Infosys Leads India’s Entry into Global AI Governance with HAIP Participation

Infosys has become the first Indian organization to participate in the Hiroshima AI Process (HAIP) Reporting Framework, marking a significant milestone in global AI governance.

The Hiroshima AI Process (HAIP) Reporting Framework is a G7-backed voluntary mechanism designed to promote transparency and accountability in how organizations develop and deploy advanced AI systems.  

Key Details 

• Participation: Infosys joined the HAIP Reporting Framework, which is aligned with the HAIP International Code of Conduct and supported by the OECD.
• Significance: This demonstrates Infosys’ leadership in promoting safe, secure, and trustworthy AI across governments, regulators, and enterprises worldwide.
• Context: The Hiroshima AI Process was launched at the G7 Hiroshima Summit in May 2023, focusing on opportunities and risks of generative AI. It led to the first international framework with guiding principles and a code of conduct for advanced AI systems.
• Infosys’ Role: Through its Responsible AI Office (part of Infosys Topaz), the company aims to translate global AI governance principles into enterprise-scale, real-world implementations across industries and geographies.

Why This Matters

• Global Trust: Infosys’ involvement signals India’s growing role in shaping international AI standards.
• Enterprise Impact: It positions Infosys as a trusted partner for organizations navigating AI adoption responsibly.
• Policy Influence: Participation in HAIP gives Infosys a voice in shaping how AI is governed globally, especially in balancing innovation with safety.

Launched in February 2025, building on the HAIP International Code of Conduct for Organizations Developing Advanced AI Systems, which was first introduced at the G7 Hiroshima Summit in 2023. HAIP encourages AI developers to disclose their risk‑mitigation practices, governance structures, and safety measures. This helps ensure AI systems are safe, secure, and trustworthy. 

The purpose of the HAIP Reporting Framework is that organizations can submit reports through a standardized framework hosted by the OECD, making practices more comparable and transparent across different companies.

NPCI Launches FiMI: India’s First Finance-Specific AI Language Model for Payment

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) today released FiMI (Finance Model for India), a domain-specific language model built for India’s payments ecosystem, at the India–AI Impact Summit 2026. Developed in-house by NPCI, FiMI currently powers NPCI’s UPI Help Assistant and is designed to address limitations observed in general-purpose large language models when applied to high-scale, high-trust payment workflows.

FiMI has been built to natively understand the complexity of Indian payment systems, including UPI, covering transaction dispute handling, mandate lifecycle management, and regulatory and ecosystem queries. The model went through continuous pre-training and was further fine-tuned on Indian financial and synthetically generated payments data, enabling accurate reasoning, structured tool invocation, and robust multilingual support. This payments-native design allows FiMI to operate reliably in real-world, high-volume transaction environments where accuracy, consistency, and trust are critical.

FiMI is already deployed at a national scale through NPCI’s UPI Help Assistant launched as pilot initiative, an AI-powered conversational support system for UPI users. This assistant leverages an agentic AI framework that enables multi-step reasoning to respond to payment related queries, support grievance redressal, and assist with mandate management. The assistant currently supports English, Hindi, Telugu, and Bengali, with additional Indian languages planned to be introduced within the next 6 to 8 months to further expand accessibility.

Having successfully developed and validated FiMI in a production environment, NPCI has released a detailed technical paper on the arXiv platform outlining the data curation process, training methodology, and evaluation results. This publication reflects NPCI’s role as a public digital infrastructure institution and its commitment to advancing transparent, India-centric, and trustworthy AI for the payments ecosystem.

Through this technical publication, NPCI is sharing key learnings from building and operating AI systems at a national scale, contributing to broader research and enabling informed development of domain-specific AI systems for financial infrastructure.

Commenting on the announcement, Vishal Kanvaty, Chief Technology Officer, NPCI said, “FiMI reflects NPCI’s commitment in developing financial language models purpose-built for India’s payments ecosystem. Having successfully built and validated the model, we are now sharing our technical learnings through a detailed paper to contribute to responsible innovation, while strengthening trust, transparency, and collaboration across the ecosystem.”

Building on FiMI, NPCI is exploring next-generation model architectures, including Mixture-of-Experts, alongside the expansion of multilingual capabilities to cover a wider range of Indian languages. These efforts are currently in the research and experimentation phase and are focused on improving scalability, efficiency, and domain intelligence, while preserving the governance, reliability, and trust requirements essential for national-scale payment systems.

The detailed technical paper can be accessed here.

Equirus InnovateX Fund Announces Final Close of Debut Enterprise Tech Fund at ₹166 Crore

Equirus InnovateX Fund (EIF), the early-stage venture arm of Equirus Group, today announced the final close of its maiden B2B tech fund at ₹166 crore. The fund’s first close was announced in February 2024.

