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The highly-anticipated India AI Impact Expo & Summit 2026, which opened on February 17 at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi sponsored by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will not have a smooth introduction with thousands of guests experiencing extreme logistical problems during the first day. The Electronics and Information Technology Union Minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw, gave a personal apology of the unacceptable issues, and the Congress President, Mallikarjun Kharge went after the government calling it a sheer chaos and abject misrule.

Startup founders, global executives, investors, and students reported that it was not an easy task to enter the venue:

• There were more than 2-3 hours long queues though the participants had been registered.
• Several cases of mobile phone, laptop, and wallet theft cases were reported within the exhibition halls.
• Most could not register online, scan badges and live-stream with poor Wi-Fi connectivity.
• The crowding at food outlets and rest stations created too much wait and inconveniences.

This led to complaints flooding out social media by late afternoon. Different participants shared videos of serpentines outside Gate 1 and inside the main hall, and such hashtags as #AIChaos2026 and #BharatMandapamFiasco trended on X.

Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw quickly gave an interview to the press outside Bharat Mandapam at around 6 PM:

We are greatly sorry to have inconvenienced Day 1 delegates. Such problems are not acceptable and we are also making corrective actions. There is deployment of other entry counters, more security personnel, better Wi-Fi bandwidth, and special help desks. We promise all that now Days 2 and 3 are going to be smooth.

The minister announced also that in case of loss of items the same could be reported at special counters and assured absolute cooperation with police at Delhi in thefts investigations.

The embarrassment was fast exploited by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge. He declared in a rather emphatic expression:

The so-called largest AI exhibition in India became an Indian school example of priority mismanagement. Waiting in lines, theft, lack of the internet, lack of proper planning all these are the reality behind the tall claims of AI leadership made by the government. How are you going to command the globe over artificial intelligence when you can hardly even make it to your own mountain?

Kharge also expressed doubt of the 1000 crore plus budget on the event and why elementary crowd management learning of past G20 and Republic Day events were overridden.

It was subsequently announced by organisers (MeitY, IndiaAI Mission, and Nasscom) that it had been discovered that Day 1 had teething problems because of the unparalleled footfall, and that henceforth, over 600 startups, 200+ global leadership and global delegations would enjoy a much better experience.

Nevertheless, regardless of the bumpy initiation, the summit still displays state of the art AI demonstrations, policy discussions, and significant announcements, such as the opening of UPI One World and new sovereign AI databases.