<p>In just a few years, artificial intelligence (AI) has shifted from the margins of technological experimentation to the centre of national strategy. For India, AI is no longer merely an emerging sector; it has become a lever for economic transformation, improved public service delivery, geopolitical positioning and social inclusion. As New Delhi prepares to host the India AI Impact Summit 2026 from February 16-20, the country’s evolving AI framework reflects a distinctive ambition: to accelerate innovation at scale while embedding safeguards that sustain public trust.</p>.<p>India’s domestic AI strategy is anchored in the IndiaAI Mission, approved by the Union Cabinet in 2024 with a substantial multi-year funding allocation. Unlike narrowly focused research grants or pilot projects, the Mission is conceived as a comprehensive ecosystem builder. Its scope covers high-performance computing infrastructure, access to datasets, model development, startup financing, skilling programmes and applied research.</p>.<p>The underlying philosophy is that access drives innovation. AI development globally has become concentrated among organisations with access to large datasets and advanced computational resources. India’s policy response is to democratise these inputs. By lowering entry barriers, the government aims to enable startups, researchers, public institutions and enterprises across sectors to participate meaningfully in AI development.</p>.<p>A central pillar of this effort is the IndiaAI Dataset Platform, an open repository of high-quality, non-personal datasets. By aggregating data across domains such as language, healthcare, agriculture, climate and governance, the platform aims to stimulate locally relevant innovation. For a country as linguistically and socioeconomically diverse as India, context-sensitive AI systems are not optional; they are foundational. The dataset initiative recognises that AI models trained on Western-centric corpora are unlikely to adequately serve India’s needs.</p>.<p>Equally important is the human capital dimension. Through AI FutureSkills programmes, India is embedding AI literacy and advanced training across universities, technical institutions and emerging technology hubs, including those in Tier-II and Tier-III cities.</p>.<p>Ambition, however, must be matched with guardrails. Policymakers are aware that AI systems carry risks, including algorithmic bias, opaque decision-making, privacy concerns, misinformation and security vulnerabilities. Rather than adopting a single omnibus AI statute, India has so far opted for a light-touch, risk-based regulatory model.</p>.<p>Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) guidelines issued in late 2025 articulate core principles of transparency, accountability, fairness and safety, while encouraging innovation through voluntary compliance and adaptive oversight. Oversight currently operates through a combination of sectoral regulations, data protection law, IT rules and domain-specific supervisory authorities.</p>.<p>Critics argue that the absence of a comprehensive standalone AI law leaves gaps, particularly in areas such as mandatory impact assessments, certification regimes for high-risk systems and regulatory sandboxes for controlled experimentation. Issues unique to AI, including autonomous decision-making and generative content governance, do not fit neatly within legacy statutes.</p>.<p>Yet India’s approach appears deliberate. Rather than stifling innovation with premature codification, policymakers are experimenting with a layered governance model: strengthening institutional capacity, issuing sectoral advisories and refining guiding principles before enacting hard law. Recent policy thinking reflects this calibrated philosophy. </p>.<p>The Reserve Bank of India’s FREE-AI Committee Report in the Financial Sector, for instance, articulated seven guiding ‘Sutras’ for responsible AI use in finance: Trust, People First, Innovation over Restraint, Fairness and Equity, Accountability, Understandability and Safety. Accompanied by 26 recommendations spanning infrastructure, governance and protection pillars, the report underscores a central premise: technological adoption must remain human-centric and risk-aware.</p>.<p>Complementing this approach, the MeitY released the India AI Governance Guidelines under the IndiaAI Mission in November 2025. These guidelines apply similar principles across sectors, reinforcing the proposition that innovation and responsibility are not mutually exclusive objectives. Together, these frameworks illustrate India’s preference for embedding ethical guardrails within existing sectoral governance rather than constructing a single, rigid AI super-regulator.</p>.<p><strong>The federal layer</strong></p>.<p>AI governance in India is not confined to the Union government. State-level initiatives, from Centres of Excellence in Bengaluru and Hyderabad to responsible AI frameworks issued by regional administrations, demonstrate growing alignment between local innovation ecosystems and national priorities. </p>.<p>This layered structure reflects India’s broader federal governance model, in which experimentation often begins locally before scaling nationally.</p>.<p>Public sector institutions have also issued internal directives governing the use of generative AI tools, particularly in contexts involving data confidentiality and sovereign information. These administrative safeguards reflect a growing recognition that AI governance must operate both through formal law and through institutional practice.</p>.