EIF backs seed and pre-series A companies building in Deep Tech, SaaS and Fintech - typically teams that are post-product and working toward product-market fit. The fund aims to partner with founders solving hard problems with clear distribution and defensibility, and who are building for long-term sustainability from day one.

The close attracted both domestic and global investors who bring operational experience and market access in addition to capital. True to its ethos - “by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs” - EIF counts a number of founders and operators among its backers, including Girish Gaitonde (Founder & Board Member, Xoriant), M.R. Jyothy (Chairperson & MD, Jyothy Labs), Dhimant Bhayani (Founder & CEO, iRevo), Raj P. (Founder & Executive Chairman, Zaggle), Shankar Vailaya (Former Director & Co-Founder, Sharekhan) and Nitin Seth (Vice Chairman, GD Foods).

The Fund is led by Krishna Jha, Sunder Nookala and Sadhika Agarwal, experienced founders and investors with strong operational backgrounds, and responsible for driving investments and managing the portfolio across the fund’s focus areas.

Sunder Nookala, Partner, Equirus InnovateX Fund, added: “At the seed and pre-series A stage, capital alone is not the differentiator - context and conviction are. Having built and backed companies ourselves, we understand the inflection points founders face around product-market fit, enterprise access and organisational build-out. With Fund I fully closed, our commitment is to work closely with portfolio companies to help them scale responsibly, strengthen fundamentals and build institutions that stand the test of time.”

EIF has deployed over one-third of the corpus, backing seven startups from Fund I, with a target portfolio of up to 15 companies. Active investments include Pointo, Datazip, GreenStitch, CtrlB, Consuma AI, RSPL and NeverInstall. The remaining capital is expected to be deployed over the next 12-18 months.

Krishna Jha, Partner, Equirus InnovateX Fund, said: "As India's startup ecosystem matures, we are seeing a new generation of audacious founders solving structurally complex problems. As a firm of ex-operators, our focus is on partnering with these founders as they walk the long road from early idea to enduring, category-defining company."

Beyond capital, EIF partners with founders on enterprise access, regulatory navigation, senior hiring, and capital-raising preparedness. The fund emphasises strong governance and long-term value creation rather than short-term value maximisation.

With the maiden fund now fully closed, EIF will focus on scaling its existing portfolio, selectively adding new companies, and deepening relationships with founders and long-term capital partners as it lays the groundwork for its next fund.

Notable angel investments of partners – Ajay Garg, Krishna Jha and Sunder Nookala – include Druva, Kwench, Adpushup, Sirona, Wow Momo, Credgenics, and GoComet.

About Equirus InnovateX Fund

A ₹166Cr SEBI-registered Category-I AIF focused on early-stage investments from Seed to Pre-Series A. The fund backs founders building in SaaS and DeepTech and Fintech, typically at post-product, pre-PMF stage. The Fund has invested in high-impact businesses across sectors, including: Pointo (Energy Efficiency: Battery Lifecycle Management), Datazip (Composable Lakehouse platform), GreenStitch (Fashion & Retail Focused ESG SaaS), CtrlB (Observability SaaS), Consuma (AI for Market/Consumer Insights) and RSPL (Semiconductor) and Neverinstall (Virtual Desktop Infra).

Founders Backing Founders: True to our ethos - “A fund for founders, by founders, and of founders,” Equirus InnovateX Fund is built with a deep understanding of what it takes to build at the earliest stages. We are on a mission to back bold ideas, brilliant minds, and transformative tech - supporting passionate founders who are building the future.

Website: https://www.equiruswealth.com/eif

About Equirus Group

Equirus Group is a leading full-service financial services firm specializing in investment banking, institutional securities, wealth and asset management, HNI broking, NBFC, and insurance solutions. With a “client always first” approach and a proven track record of delivering value creation, Equirus has built impeccable credentials across domains and sectors. Equirus has completed more than 330+ transactions across M&A, PE, IPOs, QIPs, Rights Issues, and Structured Finance, raising USD 15 billion in the process across sectors over the last 18 years, and has created a differentiation for itself through its ability to structure and deliver transactions in line with the client’s requirements.

Website: https://www.equirus.com/

Micron to Commence Production at Gujarat Facility by This Month-End

At the India AI Impact Summit 2026, S Krishnan, Secretary of the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), officially announced that Micron Technology will begin production at its ATMP (assembly, test, mark, and package) facility in Sanand, Gujarat by the end of February 2026. He emphasized that this will be India’s first commercial-scale semiconductor production facility, and highlighted Micron’s work on high-bandwidth memory (HBM) as part of its expansion strategy.

Earlier, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw confirmed at the World Economic Forum in Davos that Micron’s $2.75 billion Gujarat chip packaging facility will commence operations by February 2026, framing it as a major milestone in India’s semiconductor mission and AI ambitions.

