Five letters. One big idea. On Day 4 of the India AI Impact Summit 2026, Prime Minister Narendra Modi stepped up to the podium at Bharat Mandapam and unveiled MANAV India’s human-centric vision for artificial intelligence.
MANAV, which means “human” in Hindi, is an acronym for five guiding pillars: Moral and ethical systems, Accountable governance, National sovereignty, Accessible and inclusive technology, and Valid and legitimate systems.
“AI should be a multiplier, not a monopoly,” Modi told an audience of world leaders, tech CEOs, and over 500 AI leaders from 100+ countries. He called AI a “civi lisational inflection point” and urged the world to treat it as a global common good.
India AI Impact Summit 2026
Alongside the MANAV vision, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced the New Delhi Frontier AI Commitments a set of voluntary pledges from global and Indian AI companies.
The framework has two pillars. First, participating organisations will publish anonymised, aggregated AI usage data. This aims to help governments understand AI’s impact on jobs and economic transformation.
Second, tech companies will collaborate on evaluating AI across different languages and cultural contexts. Vaishnaw called this pillar “especially vital for the Global South.”
Macron, Guterres, and Global Tech Chiefs Take the Stage
French President Emmanuel Macron praised India’s digital infrastructure during his address. He highlighted India’s payment system, which now processes 20 billion transactions monthly, and its 500 million digital health IDs.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also addressed the opening ceremony. Google CEO Sundar Pichai, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, and Reliance’s Mukesh Ambani were among the headline speakers.
Bill Gates Pulls Out Hours Before Keynote
In a surprise move, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation confirmed that Bill Gates would not deliver his scheduled keynote. The foundation said he withdrew “after careful consideration, to ensure the focus remains on the summit’s key priorities.”
The foundation will be represented by Ankur Vora, President of its Africa and India Offices. The withdrawal comes amid renewed scrutiny of Gates over recently surfaced documents.
Child Safety and Indian AI Models Also in Focus
Modi stressed the need for stronger safeguards for children in digital spaces. “The AI space should also be child-safe and family-guided,” he said.
He also announced that three Indian companies launched their own AI models and apps at the summit, calling them proof of India’s growing talent pool.
The summit running from February 16 to 20 is the first major global AI gathering hosted in the Global South. Its theme, “Sarvajana Hitaya, Sarvajana Sukhaya” (welfare for all, happiness for all), anchors seven working groups across three pillars: People, Planet, and Progress.
With the MANAV framework and Frontier AI Commitments now on record, India has staked its claim as a key voice in shaping how AI develops not just for the world’s wealthiest nations, but for everyone.
