India unveils New Delhi Frontier AI Commitments to include Global South

Posted on by Vividh Bharathi

New Delhi, Feb 19 (IANS) Union Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Thursday announced the New Delhi Frontier AI Impact Commitments, a landmark outcome of the summit that brings together leading frontier AI companies and India’s domestic innovators to advance inclusive and responsible artificial intelligence.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the India AI Impact Summit 2026, Vaishnaw positioned India’s AI strategy as one rooted in democratisation, scale, and sovereignty. He outlined India’s comprehensive approach across the five layers of the AI stack, applications, models, compute, talent, and energy, emphasising real-world deployment in healthcare, agriculture, education, and public services.

“AI is a foundational technology. It is already transforming how we work, learn, and make decisions. Our Prime Minister believes that the true value of technology lies in ensuring that its benefits reach the masses. Our Prime Minister’s vision is to democratise technology, deploy it at scale, and make it accessible to all. That is why in India, we are working on all five layers of the AI stack,” he said.

“Once we honestly harness the benefits of AI, we must also find collective solutions for mitigating risks. By placing human safety and dignity at the heart of AI, we can move forward with conviction. Let us shape an AI future of the humans, by the humans, and for the humans,” Vaishnaw remarked.

The voluntary commitments reflect a shared vision to ensure that the development and deployment of AI systems are aligned with equity, cultural diversity, and real-world needs, particularly across the Global South. Participating organisations include India-based innovators such as Sarvam, BharatGen, Gnani.ai, and Soket, alongside global frontier AI firms.

The first commitment, “Advancing Understanding of Real-World AI Usage”, focuses on real-world AI usage through anonymised and aggregated insights. Participating organisations will work to generate evidence that supports policymaking on the impact of AI on jobs, skills, productivity, and economic transformation. By enabling data-driven analysis of how AI is being deployed across sectors, the initiative aims to help governments and institutions craft informed strategies that maximise benefits while mitigating risks associated with technological change.

The second commitment, “Strengthening Multilingual and Contextual Evaluations”, centres on efforts to ensure the effectiveness of AI systems across languages, cultures, and real-world use cases. Organisations will collaborate with governments and local ecosystems to develop datasets, benchmarks, and expertise that support evaluation in underrepresented languages and cultural contexts. This effort will improve AI performance for diverse populations and help democratize access to high-quality AI experiences globally, while preserving flexibility in the choice of tools and evaluation methodologies.

The minister emphasised that collaborative action between governments, industry, and research communities is essential to ensure AI serves humanity at large. He invited leaders of participating organisations to join in advancing these commitments as a foundation for responsible AI development worldwide.

–IANS

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The UP CMO took to X to share the information about the Chief Minister’s instructions.

“Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has directed the department to file a revision against the order of the Supreme Court regarding the mandatory requirement of TET for serving teachers of the Basic Education Department,” it said in a post on X.

“The Chief Minister said that the teachers of the state are experienced and have been provided training from time to time by the government. In such a situation, it is not appropriate to ignore their qualifications and years of service,” it added.

The development comes on the back of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling over the TET, where it made mandatory, not just for fresh appointees but also for the in-service teachers of Classes 1 to 8, to clear the Teachers’ Eligibility Test (TET) within two years.

The SC ruling on TET meant sweeping implications for the education system, as this brought even those teachers also in the ambit who were appointed before the TET came into force in 2011.

According to the Apex Court’s order, lakhs of teachers working in government, aided, and private schools will have to pass the test to stay in their position, and any failure to comply will lead to their compulsory retirement with terminal benefits.

Though the relaxation from mandatory TET was given to teachers with less than five years of service left; however, for job promotions, they will have to clear the compulsory test.

The government’s decision to challenge the SC ruling, on the basis of teachers’ experience, assumes significance as this follows cases of suicides by teachers in the state.

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–IANS

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Maha govt estimates loss of Rs 9,500 cr in SGST mop up due to two slab structure

Mumbai, Sep 4 (IANS) Maharashtra government’s initial estimates show that it will incur a loss of about Rs 9,500 crore in the collection of state GST (SGST) during the current fiscal 2025-26, following the GST Council’s recommendations for a slab structure.

However, the state government sources said that it may make up the loss after the rise in transactions due to the cut in GST rates on several items from varied sectors.

“These estimates were worked out by the finance department and discussed at the meeting chaired by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis two days ago. The department’s preliminary estimates show the government is likely to incur a loss of Rs 9,500 crore during 2025-26. However, the government is optimistic that it will make up revenue loss,” said government sources.

The state government has estimated SGST mobilisation of Rs 1,76,119 crore in 2025-26 against the revised estimates of 2024-25 of Rs 1,67,905 crore.

SGST has been n major source of the state’s own revenue. The government, during the annual budget for 2025-26, has projected the state’s own revenue of Rs 3,87,673.72 crore against the revised estimates of 2024-25 of Rs 3,67,467.23 crore, a rise of 51.20 per cent.

Government sources recalled that the government earlier had slashed the stamp duty, fearing that it might incur a loss.

“However, the government mopped up more revenue and did not incur a loss as expected. With the two slab structure, the government is LSO hopeful to recover losses that it may incur,” sources said.

Maharashtra tops among other states in mobilising the highest monthly GST collection. During 2024-25, Maharashtra emerged as the top contributor with nearly Rs 3.60 lakh crore, followed by Karnataka, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Haryana, according to the data by the GST Council.

Earlier, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, during the winter session of the state legislature held in December last year, appealed to the traders to take the benefit of the Amnesty Scheme announced by the state government to waive interest or penalty or both related to State GST demands for the years 2017-18 and 2018-19.

The amnesty schemes have been launched under section 73 of the Maharashtra Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017. The disputed amount, comprising tax and penalty, was Rs 54,000 crore. Out of this, the disputed tax amount was Rs 27,000 crore, while the penalty was worth Rs 27,000 crore.

Sanjay Jog can be contacted at sanjay.j@ians.in

–IANS

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India’s growth is phenomenal with over 8 per cent projections: RBI chief

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In his address, the RBI Governor highlighted that India is mostly a domestic-driven economy and “while tariffs have an adverse impact, it is not a matter of huge concern”.

He was referring to the US tariff turmoil, which has disrupted global trade and slowed growth in other economies.

“We are living in times of unprecedented uncertainties on account of various reasons-including policy uncertainties. This has been challenging for the growth of the emerging market economy. It is a risk that all emerging marketing economies must take into account,” the RBI Governor said.

Underlining the strong fundamentals of the Indian economy, Malhotra said: “India bounced back from Covid and the implications of the Russia-Ukraine war. We have managed our inflation very well, reducing it from 8 per cent to 1.5 per cent, which is the lowest in 8 years, and the strength of inflation has been elevated even as it has come down from the highs of 2022. Oil prices have also subdued, he noted.

The RBI chief further stated that India’s fiscal deficit is now at a manageable level and is projected to be 4.4 per cent of GDP for the Centre. The total debt is amongst the lowest in the world, he pointed out.

Good coordination between the government and the fiscal committee has helped achieve this, he added.

Malhotra also highlighted that while the dollar depreciated by 10 per cent, the Indian rupee has not depreciated so much this year, while most other currencies have. “This is because of larger tariffs and capital outflows. An orderly movement of the rupee is a priority for India,” he said.

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