Ashwini Vaishnaw announces India will issue consultation paper on new AI law

India will issue a formal consultation paper on a dedicated artificial intelligence law in the coming weeks, Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw announced on Friday.

Speaking at the NDTV World Summit in New Delhi, Vaishnaw said the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence means potential risks have now crossed a "threshold" that requires clear statutory backing. The planned legislation will aim to protect citizens against misuse while preserving the nation's rapid pace of technological innovation.

"Today the time has come when the risks of AI have crossed a threshold when we should come up with a law," Vaishnaw said. "We should come up with a new regulation where the harms from the new technology can be regulated. Having said that, we are already working on it."

Human oversight at the core

The planned framework will focus on harm-based regulation rather than a restrictive licensing regime. Vaishnaw contrasted India’s pro-enterprise outlook with what he described as the European Union’s tendency to "swat" emerging technologies early, warning that heavy-handed interventions choke technical progress.

"Our bias has always been towards innovation," Vaishnaw said, stressing that human oversight must remain non-negotiable. He outlined core principles that India expects to anchor in law: systems must remain human-centric, and human operators must retain ultimate authority over agents, models, workflows and outcomes.

"There has to be some equivalent of stopping things if they go out of control," he said, pointing to the necessity of fail-safe mechanisms for autonomous software.

India's seat at the global high table

Because digital technologies cross physical borders without friction, Vaishnaw said national rules must align with international standards. He positioned India as an indispensable voice in shaping these global norms, comparing the emerging consensus on AI governance to multilateral compacts that oversee civil nuclear energy.

"Among the top three or top four AI ecosystems in the world, countries like us will all sit together and come up with some fundamental principles by which AI has to be judged," Vaishnaw said.

Domestically, the government is expanding its consultations beyond digital platform developers to include everyday users and major industries. Sectors such as banking, insurance, healthcare, and manufacturing have adopted automated tools at speed, giving enterprises practical experience with both productivity gains and potential operational vulnerabilities.

Electronics and semiconductor delivery

Vaishnaw linked the upcoming AI framework to India's broader manufacturing push, pointing to rapid advancements in domestic hardware.

India has set a firm deadline of 23 October 2028 to deliver fully domestic mobile phone brands—designed, engineered, and manufactured within the country. The nation's first domestically fabricated semiconductor chips are also scheduled to roll off production lines by that date.

Twelve separate facilities approved under the first phase of the India Semiconductor Mission are preparing to start operations, with a sixth plant scheduled for inauguration shortly. With around 20% of the world's semiconductor design engineers based in India, backed by specialised curricula across more than 300 universities, the government plans to use the mission's second phase to anchor high-value chip design and tech infrastructure firmly on home soil.