I spend most of my time in India's builder and startup world. At the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in Bharat Mandapam, I talked with founders from hundreds of Indian and international startups, and with around 50 international delegates from the UK, France, Japan, Italy, Germany, and Serbia. I also went to Startup Mahakumbh, the UP International Trade Show, and the national Skill India competition.
Along the way I've met delegates from Meta, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and NVIDIA. I've met Ansh Mehra, founder of The Cutting Edge School, and Jaiwardhan Tyagi, founder of Neurapex AI, from Shark Tank India. And I've met Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, who holds Railways, Information & Broadcasting, and Electronics & IT.
Some of the founders, researchers, and policymakers I've connected with:
- · Founders of ONESTRUCTION, a Tottori-based Japanese startup building openBIM and AI tooling for the construction industry.
- · The team at Prisme.ai, a French enterprise platform for sovereign, governed agentic AI.
- · Dr Susan Oman, who leads work on AI and inequality at the University of Sheffield's Centre for Machine Intelligence.
- · Elise Tassin of Positive AI, the French non-profit behind a responsible-AI label, founded by Orange, L'Oréal, BCG X, and Malakoff Humanis.
- · The team at Apolitical, the global learning platform for public servants, with AI programmes backed by Google.org.
- · Union Minister Jayant Chaudhary (Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, and Education), who runs the Skill India programme.