MeitY Unveils AI Governance Framework

The IT ministry (MeitY) yesterday released IndiaAI Governance Guidelines to ensure safe, inclusive and responsible AI adoption across sectors.

The guidelines propose a governance framework to foster innovation, “safely” develop and deploy AI offerings and mitigate risks posed by the emerging technology. The new norms underline seven guiding principles, called Sutras, for ethical development of AI tools.

“Our focus remains on using existing legislation wherever possible. At the heart of it all is human centricity, ensuring AI serves humanity and benefits people’s lives while addressing potential harms,” said MeitY secretary S Krishnan.

Here are the seven Sutras underlined in the new guidelines:

• Trust is the foundation
• Human-centric design, human oversight, and human empowerment
• Responsible innovation should be prioritised over cautionary restraint
• Inclusive development
• Clear allocation of responsibility and enforcement of regulations
• Providing disclosures and explanations that can be understood by the intended user and regulators
• Safe, secure and robust systems that are able to withstand systemic shocks and are environmentally sustainable

The report also suggested key recommendations to key issues in AI governance. These include expanding access to foundational resources such as data and compute, attracting investments into the homegrown AI space, and leveraging digital public infrastructure (DPI) for scale, impact and inclusion.

The guidelines, drafted by a high-level committee under the chairmanship of IIT Madras professor Balaraman Ravindran, urged the Centre to initiate education and upskilling initiatives to raise awareness about the risks and opportunities related to AI.

“Adopt balanced, agile, and flexible frameworks that support innovation and mitigate the risks of AI. Review current laws, identify regulatory gaps in relation to AI systems, and address them with targeted amendments,” read another key recommendation.

The panel also urged the Union government to ensure greater transparency across the AI value chain, particularly how companies comply with their responsibilities and legal obligations. It also underscored the need for an India-specific risk assessment framework and encouraging compliance through voluntary measures.

“Adopt a whole of government approach where ministries, sectoral regulators, and other public bodies work together to develop and implement AI governance frameworks. An AI Governance Group (AIGG) should be set up, to be supported by a Technology & Policy Expert Committee,” added the recommendation.

The guidelines come barely days after MeitY additional secretary and IndiaAI Mission CEO Abhishek Singh said that India needs to protect its data and intellectual property from being harvested by global tech firms offering “free” AI tools.

This comes at a time when the Centre has pushed the pedal on adopting and promoting AI. The IndiaAI Mission has so far selected thirteen companies to build an indigenous large language mode. Besides, the Centre has also empanelled multiple companies to host 34,000 GPUs to offer compute power at an average cost of INR 65 per hour.

The projects are part of the broader IndiaAI Mission, approved by the Union cabinet in March 2024 with an outlay of INR 10,372 Cr. The initiative aims to create a distributed AI compute network of over 10,000 GPUs accessible to startups, research institutes, and government agencies.

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