Tracing Bandung in the times of a busy AI summit

Let’s begin with the past. Decolonization began just after World War II. One by one, the African and Asian nations threw their colonial yokes to gain independence.

The world was also divided into two camps—one led by the US and the other led by the Soviet Union. Both were hustling to bring the newly independent nations under their influence.

Leaders such as Jawaharlal Nehru, Marshal Tito and Sukarno were concerned about their hard-earned sovereignty. This led to the Bandung summit in Indonesia, where these leaders decided to follow the policy of non-alignment, keeping both the superpowers at an arms length. Back then, India’s economy was at number 10 in global ranking and its per capita income was ₹250- ₹270.

Now let’s talk of the present. Today, India is the world’s fourth largest economy and is eyeing the number three spot. Our per capita income has crossed $3,000. During the last one decade, we have made phenomenal all-round progress.

If the Bandung conference was the cry of the hungry, then India’s AI Impact Summit 2026 is the roar of a progressing India.

Those who call this summit premature or useless should know better. A few days ago, a Stanford University research rated India as the third most powerful nation in the world in artificial intelligence (AI). The reason? Of the world’s total AI experts, 16% are Indian. Supporting and promoting startups and innovation was one of the most important reforms by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Data shows 89% of Indian startups use AI. Our AI market is currently at around $23 billion, and it may hit $325 billion by 2033.

The BharatGen AI launched in June 2025 is world’s first government seeded multimodal large language model (LLM). If India has to progress, it needs to provide AI software for various regional languages. It’s well known that AI is considered a super weapon enabling nations to dominate those who lag behind.

India has tried to hit many targets simultaneously by hosting the New Delhi AI summit.

First and foremost, by offering our youth the confidence that the nation has the ability to back their soaring ambitions and imagination. The Modi government is confident that with the help of this summit, India can play an important role in establishing an ethical regulatory framework to democratize AI and also regulate deepfakes, promote cyber security and face the new challenges emerging due to this technology.

The summit was graced by 20 heads of governments and institutions, including the French President Emmanuel Macron, Brazil President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Secretary General of the United Nations António Guterres. Apart from them, Google chief executive officer (CEO) Sundar Pichai, OpenAI founder CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, and senior executives of Accenture, Adobe, Meta, and 600 other industry experts participated in the summit. The convergence of talent at the summit can be regarded as one of the most potent initiatives by India in the arena of AI diplomacy.

But we still face challenges—we need to enhance our computing power and invest in expensive cloud infrastructure and we need to expand AI awareness in small towns and rural areas. It may happen that by next year, if we become a $5 trillion economy, we may achieve many of these goals. Through this summit, India is expected to receive foreign investment of $200 million.

I would like to share a great personal experience. I went to Jodhpur early this month with some friends.

In the evening, we were taken to witness sunset in the dunes of Osian, 90km from the city. We were surprised to see that on the sands, black mustard and some other crops were being grown.The miracle was the result of drip irrigation and AI intervention. The local farmers, with the help of some non-governmental organizations, easily predict which area of the farm needs water, which one is vulnerable to pests and which lags in fertilizers? They get pest attack warnings in advance. AI systems tell farmers which are the crops that will bring maximum profit and which is the market that should they tap for it.

This is a unique tale of turning sandy soil into a lush green field.

On that day, the setting sun actually raised a ray of hope in all of us. A hope of quick, equitable and profitable spread of AI across the length and breadth of the country.

Shashi Shekhar is editor-in-chief, Hindustan. Views are personal.