Artificial Intelligence · India
AI regulation in India: laws & policy (2026)
India shaded by its artificial intelligence status
AI in India: guidelines only.
FrameworkIndia AI Governance Guidelines (MeitY, Nov 2025) under the IndiaAI Mission — principle-based ("Seven Sutras"), complemented by the IT Act 2000, IT Rules 2021 (amended 2026 for synthetic media), MeitY advisories, and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023
India has no standalone, comprehensive AI law. It regulates AI through a principle-based, techno-legal approach anchored by the voluntary India AI Governance Guidelines released by MeitY in November 2025, layered on top of existing statutes (IT Act, DPDPA 2023) and sectoral advisories. In February 2026 MeitY notified IT Rules amendments imposing labelling, provenance-metadata and takedown duties on 'synthetically generated information' (deepfakes); a dedicated AI statute is under discussion but not yet introduced.
Key points
On 5 Nov 2025, MeitY released the India AI Governance Guidelines under the IndiaAI Mission — a principle-based, voluntary framework built on seven 'Sutras' (Trust, People First, Innovation over Restraint, Fairness & Equity, Accountability, Understandable by Design, and Safety, Resilience & Sustainability). It favours applying existing laws over new AI-specific legislation and recommends creating an AI Governance Group, a Technology & Policy Expert Committee, and an AI Safety Institute.
MeitY notified the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules 2026 on 10 Feb 2026 (G.S.R. 120(E)), in force 20 Feb 2026. Intermediaries and generative-AI tools must label 'Synthetically Generated Information', embed persistent provenance metadata, and comply with a shortened 3-hour takedown window for court/government-flagged unlawful content; non-compliance risks loss of safe harbour under Section 79 of the IT Act.
MeitY issued advisories in Dec 2023 and on 1 & 15 March 2024 to intermediaries and platforms, requiring measures against bias, discrimination and threats to electoral integrity from AI/GenAI/LLMs, and prohibiting hosting of unlawful content produced by such systems. The 15 March 2024 revision dropped the earlier requirement for explicit government permission before deploying 'under-tested' AI models, opting for a due-diligence/labelling approach instead.
Approved by Cabinet in March 2024 with ₹10,372 crore, the IndiaAI Mission is India's national AI strategy. Its seven pillars include Compute Capacity, Innovation Centre (foundation models), Datasets Platform, Application Development, FutureSkills, Startup Financing, and a 'Safe & Trusted AI' pillar under which the IndiaAI Safety Institute is being set up. It was showcased at scale at the AI Impact Summit hosted in New Delhi in February 2026.
Under the 'Safe & Trusted' pillar of the IndiaAI Mission, MeitY is establishing the IndiaAI Safety Institute as a virtual, hub-and-spoke network for risk research, evaluations and standards. Consultations began in October 2024, and in May 2025 the AISI issued a call for partner institutions across academia, industry and R&D bodies. It is expected to coordinate with international AISIs and support projects on bias mitigation, unlearning, explainability and governance testing.
The DPDP Act 2023 governs the processing of digital personal data and directly constrains AI training and deployment: purpose limitation, notice-and-consent, data-principal rights and cross-border transfer controls apply to AI systems processing personal data. DPDP Rules were notified in 2025, with a staggered implementation running through May 2027; publicly available personal data (self-disclosed) and processing for research/statistics enjoy limited exemptions relevant to model training.
As of mid-2026, senior MeitY officials and the Minister for Electronics and IT have publicly indicated that a dedicated AI statute is under consideration, with drafting to be initiated in consultation with industry. No bill has yet been introduced in Parliament, so the current regime remains guidelines-plus-existing-laws rather than a comprehensive AI Act.
Timeline - major decisions & events
MeitY's amendment to the IT (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules, 2021 (notified Oct 22, in force Nov 15) requires platforms to label 'synthetically generated information' with permanent identifiers, with visible labels covering at least 10% of visual content. It is India's first binding rule specifically targeting deepfakes.
Law.asia ↗MeitY notified the Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025, bringing the 2023 Act into operational force and setting consent, breach-notification and children's-data norms that govern how personal data can be used to train and deploy AI systems.
MeitY ↗MeitY published the India AI Governance Guidelines under the IndiaAI Mission, opting for a 'light-touch', sector-led, pro-innovation framework built on seven principles (Sutras) and an AI Governance Group rather than a standalone AI law. This defines India's current regulatory posture.
PIB / MeitY ↗IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced the IndiaAI Safety Institute, incubated under the IndiaAI Mission on a hub-and-spoke model, to advance research on safe and trusted AI contextualized to Indian datasets and languages, positioning India in the global AI-safety network.
Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser ↗A MeitY/PSA subcommittee released its report recommending a principle-based, voluntary-plus-sectoral approach and creation of an inter-ministerial AI coordination body and technical secretariat. It was opened for public consultation and directly shaped the November 2025 Guidelines.
IndiaAI / MeitY ↗A revised advisory removed the controversial requirement for prior government approval to deploy 'under-tested' AI models and instead emphasized labelling of AI-generated content and clear identification of deepfakes/misinformation, applying to all intermediaries.
MeitY ↗The Union Cabinet approved the national IndiaAI Mission with a ~Rs 10,371.92 crore outlay covering compute (10,000+ GPUs), indigenous foundation models, datasets, skilling and a 'Safe & Trusted AI' pillar, the foundation of India's state-led AI ecosystem strategy.
PIB / Cabinet ↗MeitY directed intermediaries to label untested AI models and obtain explicit prior government approval before deploying them in India, a move triggered by deepfake concerns ahead of the 2024 elections that drew industry backlash and was quickly revised.
MeitY ↗India's first comprehensive data-protection law received assent, creating consent, purpose-limitation and data-fiduciary obligations that are the principal legal constraint on processing personal data for AI training and deployment.
MeitY / Gazette of India ↗NITI Aayog published its Responsible AI approach document setting out seven principles, safety, equality, inclusivity, privacy, transparency, accountability and protection of human values, that became the ethical baseline cited in later governance frameworks.
NITI Aayog ↗India's foundational digital law, with the intermediary-liability and due-diligence regime (Section 79 and the 2021 IT Rules built on it), remains the principal legal basis on which AI-content advisories and deepfake rules are issued today.
MeitY ↗India - other topics
Artificial Intelligence in other countries
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