- The Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) announced its National AI Governance Guidelines on November 5, 2025, drafted under the leadership of Prof. Balaraman Ravindran (IIT Madras). This is a major revision from the draft in January, aiming to foster “innovation with guardrails” rather than tightening risks.
- The report emphasizes 7 core principles of AI, including: trust, human-centricity, responsible innovation, fairness, accountability, interpretability of LLMs, and safety – sustainability – flexibility.
- India has no immediate plans to enact a separate AI law. IT Secretary S. Krishnan affirmed that the government will only consider new legislation when urgent risks emerge or AI capabilities exceed safety thresholds.
- The Guidelines are not “regulations” but a governance framework aimed at guiding AI development for national benefit, according to Deputy Secretary Abhishek Singh, intending to make India a “model for global AI governance.”
- Unlike the previous version which heavily relied on NITI Aayog and OECD, the new version reduces the focus on risk and prioritizes increasing creative capacity.
- The 6 main recommendations include:
- Expanding AI infrastructure and leveraging digital public infrastructure (DPI) such as Aadhaar.
- Enhancing AI skill training.
- Building a flexible – agile governance framework.
- Developing an “India-specific” risk assessment framework.
- Ensuring transparency in the activities of stakeholders across the AI value chain.
- Establishing a surveillance agency and an AI incident reporting system for cybersecurity purposes.
📌 The Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology recently announced its National AI Governance Guidelines aimed at fostering “innovation with guardrails” with 7 core principles of AI: trust, human-centricity, responsible innovation, fairness, accountability, interpretability of LLMs, and safety – sustainability – flexibility. India has no immediate plans to enact a separate AI law. The 6 recommendations from the guidelines include expanding AI infrastructure, AI training, building a flexible governance framework and an India-specific AI risk assessment framework, transparency of the AI value chain, and establishing an AI incident monitoring and reporting agency for cybersecurity.
