India’s homegrown AI capabilities stole the spotlight at the India AI Impact Summit 2026, with indigenous startup Sarvam emerging as a major crowd-puller. Organisers said Sarvam’s pavilion attracted more visitors than any other company’s at the event, drawing record-breaking crowds.Held at Bharat Mandapam, the pavilion saw a steady stream of curious visitors, particularly students and young tech enthusiasts eager to explore the platform’s capabilities. Many queued up to watch live demonstrations, interact with developers and understand how the startup has built competitive large language models tailored to Indian languages and local use cases.Sarvam has made headlines for challenging global AI heavyweights with its indigenous models and scalable solutions. Its focus on vernacular AI, enterprise-grade applications and responsible innovation has positioned it as a symbol of India’s growing technological self-reliance.In response to the overwhelming turnout, the government on Wednesday decided to extend the summit expo by a day. The event will now run through Saturday, February 21, instead of concluding on February 20 as originally scheduled.Briefing the media, IT Secretary S Krishnan said the extension would allow easier access once multilateral events at the venue conclude and security arrangements become more flexible. It would also benefit students and working professionals who were unable to attend during the weekdays.Meanwhile, former Union Minister and BJP leader Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on social media that the summit has “attracted a reported attendance of over 3,00,000 already — compared to the few thousands at other summits”.He added that large numbers of Indians are stakeholders in the Prime Minister’s vision of digital technology and AI shaping the country’s future.Chandrasekhar also shared attendance comparisons from 2023 to 2025 for summits held in Bletchley Park in the UK, Seoul in South Korea and Paris in France.