​AI-Ready Data: Shared Infrastructure for Innovation

​📅 Session Details

​Date: Friday, February 20, 2026
Time: 9:30 AM - 10:25 AM IST
Venue: Room 15, Bharat Mandapam

​🎯 What This Session Is About

​AI models are commoditizing faster than anyone predicted. The binding constraint isn't model access, it's data that's structured, representative, and actually usable for training systems that serve diverse populations.

​Most AI projects fail not because the algorithms don't work, but because the data infrastructure doesn't exist. Agricultural advisories need crop yields across microclimates. Health interventions need disease patterns that reflect underserved populations. Education tools need learning trajectories that account for multilingual contexts. This data either doesn't exist in machine-readable form, or sits locked in institutional silos.

​This session examines what it takes to build data as a public good: the governance frameworks that enable sharing without compromising privacy, the technical standards that make datasets interoperable, and the institutional arrangements that sustain data infrastructure beyond one-off projects.

​⭐️ Speakers

​Moderator: Shalini Kapoor, EkStep Foundation

​Speakers:

• ​Prem Ramaswami, Head of Data Commons, Google

• ​Rohit Bardawaj, Deputy Director General, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation

• ​Dr. Vinod K. Paul, Member, NITI Aayog

• ​Dawit Phillipos, Director of Digital Agri & Finance, Ethiopia ATI

• ​Vijay Kiran Anand, CEO, UP Invest

​This session is part of the AI Impact Summit 2026, exploring how artificial intelligence can drive meaningful social change across sectors.