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Nearly 85 countries sign New Delhi Declaration at AI Impact Summit

February 21, 2026 5 min read Science & Technology International Relations GS3 (Science & Technology) GS2 (International Relations Governance)
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What Happened

  • The India AI Impact Summit 2026, held at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi from February 16-21, 2026, concluded with 88 countries and international organisations adopting the New Delhi Declaration on AI Impact.
  • Both the US and China signed the declaration, along with the majority of government participants — a significant diplomatic achievement given the current US-China rivalry in AI.
  • Over 20 Heads of Government and 59 ministerial-level representatives attended, with official delegations from 118 countries; more than 100 global AI leaders, 500+ AI experts, and top industry CEOs participated.
  • The Declaration is built on the guiding philosophy "Sarvjan Hitaye, Sarvjan Sukhaye" (welfare for all, happiness for all), positioning AI as a public good for shared global prosperity.
  • A multilingual open-source AI prototype was demonstrated at a session titled "Making AI for Everyone: The Case for Personal, Local, Multilingual AI," showcasing India's commitment to inclusive AI development.

Static Topic Bridges

IndiaAI Mission — Architecture and Objectives

The IndiaAI Mission was approved by the Union Cabinet in March 2024 at an outlay of Rs 10,372 crore over five years. It is India's flagship national programme to build a sovereign AI ecosystem. The Mission operates through seven pillars: IndiaAI Compute Capacity (deploying 10,000+ GPUs through public-private partnerships), IndiaAI Innovation Centre (IAIC), IndiaAI Datasets Platform, IndiaAI Application Development Initiative, IndiaAI FutureSkills (training), IndiaAI Startup Financing, and Safe & Trusted AI (governance and safety framework).

  • Cabinet approval: March 2024; Budget: Rs 10,372 crore (approximately $1.25 billion over 5 years)
  • Nodal ministry: Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY); implemented through IndiaAI (the national programme office under Digital India Corporation)
  • Compute target: 10,000+ GPUs for a shared national AI compute facility
  • Open-source and multilingual focus: Models must support India's 22 scheduled languages; BharatGen (DST initiative) and Sarvam AI are flagship model projects
  • IndiaAI Safety Institute: established under the Safe & Trusted AI pillar to address AI risks and coordinate with academia, industry, and government
  • BharatGen Param2 (17B MoE model, developed with NVIDIA) and Sarvam AI's 30B and 105B parameter models were launched at the Summit

Connection to this news: The New Delhi Declaration reflects India's positioning as a global leader in inclusive, multilingual, and open-source AI — directly aligned with the IndiaAI Mission's core philosophy of democratising AI access.

International AI Governance Framework — Summit Series

Global AI governance has been pursued through a series of international summits. The Bletchley Park AI Safety Summit (UK, November 2023) was the first — 29 countries including China acknowledged frontier AI safety risks. The Seoul AI Safety Summit (May 2024) resulted in 10 countries and the EU pledging to establish AI Safety Institutes. The Paris AI Action Summit (February 2025), co-chaired by France and India (PM Modi), brought 100+ countries together across five working groups: international governance, future of work, AI security and safety, AI for general interest, and innovation and culture.

  • Bletchley Declaration (2023): Focus on frontier AI risks; 29 signatories including China
  • Seoul Ministerial Statement (2024): 10 countries + EU commit to national AI Safety Institutes
  • Paris AI Action Summit (2025): India co-chaired with France; produced commitments on AI for public good
  • New Delhi Declaration (2026): 88 nations; structured around "AI for social good" — extends the safety-focused Bletchley-Seoul framework toward a development-focused approach
  • The New Delhi Declaration represents a shift from safety-first (Bletchley/Seoul) to development-and-inclusivity (New Delhi) framing, reflecting Global South priorities
  • India has hosted and co-chaired two of the last three major international AI governance events

Connection to this news: The New Delhi Declaration positions India as a norm-setter in global AI governance, distinct from the Western safety-focused approach — emphasising multilingual access, open-source models, and AI for development.

Open-Source AI and Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI)

India's approach to AI mirrors its Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) philosophy: technology as a public good, openly accessible, built on open standards. India Stack (Aadhaar, UPI, DigiLocker, ONDC) is the foundational DPI layer. The extension of this philosophy to AI — open-source foundational models in Indian languages — represents "AI Stack" thinking: shared compute, shared datasets, shared models, with private innovation on top.

  • India Stack components: Aadhaar (digital identity), UPI (payments), DigiLocker (document management), ONDC (open commerce), Account Aggregator (data sharing)
  • AI Stack equivalent: IndiaAI Compute (shared GPU infrastructure), IndiaAI Datasets Platform (open datasets), BharatGen/Sarvam (foundational open-source models), IndiaAI Application layer (sector-specific apps)
  • Sarvam AI: Bengaluru-based startup; launched Sarvam-30B and Sarvam-105B (trained in India, 10 Indian languages); selected under IndiaAI Mission 2025
  • BharatGen: Government-supported initiative under DST; Param2 17B MoE model; open-sourced via Hugging Face
  • Multilingual AI significance: India has 22 scheduled languages and ~780 dialects; AI in regional languages is essential for rural and low-income user access

Connection to this news: The "Making AI for Everyone" session at the Summit demonstrated that India's multilingual open-source AI prototype embodies the New Delhi Declaration's core principle — AI as a universal public good accessible across language and economic barriers.

Key Facts & Data

  • Summit venue: Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi; Dates: February 16-21, 2026
  • New Delhi Declaration signatories: 88 countries and international organisations
  • Delegations from: 118 countries (including US and China)
  • Attendance: 20+ Heads of Government, 59 ministerial representatives, 500+ AI experts
  • IndiaAI Mission budget: Rs 10,372 crore approved March 2024
  • IndiaAI compute target: 10,000+ GPUs through public-private partnerships
  • BharatGen Param2: 17B parameter Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) model; developed with NVIDIA
  • Sarvam AI models: Sarvam-30B and Sarvam-105B (trained in India, 10 Indic languages)
  • Previous AI governance summits: Bletchley Park (Nov 2023), Seoul (May 2024), Paris (Feb 2025)
  • India co-chaired: Paris AI Action Summit (2025) with France