- KR Bharat
- 2026-02-19
Speaking at the India-AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi, French President Emmanuel Macron lauded India’s remarkable digital transformation, highlighting how a Mumbai street vendor who once lacked access to banking now seamlessly uses mobile payments.
Beginning his keynote with a warm “Namaste,” Macron thanked Narendra Modi for hosting the summit and emphasised the scale of India’s technological progress. He noted that India created a unique digital identity system for 1.4 billion people, a payment ecosystem processing billions of transactions monthly, and a rapidly expanding digital health infrastructure.
Calling India’s achievement “something no other country has built,” Macron said the transformation reflects not just technological progress but a broader civilisational shift toward inclusion and accessibility.
He also underlined the growing strategic partnership between India and France in artificial intelligence, focusing on innovation, sovereignty, and responsible technology. Macron highlighted India’s investments in AI infrastructure, including government-supported GPUs and development of task-specific language models to empower startups.
Concluding his address, Macron stressed that the future of AI will be shaped by nations that combine innovation with responsibility, expressing confidence that India and France would work together to lead this transformation globally.
