One rulebook for AI — India moves to end the governance grey zone

India is finally preparing to stop regulating artificial intelligence through borrowed clothes. The newly formed Artificial Intelligence Governance and Economic Group (AIGEG) is expected to propose a unified legal framework for every company building or deploying AI in the country — from sprawling large language models to the smallest homegrown chatbot. The message to the industry is blunt: the era of fitting AI into old IT rules is ending.

The proposed framework will lay down clear operational boundaries, introduce regulatory sandboxes for responsible experimentation, and require all AI providers — Indian or foreign — to comply with domestic laws. Officials say this is a deliberate break from existing internet regulations, which were never designed to handle systems that can reason, generate, and increasingly, breach legacy digital defences.

But AIGEG isn’t just writing rules. It is rewriting India’s AI playbook. Instead of spraying funds across every shiny use case, the group wants money concentrated on three high-impact areas — healthcare, agriculture, and education — with measurable outcomes expected within 12–18 months. In other words, AI in India must now justify itself in lives improved, yields raised, and classrooms transformed.

The group is also bracing for the sharper edge of AI: job displacement. Consultations are planned to identify vulnerable roles and build reskilling pathways, signalling that Delhi wants to avoid the policy inertia that has defined past technology shocks.

Chaired by the IT minister, the 10-member body pulls in heavyweights — the principal scientific adviser, chief economic adviser, NITI Aayog CEO, and key ministry secretaries — backed by a separate Technology and Policy Expert Committee for academic and industry input.

The subtext is clear. India wants a seat at the global AI governance table, not a footnote. Whether AIGEG delivers a truly modern framework or yet another compliance maze will define the country’s AI decade.

CT Bureau