VFS Global wins Award of Excellence and 4.0-star Innovation Rating at the 16th Aegis Graham Bell Awards

MUMBAI, India, March 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — VFS Global has been honoured with two recognitions at the 16^th Aegis Graham Bell Awards 2026, underscoring the company’s progress in deploying responsible AI at scale to improve government-facing, citizen services.

VFS Global received an “Award of Excellence” as the Winner in the category “Innovation in Gen AI – Ops, IT & Digital Workplace”. In addition, its Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) Platform was awarded the AGBA Innovation Star Rating Certificate with a 4.0-star rating (”Outstanding Innovation”) under the category “Gen. A.I. Innovation”.

At the ceremony in New Delhi, the 4.0-star Innovation Rating Certificate was presented by Smt. Anupriya Patel, Honourable Union Minister of State, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, and Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers, to Parveen Kumar Jiterwal, AI & Innovation, and Pankaj Kohli, Chief Transformation Officer, VFS Global.

VFS Global’s IDP capability uses AI to help process high volumes of supporting documents more efficiently and consistently, while maintaining strong governance, security, privacy safeguards and human oversight. The capability was co-created in collaboration with the Austrian Embassy in New Delhi to ensure it is practical, secure and operationally meaningful in real-world consular workflows.

The Aegis Graham Bell Awards is a prominent technology recognition platform in India, celebrating breakthrough innovation in emerging technologies across industry and government.

The 16^th edition saw strong enterprise participation, with finalists across categories including Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Google, Deloitte, Infosys, Wipro, ITC, Flipkart, Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) and Paytm (One97 Communications), among others—underscoring the depth and competitiveness of the awards platform.

These recognitions reinforce VFS Global’s continued focus on applying AI in practical, measurable ways—enhancing efficiency, strengthening quality, and improving user experience while maintaining robust controls and clear human accountability.

Karl-August Lux, Consul General of the Austrian Embassy in New Delhi, said: “My congratulations to VFS Global on this well-deserved recognition at the Aegis Graham Bell Awards. Over the years, VFS Global has been a valued partner of the Austrian Government, and I have especially appreciated the spirit of collaboration in our work together. I would like to particularly acknowledge Parveen Jiterwal’s leadership and insight — he and his AI team worked closely with us to co-create an AI-enabled Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) capability that is practical, secure, and operationally meaningful. It is a strong example of how innovation can be applied responsibly in government-facing services.”

Parveen Kumar Jiterwal, Lead – AI & Innovation, VFS Global, said: “Being recognised with both an Award of Excellence and a 4.0-star innovation rating reinforces our focus: build AI that is responsible by design, scalable in execution, and measurable in impact. With IDP, we are reducing friction and improving consistency in document handling in high-volume environments—while keeping people in control through strong governance, privacy and security safeguards, and human-in-the-loop validation where required.”

VFS Global continues to invest in AI capabilities aligned with responsible AI principles, including governance, monitoring, privacy and security safeguards, and appropriate human-in-the-loop validation.

About VFS Global

As the global leader in trusted technology services, empowering secure mobility for governments and citizens, VFS Global embraces technological innovation, including Generative AI, to support governments and diplomatic missions worldwide. The company manages non-judgmental and administrative tasks related to applications for visa, passport, and consular services for its client governments, increasing productivity and enabling them to focus entirely on the critical task of assessment.

With a responsible approach to technology development, adoption and integration, the company prioritises ethical practices and sustainability while serving as the trusted partner to 70 client governments. Operating over 4,000 Application Centres in 167 countries, VFS Global has efficiently processed more than 533 million transactions* since 2001.

Headquartered in Zurich and Dubai, VFS Global is majority owned by Blackstone, the world’s largest alternative asset manager, along with minority shareholders including Swiss-based Kuoni and Hugentobler Foundation, Singapore based Temasek and UAE based Dubai Holdings.

* Comprised of 333.5 million transactions by VFS Global and 199.5 million transactions by CiX Citizen Experience

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Published – March 10, 2026 05:35 pm IST