PM Modi At VivaTech 2026: The Eiffel Tower, UPI and India’s Bid to Shape the Digital Age

The VivaTech event coincided with the India-France Year of Innovation 2026 and followed the conclusion of the India-European Union Free Trade Agreement. Such developments reveal how technology is becoming a central pillar of strategic partnerships across the globe.

If the twentieth century belonged to industrial giants and the early twenty-first century to internet monopolies, the coming decades will belong to nations that can democratize technology at scale. India is keen to establish its credentials in this domain.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s presence at VivaTech 2026 in Paris was a carefully choreographed statement about power, influence, and the future of technological leadership. At Europe’s largest startup and innovation gathering, where participants from more than 170 countries converge to showcase ideas and forge partnerships, India arrived with the confidence and ambition befitting the event’s AI Country Partner.

For decades, India was viewed largely through the lens of being a vast consumer market and a reliable provider of software services. Paris offered a different picture. More than 80 Indian deep-tech startups showcased innovations spanning artificial intelligence, robotics, cybersecurity, health-tech, advanced manufacturing, and space technologies.

From the World’s Back Office to Its Digital Laboratory

Technology leadership is rarely measured by the number of startups a country produces. Its true test lies in whether innovation can solve problems at scale and whether those solutions remain relevant beyond national borders.

A dairy farmer using AI, a fisherman guided by satellites, and a village family receiving a digital property title tell a far more compelling story than any startup valuation. Together, they reflect an effort to deploy advanced technology not merely in elite sectors but across the everyday lives of ordinary citizens. That philosophy was on display at India’s VivaTech pavilion, built around the theme “Tech for Humanity.”

At a time when much of the global discourse on artificial intelligence is shaped by questions of market dominance and corporate rivalry, India sought to present technology as a public good capable of widening opportunity, deepening participation, and driving inclusive development.

Prime Minister Modi captured this idea through a phrase that resonated beyond the conference halls. AI, he argued, should stand for “All Inclusive.” Whether one agrees with the slogan or not, it neatly summarises the model India is trying to project to the world.

The ambition is to create a digital ecosystem where technology becomes infrastructure, much like roads, electricity or railways, rather than a privilege available only to those who can afford it.

The Power of Scale

What distinguishes India from many emerging technology powers is not simply its capacity to innovate but its ability to deploy innovation across an enormous population. The Unified Payments Interface, or UPI, remains the most visible example. According to IMF-recognised assessments, UPI now accounts for nearly 49 per cent of all real-time digital payment transactions globally. During FY 2025-26 alone, the platform processed an astonishing 241.6 billion transactions.

Large numbers often lose their meaning through repetition. Their significance becomes clearer when translated into everyday experience. Few examples capture India’s digital transformation better than the fact that an Indian payment system now operates beneath one of Europe’s most iconic landmarks. Visitors can make payments through UPI at the Eiffel Tower, a striking reminder of how a platform originally designed for small merchants and ordinary consumers in Indian towns has found acceptance in the heart of Paris. It is a powerful illustration of how domestic digital infrastructure can evolve into a global public utility.

UPI embodies a broader vision that India has been refining over the past decade: the creation of digital public infrastructure that is affordable and accessible. As governments around the world search for alternatives to ecosystems dominated either by large technology corporations or tightly controlled state structures, India’s model is drawing attention as a distinct and potentially replicable path.

The Village as a Technology Frontier

One of the most striking aspects of India’s digital story is that some of its most consequential innovations are unfolding far from metropolitan technology hubs. For generations, millions of rural Indians possessed land but lacked formal ownership documents, leading to grave consequences as families often struggled to access institutional credit because they could not prove ownership of assets that had belonged to them for decades.

The SVAMITVA programme sought to address this problem through drone mapping and digital surveys. More than 31 million property cards have now been distributed across rural India, formalising ownership rights on an unprecedented scale.

