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India has successfully tested its first private-sector orbital rocket, marking a milestone in New Delhi's ambition to become a major player in the global space economy. The three-stage 22-metre Vikram-1 was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota and deployed customer payloads into a 450km (280-mile) low-Earth orbit, making India the third country to achieve orbital launch capability through private enterprise. It also carried experimental equipment, a lab-grown diamond and a miniature 18-carat gold sculpture commemorating India's national space programme. India Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the achievement, saying that it will "encourage countless youngsters to dream bigger and innovate fearlessly". Founded in 2018, Skyroot is among a new generation of Indian space startups that have attracted backing from global investors following the sector's liberalisation.

India's communists once ruled millions. For the first time since 1957, India no longer has a single communist-led state government. The defeat of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) in Kerala this month, after a decade in power, marked the end - at least for now - of one of the world's most enduring experiments in democratic communism. At their peak, India's communist parties ruled states stretching from West Bengal to Kerala and Tripura. They impacted the lives of more than 100 million people through trade unions, peasant organisations, student wings and disciplined cadre networks.

India's Tata Electronics has signed a deal with Dutch technology giant ASML to build a major semiconductor plant in western India, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Netherlands during his European tour. The agreement, announced on Saturday, will support the development of Tata's semiconductor facility in Dholera, Gujarat - Modi's home state. The Dutch company said it would help "establish and ramp up" production at the plant by supplying its cutting-edge chipmaking tools. Tata Electronics plans to invest $11bn in the facility, which is expected to manufacture chips for artificial intelligence, the automotive industry and other sectors. ASML chief executive Christophe Fouquet said the company saw "many compelling opportunities" in India's growing semiconductor industry.

From left: India's prime minister, Narendra Modi, with the chief executives of OpenAI, Sam Altman, and Anthropic, Dario Amodei, at the AI Impact summit in Delhi. From left: India's prime minister, Narendra Modi, with the chief executives of OpenAI, Sam Altman, and Anthropic, Dario Amodei, at the AI Impact summit in Delhi. AI hit: India hungry to harness US tech giants' technology at Delhi summit Narendra Modi's thirst to supercharge economic growth is matched by US desire to inject AI into world's biggest democracy I ndia celebrates 80 years of independence from the UK in August 2027. At about that same moment, "early versions of true super intelligence" could emerge, Sam Altman, the co-founder of OpenAI, said this week. It's a looming coincidence that raised a charged question at the AI Impact summit in Delhi, hosted by India's prime minister, Narendra Modi: can India avoid returning to the status of a vassal state when it imports AI to raise the prospects of its 1.4 billion people? Modi's hunger to harness AI's capability is great.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi takes a group photo with AI company leaders at the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi on Feb. 19, 2026. India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi takes a group photo with AI company leaders at the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi on Feb. 19, 2026. The world's largest-ever AI summit took place in India this week, with hundreds of thousands of people, including world leaders and CEOs of AI companies, descending upon New Delhi for five days. It was the fourth in a series of summits that were initially designed as a place for governments to coordinate global action in the face of threats from advanced AI. But the India summit, like one in Paris before it, functioned more as a trade fair and an advertisement for the host nation's AI prowess than a venue for meaningful international diplomacy.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi takes a group photo with leaders of artificial intelligence companies at the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi on Thursday. But analysts said the country was unlikely to have a "DeepSeek moment" -- the sort of boom China had last year with a high-performance, low-cost chatbot -- any time soon. Still, building custom AI tools could bring benefits to the world's most populous nation. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever. By subscribing, you can help us get the story right. With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories.

Epstein's shadow: Why Bill Gates pulled out of Modi's AI summit Microsoft founder Bill Gates has cancelled his keynote speech at India's flagship AI summit just hours before he was due to take the stage on Thursday. Gates, who has faced renewed scrutiny over his past ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, withdrew to "ensure the focus remains on the AI Summit's key priorities", the Gates Foundation said in a statement. India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi had billed the summit as an opportunity for India to shape the future of AI, drawing high-profile attendees, including French President Emmanuel Macron and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Instead, it has been dogged by controversy, from Gates's abrupt exit to an incident in which an Indian university tried to pass off a Chinese-made robotic dog as its own innovation. So, what exactly went wrong at India's flagship AI gathering and why has it drawn such intense scrutiny?

An Indian university is facing backlash after one of its professors was caught falsely presenting a Chinese-made robot dog at a major artificial intelligence summit, it has reportedly since been asked to leave, as the institution's own. "You need to meet Orion. This has been developed by the Centre of Excellence at Galgotias University," Neha Singh, a professor of communications, told Indian state-run broadcaster DD News this week. The episode has drawn sharp criticism and has cast an uncomfortable spotlight on India's AI ambitions. The embarrassment was amplified by Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, who shared the video clip on his official social media account before the backlash.