[Event] The Pranava Institute at India AI Impact Summit 2026: Shaping Resilient Futures in the Age of AI

The Pranava Institute was pleased to co-host a main summit event at the India AI Impact Summit 2026, in collaboration with StateUp and Aakhya India. 

Held at Bharat Mandapam, the event convened policymakers, technology leaders, and practitioners to explore how artificial intelligence is reshaping economies, energy systems, and security architectures, simultaneously.

Watch the full event:

🎥 Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/live/VznoUyVcmJA

About the Event: 

Our event, “Shaping Resilient Futures in the Age of AI: Leadership for the Technology, Energy, and Security Transitions”, focused on what we described as the “triple transition”, aligning advances in AI and strategic technologies, diversified low-carbon energy systems, and innovations in security and defence.

A recurring message throughout the discussion was that these transitions cannot be addressed in isolation. If we treat AI, energy, and security as separate lanes, we risk building progress in one domain that undermines resilience in another. As the session highlighted, the challenge ahead includes leadership, governance, institutional capacity, and social trust.

Distinguished Speakers and Panelists:

We were honoured to be joined by an exceptional group of speakers:

• Harsh Vardhan Shringla, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha

• Sarith Felber, Head of the Law and Technology Division, Ministry of Justice (Israel)

• Tanya Filer, CEO, StateUp & Editor-in-Chief, Cambridge Forum on Technology and Global Affairs

• Deepak Bagla, Mission Director, Atal Innovation Mission

• Nicholas Davis, Industry Professor (Emerging Technology), University of Technology Sydney

• Shyam Krishnakumar, Co-Founder & Executive Director, The Pranava Institute

  
  

We are also proud to note that Shyam Krishnakumar from The Pranava Institute participated in the event as a special key note speaker and shared reflections on the leadership demands of the triple transition.

Key Insights From The Discussion:

1) The triple transition must move together

The main takeaway was the need for coordinated policy and institutional alignment. The triple transition involves ensuring innovation supports resilience. In his closing, Shyam emphasises that this moment demands leadership at multiple levels, global, state, and societal, especially as we try to balance domestic capacity, strategic constraints, and international cooperation in an uncertain global order.

2) Trust is the foundation of adoption

Across perspectives, trust emerged as the anchor for responsible scale. Speakers discussed the importance of inclusion and visible public benefit in building confidence in new systems, noting that public trust is essential when investing in future-facing technologies and resilience measures.

Speakers also shared practical examples where trust grows when AI is used in ways people can clearly understand, especially in public service delivery and citizen-facing systems.

3) Innovation and regulation are complementary

Rather than framing governance as stifling innovation, the panel explored how proportionate regulation can enable innovation by creating confidence for citizens, industry, and institutions.

A key regulatory approach discussed was sector-specific governance, tailoring AI oversight to domains like finance, health, education, and the public sector, while also working to harmonize across sectors to avoid fragmentation.

4) Inclusion and empowerment drive resilience

Mr. Deepak Bagla highlighted how innovation ecosystems can be built bottom-up, describing efforts spanning labs in ~10,000 schools (with plans to add more) and a growing incubation network, framing inclusion and empowerment as central to adoption and legitimacy. This emphasis on broad participation skills, startups, and public-sector capacity, surfaced repeatedly as a foundation for resilient transitions.

5) Global cooperation remains essential, and standards matter

As AI systems and risks transcend borders, speakers returned to the need for international coordination, shared frameworks, and practical standards that help institutions implement AI responsibly. One concrete reference was the importance of organizational governance standards, such as ISO/IEC 42001, as part of building trustworthy systems and consistent management practices across contexts.

Closing Reflections

Shyam Krishnakumar closed with the framework that:

the triple transition demands leadership (1) globally, (2) at the level of the state, and (3) across society, including education, skilling, innovation enablement, and keeping trust intact through difficult trade-offs.

We extend our sincere thanks to our speakers and panelists for their insights and time, and to our partners StateUp and Aakhya India for making this collaboration possible. 

We are also grateful to everyone who joined us in person and online and contributed to a thoughtful, forward-looking dialogue.

🎥 Watch the video recording of the event on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/live/VznoUyVcmJA