Digital Futures Lab at the India AI Impact Summit 2026!

This February, Digital Futures Lab will take the stage at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 — one of the country’s (and the world’s!) most consequential convenings on Artificial Intelligence (AI), public policy, and societal transformation.

As AI governance debates and deployment trajectories accelerate globally, the India AI Impact Summit is a space where standards can be shaped, partnerships forged, and narratives reframed around AI for the greater good. For organisations like ours — working at the intersection of evidence, foresight, and technology for the public interest — it offers more opportunity to move from research to influence.

At this year’s Summit, Digital Futures Lab will host three sessions at the Summit and contribute to a wide range of conversations. Read below to learn more!

📅 Date: 18 February 2026
🕓 Time: 11:30 - 12:25 AM IST
📍 Venue: Room 15, Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi

Digital Futures Lab is launching a new policy brief on the role of open source AI in advancing economic development. Jointly published with the FAIR Forward – Artificial Intelligence for All initiative (implemented by GIZ and funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)), NASSCOM, & the IndiaAI Mission, it critically examines what “openness” means in the AI context and connects it to both immediate and long-term opportunities for innovation, competition, and public value creation. The brief outlines a roadmap to advance open-source AI in India and offers recommendations for governments and technology developers.

• Dr Bärbel Kofler: Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany

Dr Urvashi Aneja (Digital Futures Lab), Ms Lea Gimpel (Digital Public Goods Alliance), Ms Amanda Brock (OpenUK), Mr M Chockalingam (Nasscom AI), Ms Yasha Khandelwal (Tech4Biz), and Mr James Lovegrove (RedHat)

RSVP for the event at the summit here!

📅 Date: 20 February 2026
🕓 Time: 10:00 - 10:55 AM IST
📍 Venue: Hall 1, Expo 2026, Bharat MandapamDigital Futures Lab — alongside ARTPARK and Trilegal, supported by BHASHINI and the GIZ (German Development Cooperation) Project “FAIR Forward - Artificial Intelligence for All”, funded by the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) — are jointly publishing a policy report and developer toolkit for the voice technology ecosystem in India, outlining a policy and practice framework to support open, inclusive, and responsible voice technologies.

• Dr Ariane Hildebrandt: Director-General of the Department for Global Health, Equality of Opportunity, Digital Technologies and Food Security, German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development

Mr Amitabh Nag (Digital India Bhashini Division), Dr Prasanta Ghosh (Indian Institute of Science), Dr Kruthika K R (Sandlogic), and Mr Nihar Desai (ARTPARK)

📅 Date: 20 February 2026
🕓 Time: 4:30 PM – 5:25 PM IST
📍 Venue: Room 18, Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi

Digital Futures Lab, alongside other founding members, will formally launch the Global South Network Research Network on AI Safety — a global alliance of research and civil society organisations working to advance context-aware AI safety research and practice rooted in realities of the Global South.

The Network is founded by Digital Futures Lab (India), CeRAI – IIT Madras (India), Global Centre on AI Governance (Africa), ITS Rio (Brazil), and the International Innovation Corps, with participation from the India AI Mission, through the India AI Safety Institute, as a member of the Network’s Steering Committee.

• Dr Amandeep Singh Gill: Under-Secretary-General & Special Envoy for Digital and Emerging Technologies

• Mr Abhishek Singh: Additional Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India

• Ambassador Philip Thigo: Special Envoy on Technology for the Republic of Kenya

Beyond our hosted sessions, the DFL team will contribute to panels and discussions across the Summit. These engagements reflect the breadth of our work: AI safety and governance, representation and participation in AI design and development, and value-based policy formation.

We look forward to engaging with policymakers, researchers, civil society, and industry leaders at the India AI Impact Summit and to continuing these conversations and collaborations beyond it.

If you will be at the Summit, we would love to connect!