AI models should reflect Indian context: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a roundtable meeting with a dozen Indian artificial intelligence (AI) start-ups on Thursday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a roundtable meeting with a dozen Indian artificial intelligence (AI) start-ups on Thursday, ahead of the India AI Impact Summit 2026 scheduled for next month, and emphasised the need to ensure that Indian AI models are ethical, unbiased, transparent, and based on data privacy principles.

In the meeting at his residence, the PM said India should develop AI models that reflect the idea of “Made in India, Made for the World”.

The 12 start-ups — selected under the India AI Mission to develop AI models tailored to India’s linguistic, social and economic context — briefed the PM on their ongoing work and the progress of their models.

In the meeting at his residence, the PM said India should develop AI models that reflect the idea of “Made in India, Made for the World”, while promoting local and indigenous content and regional languages, according to a government release. The PM also emphasised that Indian AI systems must be ethical, unbiased and transparent, and respect data privacy principles, it added.

“Talked AI with youngsters from the Indian StartUp world. It was a memorable and insightful interaction, in which they shared their vision and work on how India is transforming the world of AI. It is commendable how these StartUps are working on diverse fields such as e-commerce, marketing, engineering simulations, material research, healthcare, medical research and more,” Modi later said in a post on X.

The 12 start-ups — Sarvam, Gan, Gnani, Soket AI, Intellihealth (NeuroDx), Shodh AI, Genloop, Tech Mahindra, Avataar, BharatGen, Fractal, and Zenteiq — are working across a wide range of areas, including Indian language and multilingual large language models (LLM), speech-to-text and text-to-video tools, healthcare diagnostics, material research, engineering simulations, and advanced data analytics.

Participating CEOs and representatives of the start-ups described the interaction as motivating and clarifying. “We got to interact with the Prime Minister directly and see a side of him that is deeply engaged with both technology and the country at large,” Siddharth Panwar, CEO of NeuroDx, said. “His understanding of tech, combined with his broader perspective on India, was inspiring for all of us.”

Sravanth Aluru, CEO of Avataar, termed the interaction with Modi “deeply energising”. “One of our key collective responsibilities, under the guiding leadership of PM Modi, is to achieve Viksit Bharat 2047,” Aluru said.

The PM also highlighted India’s advantage in adoption, Aluru said. “For the AI Summit (to be held from February 15 to 20 at Bharat Mandapam), the PM gave us a clear direction, that India today enjoys a unique advantage in terms of ease of AI adoption. We have 140 crore (1.4 billion) players to play. More importantly, India’s natural openness and lack of apprehension towards technology is a strategic edge,” Aluru said. “The PM wants this strength to be fully showcased at the Summit.”

Ayush Gupta, CEO of Genloop, said the PM stressed the need for a practical approach to data governance, calling for strong data security without allowing fear of the unknown to hinder technological progress. Modi also emphasised that while data must be protected, it should not be locked down in a way that blocks innovation, and that the focus should be on enabling the safe and responsible use of AI, he said.

Ganesh Gopalan, co-founder of Gnani, who attended the meeting along with co-founder Ananth Nagaraj, said: “The PM’s interaction was very inspiring. While he stressed the importance of building ethical and trustworthy AI, he also underlined the vast opportunities in the sector. He expressed confidence that India will be able to develop strong sovereign AI models.”

Abhishek Upperwal, founder of Soket AI, said that the AI Impact Summit would serve as a kick-off event for several priority areas India plans to pursue. “The meeting [with PM] was about India setting its own approach to AI. The focus is not just on solving problems domestically, but on creating real, measurable impact, which is a distinctive way the government is approaching AI,” Upperwal said.

MeitY minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, minister of state Jitin Prasada, secretary S Krishnan and India AI Mission CEO and MeitY additional secretary Abhishek Singh were also present.