New Delhi’s India AI Impact Summit 2026 entered its second day with a powerhouse lineup of industry leaders and policymakers converging to chart the course for artificial intelligence in India. In an exclusive conversation with IANS, Ranjana Chopra, Additional Secretary and Financial Advisor in the Ministry of Culture, highlighted how the summit serves as a vital platform for ministries, startups, and private firms to showcase their AI innovations.
Chopra spotlighted a groundbreaking initiative from the Ministry of Tribal Affairs: a digital solution that translates content into four tribal languages. The tool received overwhelming praise at the summit, drawing interest from multiple agencies eager to adopt it for broader outreach.
“This event is a goldmine for young innovators,” Chopra emphasized. Attendees get hands-on exposure to AI solutions tackling everyday challenges, while forging networks that could lead to jobs and collaborations.
Shifting focus to telecom, Lt. Gen. Dr. SP Kochar, Director General of the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), underscored AI’s reliance on robust networks. “AI lives on telecom infrastructure,” he stated. Data centers store information, but telecom networks deliver it seamlessly.
Kochar noted that while 5G hasn’t yet fully monetized, AI applications will unlock its potential. Summit demos of practical AI tools promise increased data consumption, benefiting networks and spurring 5G adoption. He stressed extending fiberization and ‘Right of Way’ facilities to rural areas as a shared duty of government and industry.
“Without connectivity, AI is useless in villages,” Kochar warned. Universal network access will empower remote work via AI services, mirroring urban capabilities and accelerating national development.
Adding depth, Radha Ramaswami Basu, CEO and Founder of IMERIT, discussed AI’s next evolution: integrating human expertise into large models. “Big companies built massive AI, but the real game-changer is ‘Human in the Loop’ or ‘Expert in the Loop,'” she said.
Basu predicted domain-specific solutions for insurance, healthcare, and agriculture using compact language and vision models. Her firm, with eight years in AI, has generated 9,500-10,000 jobs in India by blending specialists like mathematicians, cardiologists, and accountants into AI training. “AI needs domain knowledge it doesn’t inherently possess,” she exemplified.