Hey Risers
Thank you for being part of India Rising. It’s great to have you here.
Here are the topics of this week:
Insights from “The AI Dialogue”, the Official Pre-Summit Event to the IndiaAI Impact Summit.
Main takeaways of Merz’ visit to India and how actions follow talks.
Sodexo doubles down on India.
And much more.
Recap: I hope you enjoyed last week’s guest article by Dr. Maxmilian von Laer and Dr. Florian Ramel on “Indian Private Markets: An Opportunity for European Investors”. My key takeaway: India’s growth provides a compelling case for investments.
More guest articles and the next two issues of our first India Rising Perspective incoming! Keep an eye out on your inbox over the coming weeks!
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Number of the Week
100,000+
Number of attendees from over 100 countries at this year’s AI Impact Summit in India.
Rise of the Week: Insights from “The AI Dialogue” in Munich, the Official Pre-Summit Event to the IndiaAI Impact Summit
India will be hosting this year’s AI Impact Summit and is increasing the momentum with high level talks and pre-summit events. Taking place in Delhi from February 16th to 20th and focusing on Inclusive AI, the AI Impact Summit will take place in the Global South for the very first time. I got invited to the official pre-summit in Munich last week and am convinced more than ever that Europe can learn a lot from India, and should collaborate much more closely.
Screen with information on the pre-summit event (2026))
The India AI Impact Summit is set on “Three Sutras”, a Sanskrit term meaning guiding principles that combine wisdom with action. Those three Sutras are
People: Technology must remain human-centred, respecting cultural diversity and help advance human development first, while securing safety, trust and benefits for all.
Planet: Climate and environmental responsibility must remain top of mind. Use of limited resources must be limited and AI should strengthen sustainable developments, not harm them.
Progress: AI resources must be democratised and available to all. They should also be used to accelerate progress in the health, education, governance, and agricultural sectors.
and are the foundation of the global summit’s goal to foster inclusive AI development and adoption. “Seven Chakras” are built on top and define areas of multilateral cooperation, from “Human Capital” to “Safe and Trusted AI”, “Democratising AI Resources”, or “AI for Economic Growth and Social Good”, amongst others.
Panel discussion during pre-summit event (2026)
The focus of this year’s Global AI Impact Summit has therefore developed towards inclusivity and actual use of AI. The 2023 AI Summit in the UK focused on safety and security of AI, while safety and innovation where the main topic in Soul in 2024. The French Action Summit last year was built around 5 themes and dimensions of AI.
The key notes and panel discussions in Munich offered valuable insights about how India itself is working on achieving these three Sutras and why the event is important for the Indo-European partnership, and global adoption of AI overall:
Focus on Impact: India is shifting the global AI discourse from just "safety" to democratisation and impact. For EU governments and businesses, this means a massive opportunity to learn, co-develop and scale solutions.
AI as Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI): India is building an "AI Stack", a common layer of subsidised compute and open-source datasets. Firms can plug and play on this infrastructure, drastically lowering the cost of innovation and at the same time continue developing the models for all. And its well proven, as India's Tech Stack has been successfully implemented.
Green & Sovereign Alternative: Through renewable energy investments and open-source models, India is prioritising resource-efficient and transparent AI. This creates a natural partnership for EU firms seeking ethical, low-energy alternatives to "black box" proprietary systems.
Scale of the AI Summit: The AI Impact Summit will be the first major global AI event in the Global South. With 100+ countries and more than 100.000 (!) people attending including global CEOs and Heads of States such as France’s Emmanuel Macron, it is the right venue to shape the next decade of global AI standards.
India started the India AI Mission back in 2024 to provide financial support and the infrastructure for the AI ecosystem build up. One such goal is the development of India’s own Large and Small Language Models (LLM, SLM). SLM’s especially could support the country’s high diversity with targeted and compute efficient models.
There have been calls for sovereign cloud systems and a sovereign “EU Tech Stack” for some time now. This is exactly where Europe can learn substantially from India’s success and the India-EU Digital Partnership provides the framework. India is a key partner of the EU for digital partnerships and has successfully proven that its tech stack is highly inclusive:
The payment platform UPI processes more transactions than VISA every day and is basically free.
The biometric data platform Aadhaar is the world’s largest biometric ID system facilitating administrative processes of all kind.
While still broadly underestimated, India should be a focus partner for inclusive tech and AI developments for the EU and its businesses. Both regions share the same values of responsible and inclusive AI development and adoption that benefits all. And India’s ecosystem certainly provides the experience and skills to achieve that.
Sources: India AI Global Impact Summit, AI Pre-Summit Munich, Wikipedia, OECD, The Economic Times
What Else is Rising?
