On February 17, 2026, PM Modi and President Emmanuel Macron elevated their bilateral relationship to a “Special Global Strategic Partnership” and jointly launched the “India-France Year of Innovation 2026.” This initiative calls for enhanced and diversified cooperation across areas such as artificial intelligence, innovation, research, technology (including digital and cyberspace), health, culture, the economy, educational linkages, and people-to-people ties.
Building upon the “Horizon 2047” roadmap and their shared innovation journey, India and France recognize innovation as a central driver of economic resilience, sustainable development, strategic autonomy, and technological and industrial sovereignty. Both sides agree that a robust innovation partnership will help unlock the full innovation potential of both nations and contribute to addressing global challenges.
Both parties acknowledge that India’s “Viksit Bharat 2047” vision and France’s goals under “France 2030” offer strong synergies for forging a future-oriented innovation partnership, thereby paving the way for new investment opportunities in disruptive innovation. Consequently, India and France are adopting the “India-France Innovation Roadmap 2030” as a framework to guide their joint efforts in advancing the co-development of critical and emerging technologies, strengthening trusted technology ecosystems, enhancing academic and research mobility, and delivering tangible outcomes for people, the planet, and shared prosperity. This roadmap includes the following key elements:
I. Partnership for ‘Trustworthy AI’ as a key pillar of the Innovation Partnership: Building upon the India-France Declaration on Artificial Intelligence (February 2025) and the AI Action and Impact Summits hosted by France and India in 2025 and 2026, both nations agree to make ‘Trustworthy AI’ a central pillar of their innovation partnership.
● Safe and Trustworthy AI Systems: Both sides will collaborate to promote safe and trustworthy AI systems that align with democratic values and human rights, prevent discrimination and the spread of misinformation, and support the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. They will foster cooperation among regulators, standards bodies, and technical experts to advance interoperable, risk-based approaches to AI governance—including for frontier and generative models—while ensuring that innovation and national development are not hindered.
● Cooperation on Online Child Safety as a priority of the AI partnership: Recognizing the significant risks posed by AI-enabled services to vulnerable groups—particularly children—in the digital environment, India and France agree to deepen their cooperation on online child safety as a priority within their AI partnership. Building on the Expert Engagement Group on AI and Child Safety (convened at the AI Impact Summit 2026) and India’s emerging techno-legal framework for online child safety, both sides will create concrete synergies between their ongoing initiatives. These include privacy-preserving age assurance, safety-by-design architecture, and outcome-based safety standards for AI systems that directly interact with children. ● Importance of privacy-preserving data sharing frameworks: India and France recognize the importance of privacy-preserving data sharing frameworks to unlock the full potential of AI and data-driven innovation while safeguarding fundamental rights. India’s Data Empowerment and Protection Architecture (DEPA) and France’s work on trusted data spaces and health data platforms offer complementary strengths that can support secure, consent-based data flows for research, healthcare, and public services.
II. Partnership for enhanced people-to-people cooperation through academic mobility: In line with shared goals under the Horizon 2047 framework, both sides acknowledge that investments in STEM education, research partnerships, talent mobility, and institutional collaboration will play a pivotal role in preparing future generations to tackle global challenges. In this regard, both sides recognize the significance of France’s goal to welcome 30,000 Indian students by 2030 and reiterate their commitment to strengthening people-to-people ties as the foundation of the bilateral partnership. In this context, both sides welcome the following initiatives:
● Mutual Recognition of Qualifications (MRQ): Recognizing the crucial role of mobility and academic integration in sustaining long-term innovation partnerships, both sides reaffirm the importance of strengthening the mutual recognition framework for higher education and professional qualifications. Recalling that France was the first country to sign a Mutual Recognition of Qualifications (MRQ) agreement with India in 2018, both sides express their intention to work towards an expanded and updated framework covering a wider range of academic qualifications. (PIB)
