The India AI Impact Summit represented the latest milestone in a rapidly evolving international dialogue on artificial intelligence governance. Understanding this summit's policy significance requires examining the declarations, statements and commitments that have emerged from preceding gatherings, as these texts collectively trace the development of global consensus—and divergence—on how AI should be governed, deployed and regulated.
The AI Seoul Summit, held on 21–22 May 2024, built upon Bletchley's foundation whilst broadening the agenda to encompass innovation and inclusion alongside safety. South Korea's hosting marked a deliberate effort to position Asia as a central actor in AI governance discussions and to foreground questions of digital equity that had received limited attention in earlier safety-focused deliberations.
The Seoul Declaration, signed by 11 countries and entities during the Leaders' Session on 21 May 2024, explicitly linked safety frameworks to innovation policy and inclusive development. The declaration recognised that rigid safety requirements risk concentrating AI capabilities amongst well-resourced actors, potentially widening rather than narrowing global technological divides. Signatories committed to fostering international cooperation that balances rigorous safety standards with support for innovation ecosystems, particularly in countries lacking advanced AI infrastructure.
As an annex to the Seoul Declaration, the Seoul Statement of Intent outlined concrete mechanisms for operationalising safety cooperation. The statement committed signatories to establishing an international network of government-backed AI Safety Institutes tasked with developing shared testing methodologies, coordinating research on emerging risks, and ensuring interoperability of safety evaluation frameworks across jurisdictions.
Running parallel to governmental declarations, the Seoul Summit secured voluntary commitments from 20 leading AI companies—including Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI. The Frontier AI Safety Commitments obligate signatories to define thresholds for intolerable risk, conduct rigorous pre-deployment testing, implement robust security controls for unreleased model weights, and maintain transparency regarding their safety frameworks.
These commitments represent the first instance of major AI laboratories publicly pledging to specific accountability measures, including commitments not to deploy models if risks cannot be adequately mitigated. The voluntary nature of these pledges, however, raises questions about enforceability and whether industry self-regulation can substitute for binding regulatory frameworks.
Co-chaired by France and India, Paris marked the first major AI summit explicitly prioritising Global South perspectives. Over 100 countries participated, shifting from Bletchley's safety focus to implementation, sustainability, and equitable access for developing nations.
The India AI Impact Summit, held on 16–20 February 2026 in New Delhi, positioned itself as the next phase in this diplomatic progression. Organised under India's IndiaAI Mission, the summit aimed to translate the aspirational commitments of previous declarations into concrete policy frameworks and implementation strategies.
The declaration was adopted on 19 February 2026 and released by the Ministry of External Affairs on 21 February 2026. Endorsed by 88 countries and international organisations — including USA, UK, China, Russia and the EU — it operationalises the Seven Chakras through seven named voluntary initiatives.
The summit's Seven Chakras—thematic working groups addressing Human Capital, Inclusion for Social Empowerment, Safe and Trusted AI, Science, Resilience and Innovation, Democratising AI Resources, and AI for Economic Development—produced outcome documents detailing policy recommendations, implementation roadmaps, and commitments from participating governments and organisations.
The summit's Seven Chakras—thematic working groups addressing distinct dimensions of AI's global impact—conducted deliberations from October 2025 through January 2026. Over 100 countries worldwide engaged through these working groups to shape a future of responsible and inclusive AI. Each working group is co-chaired by Indian government officials alongside international partners, with hybrid meetings held across Indian cities.
Focuses on equitable skilling and workforce transitions for an AI-enabled economy.
Co-Chairs:
• Prof. TG Sitharam (India) – Chairman, All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE)
• Philippines (Country Co-Chair)
• Rwanda (Country Co-Chair)
Working Group Meeting: 5th–6th January 2026, Hybrid (Guwahati)
Key Pre-Summit Events:
Advances inclusive-by-design AI solutions for diverse communities across languages, regions, and abilities.
