: The World at Work: Global Lessons in AI Adoption

• Kumaresh Pattabira.m.an, Head, LinkedIn India
• Madhav Krishna, Founder & CEO, Vahan.ai
• Kirthiga Reddy, CEO & Co-Founder, Verix
• Puneet Chandok, President, Microsoft India & South Asia

03:10–03:45 p.m: Scale or Fail: The Truth About AI Adoption

• Jason Oxman, President & CEO, ITIC
• Jeff Burke, VP, Business Development & Partnerships, Replit
• Aloke Bajpai, Chairman, MD & Group CEO, Ixigo
• Ivana Baroletti, Global Chief Privacy & AI Governance Officer, Wipro

03:45–04:15 p.m: The Age of Intelligence: Power, Policy & Innovation

• Rishi Sunak, Former Prime Minister of the UK

04:15–04:35 p.m: Built-In Intelligence: The New Technology Default

• Akis Evangelidis, Co-Founder & President, India, Nothing

04:35–05:00 p.m: The Threshold: Crossing Into Adoption

• Vikram Chopra, Co-Founder & CEO, Cars24
• Gaurav Gupta, Co-Founder & CEO, Gabit
• Prateek Maheshwari, Co-Founder, PhysicsWallah

05:00–05:30 p.m: Who Decides? The Question at the Heart of AI

• Stuart Russell, Distinguished Professor, UC Berkeley; President, International Association for Safe & Ethical AI; Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in AI 2025

05:30–06:00 p.m: Code, Commerce, Country

• Amanda Brock, CEO, OpenUK
• Paul Triolo, Partner, DGA–Albright Stonebridge Group
• Nikhil Malhotra, Chief Innovation Officer, Tech Mahindra
• Amit Zavery, President, Chief Product Officer & COO, ServiceNow

06:00–06:15 p.m: Digital India: AI and the Next Frontier

• Ajai Chowdhry, Chairman, Mission Governing Board, National Quantum Mission of India

06:15–06:40 p.m: When Unreal is Real

• Mati Staniszewski, Co-Founder, Eleven Labs

06:40–07:15 p.m: AI, Society and Impact: Shaping Inclusive and Equitable Futures

• James Manyika, SVP, Technology & Society, Google

07:15–07:40 p.m: Building India’s AI Story

• Karthikeyan Natarajan, CEO, Infinite Uptime
• Bir Singh, Co-Founder & CSO, Addverb Technologies
• Rajat Arya, Co-Founder, 169Pi.AI
• Sravanth Aluru, Co-Founder & CEO, Avataar AI

07:40–08:10 p.m: Neta. Narrative. Nation: Democracy in the Time of AI

• Rajeev Chandrashekhar, Entrepreneur & Technocrat
• Priyanka Chaturvedi, MP, Rajya Sabha
• Sasmit Patra, MP, Rajya Sabha

08:10–08:40 p.m: The AI Creator: Powering the Orange Economy

• Vivek Anchalia, Founder, a.m.azing Indian Stories; Director, Naisha
• Sanket Shah, CEO, InVideo
• Hardeep Gambhir, Co-Founder, LocalHost

08:40 p.m.onwards: Summit Closing and Dinner
 

Government officials has issued an important notification with reference to Day 3 of the India AI Summit 2026.

Delegates will get restricted access to the world's largest AI summit, India AI Impact Summit 2026, for the next two days due to VIP movements and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's presence at the venue, senior government officials said on Tuesday.

Delegates attending the conference at Bharat Mandapam will have to vacate the convention area by 4.30 p.m. as the Prime Minister will host dinner for state guests and business leaders post 6 p.m., Meity officials said.

(Source: PTI)