{"slug":"india","name":"India","short_name":"India","iso_code":"IN","jurisdiction_type":"country","region":"Asia","subregion":"South Asia","overview":"India has no dedicated AI statute. AI governance rests on the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 and its 2025 Rules, the Information Technology Act 2000 and the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 as applied to AI and synthetic media, sector regulators such as the RBI and SEBI, and a series of policy documents: NITI Aayog's Responsible AI approach papers, the IndiaAI Mission approved in March 2024, and the India AI Governance Guidelines released by MeitY in November 2025. The stated approach favours enabling innovation with light-touch, principle-based governance and existing-law enforcement.\n","regulatory_status_summary":"No binding cross-sector AI law. Binding obligations arise from the DPDP Act 2023 (phased commencement under the November 2025 Rules), the IT Act and intermediary rules, and sector regulation. The India AI Governance Guidelines (November 2025) are non-binding. A reviewer must confirm the commencement schedule of the DPDP Rules.\n","binding_vs_guidance":"Binding: DPDP Act 2023 and DPDP Rules 2025 (phased), IT Act 2000 and IT Rules 2021, Consumer Protection Act 2019, sector rules (RBI, SEBI, IRDAI). Guidance: India AI Governance Guidelines 2025, NITI Aayog Responsible AI papers, MeitY advisories to intermediaries on AI models and deepfakes.\n","current_priorities":"Implementing the IndiaAI Mission (compute, datasets, safety institute), operationalising DPDP consent and breach rules, addressing deepfakes and synthetic media through intermediary rules, and the AI Safety Institute.\n","regulators":[{"name":"Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY)","url":"https://www.meity.gov.in/","role":"IT Act, DPDP Act, IndiaAI Mission, AI governance"},{"name":"IndiaAI (Independent Business Division under Digital India Corporation)","url":"https://indiaai.gov.in/","role":"IndiaAI Mission implementation"},{"name":"NITI Aayog","url":"https://www.niti.gov.in/","role":"National AI strategy and Responsible AI papers"}],"official_sources":[{"title":"Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023","publisher":"Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology","url":"https://www.meity.gov.in/data-protection-framework","document_date":"2023-08-11","document_type":"legislation","tier":1},{"title":"IndiaAI Mission","publisher":"IndiaAI / MeitY","url":"https://indiaai.gov.in/","document_date":"2024-03-07","document_type":"strategy","tier":1}],"related_jurisdictions":["nepal","singapore","eu","uae"],"url":"https://aipolicytracker.org/jurisdictions/india","source":{"official_source_url":"https://www.meity.gov.in/","source_title":"Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology — official site","source_publisher":"Government of India","source_document_date":null,"source_reference":null,"source_tier":1,"last_checked_at":"2026-09-26","last_verified_at":"2026-09-26","review_status":"verified","confidence_level":"medium","content_version":1,"change_summary":"Initial structured record.","reviewed_by":"Bhaskar Bhatt"},"policies":[{"slug":"india-ai-governance-guidelines","id":"AIPT-POL-0093","permanent_url":"https://aipolicytracker.org/id/AIPT-POL-0093","title":"India AI Governance Guidelines (MeitY, 2025)","short_title":"India AI Governance Guidelines","jurisdiction":"india","instrument_type":"guidance","status":"guidance","is_binding":false,"ai_specific":true,"issuing_body":"Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology","summary_plain":"The India AI Governance Guidelines set out a principle-based, pro-innovation approach to governing AI in India. They articulate guiding principles (such as trust, people-first design, fairness, accountability, safety and transparency), propose an institutional framework including an AI governance group and an AI Safety Institute role, favour applying existing laws over a new AI statute, and recommend voluntary commitments, techno-legal measures, risk-based oversight and incident reporting for AI systems.