Ashwini Vaishnaw Launches World Bank Group’s Report 2026
Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, Railways, and Information and Broadcasting, today launched the World Bank Group’s World Development Report 2026: The Promise of Artificial Intelligence at an event held in, New Delhi. The Report examines the opportunities and challenges that Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents for developing economies, and sets out a framework for countries to harness AI for development through adoption, adaptation and advancement.
The launch was organised by the IndiaAI Mission, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India, in collaboration with the World Bank Group. It brought together senior policymakers, global development experts, technology leaders and practitioners to deliberate on how India can maximise, and safely sustain, the development gains from AI. The programme also featured a State AI Showcase, in which States and innovators presented AI-enabled solutions from across the country.
Delivering the keynote lecture on “From AI Pilots to Scale: The Promise of AI in India”, Dr. Michael Kremer, Chief Economist and Senior Vice President, World Bank Group, highlighted that India’s progress in AI holds lessons for the wider developing world. “India’s huge strides in AI is not just addressing its own problems but broader development challenges for the world,” he said.
This was followed by a presentation of the key findings of the Report by Dr. Gaurav Nayyar, Director, World Development Report 2026.Special remarks were delivered by Neelkanth Mishra, Executive Director, World Bank Group, and Shri S. Krishnan, Secretary, MeitY.
The panel comprised Shri Neelkanth Mishra, Executive Director, World Bank Group; Dr. Somik Lall, Director of Strategy, Development Economics, World Bank Group; Dr. Vivek Raghavan, Co-Founder, Sarvam AI; Dr. Neeraj Agrawal, Chief Program Officer, Wadhwani AI; Shri Maneesh Singh, Vice President, BharatGen; and Shri Shankar Maruwada, Co-Founder and CEO, EkStep Foundation. The session was moderated by Ms. Shereen Bhan, Managing Editor, CNBC-TV18.
The event concluded with closing remarks by Shri Md. Y. Safirulla K., IAS, Director, IndiaAI Mission.(UPDATED ON 8TH OCT 2026)
