ISB, MeitY Host National AI Governance Summit

The Indian School of Business and India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology used a one-day summit in Mohali on May 23 to push a more operational discussion about artificial intelligence in government. The event, called Governance Summit 2026: Inclusive AI for Viksit Bharat, was hosted by the Bharti Institute of Public Policy at ISB and billed as the fourth edition of the school’s annual governance summit. ISB said the gathering was designed to move “from vision to implementation” on how AI could be deployed responsibly, safely and at scale in public systems. MeitY’s involvement tied the event to a broader Indian government effort this year to define AI governance rules and institutions. ### Why did this summit matter beyond another conference stop? May 23 was not just a campus event date. It placed the summit after India’s February 2026 release of AI governance guidelines that proposed a principle-based framework and new institutions including an AI Governance Group, a Technology & Policy Expert Committee and an AI Safety Institute. Those guidelines said India wanted AI policy to balance innovation with safeguards while supporting the government’s “Viksit Bharat” development agenda. ISB framed the Mohali meeting as an implementation-focused platform. On its event page, the school said policymakers, practitioners, academics and innovators would discuss practical and implementable policy solutions, especially where AI intersects with governance, digital commerce, healthcare and last-mile service delivery. ### Who was in the room, and what did they say? S. Krishnan, secretary at the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, delivered the inaugural keynote, according to ISB’s post-event account carried by India Education Diary. Krishnan said artificial intelligence gave India a chance to improve productivity, governance and access in sectors including healthcare, education, manufacturing and financial inclusion. Krishnan also said India should build AI models that reflect the country’s cultural and linguistic diversity while maintaining domestic control over critical safeguards. That language tracks with the government’s wider emphasis this year on sovereign capability, indigenous model development and public digital infrastructure in its AI governance documents. Ashwini Chhatre, executive director of ISB’s Bharti Institute of Public Policy, said the challenge was to convert AI ambition into actionable governance frameworks. Aarushi Jain, director of the institute, said the policy question was whether AI would become a tool for inclusion rather than exclusion. ### What problems was the summit trying to solve? ISB’s event description laid out a specific policy agenda. The summit said it aimed to generate practical recommendations on AI for inclusive digital commerce, with attention to trust, security and broader participation for women, marginalized communities, small businesses and first-time digital users. The school also linked AI to public-service delivery. Its description said the summit would examine how intelligent systems could strengthen access, protect vulnerable users, enhance well-being, unlock economic opportunity and improve last-mile delivery, rather than treating AI as a standalone technology debate. ### How does this fit with India’s current AI policy push? India’s February 2026 AI governance guidelines said the country wanted a “safe, trusted, and inclusive” model for AI innovation. The document described a deployment-first strategy tied to agriculture, healthcare, education, governance, manufacturing and climate action, and said the objective was to avoid concentrating AI capacity in a small number of firms or geographies. The Mohali summit echoed that language closely. Its focus on inclusion, public systems and implementation suggests the event was part of a wider effort to connect national AI policy with sector-specific use cases and institutional design, rather than limiting the debate to frontier-model development. ### What comes next after the Mohali meeting? ISB said the summit’s purpose was to produce practical and implementable policy recommendations. The school’s public materials point readers to its Bharti Institute of Public Policy and Governance Summit event pages for the agenda and follow-up. The next concrete step sits with the institutions proposed in India’s February 15, 2026 AI governance guidelines. Those include the planned AI Governance Group, Technology & Policy Expert Committee and AI Safety Institute, which the government said would anchor future implementation.