Co-Chairs:
• Mr. Rajesh Aggarwal (India) – Secretary, Department for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD)
• Switzerland (Country Co-Chair)
• Nigeria (Country Co-Chair)
Working Group Meeting: 16th January 2026, Hybrid (Hyderabad)
Key Pre-Summit Events:
Builds globally trusted AI systems anchored in transparency, accountability, and shared safeguards.
Co-Chairs:
• Prof. Balaraman Ravindran (India) – Founding Head, Wadhwani School of Data Science and AI, IIT Madras
• Brazil (Country Co-Chair)
• Japan (Country Co-Chair)
Working Group Meeting: 10th–11th December 2025, Hybrid (Chennai)
Conclave on Safe and Trusted AI: Public event held alongside the working group meeting featuring global experts on AI safety, risk mitigation, and governance frameworks.
Key Pre-Summit Events:
Harnesses AI to accelerate frontier science, foster scientific collaboration, and translate breakthroughs into shared progress.
Co-Chair:
• Dr. Ajay Kumar Sood (India) – Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India
Working Group Meeting: 8th January 2026, Hybrid (Mumbai)
Conclave on AI for Science: Public symposium held at IIT Bombay on 7th–8th January 2026, exploring AI's role in scientific discovery, research collaboration, and equitable knowledge-sharing.
Key Pre-Summit Events:
Drives sustainable, resource-efficient AI systems that strengthen climate resilience and sustainability.
Co-Chairs:
• Mr. Pankaj Agarwal (India) – Secretary, Ministry of Power
• France (Country Co-Chair)
Working Group Meeting: 16th–20th January 2026, Hybrid (Bengaluru) [Tentative]
Key Pre-Summit Events:
Promotes equitable access to foundational AI resources for inclusive innovation and sustainable development.
Co-Chairs:
• Mr. Saurabh Garg (India) – Secretary, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI)
• Egypt (Country Co-Chair)
• Kenya (Country Co-Chair)
Working Group Meeting: 18th–19th December 2025, Hybrid (Bhubaneswar)
Key Pre-Summit Events:
Leverages AI to enhance productivity, innovation, and inclusive development across economies and societies.
Co-Chairs:
• Ms. Debjani Ghosh (India) – Senior Adviser, NITI Aayog
• Netherlands (Country Co-Chair)
• Indonesia (Country Co-Chair)
Working Group Meeting: 12th January 2026, Hybrid (Lucknow)
Key Pre-Summit Events:
Examining these outcome documents collectively revealed a clear trajectory in international AI governance discourse. Bletchley established safety as a legitimate international concern. Seoul expanded the agenda to encompass innovation and inclusion, recognising that safety-first approaches risk entrenching existing power asymmetries. Paris pivoted decisively toward implementation, sustainability, and equity, with the notable absence of the US and UK signalling fractures in the consensus forged at Bletchley.
India's summit sought to consolidate these themes whilst centring the perspectives and priorities of emerging economies. The shift from abstract commitments to concrete mechanisms—observatories, platforms, capacity-building initiatives—reflected maturation in the governance conversation. Yet the voluntary, non-binding nature of these declarations, combined with divergent national interests and regulatory approaches, leaves open the question of whether this diplomatic process can produce enforceable norms capable of shaping how AI is actually developed and deployed.
The outcome documents from Delhi provided the clearest indication yet of whether international AI governance can move beyond declarations toward coordinated action.
