From Karmayogi to the World Stage: Dr. Hemant Garg Wins “Excellence in AI for Public Policy”, Charts India’s Path to the AI Big League

Civil servant, researcher and AI pioneer tells the 3rd World AI Summit, Bengaluru, that people-first, sovereign AI can make India a global AI leader

Bengaluru, India, 16th October 2026, ZEX PR WIRE  — Dr. Hemant Garg, Deputy Director (Legal), Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC), Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India, received the “Excellence in AI for Public Policy” award at the 3rd World AI Summit in Bengaluru on 14–15 October 2026, placing an Indian public-policy voice at the centre of the global debate on how AI should serve people.

Dr. Garg described all of his work, from AI agents for government to AI-led labour law outreach, as an effort to help realise Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s vision of Viksit Bharat@2047, under the leadership of Hon’ble Union Labour and Employment Minister Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya, whose Shramev Jayate reforms, Labour Codes and Ease of Doing Business drive set the direction. The goal, he said, is an Atmanirbhar Bharat in AI, built on a Bharat AI Stack: Indian large language models such as Sarvam, the Bhashini platform serving citizens in their own languages, and home-grown agents and talent under the IndiaAI Mission, taking India into the global AI league.

Held with Digital India, the National e-Governance Division (NeGD) and the Karnataka Digital Economy Mission (KDEM) as partners in Bengaluru, India’s startup, IT and now AI capital, often called India’s Silicon Valley, the Summit was themed “AI for All: Accelerating India’s Journey Towards Inclusive, Responsible and Future-Ready AI”.

The award honours his creation in 2023 of “IFSCA Karmayogi”, the first AI agent at the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA), GIFT City, and his research on AI in anti-money laundering, the Labour Codes and algorithmic management of gig workers.

On the panel “AI for All – India’s Journey to a Sovereign, Inclusive AI Future”, with Shri Aman Mittal, IAS, Dr. BVRC Purushottam, IAS and Prof. (Dr.) T. G. Sitharam, former Chairman, AICTE, moderated by Dr. Ravi Gupta, Dr. Garg said inclusive AI must include the worker, and that India can blend Europe’s rights-based approach, US-style audits and Singapore’s skilling model through its Labour Codes, the DPDP Act and e-Shram.

His keynote, “AI, Employment & Skills: Building a Future-Ready Workforce for India”, presented as “From Files to Foresight”, began with a worker disabled in an accident, or a family that has lost its breadwinner, whose care and pensions depend on ESIC, EPFO, the Ministry of Labour and Employment and the National Health Authority. “The true test of AI in government is how quickly that family receives its benefits, and whether it is treated with dignity on the way,” he said.

He traced three waves of governance: e-Governance, which put paper online; Digital Governance, built on India’s digital public infrastructure; and now AI-enabled Intelligent Governance, where benefits reach eligible citizens without their having to apply.

Dr. Garg propounded that AI will change tasks first, then jobs, then institutions and the workforce, and called for institutions for AI governance, impact assessment and exposure mapping to curb job attrition, support reskilling and compensate workers in transition. e-Shram, ESIC and EPFO, now reaching gig and platform workers, can extend social security to those left out, while indigenous models such as Sarvam and Bhashini can grow home-grown AI talent under the IndiaAI Mission.

Government AI, he said, must be lawful, explainable and accountable; “a pattern is not proof”; and India must guard against a new colonisation “not by ships, but by servers”. He proposed “Five Ts”: Trust, Transparency, Talent, Thin and safe data, and Tested-then-scaled.

An LLB, LLM and Ph.D., and an IIT Delhi CTO Programme alumnus with nearly two decades in public service, including Punjab’s Department of Cooperation, Dr. Garg has researched digital governance in governments and cooperatives extensively; his work is published internationally, taught in universities and presented at Oxford, Harvard and Cambridge.

“Not artificial intelligence replacing governance, but intelligent governance that remains deeply human,” he concluded.

Connect with Dr. Hemant Garg on LinkedIn: https://in.linkedin.com/in/dr-hemant-garg-2b26699