Feb 19 News Live: India built something no other country did: Macron at AI Summit

"Today, on behalf of the Reliance Group and Jio Intelligence, I want to make three announcements. Announcement one, Jio connected India to the internet era. Jio will now connect India to the intelligence era. We will deliver intelligence to every citizen, every sector of the economy, and every facet of social development and every service of government. Jio will do so with the same reliability, quality, scale, and extreme affordability that transformed connectivity. India cannot afford to rent intelligence. Therefore, we will reduce the cost of intelligence as dramatically as we did the cost of data...

"Announcement 2, Jio, together with Reliance, will invest 10 lakh crores over the next seven years, starting this year...

"Announcement 3, Jio Intelligence will build India's sovereign compute infrastructure through three bold initiatives. One, gigawatt-scale data centres. We already started construction on multi-gigawatt AI-ready data centres at Jamnagar. Over 120 megawatts will come online in the second half of 2026 this year and a clear path to gigawatt-scale compute for training and large scale inference. Two, our green energy advantage. We have an in-house energy advantage with up to 10 gigawatts of ready green power surplus anchored by solar in both Kutch and Andhra Pradesh. Three, a nationwide edge compute, an edge compute layer deeply integrated with Jio's network will make intelligence responsive, low latency, and affordable close to where Indians live, learn, and work..."

"...We must make skilling, reskilling, and lifelong learning a mass movement. The future of work will be inclusive, trusted, and human-centric. If we move forward together, artificial intelligence will elevate the potential of humanity.

"AI is a transformative power. If directionless, it becomes a disruption; if the right direction is found, it becomes a solution. How to make AI from machine-centric to human-centric, how to make it sensitive and responsive, this is the basic objective of this Global AI Impact Summit. The theme of this summit clearly reflects the perspective from which India views AI. Welfare of all, the happiness of all. This is our benchmark...

"For AI, humans are just data points. To ensure that humans are not reduced to mere raw material, AI must be democratised. It must be made a medium for inclusion and empowerment, especially in the Global South. We must give AI an open sky and also keep the command in our hands, like GPS. GPS shows us the way, but the final call on which direction we should go is ours. The direction in which we take AI today will determine our future...

"We have to be more cautious regarding children's safety...The AI space should also be child safe and family guided...

"... Decades ago, when the internet started, no one could have imagined how many jobs it would create. The same is true for AI. Today, it is difficult to imagine what kind of jobs will be created in this field in the future. The future of work in AI is not predefined. It will depend on our decisions, our course and course of action. I believe the future of work is a new opportunity for us. This is the era of humans and intelligent systems working together...

"We are entering an era where humans and intelligent systems co-create, co-work and co-evolve.

"...India sees a strong future in AI. We have the talent, energy capacity, and policy clarity. I am pleased to inform you all that at this summit, three Indian companies have launched their AI models and apps. These models showcase the talent of our youth...I invite you all to design and develop in India, deliver to the world, humanity..."

French President Emmanuel Macron addresses the India AI Impact Summit, starting with a “Namaste”.

“10 years ago, a street vendor in Mumbai could not open a bank account. No address, no papers, no access and today the same vendor accepts payments on his phone...,” says Macron.

“India built something that no other country in the world has built. A digital identity for 1.4 billion people. A payment system that now processes 20 billion transactions every month. A health infrastructure that has issued 500 million digital health IDs. Here are the results. They call it the India Stack Open Interoperable Sovereign. That is what this summit is about. We are clearly at the beginning of a huge acceleration, and you perfectly described it during your interventions...”

“Last year when France and India co-hosted the AI Action Summit in Paris, we set a global guiding principle for technologies that would transform our societies and our economies. We say that Artificial Intelligence will be an enabler for our humanity to innovate faster, to disrupt healthcare, energy, mobility, agriculture, and public services for the good of mankind. Both of us, we do believe in this revolution. AI has become a major field of strategic competition, and big tech got even bigger...”

Jay Pawar, the younger son of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar who died in a plane crash last month, on Wednesday sought a thorough probe into the "possible serious lapses" that led to the accident, and said the black box of the aircraft cannot get destroyed easily.

He also sought a ban on VSR Ventures Private Limited, the aviation company which operated the ill-fated Learjet 45XR plane that crashed near the Baramati airstrip, killing his father Ajit Pawar and four others on January 28.

"The black box cannot get destroyed easily. The people of Maharashtra have the right to know the transparent and whole truth of the crash," Pawar said in a social media post.

Seeking a ban on VSR aviation firm, he said, "A detailed investigation of possible serious lapses and irregularities of the aircraft firm should be done in a detailed and impartial manner." His statement comes a day after Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar and leaders from the NCP met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and demanded a CBI probe into the plane crash.

The aircraft accident probe agency, AAIB, has said that special support has been sought for the retrieval of data from the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) of the Learjet 45 plane involved in the fatal crash.

Earlier, NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar has alleged that there was reason to suspect sabotage in the tragic air crash that killed his uncle Ajit Pawar, and also demanded a comprehensive probe by multiple expert agencies.

NCP leader Praful Patel on Wednesday (February 18) said the aviation company appears to be mainly responsible for the Baramati plane crash that killed Ajit Pawar, and there could be negligence on the part of the pilot.

He, however, said all things will come to light in the investigation.

Pawar and four others were killed after the Learjet 45 aircraft owned by VSR Ventures crashed near the Baramati airstrip on January 28.

“Primarily in my opinion, the aviation company seems to be mainly responsible for the unfortunate incident that claimed the life of Deputy CM Ajitdada Pawar. Facts will come to the fore in the CBI investigation. There may be negligence on the part of the pilot...,” Patel, a former Union civil aviation minister, told reporters.

The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) on Tuesday said that special support has been sought for the retrieval of data from the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) of the Learjet 45 plane involved in the fatal crash.

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar will take over as the national president of the NCP on February 26, senior party leader Praful Patel said on Wednesday.

The announcement marks the leadership transition in the Nationalist Congress Party following the death of Sunetra's husband and Deputy CM Ajit Pawar in a plane crash on January 28.

"After Ajitdada, we are in the process of filling the vacuum in our party. We are a separate party, and we are in the process of doing what's right for our party. Deputy CM Sunetra Pawar will take over as the national president of NCP on February 26", Patel told reporters.

Replying to a question about the merger of the two factions of the NCP, Patel emphasised that it's not the right time to speak about the issue.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has expressed concern over the upcoming release of the second part of The Kerala Story, claiming that its first instalment was made with the “intent to spread hatred against the state and undermine its secular tradition”.

Pinarayi, in a statement issued by his office, also questioned how “poisonous works produced to spread division and hatred in society” were allowed to be screened, while a film like Beef was barred from a film festival.

He further said that Sangh Parivar centres had taken over and spread the false narrative conveyed by The Kerala Story. “They are spreading false propaganda by portraying even marriages conducted with mutual consent as examples of communalism and forced religious conversion,” the CM said.

He contended that such forces view Kerala—with no communal riots and a tradition of mutual respect among communities—with hostility, and termed them “enemies of the state” attempting to destroy the peace and tranquillity of the region.