India to publish AI regulation consultation paper within a month

What the government announced

India will publish a consultation paper on artificial intelligence regulation within a month, laying the foundation for a comprehensive legal and technical framework. Speaking in New Delhi at the launch of the World Bank's World Development Report, Union Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the paper will focus on five pillars: safety, humanity, skilling, inclusivity, and harm mitigation.

Deepfakes and the techno-legal approach

The upcoming paper will seek feedback from industry and the public on risks ranging from deepfakes and synthetic misinformation to cybersecurity threats and psychological harm. Government officials emphasised that law alone cannot govern artificial intelligence, advocating instead for a "techno-legal" model where technical guardrails and statutory oversight operate together. Under this model, technology companies will be expected to accept primary responsibility for managing user risks and securing systems.

The move marks a shift in policy. Previously, the central government maintained that existing legal structures, such as the Information Technology Act and its amended rules on synthetic content, were sufficient. Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) Secretary S Krishnan acknowledged that emerging threats remain unaddressed by existing rules, requiring dedicated regulatory action.

GPU procurement and AI infrastructure

Alongside regulatory plans, the government outlined steps to build domestic computing capacity. India has started long-term procurement for 10,000 graphics processing units (GPUs), with an order for the first 5,000 units already issued. Officials plan to announce a three-to-four-year roadmap for deploying Indian-made GPUs for AI inference, alongside empanelling AI models for official use across government departments.

To address skills shortages, industry proposals for AI-focused coursework have been forwarded to the Ministry of Education to update university curricula.

Global context and economic impact

The World Bank report launched alongside the announcement framed AI as a rapidly expanding general-purpose technology, noting its potential to boost agricultural yields by up to 40 per cent. However, the report also warned lower- and middle-income countries of risks, including disruption to tech outsourcing, algorithmic bias, and reliance on proprietary systems built in the US and China.