India Charts AI Push in Manufacturing

On 18th February 2026, Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw outlined India’s strategy to integrate artificial intelligence into the Manufacturing Engineering Technology (MET) sector at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi.

Key Points

AI-MET White Paper Launched: The Minister unveiled a White Paper Concept on “AI for Manufacturing Engineering Technology (AI-MET)” outlining a strategic framework to embed AI across manufacturing value chains to enhance productivity, sustainability and global competitiveness.
Focus on Inclusive Growth: The government emphasised building an inclusive AI ecosystem that empowers enterprises, MSMEs and startups while preparing the workforce for future industrial transformation.
Skills and Workforce Development: Speakers stressed that India’s next phase of AI progress depends on large-scale deployment, application-oriented skills and sustained collaboration between academia, industry and government.
Manufacturing-Centric Growth Model: The proposed MET platform aims to position manufacturing at the core of accelerated growth and decarbonisation goals aligned with the national vision of Viksit Bharat @2047.
Cybersecurity and OT Integration: Industry leaders highlighted the importance of securing operational technology environments and integrating modern network security principles into manufacturing ecosystems.
Shop-Floor AI Deployment: Participants underlined that real AI value will emerge from scaled integration into industrial automation systems and shop-floor operations.