Global AI Governance Law and Policy: India

This article is part of a series on global AI governance law and policy.

From single computer in Kolkata’s Indian Statistical Institute in the 1950s to powering the world’s digital infrastructure, India’s technical journey has been tremendously transformative. In the 1990s, the government focused on the ‘information technology’ sector by encouraging the export of software services. This resulted in India eventually emerging as a global IT hub first as an outsourcing destination and eventually as the birthplace of digital public infrastructure that offers a new form of governance using population-scale digital architecture. Today, India has the world’s largest digital identity system, the biggest digital payments system by volume and a population that is, for the most part, digital by default.

This dramatic digital transformation has naturally fuelled the adoption of AI. According to the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Index Report 2025, India ranks second in the list of countries with the highest AI skill penetration from 2015 to 2024 and is among the top 10 countries in the world that received the most private investment in AI from 2013 to 2024.

India's AI policy has two different facets. One set of policy initiatives focuses on promoting AI adoption amid rapid advances in generative AI. The government has pledged to invest USD1.25 billion in AI development, and, to that end, launched the IndiaAI Mission. Additional initiatives promote the integration of AI across a range of use cases and sectors. The other set of policy initiatives relates to the governance of AI and the risks that it could pose. While India currently does not have standalone AI legislation, existing intellectual property, data protection, cybersecurity and content regulations are being adapted to apply to AI.