India Announces New Delhi Frontier AI Commitments to Advance Inclusive, Multilingual AI for the Global South
At the opening ceremony of the India AI Impact Summit 2026, Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw announced the New Delhi Frontier AI Impact Commitments, a landmark initiative aimed at advancing inclusive, responsible, and multilingual artificial intelligence for the Global South.
Positioning India’s AI strategy around democratisation, scale, and technological sovereignty, the minister outlined a comprehensive approach spanning five layers of the AI ecosystem — applications, models, compute, talent, and energy. He emphasized the deployment of AI solutions in critical sectors such as healthcare, agriculture, education, and public services to deliver tangible societal benefits.
Calling artificial intelligence a “foundational technology,” Vaishnaw stressed that its value lies in ensuring equitable access. He highlighted India’s commitment to harnessing AI responsibly while placing human safety, dignity, and ethical safeguards at the center of innovation.
The voluntary commitments represent a shared vision among leading frontier AI firms and domestic innovators to align AI development with equity, cultural diversity, and real-world needs, particularly across developing economies. Participating Indian organizations include Sarvam, BharatGen, Gnani.ai, and Soket, alongside global AI companies.
Focus on Real-World AI Impact
The first commitment, “Advancing Understanding of Real-World AI Usage,” seeks to generate anonymized and aggregated insights into how AI is deployed across sectors. The initiative will support policymaking by producing evidence on AI’s effects on jobs, skills, productivity, and economic transformation, enabling governments to maximize benefits while mitigating risks.
Multilingual and Contextual AI Evaluation
The second commitment, “Strengthening Multilingual and Contextual Evaluations,” focuses on improving AI performance across languages, cultures, and real-world contexts. Participating organizations will collaborate with governments and local ecosystems to develop datasets, benchmarks, and evaluation expertise in underrepresented languages, enhancing accessibility and ensuring culturally relevant AI systems.
Vaishnaw underscored that collaboration among governments, industry, and research communities is essential to ensure AI serves humanity at large. He invited participating organizations to advance these commitments as a foundation for responsible AI development worldwide, reinforcing India’s leadership in shaping inclusive and human-centric artificial intelligence.