## Policy Evolution: Quantitative Analysis A comparative analysis of outcome documents from the 2023–2025 AI summit sequence revealed a dramatic reorientation in international AI governance priorities.| Focus Category | Bletchley (2023) | Seoul (2024) | Paris (2025) | Delhi (2026) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Safety / Safe | 82 | 38 | 6 | 0 |
| Open* | 8 | 7 | 4 | 0 |
| Inclusion / Inclusive | 14 | 3 | 7 | 0 |
| Equity / Equitable | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Human Rights / Right(s) | 6 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
| Security / National Security | 4 | 3 | 0 | 2 |
| Sustainable / Environment / Carbon | 5 | 3 | 9 | 0 |
| Risk / Risks | 57 | 26 | 1 | 0 |
| Harm / Harms | 9 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Frontier Models | 44 | 15 | 0 | 0 |
| Extinction / X-risk / Catastrophic | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Sovereignty / National Sovereignty | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Policy Dimension | Bletchley 2023 | Seoul 2024 | Paris 2025 | India-France 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Primary Framing | Frontier AI safety and catastrophic risk | Safety + innovation + inclusion | Implementation and sustainability | Openness and resource democratisation |
| Risk Language | Strong emphasis on catastrophic risk | Maintained safety focus | Reduced explicit risk framing | Minimal safety rhetoric |
| Openness Language | Open models framed as safety concern | Marginal reference to openness | Positive reference to open AI models | Explicit support for open and reusable models |
| Institutional Mechanisms | Commitment to AI Safety Institutes | Networked Safety Institutes formalised | Public Interest AI Platform proposed | Free and open AI resource collaboration |
| Global South Positioning | Limited | Emerging recognition | Central theme | Explicit developmental framing |
| Binding Nature | Political declaration | Political + voluntary corporate pledges | Political declaration | Political declaration |
Recognising the trajectory of AI governance from Bletchley Park to New Delhi, the following apex leaders have played pivotal roles as hosts, co-chairs, or key attendees:
| Name ⇅ | Title and Organisation ⇅ |
|---|---|
| Aarthi Subramanian | Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director, Tata Consultancy Services |
| Ajay Vij | Senior Country Managing Director, Accenture India |
| Akhilesh Tuteja | Head of Clients and Industries, KPMG India |
| Alexandr Wang | Chief AI Officer, Meta |
| Amanda Brock | Chief Executive Officer, OpenUK |
| Amit Zavery | President, Chief Product Officer and Chief Operating Officer, ServiceNow |
| Ana Paula Assis | Senior Vice President and Chair Asia Pacific and EMEA, IBM Corporation |
| Anastasia Stasenko | Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Pleias |
| Anna Tumadóttir | Chief Executive Officer, Creative Commons |
| Anne Neuberger | Strategic Advisor, Andreessen Horowitz |
| Anne Robinson | Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer, IBM Corporation |
| Aparna Bawa | Chief Operating Officer, Zoom |
| Arthur Mensch | Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Mistral AI |
| Arundhati Bhattacharya | Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, Salesforce India |
| Bejul Somaia | Partner, Lightspeed |
| Bill Gates | Chair, Gates Foundation |
| Bipul Sinha | Chief Executive Officer, Chairman and Co-Founder, Rubrik |
| Børge Brende | President and Chief Executive Officer, World Economic Forum |
| Börje Ekholm | President and Chief Executive Officer, Ericsson Group |
| Brad Smith | President and Vice Chair, Microsoft |
| Burkhard Boeckem | Chief Technology Officer, Hexagon AB |
| BVR Mohan Reddy | Founder and Chairman, Cyient Ltd |
| C Vijayakumar | Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, HCLTech |
| Carme Artigas Brugal | Senior Fellow, Harvard Belfer Center and ADIALab |
| Cristiano Amon | President and Chief Executive Officer, Qualcomm Incorporated |