The significance of this initiative extends beyond administrative efficiency because when a villager receives a legally recognised property card, an informal asset can suddenly become bankable collateral. A bureaucratic exercise becomes an economic opportunity. Here, India’s technology narrative acquires a distinctly human dimension. The story is not merely about software or algorithms but about expanding access to capital, reducing uncertainty and bringing citizens into formal economic systems.

The same logic underpins AI-enabled agricultural services, satellite-based fisheries management, and digital governance platforms. Innovation becomes meaningful when it improves lives rather than merely generating headlines.

Modi highlighted these initiatives to demonstrate how India has sought to democratise technology by extending its benefits far beyond urban centres and privileged communities. The innovations showcased in Paris reflected years of effort to build solutions for scale, accessibility, and inclusion. In doing so, Indian entrepreneurs and technologists projected the country not merely as a vast market for innovation, but as a credible partner in shaping the next phase of the global technological revolution.

The New Contest Is About Standards

Technology is shaping geopolitics in ways that resemble the industrial competition of earlier centuries. Countries no longer compete only for markets. They compete to define standards, build platforms and establish rules that others eventually adopt. A nation that controls neither the platforms nor the standards remains dependent on those who do. India’s message from Paris signalled that it seeks to control both.

The world’s technology ecosystem remains heavily concentrated around a handful of power centres. American firms dominate many digital platforms. China has developed a formidable state-backed technological architecture. Europe, meanwhile, has emerged as an influential regulator, often shaping the rules under which technology operates globally.

India is attempting to occupy a distinct space in the global technology landscape. Rather than replicating existing models, it seeks to build a framework anchored in democratic governance, open digital infrastructure, and broad-based inclusion. The effort has steadily strengthened India's reputation as a country capable of contributing not only products and services, but also ideas about how technology should be developed, deployed, and governed. As debates over digital sovereignty, artificial intelligence, and data governance intensify, that intellectual contribution may prove as consequential as technological innovation itself.

Why France and Europe Matter

PM Modi and President Emmanuel Macron

The VivaTech event coincided with the India-France Year of Innovation 2026 and followed the conclusion of the India-European Union Free Trade Agreement. Such developments reveal how technology is becoming a central pillar of strategic partnerships across the globe.

Historically, India-France ties rested on defence cooperation, nuclear collaboration and space programmes. Those foundations remain important, but the relationship is now expanding into artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, quantum technologies and advanced research. The joint presence of Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron reflected a shared recognition that technological capability shapes economic competitiveness, national security and geopolitical influence.

Europe’s search for technological resilience has acquired fresh urgency in recent years. Supply-chain disruptions, strategic rivalries and concerns over digital dependence have encouraged European nations to diversify partnerships and reduce vulnerabilities. For Europe, India offers a compelling combination of engineering talent, democratic institutions, market scale and innovation capacity. For India, Europe represents access to advanced research ecosystems, capital, regulatory cooperation and high-value markets. The partnership is therefore not transactional but strategic.

A Seat at the Table Where the Future Is Designed

Today, India is home to more than 200,000 startups, while government incentives exceeding USD 50 billion have strengthened its appeal as a destination for innovation and investment. Yet the larger significance of VivaTech 2026 extended well beyond economics.

In Paris, India signalled that it seeks influence not only over products and markets, but also over the protocols, standards, and governance frameworks that will shape the digital age. That ambition remains a work in progress. India must deepen its research ecosystem, strengthen advanced manufacturing capabilities, and transform startup momentum into globally competitive technology champions. Even so, VivaTech revealed an important shift.

The question is no longer whether India belongs among the world's leading technology nations, but what kind of technological power it intends to become.

The answer matters because the rules governing artificial intelligence, digital infrastructure, data flows, and emerging technologies are still being written. Those rules will shape economic opportunity, strategic influence, and geopolitical power for decades to come. From the halls of Paris, India sent a clear message that it does not intend to merely adapt to the future designed by others. It intends to help design that future itself.