The six-day AI summit kicked off in New Delhi on Monday, with hopeful tech CEOs, global leaders, and policymakers looking to invest in the Indian market and support India’s AI push. The theme for the summit is “Sarvajan Hitaya, Sarvajan Sukhaya,” which means “welfare for all, happiness for all,” and it is hosting 20 heads of state and around 100 CEOs and founders, among many other leaders in the global AI space. The who’s who of the tech world — including OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Google boss Sundar Pichai, and Google DeepMind head Demis Hassabis — are in attendance to chart the future of the world with the advent of AI.
Among the several prominent world leaders present, French President Emmanuel Macron delivered a speech at the event and lauded India for executing a robust plan to digitize the country. Let’s explore in detail what Macron had to say about India’s future in an AI-driven world.
French President impressed by India’s successful move towards a digital economy
Emmanuel Macron said, “India built something that no other country in the world has built”, and proceeded to laud India’s effort towards digitalisation with verifiable facts and figures. A digital identity for 1.4 billion people. A payment system that now processes 20 billion transactions every month. A health infrastructure that has issued 500 million digital health IDs. Here are the results. They call it the India Stack Open Interoperable Sovereign.” he stated.
#WATCH | Delhi: At the #IndiaAIImpactSummit2026, French President Emmanuel Macron says, "India built something that no other country in the world has built. A digital identity for 1.4 billion people. A payment system that now processes 20 billion transactions every month. A… pic.twitter.com/tWLR9X4Gh3
— ANI (@ANI) February 19, 2026
The systems, such as Aadhaar, UPI, and Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, have helped create digital IDs and instant payment mechanisms, along with streamlining digital health records. He further highlighted that with the digital systems created in India, even the poorest person can have access to it, which is a testament to the fact that the country has the potential to do the same in terms of AI adoption.
“10 years ago, a street vendor in Mumbai could not open a bank account. No address, no papers, no access… but today that same vendor accepts payments on his phone,” Macron said.
“I started with a story about a street vendor in Mumbai. Ten years ago, the world told India that 1.4 billion people could not be brought into the digital economy. India proved them wrong,” he added.
#WATCH | Delhi: At the #IndiaAIImpactSummit2026, French President Emmanuel Macron says, "I started with a story about a street vendor in Mumbai. Ten years ago, the world told India that 1.4 billion people could not be brought into the digital economy. India proved them wrong.… pic.twitter.com/klKt5G1ans
— ANI (@ANI) February 19, 2026
The French President further said that the future of AI will be decided by those who can combine innovation and responsibility, technology with humanity, and was sure that India and France will be at the forefront of the AI future.
More on India and France’s shared AI future
France’s head of state also charted out what India and France’s shared vision for the AI future will be. “France and India share a common vision. A sovereign AI used to protect our planet and to foster prosperity for all.”
However, Macron threw a bit of caution to the wind by stating that India should work with France and other partners to ensure that children are safe from the harmful effects of social media and AI. “One of our priorities… will be children’s protection against AI and digital-related abuse. I hope [Prime Minister] Modi will take action to ban social media for children… protect children and teenagers.”
With its expanding AI ecosystem and digital infrastructure, India now finds itself at the center of global conversations on innovation and governance. And such summits could help India narrow the gap with other countries when it comes to technological innovation.
Also read: Anthropic CEO Bets Big on India’s Massive Scale to Power the Next Phase of AI Revolution
