AI Summits & Musical Roads Can Wait: India Needs The Basics First

The India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi drew global attention with massive investment commitments, international tech partnerships, and the New Delhi Declaration on equitable, trusted AI. It signalled ambition. It signalled scale. It signalled India’s intent to lead the next technological era.

But step outside the summit hall at 8:30 p.m. and drive from Delhi to Gurgaon to witness another side of New India, the everyday chaos on the roads. It is not new. It has always existed. But in recent years, it has moved from bad to significantly worse.

In 2026, a 30-kilometre stretch on NH-48 can take longer than a flight to Mumbai. Google Maps may promise 45 minutes; however, peak-hour traffic routinely stretches that to 90 minutes or even 120 minutes. Flyovers and express corridors are expected to reduce the commute to 25–30 minutes someday. Until then, the gridlock persists.

If you need a restroom during that crawl, reliable public facilities along the highway are rare. If you are in an ambulance, sirens do not guarantee passage. In 2025, Delhi recorded 1,617 road fatalities across 1,578 fatal accidents — a 4.2 per cent increase over the previous year and the highest toll in seven years. Congestion is not merely an inconvenience; it signals safety gaps and systemic strain.

Not a Delhi-only story

Bengaluru’s arterial roads freeze during peak hours. Mumbai’s monsoons expose drainage fragility, turning daily commutes into slow navigation through waterlogged stretches and concealed potholes. Gurgaon’s crawl has become a ritual of resignation. Hyderabad and Kolkata carry their own versions of the same stress: high vehicle density, uneven infrastructure, and inconsistent enforcement.

The compromise does not stop at time

We compromise on air quality that makes stepping outside a health calculation. We compromise on water quality that demands filtration, boiling, and constant vigilance. We compromise on food safety to the point where even physicians advise caution.

A doctor recently told me to avoid eating out even at the best establishments because one never knows what stomach infection might come home. In cities like Gurgaon, where public parks, cultural spaces, and open recreational facilities remain limited, “going out” often translates into eating out. Entertainment becomes consumption. And even that comes with risk.

Over time, these compromises accumulate. The air we breathe, the water we drink, the infections we normalise, the lack of safe public spaces for children to run or families to gather — they all erode quality of life in quiet, unmeasured ways. We adjust. We install air purifiers. We order bottled water. We carry medication. We accept that falling sick a few times a year is routine.

We adapt. We leave earlier. We build buffers into our schedules. We trade live traffic updates on WhatsApp. Dysfunction fades into background noise.

Road to Viksit Bharat 2047

The gap between ambition and basics is not about rejecting AI. It is about sequencing priorities.

A functioning city rests on predictable fundamentals: roads engineered and maintained for real traffic loads; clearly marked lanes that are respected; drainage that withstands seasonal stress; clean, accessible public toilets; synchronised and enforced traffic signals; reliable waste management; safe public water; breathable air; and accessible, well-maintained public recreational spaces. These are not glamorous investments. They do not trend on social media. They shape daily life and public health.

Cities such as Dubai can showcase futuristic prototypes because core systems — roads, signage, enforcement, sanitation, and public amenities are already dependable. Reliability enables experimentation. When the ground works, you can look skyward.

In India, we are attempting both at once.

The broader vision of “Viksit Bharat 2047” cannot rest solely on semiconductor fabs and data centres; it must also rest on lived experience. A two-hour commute on a 30-kilometre stretch carries economic and psychological costs. So does air that damages lungs, water that demands suspicion, and urban design that reduces leisure to restaurant tables inside malls.

None of this argues against AI investment. Intelligent transport systems, predictive maintenance, environmental monitoring, and data-driven governance can meaningfully improve urban management. But advanced tools work best on stable foundations. Algorithms cannot indefinitely compensate for broken lanes, unmanaged encroachments, unsafe food handling, weak sanitation systems, or absent public infrastructure.

The question is not whether India should lead in AI. It is whether we can pursue that leadership while treating everyday urban functionality and public health as urgent rather than peripheral.

Authored by Radhika Dhingra, freelance writer. Views expressed by the author are their own.