India Mobile Congress 2026: Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia Inaugurates 'AI for Good Lab' Workshop
The Union Minister stated that the true success of Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be determined not by the size of its models, but by the improvement it brings to people's lives.
Union Minister for Communications and Development of North Eastern Region, Shri Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, inaugurated the 'AI for Good Lab Workshop: From Strategy to Impact' during the India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2026 held in New Delhi. The workshop was jointly organized by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) of the Ministry of Communications and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The primary objective of the event is to transition Artificial Intelligence from global strategic discussions toward practical application and local solutions.
Addressing the gathering, Union Minister Shri Scindia stated that the gap between AI's goals and its actual impact can be bridged through skill development, computing capacity, data, institutions, and connectivity. He emphasized that the real test of AI will not be the complexity of its algorithms or the size of its models, but rather how many lives it has improved. Reiterating the philosophy of 'Sarvajan Hitay, Sarvajan Sukhay' (for the benefit of all and the happiness of all), he stressed that the expansion of technology should be aimed at increasing human opportunities so that the digital divide does not transform into an AI divide.
Discussing the IndiaAI Mission, which involves over 10,000 crore rupees, the Minister noted that India is enhancing its domestic AI capabilities. Under the compute infrastructure, more than 38,000 high-end GPUs have been deployed at approximately one-third of the global average cost, with another 20,000 being added. He mentioned that datasets in agriculture, health, and education are being made available through the AI Kosh platform. Furthermore, Indian developers contribute approximately 5.2 percent to open-source AI projects on GitHub with ten or more stars, positioning India as a global leader in AI skills.
Additionally, referencing the success of AI tools such as 'Sanchar Saathi,' it was highlighted that the tool led to the closure of more than 7.14 crore fake mobile connections, the recovery of over 35 lakh lost handsets, and the prevention of potential financial fraud exceeding 5,000 crore rupees. For standardization, the Telecommunication Engineering Centre (TEC) has developed national standards and established a national working group to align with the global standards of the ITU-T.
The workshop discussed the structure of the 'AI for Good Lab,' which is based on three pillars: 'AI Readiness and Policy,' 'AI Skill Development,' and 'Public AI Infrastructure.' India is one of the 10 pilot countries, alongside nations from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Gulf countries. India is presenting its model of shared compute, open datasets, and Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) to the Global South. The event was attended by several international experts and policymakers, including Dr. Bilele Jamousi of the ITU and Secretary of the Department of Telecommunications, Shri Amit Agarwal.
