The Embassy of India in Kathmandu organized an event titled, "AI for Inclusive Growth: Building Nepal's AI Ready Future", on Friday, in partnership with the AI Association of Nepal. The event has been recognized as an official pre-Summit event of the AI Impact Summit that will be held in New Delhi on 19-20 February 2026, as per an official statement by the Embassy.
One of the key areas of discussion at the event included recent developments in Artificial Intelligence and the AI Impact Summit. More than 400 participants from startups, government entities, Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Robotics Association of Nepal, NAS IT, Fintech Alliance, AI Association of Nepal, academic institutions, think tanks and media, attended the event.
Jagdish Kharel, Minister for Communication and Information Technology, Government of Nepal was the Chief Guest at this pre-Summit event held in Kathmandu. He spoke about AI initiatives of the Government of Nepal and the potential for cooperation in this domain, the statement said.
Speaking at the Plenary Session, Ambassador Naveen Srivastava outlined the principles that underpin India's approach of AI for ALL. Ambassador Srivastava emphasized that the upcoming AI Impact Summit aims to shift focus of the global discourse on AI to the 'Impact' that AI has made on all aspects of our life, and its future manifestations. He also encouraged Nepali youth to participate in large numbers in the different AI challenges - namely AI for ALL, AI for HER and YUVAi.
It further noted that Amitabh Nag, CEO, Digital India Bhashini Division delivered a keynote presentation on Bhashini's role in transforming public services in India in the spirit of AI for ALL. He demonstrated several use cases of Bhasini for development. Mr. Anirban Sarma, Director, Digital Societies Initiative, Observer Research Foundation introduced the participants to the AI Impact Summit.
This was followed by a panel discussion on "Leveraging AI for Nepal's Growth", moderated by Suresh Pokharel, Vice President, AI Association of Nepal.
In this discussion, Adesh Khadka, Joint Secretary, Government of Nepal shared perspectives on developing AI policy for Nepal. Bikash Gurung, President, Robotics Association of Nepal elaborated the initiatives to grow robotics and AI adoption among the youth in Nepal.
Sixit Bhatta, Founder, Vriddhi Sanjal explained why AI could be a key component for a Digital Public Infrastructure stack of Nepal.
Mr. Amitabh Nag and Anirban Sarma also joined the discussion and shared their experiences in context of India's AI sector, the statement added.
The event culminated with a Workshop on AI tools and Architecture by Ram Sharma Bhattarai and Darshan Parajuli from the AI Association of Nepal. This also featured industrial case studies of use of Bhashini AI in India.
Secretary, Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Government of Nepal, Radhika Aryal also attended the event as a Special Guest.
The embassy shared in its statement that the AI Impact Summit to be held in February 2026 inter alia features three global challenges and a Research Symposium for which applications can be submitted online through on the link, https://impact.indiaai.gov.in. (ANI)
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