Can India Own the Governance Layer for Enterprise AI? | ETGCCWorld SURGE 2026

Can India’s Global Capability Centers (GCCs) move beyond implementing AI policies to help shape enterprise AI governance globally? At ETGCCWorld SURGE 2026, Manish Bharti, Co-founder & CRO of SimplAI, joins leaders from Mattel, Amadeus, Thoughtworks, Fiserv and Flutter Entertainment for a panel discussion on “Can India Own the Governance Layer for Enterprise AI?” As enterprises move from AI experimentation to production, the discussion explores how GCCs can build the trust, capabilities and accountability needed to take greater ownership of responsible AI deployment. Manish Bharti shares his perspective on the evolution of India’s GCCs, the importance of earning trust from global headquarters, and why ownership of the AI stack must connect to business and revenue outcomes. In this discussion: • Moving from implementing AI governance policies to helping shape them • Building consistent AI intake processes and enterprise digital trust centers • Bringing technology, business, legal, risk and ethics expertise together • Connecting AI costs, governance and production readiness through a platform approach • Using AI asset registries, policy-as-code, observability and auditability • Balancing global governance frameworks with local compliance and data residency • Addressing “comprehension debt” as AI takes on more software development • Turning AI proofs of concept into production systems with measurable business value A central theme: governance should help enterprises make faster, more confident decisions. Ownership must come with accountability for security, data, customer outcomes and the systems deployed. PANELISTS • Rajesh Kosuri — Country Head, Mattel Global Business Services • Arun Narayanaswamy — Senior Director of Engineering & Site Head, Amadeus Labs, Pune • Manish Bharti — Co-founder & CRO, SimplAI • Manish Kumar — Managing Director, Thoughtworks India • Sachin Kulkarni — President, Fiserv Global Services • Praveen Medisetti — Country Leader, Technology & Data, Flutter Entertainment India MODERATOR Shipra Malhotra — The Economic Times Business Verticals TimeStamp: 00:00 Introduction: Can India Own Enterprise AI Governance? 01:00 Rajesh Kosuri: Building Trust Between GCCs and Global HQ 04:20 Arun Narayanaswamy: From Implementing Policies to Shaping Them 06:49 Sachin Kulkarni: AI Intake Processes and Digital Trust Centers 09:52 From Technology Debt to Comprehension Debt 10:56 Praveen Medisetti: Balancing Governance and Innovation 13:26 Manish Bharti: Making Responsible AI a Core GCC Capability 15:44 Manish Kumar: Connecting AI Costs, Governance and Production 18:21 Should GCCs Have the Authority to Stop AI Deployments? 19:59 Enabling Faster, More Confident AI Decisions 21:30 Building Multidisciplinary Teams for AI Governance 26:08 Data, IP and Business Ownership in India’s GCCs 29:07 AI Registries, Policy-as-Code and Observability 31:45 Manish Bharti: Global Consistency and Local Compliance 33:48 Closing Round: Ownership and Full-Stack Accountability 35:17 Connecting AI Governance to Revenue and ROI 36:38 Accountability for Customer Outcomes 37:27 Manish Bharti: Owning the Stack and Delivering Business Value 37:50 Manish Kumar: Taking AI from POC to Production 38:28 Closing Remarks Watch the full discussion for perspectives on India’s role in enterprise AI governance and the practical work needed to scale AI responsibly. Explore SimplAI: https://simplai.ai/ Event details: https://gcc.economictimes.indiatimes.... Subscribe to SimplAI for more conversations on enterprise AI, agentic AI and governance. #AIGovernance #EnterpriseAI #SimplAI #ResponsibleAI #IndiaGCC #AgenticAI #ETGCCSURGE2026