Can’t afford delay in using AI for inclusive growth, says CEA Nageswaran

At the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi, policymakers including Narendra Modi and CEA V Anantha Nageswaran urged urgent, inclusive AI adoption, stressing education reforms, democratic access and coordinated national action

Mumbai: As the highly-anticipated ‘India AI Impact Summit 2026’ kicked off in New Delhi on Monday, senior policymakers and leaders called for urgent action to use artificial intelligence (AI) to promote inclusive growth.

Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) V Anantha Nageswaran warned that every year delaying AI progress narrows economic and technological options. “India needs to act now to use the benefits of AI to promote inclusive growth,” Nageswaran said, adding the country can become the first large society where human abundance and machine intelligence reinforce each other.

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Nageswaran urged a ‘Team India’ approach involving government, private sector, academia and policymakers, and stressed the need to strengthen foundational education and scale high-quality skills. He said AI progress “will not happen by drift” and “requires urgency, political will and strong state capacity.”

The first step toward AI-led prosperity must begin with education and foundational skill reforms, the CEA said, and called for expansion of labour-intensive service sectors and removal of regulatory bottlenecks. He cautioned that lack of calibrated action could trigger social and economic instability.

S Krishnan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, urged that AI development must remain human‑centric and democratically accessible. Krishnan said the government’s key message is that AI should ensure democratic access to resources while keeping people at the centre of technological transformation.

“There needs to be democratic access to AI resources, and it must be done in a way that people are at the centre of this process,” he said. He described AI as a powerful driver of economic growth, noting its potential to accelerate development not just in India but across the Global South.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said it is a matter of great pride that people from across the world are coming to India for the summit. The AI Expo will be held from February 16 to 20, alongside the India AI Impact Summit, at the same venue in the national capital. Spread across 10 arenas covering more than 70,000 square metres, it will bring together global technology firms, startups, academia and research institutions, Union Ministries, state governments, and international partners.