Much has been discussed and debated about India’s AI Impact Event- an affair that promised global collaboration yet stumbled at the starting line, leaving us stranded in the global race.

Much has been written and spoken about the mismanagement, the unending queues of crowds, and overcrowded halls of frustrated founders.

Much has been ridiculed and ‘memed’ about an International Summit that was a platform to showcase India’s preparedness for the AI but was instead reduced to an immature display of a school level science project.

Even a child knows that major events are not organized like this, where the entire design is not about Innovation, Research and Development, but about generating money and photo ops.

So this isn’t about the Summit per se. It is about an approach of leaving behind Science and Knowledge and taking over Propaganda. This is about an uncomfortable truth where there is more bad news than good. But what is really troubling is that this ‘bad news’ wasn’t even debated openly but followed the new trend of first erasing it slowly from official language, and then from public memory.

But the truth is that you cannot keep sugarcoating events that look strong on the net but are fragile underneath. And that is why we need to talk about the money playing role of a particular university that was a major advertiser in this global event- The Galgotia University.

Ranked as India's No.1 University in 2025, it received a Diamond brand and was also awarded the National Excellence Honour at the Pride of Nation Awards 2025 for Nationalism, Patriotism and nation building through academic and beyond academic activities. We need to talk about how it was singled out to be showcased and promoted, not only by Doordarshan but the entire mainstream media. We need to talk about the Truth. For all said and done, Truth my dear friends is greater than any electoral advantage. Give me millions of votes on one hand and take away one atom of truth from the other and I will still be the loser. I wonder when our leaders will understand this bitter reality.

Right now we are on the threshold of a fourth Industrial Revolution. The first was ‘Steam’. The second was ‘Electricity’. The third was ‘Digital’. This AI Impact Event was a serious business because this was a great opportunity for us to score over the rest of the world to create our own space in this Fourth Revolution.

In the first industry revolution, the one that led to the Renaissance we weren’t there. In the second the US and other countries played a key role. But in the third, because of Rajiv Gandhi’s timely initiative, we were on our way to becoming an IT superpower.

We had the education infrastructure and the data to lead the AI revolution. But the truth is that our entire education system, which was so painstakingly created over the last seven decades, is now being compromised. Even if we have enough brain power, not everyone is given a chance to showcase it. We have enough resources in terms of data, but nothing is real. After wasting crucial years, we now stand brutally exposed in a sad saga of missed opportunities and false propaganda where nobody takes accountability.

Yes, we do have a lot of technological advancements, but they are not in the news. What is in the news, is a Summit chaos and this whole propensity to bamboozle the world. What is in the news is a Robo Dog and a Thermocol Drone, the idea which was stolen from China and Korea. And what is in the news, are some Galgotian jokers exposing India as a country of cheaters.

Galgotia University is just the tip of the propaganda Iceberg. The lady Professor is just one of the symptoms of a larger problem. Since she works in an environment where telling lies after lies after lies is an art form that is being developed and mastered, she is just following the footsteps of a ‘Fake In India’ project. So I don’t blame her, but what about the children? The ones who are paying huge amounts to get enrolled in such universities? What are you teaching them? That it is okay to cheat, cook up a story, file a patent, go on a global stage and be kicked out to become a laughing stock?

When propaganda takes over Science and Technology; when its knowledge is misused to serve political power; when funding is steered towards projects that support specific agendas; when the rot in the system is imitation, not innovation; when self deception is marketed as self reliance, it is time for all of us to take notice. As for the Teachers, it becomes their prime duty to guide the children, not mislead them. If they help the students to serve blatant lies in a global banquet, it can have a long term effect on their overall well being.

By staying silent we will be doing a big disservice, not only to the future of our nation but also to an entire generation. Children are the future leaders of our country. They cannot be taught how to deceive, defraud and dupe the world. When lies and propaganda dominate, it drowns knowledge, smothers critical thinking and suppresses scientific inquiry, all of which thrive on questioning.

So YES, all Indians should be worried because in an International forum, this was not only a blunder of sorts, it was a huge global embarrassment.

Why? Because, instead of posing India as a Superpower of Artificial Intelligence, a Teacher with her Natural Stupidity has exposed India as a country of juvenile cheaters. This was a complete waste of opportunity. We should NOT have faced this humiliation. This was something that could have been avoided. But only if we would have let our Gyan and Vigyan overshadow Vigyapan!

Nargis Natarajan is a commentator on social issues. The views expressed here are the writer’s own.

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