The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology's upcoming consultation paper on artificial intelligence governance will seek to balance broad oversight with the varying needs of specific industries, government officials told the Hindustan Times. The paper, expected to form the foundation of India's AI regulatory framework, will focus on safety, humanity, skilling, inclusivity and risk mitigation.
Officials noted that AI risks vary significantly across domains, particularly in critical infrastructure sectors such as banking and securities markets. "The problem with an overarching MeitY guidance is that it affects different sectors differently," a ministry official said, pointing to financial regulators SEBI and the RBI as precedents for sectoral rule-making. Some sectors face larger risks because they are critical infrastructure, the official added, and the ministry works closely with their regulators.
MeitY minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced on October 8 that the ministry would issue a consultation paper on a new AI law within a month. The move signalled a shift from the government's earlier position that existing laws and voluntary norms were sufficient - a stance critics said left gaps on risks such as autonomous agents and accountability.
The government believes AI cannot be regulated through legislation alone and needs a techno-legal approach, with industry expected to carry much of the implementation and take primary responsibility for user harm, cybersecurity risks, safety issues and deepfakes. The paper is expected to pose key questions: who will regulate the technology, how responsibility for AI-related harm will be determined, and what safeguards will be required.
Sectoral regulators are already moving. In draft guidelines released on October 30, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India proposed holding telecom companies directly accountable for anything that goes wrong with the AI they use in their networks and services - including AI bought from vendors - and required them to report serious AI failures.
FundForge Insight: India is choosing a middle path between the EU's single AI act and America's lighter touch: one national framework, enforced sector by sector. For founders, the practical read is that compliance obligations will arrive through your sectoral regulator - SEBI, RBI, TRAI - not through one AI law. The questions this paper asks about liability for AI harm will decide how much legal risk sits with the builder versus the deployer. Sources: Hindustan Times (November 4, 2026).
