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India AI Summit: Shared Compute Must Serve Public Good, Say Policy Makers

At the India AI Impact Summit, policy leaders launched a report advocating for computational resources to drive public-interest outcomes in sectors like health and education. Speakers emphasized that translating compute access into real-world deployment requires shared infrastructure, skills development, and mission-driven governance. Concerns were raised about ensuring equitable AI transformation and making advanced compute accessible and affordable for the Global South. The session outlined a roadmap involving catalytic capital and cross-country cooperation to position AI as a global public good.

Key Points: AI Compute Access Must Expand Public-Interest Outcomes

  • Shift focus from data-centre capacity to public outcomes
  • Need demand aggregation & shared infrastructure
  • Catalytic funding for Global South access
  • New governance frameworks for equitable AI
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Shared AI infra, compute access should expand public‑interest outcomes: Policy makers

Policy makers at India AI Summit stress shared infrastructure & governance to ensure AI compute benefits health, education, and agriculture equitably.

"The defining question is whether this transformation will be equitable, inclusive, and aligned with the public interest. - Dr Saurabh Garg"

New Delhi, Feb 20

The focus must shift from merely building data‑centre capacity to ensuring resources deliver public‑interest outcomes across health, education and agriculture, senior policy makers said on Friday.

At the 'India AI Impact Summit 2026' here, a working report on "Opening Up Computational Resources for New AI Futures," was launched.

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation released the report and the session saw speakers stressing "demand aggregation, shared infrastructure, skills development and mission-driven governance frameworks" as critical to translate compute access into real-world deployment for startups, researchers and social-sector organisations.

Senior government leaders, philanthropic institutions and global AI experts examined how catalytic funding, new institutional models and South-South cooperation can make advanced compute accessible and affordable for the Global South.

"We are of the collective opinion that AI will transform the world. The defining question is whether this transformation will be equitable, inclusive, and aligned with the public interest," said Dr Saurabh Garg, Secretary, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

Martin Tisne, CEO, AI Collaborative, said he was optimistic about computing capacity in two years even in the Global South, but doubtful about the effectiveness in use of data centres.

"Transforming AI into a scalable service for consumers and creators is not just a product challenge; it is a policy challenge," said Vilas Dhar, President, Patrick J. McGovern Foundation.

Dhar underscored the need for new institutional mechanisms to connect policy, capital and deployment at scale, noting that accessibility cannot be left to market forces alone.

Shikoh Gitau, CEO, Qhala, emphasised that compute demand must be anchored in clearly defined development outcomes and supported through cross-country cooperation. "When you have clear use cases, then the GPU demand becomes an obvious task, and the governance framework to bridge these gaps also becomes clearer," Gitau said.

The session outlined a roadmap of catalytic public and philanthropic capital, shared compute infrastructure and interoperable governance frameworks collectively enabling AI to function as a global public good, the statement noted.

- IANS

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Reader Comments

R
Rohit P
Good to see focus on "demand aggregation" and skills. We have brilliant minds in IITs and startups, but lack access to expensive compute. A shared national AI grid could be a game-changer for Indian innovation.
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Michael C
As someone working in tech, the point about it being a policy challenge, not just a product one, is spot on. Market forces alone will not make AI accessible to social-sector NGOs. Need strong governance frameworks.
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Anjali F
While the intent is noble, I'm skeptical. We've heard similar promises before. The key is execution and preventing bureaucratic red tape from slowing down access for genuine researchers and small startups.
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Karthik V
South-South cooperation is crucial. India can lead the Global South in creating affordable AI solutions tailored to our challenges—like crop disease prediction or personalized digital education. Jai Hind! 🇮🇳
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Sarah B
Clear use cases first, then compute demand. That's a very practical approach from Shikoh Gitau. Let's hope this leads to tangible projects in telemedicine and local language education tools, not just more reports.

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