\n","adopted_on":"2025-11-05","in_force_on":null,"applies_from":null,"official_source_url":"https://indiaai.gov.in/","last_verified_at":"2026-09-26","reviewed_by":"Bhaskar Bhatt","content_version":1,"review_status":"verified","confidence_level":"low","updated_at":"2026-10-15T06:46:24+00:00","url":"https://aipolicytracker.org/policies/india-ai-governance-guidelines"},{"slug":"india-dpdp-act","id":"AIPT-POL-0094","permanent_url":"https://aipolicytracker.org/id/AIPT-POL-0094","title":"Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 and DPDP Rules, 2025","short_title":"India DPDP Act","jurisdiction":"india","instrument_type":"act","status":"partially_applicable","is_binding":true,"ai_specific":false,"issuing_body":"Parliament of India; Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Rules)","summary_plain":"The DPDP Act is India's cross-sector personal-data law. It applies to digital personal data processed in India and to processing outside India connected with offering goods or services to people in India. It requires a lawful basis (consent or specified legitimate uses), notice, purpose limitation, data accuracy, security safeguards, breach notification to the Data Protection Board and affected individuals, and grants rights of access, correction, erasure and grievance redress. Significant Data Fiduciaries face extra duties such as impact assessments and audits. The Act does not mention AI specifically, but it governs the personal data used to train and operate AI systems.\n","adopted_on":"2023-08-11","in_force_on":null,"applies_from":null,"official_source_url":"https://www.meity.gov.in/data-protection-framework","last_verified_at":"2026-09-26","reviewed_by":"Bhaskar Bhatt","content_version":1,"review_status":"verified","confidence_level":"medium","updated_at":"2026-10-16T13:51:22+00:00","url":"https://aipolicytracker.org/policies/india-dpdp-act"},{"slug":"india-indiaai-mission","id":"AIPT-POL-0095","permanent_url":"https://aipolicytracker.org/id/AIPT-POL-0095","title":"IndiaAI Mission","short_title":"IndiaAI Mission","jurisdiction":"india","instrument_type":"strategy","status":"adopted","is_binding":false,"ai_specific":true,"issuing_body":"Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Union Cabinet approval)","summary_plain":"A five-year national programme approved by the Union Cabinet with an outlay of about INR 10,372 crore. It funds shared public AI compute (10,000+ GPUs), an innovation centre for indigenous foundation models, a datasets platform, application development for public problems, skilling programmes, startup financing and work on safe and trusted AI. Implementation is handled by the IndiaAI division of Digital India Corporation.","adopted_on":"2024-03-07","in_force_on":null,"applies_from":null,"official_source_url":"https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2012355","last_verified_at":"2026-09-26","reviewed_by":"Bhaskar Bhatt","content_version":1,"review_status":"verified","confidence_level":"high","updated_at":"2026-10-15T06:46:24+00:00","url":"https://aipolicytracker.org/policies/india-indiaai-mission"},{"slug":"india-national-strategy-for-artificial-intelligence","id":"AIPT-POL-0096","permanent_url":"https://aipolicytracker.org/id/AIPT-POL-0096","title":"National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence (#AIforAll)","short_title":"National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence","jurisdiction":"india","instrument_type":"strategy","status":"adopted","is_binding":false,"ai_specific":true,"issuing_body":"NITI Aayog","summary_plain":"A discussion paper that set out India's first national approach to artificial intelligence. It prioritises five sectors (healthcare, agriculture, education, smart cities and infrastructure, and smart mobility) and proposes research institutions, data ecosystems and skilling measures to support adoption. It also flags privacy, fairness and explainability as issues needing attention and recommends institutional structures for responsible AI.","adopted_on":"2018-06-01","in_force_on":null,"applies_from":null,"official_source_url":"https://www.niti.gov.in/sites/default/files/2023-03/National-Strategy-for-Artificial-Intelligence.pdf","last_verified_at":"2026-09-26","reviewed_by":"Bhaskar Bhatt","content_version":1,"review_status":"verified","confidence_level":"high","updated_at":"2026-10-15T06:46:24+00:00","url":"https://aipolicytracker.org/policies/india-national-strategy-for-artificial-intelligence"}]}