India AI Mission Built for Real-World Impact, Says MeitY Secretary Krishnan; Urges Focus on Scalable Public Applications
MeitY Secretary S. Krishnan along with Iqbal Singh Dhaliwal, Global Executive Director of J-PAL, and Michael Kremer, University Professor in Economics at the University of Chicago, at the India AI Impact Summit 2026, in New Delhi on Tuesday.
New Delhi: The India AI Mission is designed to address diverse needs and real-world challenges, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, S. Krishnan said at the India AI Impact Summit 2026, emphasising that the true test of artificial intelligence lies in measurable improvements to public service delivery and citizen welfare.
Speaking at the session titled “From Algorithms to Outcomes: Building AI that Works for People,” he said the Summit is focused on identifying impactful applications that can be created using AI.
“We are providing compute, models and data for one reason only — to build applications with real impact. Whether AI succeeds beyond the hype depends entirely on whether it delivers solutions that improve lives,” he said.
Krishnan noted that the Expo at the Summit features more than 600 startups and companies working across sectors including healthcare, agriculture, education and manufacturing. He urged attendees to visit the exhibition and witness firsthand how AI is being deployed across sectors.
“Governments will never have enough teachers, doctors or judges, but if AI can enhance productivity, service quality can improve dramatically. The challenge is to choose what works, scale it responsibly, protect privacy and ensure public money creates measurable outcomes,” he added.
Evidence and Evaluation Central to Impact
The session also featured Iqbal Singh Dhaliwal, Global Executive Director of J-PAL, and Michael Kremer, University Professor in Economics at the University of Chicago.
Dhaliwal underscored the need for rigorous evaluation in deploying AI for development. He cautioned that technologies that appear promising in theory may fail under real-world conditions and stressed the importance of understanding for whom AI works, in what contexts and with what outcomes.
Kremer highlighted early evidence of AI-driven impact in areas such as traffic enforcement, automated driver’s licence testing, health and education. He cited personalised adaptive learning models that doubled student learning pace with just one hour of weekly use. However, he noted that adoption within public systems remains complex and requires strong procurement frameworks, philanthropy support and government backing.
From Capability to Outcomes
The discussion centred on translating AI capabilities — compute, models and data — into deployable applications that enhance productivity, strengthen governance and deliver tangible benefits to citizens.
Participants emphasised that sovereign technological capability must go hand in hand with people-centric design, structured implementation and cross-sector collaboration to ensure AI systems move beyond experimentation to sustained, scalable public impact.
The session formed a key component of the Summit’s broader agenda, reinforcing that the future of AI in India will be defined not by algorithms alone, but by outcomes that improve everyday lives.
