Adopted at Bharat Mandapam during the India AI Impact Summit 2026, the Delhi Declaration reframes AI governance around equity, innovation-led growth and Global South priorities.

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• The Delhi Declaration was formally adopted at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, during the India AI Impact Summit 2026, marking a decisive shift in global technology governance conversations.
• Described as the “Magna Carta of AI”, the framework moves beyond narrow existential risk debates advanced at earlier summits in Bletchley Park and Seoul.
• The declaration introduces seven “Sutras” under a techno-legal model, balancing innovation with safeguards such as trust, accountability, transparency, fairness, sustainability and respect for human dignity.
• Instead of compliance-heavy regulation, the Delhi model promotes adaptive governance frameworks capable of responding to rapidly evolving artificial intelligence technologies and diverse socio-economic contexts across nations.
• A key concern addressed is “AI extractivism”, emphasising data sovereignty and integrating Digital Public Infrastructure platforms like Aadhaar and Unified Payments Interface with AI ecosystems.
• The cooperation framework rests on “People, Planet and Progress”, supporting multilingual models like BharatGen, advancing Green AI practices and proposing a global Compute Bank for equitable access.
• By foregrounding equity, access and development priorities of the Global South, the declaration positions India as a rule-shaper rather than a passive technology adopter in global AI diplomacy.