AI Impact Summit 2026 Day 3 LIVE Updates: Wipro In Talks With Anthropic, Galgotias University Asked To Vacate

Netweb Technologies is accelerating its push into India's fast‑growing artificial intelligence ecosystem with the launch of a new edge inferencing device, designed to bring AI processing closer to where data is generated.

The company's Chairman and Managing Director, Sanjay Lodha, told NDTV Profit that the product has been built to meet rising demand from sectors such as colleges, railways and government agencies, all of which are rapidly adopting AI-driven systems for efficiency and automation.

READ MORE: Netweb's New Nvidia Powered Product Aims At Colleges, Railways, Government Agencies

At the India AI Summit, Larsen & Toubro (L&T) announced a proposed venture under the India AI Mission to build sovereign, scalable GW-scale NVIDIA AI factory infrastructure to reinforce India’s position as a global AI powerhouse.

This partnership integrates L&T's engineering, infrastructure development, and execution with NVIDIA AI infrastructure including NVIDIA GPUs, CPUs, Networking, NVIDIA-accelerated storage platforms from leading providers, the NVIDIA AI Enterprise software stack, and reference architectures to enable rapid, secure AI adoption. It will deploy AI-ready datacenter infrastructure, advanced computing platforms, and ecosystem enablement required to support large-scale AI workloads across priority sectors.

Sridhar Vembu, billionaire tech tycoon and Zoho Corp. co-founder, has brushed off 'apocalyptic' fears over artificial intelligence replacing human work, saying despite rapid advances in AI, customers fundamentally prefer to do business with people rather than machines.

On AI and jobs, Vembu said:

• Customers want to do business with people, not AI.
• Using AI and other tools, jobs can be created to get closer to the customer.
• Indian cos closer to customers in that sense.

Read More: India's AI Advantage Lies In Youth Adoption, Deep Customer Relationships: Sridhar Vembu

India is entering a decisive phase in artificial intelligence, and Sarvam AI wants to ensure the country builds the core technology itself rather than relying on global platforms. Speaking at the NDTV Ind.AI Summit, Pratyush Kumar, CEO and Co-Founder of Sarvam AI, said generative AI models are rapidly becoming foundational infrastructure.

Read More: Sarvam AI Wants To Put An Indian AI Assistant On Every Worker — Here's How They Plan To Do It

Sridhar Vembu, former CEO of Zoho, has told NDTV Profit that fears about AI taking away jobs are exaggerated, arguing that customers still prefer dealing with people and that AI will actually help companies—especially Indian firms—get closer to users and create new roles. He believes the government’s IndiaAI Mission 2.0 is on the right path by leveraging the country’s young, fast‑adopting population, which he sees as India’s key AI advantage.

While India should eventually participate across all layers of the AI stack, he cautions that the prohibitive cost of GPUs means the country must invest carefully. Vembu also revealed that his Tenkasi team is building small‑scale processors and custom logic for AI datacentres to reduce power use and accelerate application development.
 

Ixigo, India's travel platform on Wednesday announced an expanded collaboration with OpenAI to advance artificial intelligence capabilities and deploy them at scale for the travel industry. This collaboration will help the company accelerate AI integration across ixigo, ConfirmTkt and Abhibus, unlocking new possibilities. 

Ixigo will leverage OpenAI’s Enterprise API platforms to deploy advanced AI tools and integrate next-generation coding models across ixigo’s technology stack. These capabilities will power autonomous workflows and enable new AI-driven use cases, including fully autonomous agents, AI-assisted workflows, contextual AI assistants, and ongoing research to unlock new opportunities and AI-first travel customer experiences.  
 

Wipro is in discussions with leading AI developer Anthropic as the Indian IT services major deepens its investments and partnerships across the artificial intelligence ecosystem, the company's Chief Technology Officer, Sandhya Arun, told NDTV Profit on the sidelines of the AI Impact Summit.

Read full story here: Wipro In Talks With Anthropic As AI Becomes Core To All Business Lines

The India AI Summit 2026 being held in New Delhi has drawn attention to domestic companies that have a significant portion of their business linked to artificial intelligence. NDTV Profit has compiled a wide set of companies across sectors that are actively building or integrating AI capabilities. 

Read Full Story: India's AI Landscape On D-Street At A Glance — An Infographic Guide

Government extends the Expo by one more day; the Exhibition to remain open to the public on Saturday, 21st February - to provide comfortable experience for the public.

To avoid inconvenience to the public in view of access restricted events on February 19, the Expo to remain closed for public on Thursday. The Expo will remain open to public on 20th and 21st February.

On row over Galgotias University's display of a Chinese-made robot dog at AI Impact Summit, the university's communications professor, Neha, says,"By one misinterpretation, the internet has gone by storm. It might be that I could not convey well what I had wanted to say, or you could not understand well what I wanted to say. I am a faculty member in communications at the School of Management, not in AI. Only you (the media) have heard what the government has said, as far as I know we are here at the expo. As a university, we are standing tall. The robot was brought here only for projection...."

#WATCH | Delhi | On row over Galgotias University's display of a Chinese-made robot dog at AI Impact Summit, the university's communications professor, Neha, says,"By one misinterpretation, the internet has gone by storm. It might be that I could not convey well what I had wanted… pic.twitter.com/U6dqbBKLXO

— ANI (@ANI) February 18, 2026

Responding to the controversy, Professor Neha Singh of Galgotias University told PTI, "The controversy happened because things may not have been expressed clearly and the intent may not have been properly understood."

"Regarding the robot dog -- we cannot claim that we manufactured it. I have told everyone that we introduced it to our students to inspire them to create something better on their own. Our university contributes to building future leaders by providing cutting-edge technologies in the field of AI, and it will continue to do so."

On the government asking the university to vacate the expo area, she added, "I do not have any information about that. What I know is that today we are all present here."

Read Full Story: Galgotias Asked To Vacate AI Summit Following Chinese Robot Claim

Galgotias University has been asked to vacate its booth at the India AI Impact Summit 2026, as per sources close to NDTV. The row started after the Greater Noida-based university allegedly showcased a Chinese-made robotic dog as its own innovation.

Read Full Story: Galgotias Asked To Vacate AI Summit Following Chinese Robot Claim

Consumer enterprises are strong in India, and Prosus intends to keep on investing in this space, a top company official said.

Speaking on the sidelines of the release of a Prosus-BCG white paper on 'AI for All -- Catalysing Jobs, Growth, and Opportunity' -- at the AI Impact Summit here, Prosus Global Head of AI and Data Science Euro Beinat said, "At this point, we do not want to make an announcement, but investments in Indian firms will continue. We are looking at India not just because it is large and in potential and there's fast growth, because it's a place where we can learn."
 

(PTI Source)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets Google CEO Sundar Pichai in Delhi. 

#WATCH | #IndiaAIImpactSummit2026 | Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets Google CEO Sundar Pichai in Delhi.

(Source: DD News) pic.twitter.com/JNjMaOa0ux

— ANI (@ANI) February 18, 2026

Galgotias University has been asked to vacate the Delhi AI Summit expo venue immediately, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology of India (MeitY) sources told NDTV Profit. This comes amid the controversy over the display of a Chinese-made robotic dog at the India AI Impact Summit In New Delhi.

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)