The power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create positive change was the central theme of the second edition of Mint All About AI Tech4Good Awards and Summit, sponsored by Salesforce. Held in Mumbai on November 28, the summit brought together industry leaders, innovators and government officials to celebrate how AI is being used for larger public good – specifically, making communities stronger, promoting inclusion and tackling issues like sustainability, healthcare, education and financial access.
Discussing AI with Purpose
In his opening address, Binoy Prabhakar, Chief Content Officer, HT Digital, welcomed the gathering with a reminder that AI is most powerful not when it replaces humans but when it augments their potential. Reflecting on the core idea behind the event, he said: “At Mint, we have always believed that the real story of AI isn’t about machines replacing humans. It’s about humans redefining what’s possible with machines.”
He highlighted the growth of the initiative, with nearly 300 nominations from India, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines, which is almost triple of the previous year. Categories spanned disability inclusion, sustainability, livelihoods, education, sanitation, agriculture and financial access, reflecting the growing maturity of India’s AI-for-good ecosystem.
Arundhati Bhattacharya, President and CEO, Salesforce South Asia, delivered a welcome note about the critical need for ethical technology use. She explained the fundamental role of tech, saying: “Technology is not just a collection of shiny gadgets or intricate algorithms. At its very heart, it is an unwavering enabler, the courageous bridge that connects the disconnected.” She cautioned that innovation without compassion risks widening social gaps, urging businesses to focus on solutions that are practical and last long-term. “Let us innovate not just for fleeting convenience but for lasting impact,” she added.
Watch the live stream of the Summit below,
Delivering a virtual keynote, Amitabh Kant, former G20 Sherpa and former CEO, NITI Aayog, laid out a strong case for India to build sovereign AI models, warning that dependency on foreign models could compromise both economic and national security interests.
“For a technology as important as this, it is imperative for our country to develop sovereign capabilities… or else our own data will be used to power services owned by others and sold back to us,” he said. He further added that India must build its own complete AI systems. He said: “India must take bold strides to build a thriving end-to-end AI ecosystem. The opportunity is immense, and the potential for global impact is unparalleled.”
Further reinforcing India’s digital progress, Abhishek Singh, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and IT, spoke about the country’s success in digital public infrastructure. “India’s digital public infrastructure story is a shining example of how technology can empower people and expand access to public services,” said Singh.
Effective Implementation of AI
The summit featured discussions on implementing new AI technologies effectively. A fireside chat featuring Arundhati Bhattacharya and Raghav Gupta, Head of Education – India and Asia Pacific at OpenAI, focused on generative AI’s revolutionary role in learning. They discussed how this technology can make education available to more people and the vital need to teach young users how to use AI responsibly.
This was followed by two interesting panel discussions. The first panel, moderated by Leslie D’Monte, Consulting Editor at Mint, focused on ‘Scaling AI responsibly with new technologies’. The panel for this session included Ganesh Gopalan, CEO & Co-Founder, Gnani.AI, Rucha Nanavati, Chief Digital Transformation Officer, Mahindra Automotives, Rishi Verma, Head – Global Artificial Intelligence Center of Excellence, FSS, and Amit Deshpande, SVP – Customer Success, Salesforce, who shared views on the opportunities and hurdles for companies adopting AI. Nanavati shared a practical outlook: “We are at a stage where we are asking, ‘What can AI do for me?’ rather than fearing its impact on jobs.”
The second panel, moderated by Abhishek Singh, Deputy Editor at Mint, explored ‘Data for Good: Making Responsible AI Work at Scale’. Rahul Matthan, Partner at Trilegal and Kashyap Kompella, Founder of RPA2AI Research debated the importance of governance and embedding security into corporate AI systems. Matthan summarised the national benefit: “AI is a necessity for India to flatten its development trajectory and achieve its goals.”
Recognising Innovative AI Solutions
The most exciting part of the evening was the All About AI Tech4Good Awards, which recognised AI innovations making tangible differences. This year was the first time that entries from outside India were included – specifically from Southeast Asian countries Singapore, Malaysia and Philippines.
Best Use of AI for Empowering People with Disabilities
Gold: Sarvam AI – Developed a full-stack generative AI platform enabling multilingual conversational agents in 11 Indian languages, improving inclusion, cost efficiency and digital sovereignty.
Silver: Ridlan AI Foundation – Piloted Milab Setu AI, a facial recognition system that identifies missing elderly and disabled individuals within minutes, achieving a 60 per cent faster identification rate.
Best Use of AI for Sustainability
Gold: EcogenX Innovations – Transformed waste management into a predictive ecosystem, diverting more than 12,000 tons of waste from landfills and enabling real-time waste tracking in three cities.
Silver: Singapore Technologies Engineering – Integrated AI into city traffic operations, reducing incident detection time to under 2 minutes and cutting energy usage by 18 per cent.
Best Use of AI for Financial Inclusion
Gold: Rezo.ai – Deployed an agentic AI platform that improved debt collection efficiency to 96-98 per cent, cut loan approval time to 48 hours and enabled multilingual AI agents across 13 languages.
Silver: Nivinsure – Built AI Suraksha, an AI-driven coverage assistant that reduces claim disputes by 60 per cent, accelerates settlements and improves fraud detection.
Best Use of AI in Agriculture and Food Security
Gold: Sickle Innovations Private – Created an AI optical grading sorting system for fruits and vegetables, boosting accuracy to 95 per cent, tripling sorting speed and cutting labour costs by 40 per cent.
Silver: DayaTani Digital – Developed Park Daya, an AI-powered field advisory platform that improves yields by 18-25 per cent and reduces query resolution time to under 10 minutes.
Best Use of AI in Health and Sanitation
Gold: Remidio Innovative Solutions – Enabled instant, affordable eye screening through AI, reducing costs by 80 per cent and helping Kerala screen 4 lakh rural citizens annually to prevent avoidable blindness.
Silver: Singapore Smart Tech – Used AI-driven analytics to improve orthodontic product design, reducing defects by 35 per cent and improving supply accuracy.
Best Use of AI for Education and Livelihoods
Gold: Niveda Foundation – Deployed AI-driven learning analytics that cut dropout rates from 40 per cent to 12 per cent and improved job placements by 45 per cent.
Silver: Udhyam Learning Foundation – Launched an AI mentor via WhatsApp, enabling 15,000 teams to submit 37,500 project attempts in one week, improving submission quality by 30 per cent.
Special Recognitions
Young Innovators Award: Sudhanshu Yadav – Developed an AI learning assistant that provides personalised step-by-step guidance to help students build confidence and master new skills.
Women Innovators Award: Patenti Technology Solutions – Created an AI-driven IP analysis engine that halves analysis time and improves SCP detection accuracy to 91 per cent, democratising IP intelligence for innovators and enterprises alike.
A future built on ethical AI
The Mint All About AI Tech4Good Awards and Summit 2025 concluded with a clear and optimistic message. The event successfully showcased that the true potential of AI lies not in its complexity, but in its capacity to serve humanity. The summit reinforced the idea that AI is one of the most powerful tools available to build a more inclusive and sustainable world.
Note to Readers: This is a Mint editorial initiative, sponsored by Salesforce.
