Kolkata, Aug 10: The next wave of AI innovation will be shaped by how startups combine emerging technologies to solve real-world business and societal challenges. This was the focus of AI Day for Startups India 2026 in Kolkata, hosted by IIM Calcutta Innovation Park in collaboration with Google for Developers.
The day-long programme brought together close to 200startup founders, CXOs, developers, investors and AI practitioners at the IIM Calcutta Innovation Park campus.
A key highlight of the programme was the panel discussion, “The Multi-Stack Advantage: Architecting Autonomy, Sovereignty, and Physical Intelligence in 2026.” The session featured Rimjhim Ray, Co-founder, Wavo.ai; Udit Sharma, Co-founder, DDL Labs; and Saikat Biswas, Angel Investor, and was moderated by Pranjal Konwar, COO, IIM Calcutta Innovation Park.
Panellists examined how Agentic AI, Multimodal AI, Sovereign AI, Physical AI and Edge Intelligence can work together to enable autonomous decision-making, process different forms of data, support specialised and localised applications, and extend intelligence beyond software into devices and physical systems. The discussion also underscored the importance of taking a market-first approach to innovation, encouraging founders to identify products that can be brought to market quickly, validate demand before scaling, and build effective distribution strategies to succeed in India’s dynamic and price-sensitive market.
Delivering the opening keynote, Ajay Jain, Chairman, IIM Calcutta Innovation Park, highlighted the importance of enabling startups to participate meaningfully in India’s evolving AI ecosystem. He said,
“Strengthening the Indian entrepreneurship ecosystem with progressive solutions has been integral to our goal as a leading startup incubator. Our aim through this collaboration with Google for Developers is to equip entrepreneurs with the knowledge and opportunity to harness the power of AI in solving real-world challenges and build scalable, commercially viable solutions. Founders who combine technological innovation with a deep understanding of local needs will be best positioned to build globally competitive enterprises.”
The event featured a deep dive into Google’s AI stack led by Shubham Vishwakarma, Google, followed by a three-hour Build with Google AI Hackathon led by Imran Roshan and Senthil Kumar, Google Developer Experts. Participants used tools including Gemini API, Gemma, Google AI Studio, Veo, Lyria and Google Cloud to prototype AI applications through hands-on product development.
Participants were encouraged to identify high-impact use cases where AI could improve productivity, decision-making, customer experience and access to essential services, supported by reliable data and responsible AI architecture.
AI Day for Startups is a multi-city initiative designed by Google for Indian startups and hosted in partnership with startup ecosystem organisations across the country. The initiative aims to equip early-stage ventures with the knowledge, tools and technical capabilities required to integrate AI into their products and build market-ready applications.
The Kolkata edition forms part of IIM Calcutta Innovation Park’s broader efforts to strengthen entrepreneurship across Eastern and Northeastern India through incubation, access to technology, industry partnerships, investor networks and capacity building.