| Dame Melanie Dawes | Chief Executive, Ofcom |
| Dario Amodei | Chief Executive Officer, Anthropic |
| David Zapolsky | Chief Global Affairs and Legal Officer, Amazon |
| Dr Aisha Walcott-Bryant | Head of Research, Google Africa |
| Dr Anand Deshpande | Founder, Chairman and Managing Director, Persistent Systems |
| Dr Archana Sharma | Principal Scientist, CERN Switzerland |
| Dr Bonnie Kruft | Managing Director, Microsoft Research |
| Dr Jacki O'Neill | Director, Microsoft Research Africa |
| Dr Kalika Bali | Senior Principal Researcher, Microsoft Research |
| Dr Liming Zhu | Head of the AI and Digital Division, CSIRO |
| Dr Manish Gupta | Senior Director, Google DeepMind |
| Dr Pushmeet Kohli | Vice President of Science, Google DeepMind |
| Dr Sara Hooker | Co-Founder, Adaption Labs |
| Dr Shivkumar Kalyanaraman | Chief Executive Officer, Anusandhan National Research Foundation |
| Dr Sunayana Sitaram | Principal Researcher, Microsoft Research |
| Dr Venkat Padmanabhan | Managing Director, Microsoft Research |
| Eric Grimson | Chancellor for Academic Advancement, Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Erik Ekudden | Chief Technology Officer, Ericsson |
| Giordano Albertazzi | Chief Executive Officer, VERTIV |
| Harita Gupta | Head of Global Experience, Sutherland Global |
| Harshil Mathur | Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Razorpay |
| Hemant Taneja | Chief Executive Officer, General Catalyst |
| Ibrahim Hafeezur Rehman | Officiating Director-General, NAMTECH |
| Ivana Bartoletti | Vice President, Wipro |
| J Trevor Hughes | President and Chief Executive Officer, IAPP |
| James Manyika | President of Research, Labs, Technology and Society, Google and Alphabet |
| Jason Oxman | President and Chief Executive Officer, Information Technology Industry Council |
| Jay Chaudhry | Chief Executive Officer, Chairman and Founder, Zscaler |
| Jeet Adani | Director, Adani Airport Holdings Ltd and Adani Digital Labs |
| Jeetu Patel | President and Chief Product Officer, Cisco |
| Jeff Shapiro | Chief Executive Officer, Scanline VFX |
| Jensen Huang | Founder and Chief Executive Officer, NVIDIA |
| Jorge Solis | Chief Executive Officer, Soufflet Malt |
| Julie Sweet | Chair and Chief Executive Officer, Accenture |
| K Krithivasan | Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Tata Consultancy Services |
| Kalyan Kumar | Chief Product Officer, HCL Software |
| Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw | Chairperson, Biocon Group |
| Kunal Bahl | Co-Founder, AceVector and Titan Capital |
| Lars Reger | Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, NXP Semiconductors |
| Martin Schroeter | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Kyndryl |
| Martin Tisné | Founder and Chair, CurrentAI |
| Matthew Prince | Chief Executive Officer, Cloudflare |
| Mike Haley | Senior Vice President, Research, Autodesk |
| Mukesh D Ambani | Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries Limited |
| Mustafa Furniturewala | Chief Technology Officer, Coursera |
| Nandan Nilekani | Co-Founder and Chairman, Infosys Technologies Limited |
| Natalie Black | Group Director (Infrastructure and Connectivity) and Executive Board Member, Ofcom |
| Natarajan Chandrasekaran | Chairman, Tata Sons |
| Natasha Crampton | Vice President, Chief Responsible AI Officer, Microsoft |
| Navrina Singh | Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Credo AI |
| Nikesh Arora | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Palo Alto Networks |
| Nikhila Natarajan | Adjunct Professor, School of Communication and Information, Rutgers University |
| Olivier Blum | Chief Executive Officer, Schneider Electric |
| Pallavi Mahajan | Global Chief Technology and AI Officer, Nokia |
| Prativa Mohapatra | Managing Director, Adobe India |
| Prith Banerjee | Senior Vice President of Innovation, Synopsys |
| Prof CV Jawahar | Professor of Computer Science, IIIT Hyderabad |
