NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday advocated that India’s AI model should promote local and indigenous content as well as regional languages.
He also emphasised the need to ensure that Indian AI models are ethical, unbiased, transparent, and grounded in data privacy principles.
Chairing a roundtable meeting with Indian AI start-ups, Prime Minister assured them of the government’s full support for the success of their AI initiatives.
The roundtable was held ahead of the AI Impact Summit 2026, scheduled to take place in India in February.
A total of 12 Indian AI start-ups, which have qualified for the AI for ALL: Global Impact Challenge at the summit, attended the meeting and presented their ideas and ongoing work.
According to an official statement from the Prime Minister’s Office, these start-ups are engaged in a wide range of areas, including Indian language foundation models, multilingual large language models, speech-to-text, text-to-audio and text-to-video technologies; 3D content creation using generative AI for e-commerce, marketing and personalised content; engineering simulations, materials research and advanced analytics for data-driven decision-making across industries; as well as healthcare diagnostics and medical research, among others.
During the meeting, the Prime Minister highlighted the importance of artificial intelligence in driving societal transformation. He noted that India will host the India AI Impact Summit next month, through which the country will play a significant role in the global technology sector. He underlined India’s efforts to bring about transformative change by leveraging AI.
At the roundtable, the Prime Minister emphasised that start-ups and AI entrepreneurs are the co-architects of India’s future, stating that the country has immense capacity for both innovation and large-scale implementation.
He further remarked that India should present a distinctive AI model to the world that reflects the spirit of “Made in India, Made for the World.”
The Prime Minister also said that global trust in India is one of the country’s greatest strengths. He reiterated the need to ensure that Indian AI models remain ethical, unbiased, transparent and aligned with data privacy principles.
He encouraged start-ups to aim for global leadership from India, noting that the country can champion affordable AI, inclusive AI and frugal innovation on the world stage.
He added that Indian AI models should be unique and should actively promote local and indigenous content along with regional languages. The AI start-ups commended India’s strong commitment to advancing the artificial intelligence ecosystem.
They highlighted the rapid growth and vast future potential of the AI sector, observing that the centre of gravity for AI innovation and deployment is increasingly shifting towards India.
The leaders attending the roundtable, held ahead of the summit, said that India now offers a robust and enabling environment for AI development, firmly placing the country on the global AI map.
The meeting was attended by CEOs, heads and representatives of Indian AI start-ups, including Avataar, BharatGen, Fractal, Gan, Genloop, Gnani, Intellihealth, Sarvam, Shodh AI, Soket AI, Tech Mahindra and Zenteiq.
Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw and Minister of State Jitin Prasada were also present.