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

Ritesh Kapadia, Field CTO, iLink Digital

Responsible innovation becomes critical as enterprises move toward AI-first operating models. AI systems and agents are no longer limited to automation. They are increasingly influencing decisions, workflows, and customer experiences in real time. As organisations embed intelligence deeper into business operations, the focus must remain on building connected systems that are adaptive, accountable, and inclusive by design. National Technology Day serves as an important reminder that the true impact of innovation lies in how responsibly it can scale progress across businesses, industries, and communities.

Arif Khan, India Sales Director, Colt DCS

Digital infrastructure is becoming the core architecture on which economic growth, industrial competitiveness, and AI capability will depend for decades. The acceleration of AI has made data infrastructure a strategic asset, requiring expansion aligned with domestic realities such as energy availability and resource constraints. Self-reliance in technology is built through depth of capability, demanding a disciplined approach to long-term trade-offs. Sustainable digital infrastructure is a strategic imperative, with outcomes defined by the quality and durability of decisions taken today.

Milind Shah, Managing Director, Randstad Digital India

National Technology Day is an opportunity to recognise India's technological achievements while focusing on execution capacity as ambition begins to outpace the availability of specialised talent. India is on track to become one of the world's largest digital infrastructure markets this decade. What now requires equal emphasis is the depth and readiness of the talent pipeline. The long-term success of India's technology ambitions will depend not just on infrastructure, but on the capability of the people who build and sustain it.

Sachin Panicker, Chief AI Officer, Fulcrum Digital

National Technology Day is a reminder that innovation must go hand in hand with responsibility. As AI, data and cloud become core to enterprise operations, organisations must prioritise governance, trust and resilience alongside transformation. The challenge today is not just deploying intelligent systems, but ensuring they are secure, explainable and aligned with business outcomes. With AI-driven threats reshaping enterprise risk, cybersecurity and adaptive, resilient operations will define the next phase of sustainable, future-ready growth.

Narendra Sen, Founder & CEO, RackBank & NeevCloud

AI is the new electricity, and India is building the power grid for it. With the IndiaAI Mission, data localisation frameworks, and policies enabling digital self-reliance, India stands at a defining moment. Data centres are no longer just facilities, they are the backbone of our AI future, determining the pace and sovereignty of everything we build. Bridging India's infrastructure gap is not just a business opportunity, it is a national responsibility. India will not just adopt AI, India will own it."

Sunil Sharma, Managing Director & VP – Sales (India & SAARC), Sophos

National Technology Day reminds us that India's digital progress is defined not just by how fast we innovate, but by how securely we scale. In an AI-first hyper-connected world, cybersecurity must be foundational infrastructure. From deepfakes to AI-driven attacks, the threat landscape is evolving at unprecedented speed. Organisations must move beyond reactive security toward continuous and real-time threat detection. Identity is the new perimeter. The shift from compliance-led to resilience-led strategies will determine how sustainably India leads in digital adoption.

AS Prasad, Vice President, Product Management, Vertiv

India crossed a technological threshold in 1998 that reshaped its future. Twenty-seven years later, the ambition is bigger and the stakes far higher. The next decade of AI will be defined by infrastructure, power systems, cooling technologies and data center design decisions being made today. At Vertiv, we are focused on building the critical infrastructure needed to power India’s AI growth at scale. National Technology Day is not just a milestone to celebrate, but a moment to ask whether we are engineering boldly enough for the future ahead.

Kumar Rajagopalan, Vice President – Strategic Initiatives and Country Head, India, Dexian

Quote: Inclusive growth can only be achieved when innovation is guided by responsibility, ethics, and human-centric thinking. Technology today has the power to transform industries, improve livelihoods, and create new opportunities at scale, but its success depends on how equitably it is implemented. Organizations must prioritize collaboration, digital inclusion, and skill development to ensure innovation benefits not just businesses, but communities and future generations as well.

Dr. Kanishk Agrawal, Chief Technology Officer, Judge Group, India

Innovation that is responsible doesn't only focus on creating new, innovative technologies but also equally spreading the progress throughout all sectors of society. The only time we know we are achieving real growth is when there is a conscious effort to develop products and services with three things kept in mind: accessibility, affordability; and long-term positive impact. As industries move to adopt AI (Artificial Intelligence), Digital Transformation and Automation, organizations need to focus on developing solutions that empower individuals; close the gap between opportunity and employment; and contribute toward a sustainable/inclusive economy.

Ankush Sabharwal, Founder & CEO, CoRover.ai

Responsible innovation is about scaling trust, access, and opportunity across all communities, not inequality. India's real strength lies in building AI and digital infrastructure that is ethical, inclusive, and purposefully designed for all of Bharat, not just urban markets. On National Technology Day, the priority is unambiguous: innovate with a clear purpose, democratize access, and ensure technology becomes a powerful force multiplier for truly inclusive growth, long-term economic resilience, and sustained national progress.