From Finance-Centric to Human-Centric Technology
PM Modi warned that key technologies and resources are concentrating in a few hands, intensifying competition and stressing that this trend poses risks to both humanity and innovation. He called for a fundamental shift: technology applications must be human-centric rather than finance-centric, global rather than purely national, and favour open-source models over exclusive ones.
The Prime Minister pointed to India’s own experience — including world-leading digital payments, space applications and AI projects — as examples where openness and inclusive policy delivered broad social benefits.
India-AI Mission: Scale, Skills and Responsible Deployment
Modi detailed India’s approach to AI on three pillars: equitable access, population-scale skilling, and responsible deployment. Under the India-AI Mission, New Delhi is building accessible high-performance computing infrastructure to ensure AI benefits reach every district and language, delivering both scale and speed for human development.
He emphasised that AI must be used for global good and called for safeguards against misuse. Modi proposed a global compact on AI founded on transparency, human oversight, safety-by-design and strict prohibitions on using AI for deepfakes, crime or terrorism. He insisted that AI systems affecting human life, security or public trust be auditable and that ultimate decision-making remain with humans.
AI Impact Summit and Global Invitation
Announcing a major international gathering, the Prime Minister invited all G20 members to India’s AI Impact Summit in February 2026, themed “Sarvajana Hitaya, Sarvajana Sukhaya” (welfare and happiness for all). The summit aims to translate ethical principles into operational frameworks that make AI inclusive, safe and beneficial worldwide.
Talent Mobility and Future Capabilities
Addressing the workforce implications of rapid technological change, Modi urged a shift from protecting the “jobs of today” to building the “capabilities of tomorrow.” He underscored talent mobility as essential for innovation and recalled progress at the New Delhi G20 Summit on this front. He proposed the development of a Global Framework for Talent Mobility in the coming years to facilitate responsible movement of skilled workers across borders.
Lessons from COVID and India’s Message to the World
Pointing to the disruptions exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Prime Minister said countries must move beyond seeing nations merely as markets and adopt longer-term, sensitive approaches to supply chains and cooperation. He noted India’s role in supplying vaccines and medicines to over 150 countries during the crisis as an example of global solidarity.
Concluding, Modi summed up India’s priorities: sustainable development, trusted trade, fair finance and inclusive prosperity — the pillars, he said, of a fair and just future for all.
For the full text of the Prime Minister’s remarks and official releases, see the Press Information Bureau and the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology.
