Tech Explained: Here’s a simplified explanation of the latest technology update around Tech Explained: AI more than just ‘tech’ for India—global media in Simple Termsand what it means for users..
New Delhi: As New Delhi hosts the AI Impact Summit 2026, with guests from across the globe gathering on the campus of the Bharat Mandapam, Bloomberg reports on India’s geopolitical reach through the AI route after a “tough” 2025 for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Six months ago, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was fending off verbal attacks from US President Donald Trump, trying to regain the upper hand over Pakistan after an armed conflict, and facing questions about his economy’s prospects,” Diksha Madhok and Sudhi Ranjan Sen report for the news agency.
The Indian government led by Modi has already signed two major trade pacts in 2026—one with the European Union and the other with the US.
After two decades of back and forth, India signed the “mother of all deals” with the European Union when European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited the country as chief guest for the 77th Republic Day.
Modi also secured a trade deal with the US in the first week of February, reducing US’ import tariffs on India from a whopping 50 percent to 18 percent. And more diplomatic visits are lined up in the coming months.
“Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is also looking to move beyond the diplomatic crisis sparked by New Delhi’s alleged links to the killing of a Sikh activist in that country in 2023. Driven by Trump’s tariffs, Carney is due to visit India in coming weeks to get a trade deal back on track,” the report says.
The report also highlights how India is suited to lead the AI revolution in the next phase. “India has drawn over $50 billion in fresh investments from Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp, underscoring the country’s rising status as a key growth market for AI, cloud services and online retail. Companies such as OpenAI and Google are offering their AI assistants for free to users in India, as it offers an unmatched combination of scale and a relatively forgiving regulatory stance.”
Zoe Kleinman of BBC writes on how AI is more than just “technology” for India. “Tech bosses, politicians, scientists, academics and campaigners are meeting at the AI Impact Summit in India this week for top-level discussions about what the world should be doing to try to marshal the AI revolution in the right direction.”
Last year’s AI Action Summit, as it was then known, led to verbal skirmishes for dominance on the global stage, with US Vice President J.D Vance delivering a “blistering speech” in which he said “America’s place at the top of the pack was non-negotiable”, Kleinman reports.
“I suspect there may be a more humble vibe this week in Delhi: the capital of a country which has helped to build the foundations that support this mega-powerful new tech – but is not reaping as much reward as the more affluent west,” writes the BBC technology editor.
Talking about the AI hubs in India, namely Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Mumbai, BBC reports how the large tech infrastructure has attracted investments from the likes of Google, Nvidia and Amazon.
“For India, this is about more than technology, it is about economic transformation, digital sovereignty and building capability at scale,” Rajan Anandan, managing director at Peak XV told the BBC.
Talking about the differentiated use of AI in developed and developing countries, Kleinman points out barriers big tech is yet to overcome to make AI more accessible. “The world’s biggest US AI chatbots do not work in all of India’s 22 official languages – let alone the hundreds of dialects that exist within them. ChatGPT and Claude currently support around half of them. Google’s Gemini supports nine.”
An Indian government official told the BBC that India has little interest in AI’s geopolitical power struggles. The country’s focus is on harnessing the tech to drive its own growth.
Meanwhile, Financial Times reports on the rise and fall of Byju’s, the ed-tech company that led by example for Indian start-ups during the Covid lockdown. “An education technology start-up fronted by its founder Byju Raveendran, Byju’s boomed as the coronavirus pandemic shut down schools.”
“Raveendran, a former maths teacher turned celebrity entrepreneur, leveraged that popularity to win financial backing from investment company Prosus, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation. Football legend Lionel Messi was brought on board as a global brand ambassador,” the report traces the app’s journey.
But the company’s profits started plummeting as Covid lockdowns were phased out, and Byju’s faced accusations that “aggressive sales teams pushed many parents into deep debt”.
Also came with the fall allegations that Raveendran was onboarding hefty investments and “siphoning” investor’s money for personal use. In a statement to the FT, Raveendran said: “I categorically deny that any loan funds were siphoned, hidden, or diverted for personal gain”.
Byju’s story has impacted investments not just in ed-tech. “Funding raised by Indian tech start-ups has fallen 73 per cent since 2021 to $10.5bn last year,” according to data platform Tracxn, the Financial Times reported.
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The Bangladesh ‘reset’
The Bangladesh National Party’s sweeping victory in the elections has intensified speculation about India-Bangladesh ties. While the relations between the two were mostly strained during Khaleda Zia’s government, Sheikh Hasina was able to repair much of the ties with India.
“In her 15 years in power, Hasina delivered what Delhi prizes most in its neighbourhood: security co-operation against insurgents, improved connectivity and a government broadly aligned with India rather than China – a partnership as strategically valuable as it was politically costly,” Soutik Biswas writes for BBC.
Now Tarique Rahman, Zia’s son, will be the leading Bangladesh. And as for him, he has made the BNP-led government’s intention clear: “Not Dilli, not Pindi – Bangladesh before everything.” India’s foreign minister S. Jaishankar also met Rahman during Zia’s funeral last year.
And Hasina’s exile in New Delhi has not made things easier for India. “The BNP will have to reckon with the reality that Hasina is unlikely to be repatriated. At the same time, the opposition parties [in Dhaka] will keep up the pressure on the government to press India for her return – it’s one of the few levers they have to challenge the BNP on foreign policy,” Smruti Pattanaik of the Delhi-based Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, told the BBC.
“For all the turbulence, geography and economics bind the two: a 4,096km (2,545-mile) border, deep security and cultural links. Bangladesh is India’s biggest trading partner in South Asia, and India has become Bangladesh’s largest export market in Asia,” writes Biswas.
“The question is who moves first. In other words, the reset may depend less on rhetoric and more on whether the bigger neighbour chooses confidence over caution.”
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
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