India AI Impact Summit: AI for everyone! AI for Global South!; Google's America-India Connect Digital Infrastructure boost

I saw most of this video and was very impressed: LIVE: PM Modi participates in the India AI Impact Summit at Bharat Mandapam, 1 hr. 27 mins, streamed live today (19 Feb. 2026) around 9 to 10 AM IST.

The theme of the main speakers including PM Modi, French President Macron, UN Secretary General Guterres and AI tech leaders of Google (Sundar Pichai) and Anthropic (Dario Amodei) was about AI for the developing world. I very much liked that! PM Modi, President Macron and UN Secretary General Guterres gave a lot of emphasis on AI safety. That was very reassuring to see.

PM Modi talked of embracing AI for the opportunities it presents but ensuring that it is used in a compassionate and safe way. PM Modi also emphasized AI serving all of humanity rather than only the powerful. PM Modi spoke in Hindi. All other speakers (unless I missed something) spoke in English.

Sam Altman of Open AI was also present but did not speak. It would have been great to hear his views on AI for the developing world at such an event.

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Announcing America-India Connect and new investments to advance global AI access, 19 Feb 2026.

Quite stunning to see how Google is boosting Digital Infrastructure across four continents.

Quoting Google from the article: " ... America-India Connect, a collaborative infrastructure initiative anchored by our five-year $15 billion AI infrastructure investment in India to increase the reach, reliability, and resilience of digital connectivity across four continents. 

In collaboration with local partners, America-India Connect will establish a new international subsea gateway in Visakhapatnam (Vizag); three new subsea paths connecting India to Singapore, South Africa, and Australia; and four strategic fiber-optic routes that bolster network resilience and capacity between the United States, India, and multiple locations across the Southern Hemisphere."

That is awesome! Hmm. It is a company, even if it is a mega company, that is making such a massive announcement! I mean, I would have thought such announcements would come from country government heads!