Main Takeaways from Chancellor Merz’ Visit to India: Talks are Followed by Actions
Chancellor Merz’ visit to India last week was the beginning of a number of Indo-European exchanges in 2026. While the visit should be put in context of a broader momentum of the India-EU partnership, the high number of agreements and announcements confirm that Germany and Europe are clearly seeking deeper economic partnerships with India on top of signing the EU-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in January.
Overall, 19 agreements / Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) and 8 Announcements were achieved and can be summarized as follows:
Trade and economy: Strengthening trade efforts by establishing regular CEO Forums and a India-Germany Economic and Investment Committee.
Critical and Emerging Technologies: Deeper partnerships in sectors such as semiconductor ecosystems, critical minerals, electronics and information technology etc.
Renewable energy and green hydrogen: Collaboration of regulatory boards and actual partnership between German and Indian companies.
Science and research, higher education: R&D in bioeconomy, extension of the Indo-German Science and Technology Center, and a roadmap on higher education.
Traditional medicine: University collaborations.
Skilling and mobility: Framework agreements for skilled labour partnerships.
Cultural and people to people ties: Cooperation in sports, heritage foundations and postal services.
Defence and security: Bilateral defence cooperation.
Various additional working groups or forums for deeper and sector specific exchanges were announced. A stronger Indo-German and Indo-European collaboration received endorsement by the German CEOs joining the visit. German CEOs clearly stated that India is a key partner for their growth and a crucial market of the future, echoing political statements and growing commitments.
With the delegations from the EU and India constantly engaging to finalise the FTA by the end of January, Merz’ visit was a promising start to a pivotal year for the Indo-European partnership.
Sources: Governments of India and Germany, Open Magazine, The Economic Times
French Sodexo Doubles Down on its Fastest-Growing Market: India
Sodexo, a French food services and facilities management company, has been highly successful in India. With its food services alone growing at a CAGR of 30% in the last three years, the company is increasingly profiting from expansions in office and manufacturing sectors. This clearly indicates what I keep sharing: European businesses can benefit from India’s accelerating growth in a high variety of sectors.
In manufacturing-led projects, we partner with clients from the groundbreaking stage — setting up temporary kitchens and facilities — and continue through to large-scale permanent operations.
Manufacturing, corporate food services and universities will be our strongest growth engines, each growing at over 20 per cent annually, driven by India’s investment cycle and GCC expansion.
Sodexo is integrated in the whole life-cycle from temporary setups during construction to regular operations once operations start. The company particularly benefits from the ongoing expansion in the manufacturing space, especially in sectors that profit from both, private and public investments such as in electronics, renewables, or pharmaceuticals.
Taking a detailed look at Sodexo’s plans provide a broader picture for other sectors as well:
Fastest growing vertical: Manufacturing, corporate food services and universities will remain key growth drivers. This indicates that the company expects continued expansion in public infrastructure, Global Capability Centers (GCC), and manufacturing.
Regional differences: With Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai as highest demand markets, Southern India will remain a focus region.
Global impact: India’s role is shifting from domestic to a global strategic hub. The company operates a GCC and hubs to support markets globally.
The company intends to double its revenue in the next three years and makes India a key hub globally. It clearly indicates that European businesses continue to recognise India’s growing importance, and its expanding domestic market that many sectors can benefit from.
Sources: Business Line
Quick Risers
Deutsche Bank received two binding offers for its India private customer business at USD 2.5 billion. (Source: Handelsblatt)
Demand for quality coffee machines signals fast expanding consumer market. (Source: Times of India)
India might purchase 114 Rafale fighter jets from France with options to a total of 200. (Source: Defence India)
Bank of America signs 111,000 sqft lease in Mumbai. (Source: The Economic Times)
IBM to skill 5 million Indian experts in AI by 2030. (Source: The Hindu)
GCCs are changing India’s commercial real estate market. (Source: The Economic Times)
India targets a USD 45 billion space economy. (Source: The Economic Times)
India speeds up backlog for highway projects. (Source: The Times of India)
India’s solar manufacturing sector shifts to global competitiveness. (Source: Energetica)
Spotlight: Why Germany Struggles to Go Digital and How India Leapfrogs Developments
Germany’s DW reported on the country’s issue in going digital, and how India and others are increasingly ahead.
Curiosity Corner
Your random facts and stories about India and the Indo-European friendship.
This week: EU-India Digital Partnership
The EU–India digital partnership focuses on creating a human-centric digital ecosystem that supports trusted data flows, interoperable digital public infrastructure, and cooperation on emerging technologies such as AI, 5G/6G, and semiconductors. It builds on the EU’s Digital Single Market strategy and India’s Digital India programme, aligning two large democratic markets around shared values like privacy, rule of law, and open standards.
In recent years this partnership has been institutionalised through the EU–India Trade and Technology Council (launched in 2023), dedicated working groups on strategic technologies and digital governance, and initiatives to link European and Indian data and connectivity infrastructures, including work on a potential “Euro–India stack” and secure digital corridors.
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