Galgotias University was reportedly allotted a 155-square-metre booth at the Bharat Mandapam, which is hosting the India AI Impact Summit 2026 from Feb. 16 to Feb. 20.
Before getting evicted from the venue, the private institution had its booth at Bharat Mandapam's Hall 6. The allotted space was over 15% more than the combined area provided to four IITs and a research institution, which were housed in the same hall, The Indian Express reported.
An event organiser said the space allocation was done on a demand basis.
The report highlights that the exhibition space at the venue was leased out on a first-come, first-served basis, without any formal vetting of what the institutions were planning to showcase.
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This was done under the supervision of the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), an autonomous body under the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY).
As per the floor plan, 130-square-metre of space was given to four IITs and a research institution combined. This included 35 square meters to IIT Bombay, 35 square meters to IIT Chennai, 24 square meters to IIT Kharagpur, 18 square meters to IIT Gandhinagar and 18 square meters to Airawat Research Foundation, as per The Indian Express.
Payments made by the institutions varied based on the total space allocated.
The report states that Galgotias University paid nearly Rs 14 lakh to the government at the fixed rate of Rs 9,000 per square metre set for the academic institutions. This excluded taxes and electricity connection charges.
"We were of the view that exhibitors would self-police and not display things they had no right to claim ownership over. The expo was planned according to international standards, and we did not want to direct what exhibitors can and cannot display," said an official involved in selecting exhibitors.
Amid the Chinese robodog controversy, Galgotias University was asked to vacate the premises of the India AI Impact Summit 2026. The government later said that they want genuine and actual work to be reflected at the expos.
Earlier, professor Neha Singh at Galgotias University told DD News that the robotic dog on display - called Orion - had been "developed by the Centre of Excellence at Galgotias University." However, it was later identified as Unitree Go2, which is a commercially available quadruped robot made by China-based Unitree Robotics.
"The point is, we want genuine and actual work to be reflected in a way that people exhibit in expos. The idea is not to sort of use this as an opportunity in any other fashion. We don't want controversy around exhibits which are presented here," said S Krishnan, the Secretary of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).
In a statement, the university later clarified that it has not built the "robotic dog, nor have we claimed to do so."
"Our focus is on building young minds that will soon design, engineer and manufacture such technologies in India," it added.
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