<p><strong>Responsible AI </strong></p>.<p>The India AI Impact Summit 2026 positions the country not merely as a participant but as a norm-shaper in global AI governance. Expected to be the largest of the four global AI summits held to date, the event reflects the accelerating international effort to define principles for responsible AI.</p>.<p>The global AI summit process has evolved in phases: from an initial emphasis on existential and safety risks at Bletchley Park, to discussions on ethics and inclusion in Seoul, and then to operationalising shared commitments in Paris. New Delhi’s edition aims to advance the conversation further — towards impact, equity and developmental relevance.</p>.<p>India’s message is clear: Global AI governance cannot become an instrument of technological gatekeeping. The temptation for major powers to design rules that entrench their own dominance must be resisted. Governance frameworks must reflect the interests of the Global South, where AI’s potential lies as much in agricultural optimisation, public health diagnostics and language inclusion as in frontier model competition.</p>.<p>This positioning becomes sharper against the backdrop of competing geopolitical models. In Washington, Donald Trump’s administration prioritised expanding American AI capabilities while minimising regulatory constraints to preserve innovation leadership. In Beijing, Xi Jinping’s government focused on shaping international governance architecture, even proposing new institutional mechanisms for AI cooperation. India’s stance navigates between these poles, recognising the importance of technological competitiveness while emphasising multilateralism and inclusive rule-making.</p>.<p>The road ahead</p>.<p>The true test of India’s AI policy will not be in declarations or summits, but in implementation. Governance frameworks must be nimble enough to adapt to rapid advances in generative AI, autonomous systems and sector-specific applications. At the same time, they must be robust enough to maintain public trust, particularly in a democracy where technological legitimacy ultimately depends on citizen confidence.</p>.<p>India’s AI journey reflects a broader philosophy rooted in its digital public infrastructure story: scale with safeguards. From Aadhaar to UPI, the country has shown that technological ambition can coexist with regulatory iteration. AI now represents the next frontier of that experiment.</p>.<p>As the world gathers in New Delhi over this week, India will project not only its capabilities, but also its governing vision. If successfully executed, this could offer a model for emerging economies seeking to harness AI’s transformative potential without compromising sovereignty, inclusion or public trust.</p>.<p><em>(Sanhita Chauriha is a technology lawyer)</em></p>
<p>In just a few years, artificial intelligence (AI) has shifted from the margins of technological experimentation to the centre of national strategy. For India, AI is no longer merely an emerging sector; it has become a lever for economic transformation, improved public service delivery, geopolitical positioning and social inclusion. As New Delhi prepares to host the India AI Impact Summit 2026 from February 16-20, the country’s evolving AI framework reflects a distinctive ambition: to accelerate innovation at scale while embedding safeguards that sustain public trust.</p>.<p>India’s domestic AI strategy is anchored in the IndiaAI Mission, approved by the Union Cabinet in 2024 with a substantial multi-year funding allocation. Unlike narrowly focused research grants or pilot projects, the Mission is conceived as a comprehensive ecosystem builder. Its scope covers high-performance computing infrastructure, access to datasets, model development, startup financing, skilling programmes and applied research.</p>.<p>The underlying philosophy is that access drives innovation. AI development globally has become concentrated among organisations with access to large datasets and advanced computational resources. India’s policy response is to democratise these inputs. By lowering entry barriers, the government aims to enable startups, researchers, public institutions and enterprises across sectors to participate meaningfully in AI development.</p>.<p>A central pillar of this effort is the IndiaAI Dataset Platform, an open repository of high-quality, non-personal datasets. By aggregating data across domains such as language, healthcare, agriculture, climate and governance, the platform aims to stimulate locally relevant innovation. For a country as linguistically and socioeconomically diverse as India, context-sensitive AI systems are not optional; they are foundational. The dataset initiative recognises that AI models trained on Western-centric corpora are unlikely to adequately serve India’s needs.</p>.<p>Equally important is the human capital dimension. Through AI FutureSkills programmes, India is embedding AI literacy and advanced training across universities, technical institutions and emerging technology hubs, including those in Tier-II and Tier-III cities.</p>.<p>Ambition, however, must be matched with guardrails. Policymakers are aware that AI systems carry risks, including algorithmic bias, opaque decision-making, privacy concerns, misinformation and security vulnerabilities. Rather than adopting a single omnibus AI statute, India has so far opted for a light-touch, risk-based regulatory model.</p>.