By Sourav Shekhar
New Delhi, Feb 15 (.) Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a defining force of the Fifth Industrial Revolution, with India following a clearly articulated strategy of building the full AI stack anchored in national priorities and inclusive development.
India’s AI strategy is rooted in three core principles: (i)Democratisation (ii) scale (iii) inclusion. These are aimed at diffusing the transformative potential of AI across key sectors such as agriculture, healthcare, education, governance, manufacturing and climate change.
The approach seeks to ensure that AI is not restricted to elite technological domains but becomes a tool for large-scale socio-economic empowerment.
To fulfil this mission, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) constituted a drafting committee in July 2025 to develop a comprehensive framework for AI governance in the country.
The move aligns with the broader objectives of the IndiaAI Mission, which focuses on safe, trusted and human-centric AI adoption across sectors .
Following extensive consultations and rigorous deliberations, the committee presented the AI governance framework structured in four key parts — Principles, Key Issues and Recommendations, Action Plan and Practical Guidelines for Industry and Regulators.
The governance guidelines are built around seven core principles that emphasise trust, a “people-first” approach, innovation over restraint, fairness and equity, accountability, understandability by design, and safety, resilience and sustainability .
These guiding values aim to strike a balance between fostering innovation and ensuring adequate safeguards.
The framework adopts a risk-based governance model, advocating proportionate regulatory measures depending on the risk profile of AI applications, particularly in high-impact areas such as bias mitigation, misinformation control and critical infrastructure protection.
Rather than introducing a new standalone AI law, the recommendations suggest leveraging and strengthening existing legal frameworks, including the Information Technology Act and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, to address emerging AI-related challenges .
The Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP Act 2023) and Information Technology Act 2000 (IT Act) represents two distinct phases of India’s data governance framework. Before DPDP act, personal protection in India was governed by Section 43A of the IT Act and the accompanying Sensitive Personal Data or Information (SPDI) Rules 2011.
In terms of institutional architecture, the report proposes the creation of dedicated oversight mechanisms such as an AI Governance Group, a Technology and Policy Expert Committee, and an AI Safety Institute to guide standards, conduct safety research and support responsible deployment .
These bodies are expected to work closely with industry, academia and civil society to ensure coordinated and adaptive regulation.
The Action Plan outlines a phased roadmap covering infrastructure expansion, enhanced access to AI compute resources such as GPUs, development of high-quality datasets, and integration with India’s Digital Public Infrastructure ecosystem.
Capacity building has also been identified as a priority, with emphasis on AI education, research labs and widespread AI literacy to prepare the workforce for the next wave of technological transformation .
The “Practical Guidelines for Industry and Regulators” section provides operational clarity for developers, startups, enterprises and regulatory authorities, encouraging innovation while embedding accountability, transparency and explainability into AI systems.
The comprehensive framework signals India’s intent to position itself as a global leader in ethical and inclusive AI governance.
By combining innovation-driven growth with robust safeguards, the country aims to ensure that the benefits of AI are widely shared while risks are proactively managed, reinforcing its role in shaping the contours of the Fifth Industrial Revolution. . SAS KK