Global South stakeholders identify key frictions and solutions for AI scaling
New Delhi December 11
Stakeholders from the Global South discussed the future of Artificial Intelligence, its societal impact, and the collaborative opportunities emerging across continents.
At the Carnegie Global Technology Summit Innovation Dialogue 2025, voices from Africa and India highlighted shared challenges, unique advantages, and the urgent need to build inclusive, scalable AI ecosystems.
Shikoh Gitau, CEO of Qhala, emphasised the rising momentum around South-South cooperation, noting that the Global South, home to 80% of the world's population, holds untapped collective influence.
"We have a bargaining chip from our data sets, from our population, from our rare minerals. We have a lot to offer to this AI economy," Gitau said.
She highlighted parallels in the challenges facing countries in Africa and Asia, expressing optimism that shared learnings could accelerate progress for both regions.
Calling India a "big brother" in AI talent, Gitau cited findings from talentindex.ai, which show Indian expertise powering innovation hubs from Silicon Valley to Europe.
She noted that Africa also offers critical experience in learning and digitisation, from early ID system digitisation to legal infrastructure reforms, that can meaningfully contribute to global AI development.
Shelly Sethi, founder of Mahila Prashikshan Sansthan, underscored the importance of expanding AI literacy for women and youth, stressing that India's next phase of progress depends on democratizing access to new technologies.
She highlighted government schemes that aim to equip young people, especially women, with the skills needed to participate in the AI-powered economy.
"Testing, understanding, and learning the new technology is essential," she said, calling for broader implementation of AI tools for empowerment at the grassroots level.
Dvara Mungra, Co-Founder of SimPPL, described how AI can close information gaps that contribute to high maternal mortality rates in India. Delays in accessing accurate medical information remain a major risk factor for expectant mothers.
"SimPPL is addressing this through Sakhi, an AI-enabled tool delivering medically verified information reviewed by gynaecologists in local languages over WhatsApp. The evolving role of AI in maternal health is reducing the delay in seeking the right information," Mungra said.
She also highlighted broader AI use cases in healthcare, including disease detection and improving access to government health information.
Yet she cautioned that India still has "a long way to go" in R&D, particularly in developing foundational models tailored to India's linguistic and cultural diversity.
Shalini Kapoor, Chief Strategist at EkStep Foundation, described India as a unique proving ground for large-scale AI deployment.
Quoting Nandan Nilekani, she said India could become "the test bed for AI adoption", where systems validated at scale can be replicated globally.
"Real impact depends on building concrete use cases in sectors like agriculture, education, and healthcare, supported by crucial horizontal enablers such as language technology, safety frameworks, and AI-ready data infrastructure," she said.
She also highlighted India's efforts to democratise AI development--such as the IndiaAI Mission's efforts to make GPUs accessible to startups--and lauded initiatives like AI4Bharat's open models for 22 Indian languages, sourced from cultural and linguistic heritage.
"AI is for all. No one should be left behind," Kapoor affirmed, adding that India's approach could become a model for the entire Global South.
Carnegie India hosted the Global Technology Summit Innovation Dialogue in New Delhi on December 11 as an official pre-summit event for the upcoming AI Impact Summit 2026, scheduled to be held in New Delhi from February 15 to 20, 2026.
— ANI
Reader Comments
So proud to see Indian women leading this conversation! Shelly Sethi and Dvara Mungra are absolutely right. Empowering women and youth with AI literacy is the key to inclusive growth. Hope these government schemes reach every corner of the country.
Good points, but we need to be careful. "Big brother" in talent? Maybe, but most of that talent still goes abroad for better opportunities. We need to create an ecosystem here that retains innovators. The IndiaAI Mission is a step, but execution is everything.
The collaboration with Africa is smart. We have similar challenges - large populations, diverse languages, infrastructure gaps. Sharing solutions on digitisation and legal frameworks can help us both leapfrog. Global South unity is powerful.
Interesting read from an Indian perspective. The focus on applying AI to solve real-world problems like maternal healthcare and agriculture is commendable. Often the discourse in the West is more abstract. Concrete use cases are what matter.
AI for 22 Indian languages! This is huge. For too long, technology has been limited to English speakers. If we can build tools that work in Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, etc., it will truly democratize access. Bharat can indeed be a model.
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