India has invited China to attend its upcoming AI Impact Summit in February, underscoring New Delhi’s intent to position itself as a global convener on artificial intelligence even amid a gradual easing in ties with Beijing.
Addressing a press briefing on Monday, IT Secretary S Krishnan confirmed that New Delhi had formally invited Beijing to join the upcoming summit. “We have sent an invitation to China,” Krishnan said, adding that the event will bring together governments, global technology leaders and AI experts.
The AI Impact Summit, to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will focus on steering the global AI conversation toward productivity, inclusion and real-world economic outcomes. The event, organised by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), is expected to host delegates from over 100 countries, with invitations sent to about 140 nations.
Around 15–20 countries are likely to be represented at the head-of-state or head-of-government level, while over 50 are expected to send ministerial-level delegations, MeitY Secretary S Krishnan said on Monday.
Foreign leaders expected at the event
Among the leaders expected to attend are the Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the heads of state of France and Brazil. The Prime Minister is scheduled to participate in key summit engagements, including the leaders’ plenary, a CEOs’ roundtable and a leaders’ dinner.
Several global technology executives have confirmed their participation. These include Bill Gates, Demis Hassabis of DeepMind, Dario Amodei of Anthropic, Shantanu Narayen, Mark Benioff, Cristiano Amon and Raj Subramaniam.
Purpose of the summit
MeitY officials said the summit is intended to shift the global AI discourse from early debates centred on safety and existential risks towards a more applied framework that emphasises economic growth, social development and measurable productivity gains. The focus will be on deployment across sectors such as healthcare, agriculture, education, manufacturing and governance.
“In different scenarios, we would be able to build relevant AI solutions. The idea is to focus on productive sectors of the economy and ensure AI solutions deliver outcomes in areas such as healthcare, agriculture, governance, education and manufacturing,” Krishnan said.
The summit’s thematic framework is structured around people, planet and progress, with seven working groups covering areas such as economic and social growth, democratisation of AI resources, social inclusion, safe and trusted AI, human capital development, AI for scientific research, and resilience and efficiency.
Krishnan said 76 of the 136 countries registered so far are from the Global South, underlining the event’s inclusive positioning. MeitY expects the number of associated pre-events to reach about 800, with more than 300 already held over the past 140 days.
This will be the fourth edition of the AI Impact Summit. Estonia, Switzerland, Nigeria and the UAE are among the countries likely to host future editions, according to government officials.