India AI Impact Summit seen as pivotal moment for Global South, says Dell’s Vivek Mohindra
Dell Technologies’ Vivek Mohindra called the India AI Impact Summit a pivotal event for the Global South, highlighting India’s talent, IT strength, and potential to lead in AI. He emphasized public-private partnerships, regulatory balance, and strategic investment in infrastructure.
Washington: Calling the upcoming India AI Impact Summit a “pretty key, an important event,” Dell Technologies senior executive Vivek Mohindra said the gathering marks a pivotal moment for India and the broader Global South as artificial intelligence reshapes economies and governance.
“This is the first global AI summit to be held in the global south,” Mohindra told IAND in an exclusive interview.
He added that India, with its “huge aspirations,” is convening global leaders “at a pretty key point” to outline not just its own vision but “the role that all of us can play in India achieving its aspirations.”
Mohindra serves as Special Advisor to the Vice Chair and COO at Dell Technologies and has previously held roles, including Chief Strategy Officer. He said he expects “a lot of really rich dialogue and discussion” at the summit, underscoring that “a public-private partnership will be a key enabler”.
Positioning India in the global AI landscape, he said the country is “very well positioned” given its deep talent pool and decades-long strength in IT services and software.
With increasing focus on building AI infrastructure and policy frameworks, he said he is “very excited about India’s potential to really seize the opportunity and establish itself as a preeminent driver of AI, not only for its citizens, but also globally”.
Asked about comparisons with other major powers, Mohindra cautioned against framing AI as a zero-sum contest. “That is a much more important discussion rather than a relative discussion of how is one country positioned versus the other,” he said.
He pointed to India’s long-term development plans, investments in infrastructure, access for citizens and small businesses, and governance policies as “really important elements for India to realize the potential for AI for itself”.
On corporate collaboration, Mohindra said public-private partnerships would drive progress as India builds “its own sovereign AI infrastructure”.
Highlighting Dell’s footprint in India, he said the company has been present “for over 30 years,” with India now its “second largest presence” globally in headcount and research and development.
At the summit, Dell plans to unveil a “Dell AI India blueprint”. Mohindra outlined three pillars: “invest, innovate, and evolve”.
“Investments is all around things like infrastructure, having a secure and sustainable energy infrastructure to be able to support the AI infrastructure,” he said, referencing offerings such as the “Dell AI factory”.
“Innovate really revolves around elements like skilling, governance,” he added, while “evolve really revolves around elements related to the regulatory framework”.
On regulation, Mohindra argued for balance and predictability. Companies need “some certainty around regulation so companies can continue to innovate,” he said, advocating “some harmonized regulatory framework that gives companies small and large the certainty of operating within that particular environment”.
Referring to India’s AI governance guidelines released in November 2025, he said the framework contains “seven foundational principles,” including “trust and people first, and fairness and equity and accountability,” and also emphasises “innovation over a screened”.
“I think the current approach the government is taking is pretty well balanced,” he said. On industry-wide challenges, Mohindra cited three recurring issues: identifying the right AI use cases, preparing data for AI, and bridging the “talent and skills gap”.
Companies must also decide whether AI workloads run “in the cloud,” “on prem,” or “on a pc,” each with trade-offs in cost and data control. He added that firms face “the extreme pace of change in this industry and being able to stay on top of it and not be frozen because of the pace of change”.
Mohindra said he is “very excited about the potential for India to leverage this technology for the benefits of its citizens,” adding that Dell is “really excited about bringing forth all of our capabilities to help India achieve its AI aspirations”.
The India AI Impact Summit follows earlier global AI summits held in London, South Korea and France, as countries race to frame policy and governance approaches amid rapid advances in generative AI and computing infrastructure.
