India Ready to Embrace Techno-Legal Approach to AI Governance

India is prepared to adopt a techno-legal strategy for AI governance, as stated by Prof Ajay Kumar Sood, the Principal Scientific Adviser to the government. Speaking at a high-level roundtable conference in New Delhi, Prof Sood emphasized the importance of integrating legal and regulatory principles directly into AI systems to ensure accountability, transparency, data privacy, and cybersecurity from the outset. He encouraged participants to explore various methods of establishing a techno-legal governance framework.
The roundtable, a formal pre-summit event leading up to the India AI Impact Summit 2026, was hosted by the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser in partnership with the iSPIRT Foundation and the Centre for Responsible AI at IIT Madras. The discussions focused on “Techno-Legal Regulation for Responsible, Innovation-Aligned AI Governance.”
Experts highlighted the necessity for strong data privacy and consent mechanisms throughout AI training, inference, and deployment processes, alignment with the DEPA framework, and the adoption of compliance-by-design structures to facilitate the global scalability of Indian AI governance models. The conversations also tackled regulatory approaches to non-deterministic AI systems and AI-generated content, including copyright issues, while recognizing the complexities of implementing techno-legal frameworks for AI governance. Participants stressed the importance of balancing AI model robustness with technical and socio-economic trade-offs, advocating for practical, accessible solutions that can be easily utilized by end-users.
The discussions underscored the need to establish a standardized assessment framework for responsible AI across the entire lifecycle of AI systems, translate these insights into effective policy tools, and integrate safety and governance measures directly into AI technology stacks to mitigate risks and promote fair access.
Among the attendees at the roundtable were Preeti Banzal from the Office of PSA, Kavita Bhatia from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Hari Subramanian from iSPIRT Foundation, and Prof. Balaraman Ravindran from the Centre for Responsible AI at IIT Madras.
Banzal highlighted that the outcomes from the roundtable will contribute to the Safe and Trusted AI Chakra of the India AI Impact Summit 2026, aiding in the creation of an innovative and trustworthy AI ecosystem in India and bolstering the country’s position in global AI governance. Banzal also discussed India’s approach to techno-legal regulation, emphasizing the need for a practical implementation mechanism and the establishment of exemplary pathways to AI Governance, fostering policy mechanisms, capacity building, and international collaboration.
The co-moderators, Subramanian and Ravindran, delved into key challenges and metrics, including data protection, leakage risks, differential privacy, accuracy, and throughput, while noting the trade-offs between privacy and system performance. They stressed the significance of equitable access, data sovereignty, and broader economic and strategic considerations.
Prof. Mayank Vatsa from IIT Jodhpur, Jhalak Kakkar from the National Law University, Delhi, Abilash Soundararajan from PrivaSapien, and other subject-matter experts also participated in the roundtable.
The Office of PSA will soon release an explanatory white paper on Techno-Legal Regulation for AI Governance, encompassing all the suggestions and recommendations put forth during the roundtable.