Lucknow, 29 July (HS): The Confederation of Indian Industry

(CII) successfully organized the 'UP AI Tech Summit 2026' in Lucknow today. The

summit aimed to outline a framework for establishing Uttar Pradesh as India's

leading Artificial Intelligence (AI) hub. Industry leaders and policymakers

deliberated on the use of AI for economic development and public welfare.

IT and Electronics Minister Sunil Kumar Sharma stated that

the Prime Minister and Chief Minister have opened UP's doors to everyone. The

government is fully prepared for policy innovation. Our startup policy is now

focusing on agri-tech, as agriculture is the backbone of the economy. AI should

be used to increase crop productivity and farmers' income, while also being

cautious about its misuse.

Principal Secretary IT and Electronics Alok Kumar said that

a population of 240 million, which was once a challenge, is now a large data

point for AI companies to train their models. UP is definitely a talent hub,

and the government is creating a database of talented people from UP who are

leading globally and connecting them with the state's development story. He

cited InMobi as an exemplary model for the startup ecosystem.

At the summit, Dr. Subi Chaturvedi, Global SVP of InMobi and

member of the Chief Minister's Digital Economy Working Group, said that Naveen

Tewari making InMobi India's first unicorn shows that Indian companies can lead

globally. His vision aligns with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's vision. The

next generation of tech champions should emerge from Lucknow and UP,

transforming 'you first' into 'Lucknow first'. For an AI-first future, work

must be done on five pillars: compute, data, talent, applications, and trust.

The summit reached a consensus on building compute and data

infrastructure, strengthening the talent pipeline, promoting AI applications in

agriculture and citizen services, and creating a trustworthy and ethical AI

ecosystem.

Hindusthan Samachar / Abhishek Awasthi