Paris [France]: Coumar Ananda, President of the Chambers of Commerce and Industry France-India, has described Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s upcoming visit to France and India’s role as co-chair of the AI Action Summit as a crucial milestone for both nations. He also emphasized the increasing geopolitical significance of Artificial Intelligence and its impact on global governance, security, and workforce development.
Ananda highlighted the broader implications of AI, stating, “For us, this visit (of PM) and more importantly now, India co-chairing AI Action Summit in Paris, is a very important milestone for India and for France, but from let’s say, what it can serve on the technology perspective, and also from a political and a geopolitical agenda. AI technology today is much more than just a simple technology, compared to what we used to have – it’s much more now.”
He outlined the summit’s key focus areas, adding, “AI is now a geopolitical topic, and India and France leading this initiative of having this global summit in Paris, it has five main themes… Global governance on AI is a very important topic, the other one is AI for public interest and common good, very important… and the third is around culture and creative industry, how it can impact that. Workforce, HR, is the fourth element, and then of course, there are certain unknown elements as well. The fifth element is around security and all the cyber threats that are being foreseen today. These five themes will be addressed during the summit, and India has a say on the global scene today.”
Expressing optimism about enhanced bilateral collaboration, Ananda told ANI, “Some of the expectations from the Chamber are that we hope to see more cooperation and collaboration between the two countries.”
During his visit from February 10 to 12, Prime Minister Modi will co-chair the AI Summit alongside French President Emmanuel Macron. He will also address the India-France CEOs Forum, further strengthening economic and technological ties between the two nations.
Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, in a press briefing on Friday, emphasized India’s expectations from the summit, stressing that AI applications must be “designed, developed, deployed, and used in a safe, humane, responsible, and trustworthy manner.”
This marks Prime Minister Modi’s sixth official visit to France, underscoring the deepening strategic and technological cooperation between the two nations.