The report highlights seven principles of artificial intelligence: trust, people-centricity, “responsible innovation”, fairness, accountability, LLM understandability and “security, resilience and sustainability”. | Photo credit: Reuters
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is advocating a hands-off approach to the regulation of AI in the country. Guidelines for AI Governance in India on Wednesday (November 5, 2025). The document is a significantly revised revision of the framework that was submitted for consultation in January this year.
The report was prepared by a committee formed in July under the chairmanship of Balaraman Ravindran, Head of the Department of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence at IIT Madras. The broader group that worked on the previous framework was led by Chief Scientific Advisor Ajay K. Sood.
These guidelines are separate from the proposed amendment to the IT Rules 2021, which would require labeling of AI-generated content on social media platforms. This proposal is at the stage of public consultation, independently of the wording of these guidelines.
The guidelines will be “a cornerstone in the development of AI for India and can be a model for global AI governance,” MeitY Additional Secretary Abhishek Singh said.
Also read | The Ministry of IT proposes mandatory labeling of content generated by artificial intelligence on social networks
Innovation with handrails
The report highlights seven principles of artificial intelligence: trust, people-centricity, “responsible innovation”, fairness, accountability, LLM understandability and “security, resilience and sustainability”. Mr. Ravindran emphasized that the governance guidelines seek to signal India’s largely hands-off approach to AI. “We’re calling it the AI Governance Guidelines, not the AI Regulation or anything like that, because we don’t want it to be seen as something that’s limiting the adoption of AI in India,” he said. “It’s as much about enabling adoption and ensuring its impact in India.”
While the previous framework emphasized minimizing the risks associated with deploying AI, the current model reduces this to supporting innovation with handrails. The report also removes much of the previous work done by the NITI Aayog and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development that underpinned the approach of the earlier draft of the framework.
“No Immediate Plans for AI Act”
The report says that in the long term, new laws should be developed based on the “emerging risks and capabilities” of AI systems. Responding to reports of the government considering a new AI law, IT Minister S. Krishnan said there were no immediate plans, but once there was an urgent need for such legislation, the government would act quickly.
The launch of the report comes as part of the government’s steady stream of “preliminary events” ahead of the AI Impact Summit in Delhi in February 2026, an international gathering that has been preceded by similar events at Bletchley Park in the UK, as well as in Seoul and Paris.
COMMENT | Approach to AI regulation in India
India-specific risk framework
The report contains six recommendations in addition to seven principles: expand access to AI infrastructure and “harness the power of digital public infrastructure for scale, impact and inclusion”; build capacity with skills in AI; “adopt balanced, agile and flexible frameworks” for AI regulation; mitigate risks by looking at ‘India-specific’ factors that need to be addressed; strengthen accountability in the AI ecosystem by requiring “greater transparency … about how the various actors in the AI value chain operate.”
In the short term, the report recommends establishing “key governance institutions”, developing some of the above India-specific risk frameworks and increasing access to AI security tools. In the “medium term”, the report recommends amending laws and regulations as needed, operationalizing AI incident systems for cyber security purposes and integrating DPI like Aadhaar with AI.
Published – 05 Nov 2025 21:03 IST
