Galgotias University’s Professor Neha Singh gave an interview to DD News, after which the truth about the lies came out, and the government had the university’s stall removed from the AI Summit.
SNPNEWS.IN News (Gurmail Kamboj): From 16 to 21 February, an AI Summit is being organized at Pragati Maidan in Delhi under the Ministry of Electronics & IT’s IndiaAI Mission. Over 300 exhibitors from around the world are participating in it. Here, Galgotias University had its stall, where the controversy over the robotic dog and drone soccer occurred, and on 18 February, the organizers had the stall vacated.
In this Summit, apart from PM Narendra Modi (inauguration), French President Emmanuel Macron, Brazilian President Lula, top executives from Sundar Pichai (Google/Alphabet CEO), Sam Altman (OpenAI CEO), Jensen Huang (NVIDIA CEO), Dario Amodei (Anthropic CEO), Alexandr Wang (Meta Chief AI Officer), Mukesh Ambani, Nandan Nilekani, Ratan Tata Group, Infosys, Wipro, HCL, etc., and delegates from about 45+ countries, World Bank, UN, etc., have arrived. This summit is being organized with the aim of presenting India as a global AI leader. It is connecting AI with everyday life (agriculture, health, education, governance). There is hope that this will give a boost to AI infrastructure, data access, and startup ecosystem in India.
Galgotias University Controversy:
Galgotias University (which is located in Uttar Pradesh on the Yamuna Expressway in a very large campus and was established in 2011) presented the robotic dog “Orion” in front of visitors at the AI Summit 2026 on 17 February. While providing information about Orion, the university’s PRO Neha Singh told DD News, “You need to meet Orion. This has been developed by the Centre of Excellence at Galgotias University… We are the first private university investing more than 350 crore rupees in artificial intelligence… Orion has been developed by the Center of Excellences… it can take all shapes and sizes… for surveillance and monitoring tasks.”
Read It SIR Controversy: Deaths of BLOs, Election Commission Under Fire
As soon as the video of this claim went viral, a large number of social media users came forward with information that this robotic dog was manufactured by China’s Unitree Robotics company (Unitree Go2 model) and is easily available in the market for ₹2-3 lakh (not a new invention), leading to it being called a false claim, fake innovation, and India’s international embarrassment. Memes started being made, and trolling began.
On the same day, the university presented a drone Soccer arena and claimed, “This is a very interesting thing. Its end-to-end engineering to its application, everything has been developed in the university… this is India’s first drone soccer arena which you will get to see on campus at Galgotias.”
Netizens caught this lie as well; this Drone Soccer is the Striker V3 ARF model from South Korea’s Helsel Group and is a ready-made product, easily available in the market for ₹40,000.
After the controversy, the university issued a statement: “Let us be clear – Galgotias has not built this robodog, neither have we claimed. But what we are building are minds that will soon design… such technologies right here in Bharat.” The university also called it a “propaganda campaign.”
MeitY and IT Secretary S Krishnan issued a warning: “Exhibitors must not display items that do not belong to them… We want genuine and actual work… We don’t want a controversial agency which has misled the public.” The management was ordered to vacate the stall, lights were turned off, and the stall was vacated on 18 February. Officials called it a “national embarrassment.”
The university issued a new statement: “We at Galgotias University wish to apologise profusely for the confusion… One of our representatives (Neha Singh) manning the pavilion was ill-informed. She was not aware of the technical origins… in her enthusiasm of being on camera, gave factually incorrect information even though she was not authorised to speak to the press. Understanding the organisers’ sentiment we have vacated the premises.”
Professor Neha Singh herself said about the controversy: “The controversy happened because things may not have been expressed clearly. I take accountability… It might be that I could not convey well… robot was only for student inspiration.”