Link to MeitY’s office memorandum announcing the formation of AIGEG — [PDF] & [archive]
Links to relevant documents:
- India AI Governance Guidelines — [PDF] & [archive]
- India’s Economic Survey (2025-26) — [PDF] & [archive]
On April 13, the Indian government formed the new AI Governance and Economic Group (AIGEG) as a “central institutional mechanism” for coordinating AI policy. However, it excludes the independent regulatory bodies proposed in the AI governance guidelines, thereby limiting the group’s membership to ministers and senior officials from a few ministries.
The PIB press release said the AIGEG was formed after the recommendations from both the India AI Governance Guidelines and the Economic Survey. While the guidelines proposed an AI Governance Group (AIGG) and the survey suggested an AI Economic Council, MeitY merged both into a single body: the AIGEG.
The list of regulatory bodies AIGEG excluded despite recommendations in India AI Governance Guidelines is:
- TRAI – Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
- CCI – Competition Commission of India
- DPB – Data Protection Board
- Sectoral regulators and bodies such as:
- RBI – Reserve Bank of India
- SEBI – Securities and Exchange Board of India,
- ICMR – Indian Council of Medical Research,
- UGC – University Grants Commission, etc.
Who constituted this body?
- Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and
- Government of India.
Who is part of the AIGEG?
- Ashwini Vaishnaw as Chairperson. He is the Union Minister of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY)
- Jitin Prasada as vice chairperson. He is the Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology.
The following individuals are the members of the group:
- S. Krishnan, Secretary, MeitY (Convener)
- Ajay Kumar Sood, Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India
- V. Anantha Nageswaran, Chief Economic Advisor
- B.V.R. Subrahmanyam, CEO, NITI Aayog
- Amit Agrawal, Secretary, Department of Telecommunications
- Abhay Karandikar, Secretary, Department of Science & Technology
- Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs
- Representative of the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS).
A Technology and Policy Expert Committee (TPEC) will support AIGEG with advice on “global developments, emerging technologies, risks, regulation, and other evolving priorities relating to AI policy and governance.”
The government formed this body after repeatedly affirming its stance against regulating AI. For instance,
- The government deliberately decided not to regulate AI, said S. Krishnan, Secretary at MeitY, during the keynote address at the launch of the India AI Governance Guidelines in November 2025. “There’s been a conscious and deliberate approach of not leading with regulation and of making sure that every opportunity is provided to be taken,” he added.
- The government’s position is to avoid new regulations unless unavoidable, Krishnan said, stressing that excessive laws could slow innovation in a fast-evolving tech sector like AI.
- “The government is not considering bringing a law or regulating the growth of artificial intelligence in the country,” said IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw in a written parliamentary reply in April 2023.
Meanwhile, the recent Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology recommended that the Union government examine the feasibility of a comprehensive law to regulate AI.
What did the Indian AI governance guidelines say? “The Committee recommends the creation of an AIGG to develop and oversee India’s position and strategy on AI governance. The AI Governance Group should be a small and effective decision-making body with a broad mandate on AI policy and governance in India.”
India’s AI governance guidelines outline the following key functions of the proposed body:
- Coordinate policy across ministries, departments and sectoral regulators, and oversee cross-sectoral governance issues.
- Review existing mechanisms and issue guidelines to hold firms accountable for compliance with local laws.
- Oversee national initiatives on AI governance across the public and private sectors.
- Promote responsible AI innovation and beneficial deployment of AI in key sectors. Study the emerging risks of AI, regulatory gaps, and the need for legal amendments.
What did the Economic Survey say? “The AI Economic Council, separate from the Governance Council, is intended to operate not just with technological imperatives but also with moral imperatives that are sensitive to India’s socio-economic realities. It will operate as a coordinating authority responsible for aligning technology deployment with the evolution of India’s education and skilling infrastructure while navigating resource constraints and developmental priorities.”
It laid out the following governance principles:
- Ethical implications and boundaries must be clearly defined. Strict lines must be drawn around surveillance misuse, worker monitoring, algorithmic discrimination, and opaque decision-making enabled by AI.
- AI adoption must be explicitly subordinate to human welfare and economic inclusion. Every major AI deployment or policy proposal must demonstrate a credible pathway to net social and economic benefit, including employment, productivity diffusion, or public service quality.
- AI policy must internalise India’s labour structure: high informality, skill heterogeneity, regional variation, and limited safety nets. This would necessitate labour impact assessments ex ante, with mitigation and transition plans baked in.
- AI adoption should be phased in line with institutional readiness and skill pipelines. The institution may be empowered to classify AI uses into ‘deploy now’, ‘pilot’ and ‘defer’ based on readiness across data, skills, legal frameworks, and labour adjustment capacity.
- Skill policy must stand equal to technology policy. The AI push must proceed with parallel plans for educational reform, vocational adaptation, reskilling pathways and credential recognition.
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