<p>Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) guidelines issued in late 2025 articulate core principles of transparency, accountability, fairness and safety, while encouraging innovation through voluntary compliance and adaptive oversight. Oversight currently operates through a combination of sectoral regulations, data protection law, IT rules and domain-specific supervisory authorities.</p>.<p>Critics argue that the absence of a comprehensive standalone AI law leaves gaps, particularly in areas such as mandatory impact assessments, certification regimes for high-risk systems and regulatory sandboxes for controlled experimentation. Issues unique to AI, including autonomous decision-making and generative content governance, do not fit neatly within legacy statutes.</p>.<p>Yet India’s approach appears deliberate. Rather than stifling innovation with premature codification, policymakers are experimenting with a layered governance model: strengthening institutional capacity, issuing sectoral advisories and refining guiding principles before enacting hard law. Recent policy thinking reflects this calibrated philosophy. </p>.<p>The Reserve Bank of India’s FREE-AI Committee Report in the Financial Sector, for instance, articulated seven guiding ‘Sutras’ for responsible AI use in finance: Trust, People First, Innovation over Restraint, Fairness and Equity, Accountability, Understandability and Safety. Accompanied by 26 recommendations spanning infrastructure, governance and protection pillars, the report underscores a central premise: technological adoption must remain human-centric and risk-aware.</p>.<p>Complementing this approach, the MeitY released the India AI Governance Guidelines under the IndiaAI Mission in November 2025. These guidelines apply similar principles across sectors, reinforcing the proposition that innovation and responsibility are not mutually exclusive objectives. Together, these frameworks illustrate India’s preference for embedding ethical guardrails within existing sectoral governance rather than constructing a single, rigid AI super-regulator.</p>.<p><strong>The federal layer</strong></p>.<p>AI governance in India is not confined to the Union government. State-level initiatives, from Centres of Excellence in Bengaluru and Hyderabad to responsible AI frameworks issued by regional administrations, demonstrate growing alignment between local innovation ecosystems and national priorities. </p>.<p>This layered structure reflects India’s broader federal governance model, in which experimentation often begins locally before scaling nationally.</p>.<p>Public sector institutions have also issued internal directives governing the use of generative AI tools, particularly in contexts involving data confidentiality and sovereign information. These administrative safeguards reflect a growing recognition that AI governance must operate both through formal law and through institutional practice.</p>.<p><strong>Responsible AI </strong></p>.<p>The India AI Impact Summit 2026 positions the country not merely as a participant but as a norm-shaper in global AI governance. Expected to be the largest of the four global AI summits held to date, the event reflects the accelerating international effort to define principles for responsible AI.</p>.<p>The global AI summit process has evolved in phases: from an initial emphasis on existential and safety risks at Bletchley Park, to discussions on ethics and inclusion in Seoul, and then to operationalising shared commitments in Paris. New Delhi’s edition aims to advance the conversation further — towards impact, equity and developmental relevance.</p>.<p>India’s message is clear: Global AI governance cannot become an instrument of technological gatekeeping. The temptation for major powers to design rules that entrench their own dominance must be resisted. Governance frameworks must reflect the interests of the Global South, where AI’s potential lies as much in agricultural optimisation, public health diagnostics and language inclusion as in frontier model competition.</p>.<p>This positioning becomes sharper against the backdrop of competing geopolitical models. In Washington, Donald Trump’s administration prioritised expanding American AI capabilities while minimising regulatory constraints to preserve innovation leadership. In Beijing, Xi Jinping’s government focused on shaping international governance architecture, even proposing new institutional mechanisms for AI cooperation. India’s stance navigates between these poles, recognising the importance of technological competitiveness while emphasising multilateralism and inclusive rule-making.</p>.<p>The road ahead</p>.<p>The true test of India’s AI policy will not be in declarations or summits, but in implementation. Governance frameworks must be nimble enough to adapt to rapid advances in generative AI, autonomous systems and sector-specific applications. At the same time, they must be robust enough to maintain public trust, particularly in a democracy where technological legitimacy ultimately depends on citizen confidence.</p>.<p>India’s AI journey reflects a broader philosophy rooted in its digital public infrastructure story: scale with safeguards. From Aadhaar to UPI, the country has shown that technological ambition can coexist with regulatory iteration. AI now represents the next frontier of that experiment.</p>.<p>As the world gathers in New Delhi over this week, India will project not only its capabilities, but also its governing vision. If successfully executed, this could offer a model for emerging economies seeking to harness AI’s transformative potential without compromising sovereignty, inclusion or public trust.</p>.<p><em>(Sanhita Chauriha is a technology lawyer)</em></p>