Mumbai, May 29: Hon’ble Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Shri Devendra Fadnavis, today opening Mumbai Tech Week (MTW) 2026 at the Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai and highlighted the State Government’s focus on strengthening Maharashtra’s position in technology, AI and digital innovation.Addressing the inaugural session of the two-day event, Shri Fadnavis highlighted the growing role of AI in driving technological advancement and economic development, and emphasised the need for continued focus on digital infrastructure, innovation and emerging technologies. He also spoke about the importance of creating a conducive environment for technology adoption, research and innovation-led growth across sectors.
Shri Devendra Fadnavis said, “AI innovation in Maharashtra is not just on paper, it is already being implemented on the ground. For innovation to scale, access to computing infrastructure is critical. Today, we are operating in an era driven by GPUs and advanced computing, and if innovators do not have access to these resources or cannot afford them, innovation gets constrained.”
Shri Fadnavis further stated, “To address this, we are creating a ‘Compute as a Service’ facility, under which we will provide access to 2,000 GPUs to innovators so that they can directly leverage high-end computing infrastructure for building and scaling solutions. Maharashtra has the talent and the ecosystem to lead the AI revolution in India. This transformation has already begun, and it will continue to strengthen in the years ahead. Maharashtra has already emerged as the startup capital of India for three consecutive years in terms of both number of startups and investment, and we are committed to strengthening this position further.”
The event also showcased several AI-led governance initiatives being implemented by the Government of Maharashtra across agriculture, urban governance and public administration. Among the key demonstrations was ‘Mahavistar AI’, an AI-powered platform developed for farmers that provides hyper-local weather updates, crop advisories, mandi prices, pest and disease detection, and government scheme information through text and voice support in local languages. The platform currently supports over 4 million farmers across Maharashtra.
Another key showcase was BMC’s AI-powered building proposal management system, ‘CIVIT’ — described as India’s first AI-powered digital approval twin for building permissions. The platform uses 12 specialised AI agents to assist architects and applicants through the approval process by identifying compliance gaps, validating documents, enabling automated form filling, and improving proposal readiness before submission, aimed at reducing delays and improving transparency in urban governance.
MTW 2026 is being organised by the Tech Entrepreneurs Association of Mumbai (TEAM) in collaboration with the Government of Maharashtra and co-powered by Meta.
The event is centred around the theme “India: AI in Action” and features participation from leading global technology companies including OpenAI, Meta, Anthropic, Google Cloud and Neysa, showcasing their technologies. The event will also feature the AI Excellence Awards 2026, an Early Stage Startup Showcase, an AI-powered Job Fair, Masterclasses, and Stories Unplugged sessions.
The event reflects Maharashtra’s continued efforts to support technology-led development, encourage innovation across sectors and strengthen Mumbai’s role in India’s evolving digital and AI landscape. The event also reflects Mumbai’s growing importance as a centre for technology, innovation and enterprise, bringing together startups, industry leaders, global technology companies and policymakers on a common platform focused on AI and emerging technologies.