India’s M.A.N.A.V. Vision for AI | 20 Feb 2026

Source: PIB

Why in News? 

The Prime Minister of India at the India-AI Impact Summit 2026 presented the M.A.N.A.V. vision, a human-centric framework to guide Artificial Intelligence (AI) development with ethics, inclusivity, and national sovereignty at its core.

What is India’s M.A.N.A.V. Vision for AI?

• The M.A.N.A.V. vision shifts the focus of AI from being merely an autonomous force to becoming an extension of human aspirations.
• It serves as an acronym for five foundational pillars:
  • M – Moral and Ethical Systems: AI development must be strictly built upon ethical guidelines.
  • A – Accountable Governance: Ensuring transparent rules and robust oversight mechanisms.
  • N – National Sovereignty: Reinforcing the principle that data belongs to those who generate it.
  • A – Accessible and Inclusive: AI must act as a multiplier for societal benefit, not a monopoly concentrated in a few hands.
  • V – Valid and Legitimate Systems: AI systems and their applications must be lawful, verifiable, and trustworthy.
• India treats AI as a strategic asset while advocating it as a global common good,   distancing itself from alarmist narratives. India sees "fortune and the future" in AI, backed by its massive talent pool, digital infrastructure, and policy clarity.

How is India Driving the  M.A.N.A.V. Vision for AI?

Ensuring Moral and Ethical AI Systems

• National Education Policy (NEP) 2020: Integrates digital literacy, computational thinking, and AI concepts early in the education system to foster ethical data-driven decision-making among future-ready citizens.
• Public Engagement: At the India-AI Impact Summit 2026, India set a Guinness World Record for the highest number of pledges (over 250,946) for an AI responsibility campaign within 24 hours, transforming ethical AI from a policy principle into a collective national commitment.

Mechanisms to Drive Accountable Governance in AI

• IndiaAI Mission: Approved with a massive outlay exceeding Rs 10,300 crore, it embeds governance mechanisms right from the ecosystem's inception.
  • IndiaAI Mission institutionalizes standards for the development, deployment, and monitoring of AI systems, strengthening compute, data, skilling, and innovation capacity.
• India’s AI Governance Guidelines, 2025: Establishes a transparent regulatory architecture rooted in trust, equity, accountability, and constitutional democratic values.

National Sovereignty in the Digital Era

• Beyond Territorial Borders: In an AI-driven world, sovereignty extends beyond physical boundaries to encompass data, algorithms, and digital infrastructure.
• Self-Reliance Initiatives: Through programs like the India Semiconductor Mission and secure digital public infrastructure, India is securing critical datasets and strengthening domestic compute capacity.
• Strategic Autonomy & Pax Silica Initiative: By building resilient capabilities in chips and cloud technologies, India ensures its AI ecosystem remains globally collaborative yet strategically autonomous. 
  • To reinforce this, India formally joined the US-led Pax Silica Initiative at the India-AI Impact Summit 2026.

Ensuring  Accessible and Inclusive AI

• Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI): The DPI enables affordable and scalable AI solutions across critical sectors like healthcare, agriculture, education, and governance.
• Democratizing Computing: Platforms like MeghRaj GI Cloud and the IndiaAI Compute Portal lower entry barriers by providing shared access to Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) and Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) for startups and researchers.
• Grassroots Capacity: Initiatives like the IndiaAI Kosh (for datasets and AI models), the AI Data Labs Network, and the National Supercomputing Mission collectively ensure that AI innovation is broad-based and reaches all strata of society.

Regulating AI for Trust, Safety, and Legality

• Tackling Deepfakes: To combat the risks of synthetic media to democratic discourse and social trust, AI systems must be legally verifiable and transparent.
• IT Amendment Rules, 2026: The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2026 formally define and strictly regulate synthetically generated content, enforcing platform accountability.
• Safe and Trusted AI Pillar: A key component of the IndiaAI Mission, this pillar supports bias mitigation, algorithmic auditing, and privacy-preserving designs to translate ethical intent into enforceable standards.

Pax Silica Initiative

• It is a US-led strategic initiative launched in December 2025 to build a secure, resilient, and innovation-driven silicon supply chain. 
• It aims to reduce China’s dominance and counter coercive dependencies across critical minerals, energy inputs, semiconductors, advanced manufacturing, AI infrastructure, and logistics.
• One of the key pillars of Pax Silica was to establish a durable economic order to drive AI-powered prosperity across partner nations.
• Key measures under Pax Silica focus on promoting joint ventures and strategic co-investments in high-tech sectors, protecting sensitive technologies and critical infrastructure from countries of concern, and building trusted technology ecosystems.
• The member nations of the Pax Silica included Australia, Greece, Israel, Japan, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.

Conclusion

Through the M.A.N.A.V. framework, India is actively shaping a global AI discourse that prioritizes human dignity alongside technological advancement. India aims to ensure that artificial intelligence serves as a secure, equitable, and transformative tool for society, rather than just an unchecked technological force.