India, France to unveil AI roadmap, partnership for SMR nuclear reactors
Modi is set to arrive in Paris on February 10, when he will join a dinner hosted by Macron for heads of state and government attending the AI Summit
India and France are set to unveil a bilateral roadmap on artificial intelligence (AI) and establish a partnership for cooperation in small modular nuclear reactors during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Paris next week, people familiar with the matter said on Friday.
Civil nuclear cooperation, defence and space will top the agenda for the bilateral meeting between Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron, though the Indian leader is visiting France to co-chair the AI Action Summit on February 11. The two sides are also in advanced discussions on defence cooperation in combat jets, submarines and jet engines and an announcement in this regard isn’t being ruled out, the people said on condition of anonymity.
The two sides have finalised around 10 key outcomes for the bilateral meeting, including a declaration on AI that includes the roadmap for cooperation in this sector. The AI roadmap is part of the build-up for India and France to observe 2026 as the Year of Innovation, and the two sides will develop specific initiatives to be implemented in the coming year in key sectors such as healthcare and climate change, the people said.
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The Year of Innovation will focus on cooperation in using technology in four sectors – aerospace and defence, green and blue economies including smart cities and energy transition, healthcare and food, and cultural and industry, the people said.
Besides an understanding between India’s Department of Science and Technology and France’s Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation (INRIA) on a centre for digital sciences, the two sides are expected to finalise an agreement for 10 Indian startups, mostly focused on AI, to be hosted at France’s Station F, the world’s largest startup campus.
In civil nuclear cooperation, the French side believes India’s move to amend the Atomic Energy Act and Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act and the allocation of ₹20,000 crore in the 2025-26 budget for research and development of small modular reactors (SMRs) to spur cooperation in this sector. The people said the two sides are expected to finalise an understanding to establish a partnership on SMRs and advanced modular reactors (AMRs).
India’s Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) are also expected to finalise two agreements for bolstering civil nuclear cooperation. The people said both cooperation on SMRs and the much-delayed Jaitapur nuclear power project had figured in discussions at a meeting of a joint working group in Paris about a fortnight ago.
At both the bilateral meeting and the AI Summit, India and France will seek to focus on an inclusive approach that is somewhere in the middle between the US vision, which is open but has resulted in tech being controlled by a handful of large corporations, and China’s vision, focused on complete control over all technologies, the people said.
“Two objectives of the AI Summit are to change the narrative on AI and demonstrate that all countries should be involved. The focus will be on a new global platform to serve as the incubator for AI serving public interests through independent solutions,” one of the people cited above said.
This approach is aimed at ensuring sovereign use of technology and the development of AI common goods and open models that can be used by all states and organisations, the people said. France believes India, with its lead in digital public infrastructure such as the UPI payment system, can be a reference for common solutions.
Modi is set to arrive in Paris on February 10, when he will join a dinner hosted by Macron for heads of state and government attending the AI Summit. The two leaders will co-chair the plenary session of the summit on February 11. In the afternoon on the same day, the two leaders will go to Marseilles, where they will have a bilateral meeting and Macron will host Modi and his delegation for a private dinner.
On February 12, Modi and Macron will jointly inaugurate India’s new consulate in Marseilles and visit the Mazargues War Cemetery, where about 990 Indian soldiers are buried, and the ITER nuclear fusion research project, the people said. Modi will then depart for the US for the second leg of his trip.