This marks a historic milestone as India’s first commercial-scale semiconductor assembly, test, mark, and package (ATMP) plant.

Key Details

• Facility: Located in Sanand, Gujarat.
• Timeline: Production begins by February-end 2026.
• Scale: $2.75 billion investment, one of the largest in India’s semiconductor sector.
• Technology Focus:
  • High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM) for AI computing and data-intensive workloads.
  • Advanced packaging solutions to support global semiconductor supply chains.
• Policy Context: Part of the India Semiconductor Mission, with government approval for 10 semiconductor projects.
• Strategic Impact: Positions India as a credible player in the global chip ecosystem, reducing reliance on imports and boosting AI infrastructure.

Why It Matters

• For India: A decisive step in building domestic semiconductor capacity, critical for AI, 5G, and electronics manufacturing.
• For Micron: Strengthens its global footprint while tapping into India’s growing demand for memory and storage solutions.
• For AI Ecosystem: HBM production directly supports AI workloads, making India a hub for next-gen computing infrastructure.

The announcement aligns with India’s Semiconductor Mission, under which the government has approved 10 semiconductor projects. Micron’s Gujarat facility is seen as a flagship project that will anchor India’s entry into global semiconductor manufacturing.  

Micron’s Journey: From Investment to Production in Gujarat

Timeline

• June 2023
  Micron Technology announces plans to build a new semiconductor assembly and test facility in Sanand, Gujarat. The $2.75 billion investment is part of India’s Semiconductor Mission.
• Late 2023
  Construction begins in phases, with government support and approvals under the India Semiconductor Mission.
• 2024–2025
  Micron works on facility development, workforce training, and partnerships to prepare for advanced packaging and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) production.
• January 2026
  At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw confirms that Micron’s Gujarat facility will commence operations by February-end 2026.
• February 16, 2026
  At the India AI Impact Summit, MeitY Secretary S Krishnan announces that Micron will begin production at its ATMP facility by the end of February 2026. He highlights Micron’s role in producing HBM for AI workloads.
• February-End 2026
  Micron officially begins production at India’s first commercial-scale semiconductor ATMP plant, marking a milestone in India’s semiconductor journey.

Jio AI Stack: Building India’s AI Backbone

At the India AI Impact Summit 2026, Reliance Jio Chairman Akash Ambani unveiled the Jio AI Stack, positioning it as a comprehensive framework to democratize artificial intelligence across healthcare, education, culture, and smart living. The stack is designed to integrate seamlessly with India’s expanding 5G infrastructure, enabling AI at scale.

Core Technical Components

Shri Akash Ambani, Chairman, Jio, showcases Jio's AI Stack and AI-led use cases across healthcare, education, culture, and wearable solutions to honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi at Jio AI Pavilion during the India AI Impact Summit 2026.#JioAtAISummit… pic.twitter.com/Kf4HFgSrHf

— Reliance Jio (@reliancejio) February 16, 2026

1. AI Cloud Infrastructure

• Jio AI Cloud provides scalable compute and storage for training and deploying large language models (LLMs).
• Optimized for Indian languages, ensuring inclusivity in AI adoption.
• Built on intent-driven architectures and Open Digital Architecture (ODA) principles, allowing modular integration for enterprises.

2. Edge Computing Layer

• AI workloads are distributed across edge nodes connected to Jio’s nationwide 5G network.
• Enables low-latency applications such as healthcare diagnostics and smart home automation.
• Supports real-time inference for consumer devices like JioFrames (smart glasses) and JioPC.

3. Data & Model Services

• Pre-trained domain-specific models for healthcare (Jio Arogya AI), education (Jio Shiksha), and cultural preservation (Jio Sanskriti AI).
• Integrated data pipelines for secure ingestion, annotation, and training.
• Focus on responsible AI with bias detection and explainability features.

4. Developer & Enterprise APIs

• Open APIs for startups and enterprises to build custom AI solutions.
• Supports intent-based networking, allowing businesses to automate workflows through natural language commands.

5. Consumer Integration Layer

• AI embedded into everyday devices:
• Jio AI Home for smart living.
• JioFrames for augmented reality experiences.
• AI-powered PCs for productivity.
• Designed to make AI ubiquitous in daily life, not just enterprise settings.

Strategic Significance

• National AI Infrastructure: Jio is positioning itself as India’s AI backbone, leveraging its telecom dominance to deliver AI at scale.
• Societal Alignment: By focusing on healthcare, education, and culture, Jio aligns AI adoption with India’s social priorities.
• Global Ambition: With leaders from 20 countries and 600 startups present at the summit, Jio is signaling its intent to be a global AI player.