Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: Ahead of the India-AI Impact Summit scheduled next month, the office of the principal scientific adviser (PSA) to the central govt has released a white paper — Strengthening AI Governance Through Techno-Legal Framework — outlining the country’s approach to building a trusted, accountable and innovation-aligned AI ecosystem.Enabling “safe and trusted AI” across the full AI lifecycle is one of the key focus areas of the paper. It emphasises the contours of “techno-legal” AI governance framework that is necessary to mitigate risks while preserving flexibility and innovation.The 40-page paper also highlights India’s pro-innovation approach to AI governance, which integrates baseline legal safeguards, sector-specific regulations, technical controls and institutional mechanisms.“Developing a robust and responsive governance framework is not just a regulatory necessity but a prerequisite for sustaining the momentum of technological progress. The techno-legal approach offers a viable pathway by embedding legal, technical and institutional safeguards into AI systems by design,” said PSA Ajay Kumar Sood during the release of the white paper on Jan 23.In his foreword to the paper, he noted that while AI has significant “transformative potential”, it is essential to ensure that the associated risks and harm do not undermine trust or become a barrier to innovation and adoption.Exploring laws, rules and regulatory mechanisms, the framework suggests ways and means in which AI can be used securely without eroding public trust. The paper also signifies India’s contribution to making the entire ecosystem safe, of which its hosting of the AI Impact Summit 2026, the first-ever global AI summit to be held in the Global South, is an indicator.India as the summit’s host will shape a future-oriented agenda for impactful AI cooperation and help mark a strategic shift from “action” to “Impact”.The upcoming summit aims to ensure that AI serves as a catalyst for inclusive human development, environmental sustainability and equitable progress worldwide, bridging the Global AI Divide through concrete multilateral action.The publication is the second in the White Paper series on ‘Emerging Policy Priorities for India’s AI Ecosystem’ that aims at deepening understanding and fostering informed discussion on critical AI policy issues.The first White Paper in the series, released in Dec 2025, focused on “democratising access to AI infrastructure”, highlighting the need to treat AI infrastructure as a shared national resource and identifying key enablers such as access to high-quality datasets, affordable computing resources and integration with Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), said the office of PSA in a statement.
