AI in Action: BRICS Ethics, BES Disruption, and Agentic Innovation

The AI4India Weekly #60

Jul 09, 2025

From global diplomacy to newsroom disruptions, AI took center stage this week. At the BRICS Summit in Brazil, Prime Minister Modi championed a vision for ethical AI with global impact, while back home, India’s broadcast industry explored how AI could transform media—from content creation to public service broadcasting. This edition of the AI4India Weekly brings you insights from international diplomacy, in-depth discussions on agentic AI and data commons, and key moments from BES Expo 2025 where AI4India led conversations shaping India’s AI-powered media future.

BRICS and the Future of Responsible AI

At the recently concluded BRICS Summit in Brazil, Prime Minister Narendra Modi placed a powerful spotlight on ethical AI, urging fellow member nations to come together in shaping a responsible AI ecosystem. In his address, he invited BRICS countries to actively participate in India’s upcoming Global AI Impact Summit, aimed at aligning AI progress with inclusivity, trust, and accountability. Modi emphasized the importance of strengthening global governance structures to ensure AI is not misused and stressed India's commitment to using AI for social good, particularly in areas such as agriculture, healthcare, and education.

Echoing India's vision, the BRICS leaders jointly underscored the need for robust data protection mechanisms to prevent unauthorized AI use. The summit communiqué also emphasized the development of secure and inclusive digital infrastructures, capacity-building initiatives, and cross-border collaboration in emerging technologies. With India leading efforts in both AI innovation and its ethical guardrails, the BRICS bloc appears poised to become a powerful voice in defining a human-centric global AI order.

Shashi Shekhar Vempati on Deep Tech, AI, and India’s Future

In a new episode of Jagran Manthan, Shashi Shekhar Vempati shares a comprehensive and thought-provoking perspective on India’s technological journey—from digital empowerment to deep tech self-reliance. He reflects on how India's strength lies in integrating scientific inquiry with engineering pragmatism, propelling innovations in AI and other frontier technologies. Vempati explores how India can uniquely shape global AI narratives through indigenous language models, robust public digital infrastructure, and data commons like #DataDaan. The podcast goes beyond trends, diving deep into how AI can serve national development while upholding India’s cultural and ethical values.

Watch the full podcast below!

Raj Bhatt on Agentic AI: Promise, Pitfalls, and the Path Ahead

In the latest AI4India podcast, Raj Bhatt—CEO of Knowledge Foundry—unpacks the evolving world of agentic AI and its growing relevance for enterprise applications. He draws a sharp contrast between traditional LLMs and AI agents, highlighting how agentic systems can plan, reflect, and autonomously act using tools and sub-agents. Yet, as Bhatt warns, many so-called AI agents today are just glorified workflows with limited reasoning or autonomy. He discusses why deployment still lags behind pilots—citing challenges like evaluation frameworks, security concerns, and high costs, especially in emerging markets like India. Raj also stresses the urgency of building Indian datasets to power locally relevant agentic applications—from multilingual voice agents to drone logistics—reinforcing the value of AI4India’s #DataDaan initiative.

Watch the full podcast below!

AI at BES Expo 2025: Redefining India's Broadcast Future

Held at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, the 2025 edition of the Broadcast Engineering Society (BES) Expo hosted over 100 exhibitors and drew thousands of attendees from across the country. A special focus was placed on indigenous innovation in AI and its relevance to broadcasting—from voice cloning in multiple Indian languages to AI-driven ad targeting and real-time content customization. Sessions highlighted India’s strategic advantage as a hub for affordable AI compute, citing the world's lowest-cost compute facility and the development of two foundational AI models under the IndiaAI initiative. Discussions repeatedly emphasized the need for collaboration between government, academia, and startups to build AI tools tailored for India’s media landscape—tools that are not only cutting-edge, but also culturally and linguistically inclusive.

With a central theme of “AI for the Broadcasting Future,” the expo brought together technologists, media leaders, and policymakers to chart a path forward that is both innovative and indigenous. AI4India Co-Founder Shashi Shekhar Vempati moderated a panel on the shifting economics of broadcast media, joined by Sudhir Chaudhary who shared data-driven insights from his new venture in public broadcasting. Conversations centered on how AI is enabling cost efficiencies, enhancing audience personalization, and opening new revenue models, all while reinforcing the “Make in India” spirit through homegrown AI compute infrastructure and models. Alok Agrawal, Co-Founder - AI4India led a compelling session on AI in News Media, featuring journalists and technologists from India and abroad. The discussion delved into how AI is reshaping every layer of news production—from content gathering and multilingual voiceovers to fact-checking and video editing.

Aligned with the IndiaAI Mission and MeitY’s efforts to ensure the availability of AI-usable data, the #DataDaan campaign by AI4India is now live on DataDaan.org. This initiative invites individuals and organizations to contribute valuable datasets, enriching India’s AI ecosystem and driving innovation across sectors. The platform provides a streamlined process for data contribution, ensuring responsible and impactful AI development. Visit DataDaan.org to explore the initiative and be part of this transformative effort.

NOTE: The views expressed by the authors are their own. AI4India as a forum does not endorse any comments on specific brands, products, platforms or companies.

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THE AI4INDIA WEEKLY

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