Governance Summit 2026 Advances Inclusive AI for Viksit Bharat

29 May 2026 CW Team

The event, the fourth edition of the Governance Summit, focused on inclusive artificial intelligence under the Viksit Bharat vision and convened stakeholders from government, industry, academia and civil society to discuss actionable pathways.

The opening keynote by S. Krishnan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, set out the government’s commitment to build an AI ecosystem that serves every citizen, including those at the margins of the digital economy and framed artificial intelligence as a transformative opportunity to enhance productivity, improve governance and expand access across health, education, manufacturing and financial inclusion.

Prof. Ashwini Chhatre, Associate Professor and Executive Director of the Bharti Institute, emphasised the need to translate AI ambitions into governance frameworks that are practical and enduring, identifying inequality, the scope for leapfrogging and the future of work as key dimensions and urging that access to AI opportunities should remain equitable with appropriate safeguards, social security mechanisms and affirmative action.

The day-long programme featured four thematic panel discussions on AI’s role in digital commerce, online safety for women and children, healthcare access and affordability, and job creation with digital entrepreneurship, and a parallel roundtable examined the operationalisation of AI for last-mile public service delivery from state governments down to gram panchayats.

The summit attracted participation from Reliance Retail, Mastercard, Apollo Hospitals, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, UNICEF India, the Punjab Police and several central and state ministries, with delegates discussing models for public-private collaboration and capacity building to accelerate solutions that deepen inclusion and strengthen governance and stressing measurable outcomes and sustained intersectoral engagement to advance India’s development agenda.

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The one-day summit at the Indian School of Business Mohali campus on 23 May 2026 was hosted by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in collaboration with the Bharti Institute of Public Policy at ISB. The event, the fourth edition of the Governance Summit, focused on inclusive artificial intelligence under the Viksit Bharat vision and convened stakeholders from government, industry, academia and civil society to discuss actionable pathways. The opening keynote by S. Krishnan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, set out the government’s commitment to build an AI ecosystem that serves every citizen, including those at the margins of the digital economy and framed artificial intelligence as a transformative opportunity to enhance productivity, improve governance and expand access across health, education, manufacturing and financial inclusion. Prof. Ashwini Chhatre, Associate Professor and Executive Director of the Bharti Institute, emphasised the need to translate AI ambitions into governance frameworks that are practical and enduring, identifying inequality, the scope for leapfrogging and the future of work as key dimensions and urging that access to AI opportunities should remain equitable with appropriate safeguards, social security mechanisms and affirmative action. The day-long programme featured four thematic panel discussions on AI’s role in digital commerce, online safety for women and children, healthcare access and affordability, and job creation with digital entrepreneurship, and a parallel roundtable examined the operationalisation of AI for last-mile public service delivery from state governments down to gram panchayats. The summit attracted participation from Reliance Retail, Mastercard, Apollo Hospitals, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, UNICEF India, the Punjab Police and several central and state ministries, with delegates discussing models for public-private collaboration and capacity building to accelerate solutions that deepen inclusion and strengthen governance and stressing measurable outcomes and sustained intersectoral engagement to advance India’s development agenda.

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