India Guidance Guidance Non-binding

India AI Governance Guidelines: requirements, deadlines and compliance actions

India AI Governance Guidelines (MeitY, 2025)

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What is the India AI Governance Guidelines?

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.

Status note: Released by MeitY in November 2025 following a 2025 consultation. Non-binding; a reviewer must confirm the release date and the direct document link on indiaai.gov.in or meity.gov.in.

Who does it apply to?

Non-binding guidance addressed to government bodies, industry and developers deploying AI in India. It does not create legal obligations; it signals regulatory expectations and possible future measures.

Indian government agencies, AI developers, deployers and platforms operating in India (voluntary).

Actors: Provider / developer Deployer / user organisation Public authority / government body
Sectors: Cross-sector / all sectors
AI use cases: AI in public services Generative AI and foundation models
Risk categories: Not classified by the instrument
AI system types: General-purpose AI model Generative AI system Automated decision-making system

When do the requirements apply?

Consultation on draft guidelines in 2025; final guidelines released November 2025 (to be confirmed).

What must organisations do?

Nothing mandatory. Organisations can align governance programmes to the guidelines' principles and prepare for voluntary commitments and incident reporting mechanisms they describe.

Voluntary Adopt the guiding principles and risk-based governance (voluntary) Guiding principles and recommendations sections

The guidelines encourage organisations to embed principles such as fairness, accountability, safety and transparency, to classify and mitigate risks proportionately, and to participate in voluntary frameworks and incident reporting.

Practical action: Map your existing AI governance programme to the guidelines' principles and note the gaps.

Evidence examples: Principles alignment statement

Framework mapping (original, editorial): NIST AI RMF 1.0 GOVERN and MAP functions

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