The Indian embassy in Kathmandu held a pre-summit event on Friday titled “AI for inclusive growth: Building Nepal’s AI ready future” in partnership with the AI Association of Nepal.

The programme was recognised as an official pre-event for the AI Impact Summit scheduled to take place in New Delhi on February 19–20, 2026, according to the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu.

More than 400 participants from startups, government bodies, business groups, the Robotics Association of Nepal, NAS IT, Fintech Alliance, academic institutions, think tanks and media attended.

Speaking at the event, Minister for Communications and Information Technology Jagdish Kharel highlighted Nepal’s ongoing AI initiatives and said there was strong potential for collaboration.

Speaking at the plenary session, Indian Ambassador Naveen Srivastava outlined India’s ‘AI for all’ approach and said the Delhi summit intends to shift the global conversation towards the real-world impact of AI.

Amitabh Nag, CEO of the Digital India Bhashini Division, delivered a keynote on Bhashini’s role in transforming public services, demonstrating several use cases. Anirban Sarma of the Observer Research Foundation briefed participants on the objectives of the upcoming summit.

Applications for the AI Impact Summit’s global challenges and research symposium can be submitted online, the embassy said.