National Technology Day 2026: Tech Leaders on Responsible Innovation for Inclusive Growth

Achintya Gupta, CEO at Reo.Dev

Responsible innovation represents the next phase of enterprise technology, where AI-powered systems help organizations operate with greater intelligence, agility, and precision. As businesses increasingly rely on real-time insights and developer ecosystems, technology is enabling faster collaboration, smarter decision-making, and stronger market participation across industries. Inclusive growth will be accelerated by platforms that make advanced intelligence more accessible to companies across the global digital economy.

Arpit Mittal, Founder and CEO at SpeakX.ai

For most of history, the best technology belonged to a privileged few. That has changed. Today, a student in a small Indian town has access to the same AI that powers the world's leading companies, at a price they can afford. This is what responsible innovation actually looks like: it gives every Indian, regardless of background, an equal shot at success. Inclusive growth is no longer an aspiration; it is the natural outcome of technology built for everyone.

Vipul Prakash, Founder and CEO of FireAI

He believes that India's growth story will be written by its MSMEs, but for too long, data intelligence has been the exclusive privilege of large enterprises with dedicated analytics teams. Responsible innovation means building AI that a business owner in Tier-2 India can use as confidently as a Fortune 500 CFO, not as a feature, but as a founding principle. Inclusive growth isn't an afterthought; it's the design brief.

Prashant Singh, CEO and Founder, Blue Planet Environmental Solutions

As industries increasingly prioritise sustainability alongside growth, technology is becoming central to building more efficient, transparent and scalable environmental systems. Across waste management and circular economy operations, digital monitoring, traceability and process-driven solutions are helping improve accountability, resource recovery and long-term environmental outcomes. From landfill remediation and e-waste recycling to biofuels and waste-to-value initiatives, technology is enabling more structured and measurable sustainability frameworks. The future of responsible innovation will depend on combining operational efficiency with transparency, compliance and practical implementation to create circular systems that are both scalable and environmentally sustainable.

Amit Kumar, CTO & Director, Easebuzz

India's payments story has moved beyond enabling mere accessibility and ease. The harder problem now is trust - at scale, in real time, across transaction volumes and user profiles that keep expanding. AI is useful here not just because it automates, but because it also adapts. Fraud patterns shift. New user segments behave differently. Static rule engines can't keep up. AI is proving its value in payments infrastructure by identifying patterns and risks that rule-based systems often overlook - detecting threats earlier, reducing false positives, and doing so without disrupting legitimate user experiences.

For fintechs, the next few years will separate companies that built for resilience versus those that built merely for scale and speed. Especially as digital adoption deepens in smaller cities and among first-time users, reliability and security will matter more than speed alone, to sustain the trust in digital payment ecosystem. At Easebuzz, we are not treating AI a replacement for judgement, rather as the layer that that helps our systems stay ahead of risk while keeping the experience clean for the businesses and their consumers we serve.

Kulpreet Sahni, Founder and CEO, Chiltier

As India advances into a technology-led future, innovation must be guided by responsibility, sustainability, and accessibility. The true impact of technology will not be measured only by breakthroughs, but by how effectively these advancements improve lives and create long-term value for society. Responsible innovation means building systems that are energy-efficient, resilient, and designed with long-term impact in mind. As digital infrastructure continues to expand, the focus must remain on creating solutions that balance performance with sustainability. Inclusive growth will come from ensuring that technological progress strengthens industries, empowers communities, and contributes to a more sustainable and future-ready ecosystem.

Rohit Badri, Group Associate Director Risk & Compliance, Neokred

On National Technology Day, India celebrates technological breakthroughs and also the invisible architecture that makes them enduring. At Neokred, we see trust and compliance as the bedrock of the digital infrastructure we provide. The nation itself stands as a perfect example of how trust drives both technological leaps and public reception. World-renowned innovations like UPI brilliantly showcase its power. What began as a digital payments revolution has scaled to 19 billion monthly transactions because trust was engineered from day one.

Vishal Rajani, Founder & CEO, Synergos

For years, technology in marketing was largely about efficiency. Better targeting, faster execution, and refined analytics kept the wheels turning. But AI is changing the role technology plays altogether. We are now living in the era of intelligent marketing, where brands can move beyond broad audience assumptions and understand customer needs in far greater depth, not over weeks or months, but in real time. Campaign cycles have become shorter, sharper, and more targeted.

Anand Sampath, India Head & CEO of BPS, Visionet Systems

Indian enterprises are rapidly moving from the experimental stage to enterprise-wide AI adoption. Organisations that succeed will integrate governance, security, and human oversight at the core of their AI and cloud strategies. In a changing geopolitical environment, where data sovereignty, cyber risk, and supply chain resilience are critical, trust determines competitive advantage. This National Technology Day is an opportunity for organizations to recognize that the future of enterprise technology lies in responsible, human-centric AI that boosts productivity, builds trust, and enables inclusive economic participation.

Ajay Kharbanda, CEO, Arinox AI

On National Technology Day, we must confront an uncomfortable truth. Technology that can’t be trusted can’t be scaled. India’s AI ambitions in defense, critical infrastructure, and governance demand AI that is sovereign in deployment, secure for enterprise processes and intellectual property, and accountable in operation. This year’s theme, “Responsible Innovation for Inclusive Growth” signals the need for sovereign AI. Sovereign AI capability is the foundation of a self-reliant, resilient, and equitable digital India.