India, Feb. 18 -- The India AI Impact Summit is bringing together figures such as Sundar Pichai, Sam Altman and Emmanuel Macron alongside researchers, entrepreneurs, investors and policymakers. The optics matter. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not simply another technology wave but a structural reordering of economic and institutional power. When leaders of global technology firms and heads of State converge in India to discuss AI, the implication is clear: India is central to how AI will scale across large, complex societies.

India approaches this moment with real strengths. By most composite measures of talent, research output, startup dynamism and policy orientation, it stands behind only the US and China in overall AI capacity. That...