The India AI Impact Summit 2026 began, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the biggest AI expo in the Global South at the Bharat Mandapam. PM Modi spent time interacting with innovators at the stalls of many prominent Indian AI firms, with the highlights being the stalls of Sarvam AI, Wadhwani AI, BharatGen, and Gnani AI.
In a post on X, the Prime Minister wrote, “Inaugurated the India AI Impact Expo 2026 at Bharat Mandapam. Being here among innovators, researchers, and tech enthusiasts gives a glimpse of the extraordinary potential of AI, Indian talent, and innovation. Together, we will shape solutions not just for India but for the world!”
AI Impact Expo 2026 running alongside AI Impact Summit
The AI expo, which is running alongside the India AI Impact Summit (from February 16–20), features over 300 exhibitors, 600+ startups, and 13 country pavilions under the themes of People, Planet, and Progress. PM Modi’s visit to these homegrown AI stalls highlighted India’s push for sovereign and inclusive AI development, which has been one of the many intentions behind hosting the summit.
PM Modi visits emerging AI startups at the India AI Impact Expo 2026
At the Expo, PM Modi visited the stalls of some of the most promising and vastly growing AI firms.
Sarvam AI
The Prime Minister visited the stall of the Bengaluru-based Sarvam AI, which was founded in 2023 by Dr. Vivek Raghavan and Dr. Pratyush Kumar. Sarvam AI is building sovereign large language models tailored for Indian languages and contexts. The startup recently launched Sarvam Edge, an on-device offline AI platform for speech recognition, translation, and synthesis that works without internet connectivity.
Wadhwani AI
Another one of the stalls visited by the Prime Minister was that of Wadhwani AI, which is an independent non-profit institute established in 2018 with the mission of applying AI for social good in developing countries. Focused on healthcare, education, and agriculture, it has already reached over 190 million people through scalable AI solutions deployed in partnership with governments and NGOs.
BharatGen
BharatGen is India’s flagship sovereign generative AI initiative, developing multilingual foundation models supporting all 22 scheduled Indian languages. Backed by the Department of Science & Technology and led by a consortium including IIT Bombay, it aims to create culturally relevant AI tools for governance, education, and public services. The Prime Minister was seen visiting the stalls to learn about all the recent developments.
Gnani AI
PM Modi also paid a visit to the stall of Gnani AI, a startup AI firm that was founded in 2016 and headquartered in Bengaluru. Gnani AI specialises in voice-first Agentic AI platforms for enterprise customer support. It powers omnichannel automation in over 40 languages for sectors like banking, telecom, and healthcare, enabling real-time intent understanding and workflow automation.