India to Release an AI Regulation Consultation Paper Within a Month, Says Ashwini Vaishnaw

8 October 2026National

IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced on 8 October 2026 that the government will release a consultation paper on artificial intelligence regulation within a month, built on a 'techno-legal' approach rather than standalone law — pairing legal rules with technical safeguards. The framework will cover safety, cybersecurity, deepfakes, psychological harms and inclusivity. He also set a target of indigenous GPUs capable of AI inference in three to four years, with an initial tender for 5,000 units. The announcement came as the 10th India Mobile Congress ran at Yashobhoomi, New Delhi, and days before the World Development Report 2026 on AI was launched in the capital.

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The IndiaAI Mission was approved in March 2024 with an outlay of about Rs 10,372 crore over five years and is run by MeitY | India chairs the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) and will host the AI Impact Summit in 2026, the first in the Global South | India's data protection law is the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, enacted under MeitY

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