Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the India AI Impact Expo 2026 on Monday (February 16, 2026) at the Bharat Mandapam, his office said.
The India AI Impact Expo 2026 will be held from February 16-20, alongside the India AI Impact Summit at the Bharat Mandapam, a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said.
The exhibition will serve as a national demonstration of AI in action, where policy meets practice, innovation meets scale, and technology meets the everyday citizen.
Prime Minister Modi will inaugurate the India AI Impact Expo 2026 on February 16 at 5 p.m. at Bharat Mandapam here, the statement said.
Spread across 10 arenas covering more than 70,000 square metres, the Expo will bring together global technology firms, startups, academia and research institutions, Union Ministries, State governments and international partners.
The Expo will also feature 13 country pavilions, showcasing international collaboration in the AI ecosystem. These include pavilions from Australia, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Serbia, Estonia, Tajikistan and Africa.
It will host over 300 curated exhibition pavilions and live demonstrations, structured across three thematic chakras — people, planet and progress, the statement said.
In addition, the Expo will feature over 600 high-potential startups, many of them building globally relevant and population-scale solutions. These startups will demonstrate working solutions that are already deployed in real-world settings, it said.
The India AI Impact Expo 2026 is expected to witness the participation of over 2.5 lakh visitors, including international delegates. The event aims to foster new partnerships and create business opportunities within the global AI ecosystem.
Over 500 sessions will be organised, featuring more than 3,250 visionary speakers and panel members. These sessions will focus on acknowledging the transformative impact of AI across sectors and deliberating on future actions to ensure that AI benefits every global citizen.
Top Putin aide to lead Russian delegation for AI Impact Summit
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s senior aide Maxim Oreshkin will lead a large delegation for the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi.
Mr. Oreshkin, who is Deputy Chief of the Kremlin staff and economic aide to President Putin, is set to lead the Russian delegation to the India AI Impact Summit 2026.
This (choice of sending Mr. Oreshkin) highlights a strategic push for AI collaboration between the two nations, a Kremlin source told PTI, adding, the delegation will focus on secure, trusted, and sovereign AI, with active engagement in discussions on AI governance, technology, and partnerships within BRICS and other platforms.
In an interview to BRICS TV Network on February 9, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov noted: “India also emphasises ICT security, which we actively support, contributing to the agenda. This is significant, as norms regulating AI use between states, and AI applications by individual states, are only now being established.”
Mr. Lavrov said these norms will regulate behaviours that affect security. “Some countries are actively introducing AI into military applications. While each state has the right to determine its own approach, certain countries are already attempting to centralise control, subordinating what states can and may do with AI in the military sphere,” he said.
BRICS members will not accept infringements on their sovereignty, yet transparency remains crucial, the Minister added.
In an article published by state-run news agency TASS on Friday (February 13, 2026), India’s Ambassador to Russia, Vinay Kumar, outlined the promising prospects for India–Russia cooperation in the field of Artificial Intelligence, highlighting the growing strategic and technological partnership between the two nations.
The synergy between Moscow and New Delhi in AI would act as a catalyst for shared growth and technological advancement of the two strategic partners, Ambassador Kumar said.
Published – February 15, 2026 05:40 pm IST
