This article was published in CNBC TV18.com on October 20 2026. Please click here to read the article.
India is entering a defining phase of its artificial intelligence journey. The question is no longer whether AI will be adopted at scale, but whether governance can evolve at the same speed as the technology it seeks to govern.
That question matters because India is exceptionally well positioned to derive value from AI. Its digital public infrastructure, expanding compute capacity and deep technology talent base provide a strong foundation for population-scale innovation. As per the India Skills Report 2026, India accounts for 16 per cent of the global AI talent pool, while digital platforms such as Aadhaar, UPI and DigiLocker demonstrate the country's ability to take technology to extraordinary scale.
There is an interesting paradox in how India is embracing AI. The 2025 KPMG International Report -Trust, attitudes and use of artificial intelligence found that 76 per cent of Indian respondents were willing to trust AI, 90 per cent accepted or approved of it, and 94 per cent expected it to deliver benefits. Yet 71 per cent were unsure whether online content could be trusted because it might be AI-generated.
This gap between adoption and assurance makes AI governance increasingly important for India's public institutions and policymakers. As AI becomes more deeply embedded in economic and social systems, governance cannot simply be about regulating technology. It must establish the conditions under which AI can be used safely, transparently and with accountability at scale.
This requires a shift from controlling technology to governing intelligence.
Importantly, such governance cannot be static. AI models, capabilities and use cases evolve, sometimes faster than traditional regulatory cycles. India's governance architecture therefore needs to be agile by design, capable of adapting as risks emerge and technology advances. Principles should provide consistency, while frameworks and oversight mechanisms must retain the flexibility to evolve with the technology.
This becomes especially important when we consider AI not simply as a productivity tool, but as an engine of inclusion and national development. Across multilingual services, financial access, healthcare, agriculture, defence, sport and public-service delivery, AI has the potential to address distinctly Indian challenges at population scale. Realising that potential requires India to build the capabilities to shape AI for its own context and priorities.
This is also where sovereign AI becomes relevant. Building domestic capabilities across AI infrastructure, models, data and talent can give India greater strategic control over how AI is developed and deployed, while supporting solutions aligned to its languages, societal context and national priorities. Sovereign AI can strengthen technological self-reliance while helping India shape AI around its requirements for security, inclusion and public value.
In a country as large and diverse as India, AI can help bridge linguistic and accessibility barriers, extend the reach of essential services and enable interactions with citizens at unprecedented scale. But the greater the role AI plays in services affecting people's lives, the greater the responsibility to ensure that decisions are fair, secure, explainable and subject to appropriate human oversight.
Governance must therefore be proportionate to consequence. An AI application supporting routine administrative work does not warrant the same degree of oversight as a system influencing access to credit, healthcare, employment or essential public services.
Accountability must also survive automation. As AI systems become more autonomous, governance needs to establish who remains accountable for AI-enabled decisions, how those decisions can be examined and challenged, and when human intervention is necessary. The objective is not to constrain AI or remove human judgement, but to determine where oversight matters most.
India's approach therefore cannot simply be an imported governance model. It needs to reflect the country's scale, diversity, digital ecosystem and development priorities, balancing innovation with privacy, security, fairness and inclusion.
Ultimately, governance should not be viewed as the brake on India's AI ambition. Done well, it can become the infrastructure of trust that allows innovation to move faster and reach further.
India has an opportunity not only to scale AI, but to demonstrate how innovation, inclusion and accountability can advance together. That is the promise of governing responsibly in the age of AI and the foundation on which India's AI ambition can become not just bigger, but better.