| Prof Aditya Vashishtha | Assistant Professor of Information Science, Cornell University |
| Prof Alice Oh | Professor, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology |
| Prof Alison Noble | Professor of Engineering, University of Oxford |
| Prof Anima Anandkumar | Professor of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, Caltech |
| Prof Balaraman Ravindaran | Head, Department of Data Science and AI, IIT Madras |
| Prof Dame Wendy Hall | Professor of Computer Science, University of Southampton |
| Prof Monojit Choudhury | Professor of NLP, MBZUAI |
| Prof Neil Lawrence | DeepMind Professor of Machine Learning, University of Cambridge |
| Prof Nicholas Davis | Professor of Emerging Technology, University of Technology Sydney |
| Prof PJ Narayanan | Professor and Former Director, IIIT Hyderabad |
| Prof Priya Donti | Assistant Professor, EECS and LIDS, Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Prof Ramesh Raskar | Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences, MIT Media Labs |
| Prof Somesh Jha | Professor of Computer Science, University of Wisconsin–Madison |
| Prof Stuart J Russell | Professor, University of California, Berkeley |
| Prof Subbarao Kambhampati | Professor of Computing and Augmented Intelligence, Arizona State University |
| Prof Surya Ganguli | Associate Professor of Applied Physics and Computer Science, Stanford University |
| Prof Vukosi Marivate | Professor of Computer Science, University of Pretoria |
| Prof Yann LeCun | Executive Chairman, AMI Labs |
| Prof Yoshua Bengio | Founder and Chair, Mila Institute |
| Rahul Singh | Chief Operating Officer, Corporate Functions, HCLTech |
| Raj Koneru | Chief Executive Officer, Kore.ai |
| Raj Reddy | Professor, Computer Science and Robotics, School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University |
| Rajesh Subramanian | Chief Executive Officer, FedEx |
| Rao Charagondla | Chief Financial Officer, IIT Bay Area Alumni |
| Ravi Kumar S | Chief Executive Officer, Cognizant |
| Ravi Mhatre | Partner and Co-Founder, Lightspeed |
| Richard Marko | Chief Executive Officer, ESET |
| Rishad Premji | Executive Chairman, Wipro Limited |
| Roshni Nadar Malhotra | Chairperson, HCLTech |
| Roy Jakobs | Chief Executive Officer, Royal Philips |
| Ruchika Panesar | Chief Digital and Information Officer, Group Functions and Country Head India, NatWest Group |
| Salil Parekh | Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Infosys |
| Sam Altman | Chief Executive Officer, OpenAI |
| Sameer Jain | Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Net Solutions |
| Sandip Patel | Managing Director, IBM India South Asia |
| Sanjay Mehrotra | Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Micron |
| Sanjay Sharma | Vice President, ArcelorMittal |
| Santhosh Viswanathan | Managing Director and Vice President, India Region, Intel |
| Seema Ambastha | Chief Executive, Larsen and Toubro Vyoma |
| Shantanu Narayen | Chair and Chief Executive Officer, Adobe |
| Shobana Kamineni | Executive Chairperson, Apollo HealthCo |
| Sir Demis Hassabis | Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Google DeepMind |
| Sridhar Vembu | Co-Founder and Chief Scientist, Zoho Corporation |
| Sundar Pichai | Chief Executive Officer, Google and Alphabet |
| Sunil Bharti Mittal | Founder and Chairman, Bharti Enterprises |
| Takahito Tokita | Representative Director and Chief Executive Officer, Fujitsu Limited |
| Tony Blair | Executive Chairman, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change |
| Uday Shankar | Vice Chairman, JioStar |
| Umesh Sachdev | Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Uniphore |
| Victoria Espinel | Chief Executive Officer, Business Software Alliance |
| Vijay Guntur | Chief Technology Officer and Head of Ecosystems, HCLTech |
| Vijay Shekhar Sharma | Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Paytm |
| Vishal Sikka | Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Vianai Systems |
| Vivek Mahajan | Chief Technology Officer, Fujitsu Limited |