Sarvam AI co-founder Pratyush Kumar is set to join a host of visionaries on at the AI Summit 2026, hosted by NDTV at ITC Maurya. The Summit coincides with the government's five-day India AI Impact Summit inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday at Bharat Mandapam.
Who Is Pratyush Kumar?
Pratyush Kumar completed his BTech in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from IIT Bombay in 2009. He went on to earn a PhD in Computer Engineering from ETH Zurich in 2014.
Kumar then joined IBM Research in 2015 as a research scientist. He worked on advanced AI and computing projects. He subsequently spent two years as a researcher at Microsoft Research.
From 2018 to 2021, he served as faculty at IIT Madras. He remains adjunct faculty at IIT Madras.
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Pratyush Kumar Entrepreneurial Roles
He co-founded Sarvam AI alongside Vivek Raghavan. The company has claimed that its AI models outperform global leaders such as Google Gemini and OpenAI's ChatGPT.
Kumar also spearheaded AI4Bharat, an initiative dedicated to creating AI tools for Indian languages.
Kumar also launched PadhAI, an online learning platform designed to make high-quality education more affordable and scalable.
In 2019, he co-founded One Fourth Labs, a venture specialising in AI education and consulting.
Also Read | Sarvam vs ChatGPT And Gemini: Which AI Fits Your Needs
India AI Impact Summit 2026
On Monday, at the India AI Impact Summit 2026, Pratyush Kumar discussed the need for India to move “beyond English” in AI to effectively serve its diverse population.
“What somebody in a village in Maharashtra feels versus what somebody feels in Western Europe could be very different,” he said. “There needs to be a constant effort to create benchmarks which capture the subjective experience of people using these things. This involves personal signatures like my voice, my language, my context, and my vocabulary.”
“I personally feel that the fairest thing to do is to make it available to all, and not gate it with too many things,” he added.
Sarvam AI's India-focused models and products, including Sarvam Vision, Bulbul V3, and Sarvam Arya, are designed to handle local languages, cultural nuances, and diverse user contexts.
NDTV Ind.AI Summit
The NDTV Ind.AI Summit brings together policymakers, industry leaders, innovators, and thinkers to shape an AI future that is rooted in human values and ethical responsibility.
Built on two core pillars - India's Human-Centric AI Agenda for the World and Safe, Responsible & Impact-Driven AI - the summit champions a people-first approach. It envisions AI as a force that elevates humanity, drives inclusive growth, and safeguards societal well-being while accelerating innovation.
