Centre to Release AI Regulation Consultation Paper: Industry to Carry Safety Responsibility, Roadmap for Indian GPUs
The Central Government plans to release a consultation paper within about a month that will propose new rules for artificial intelligence (AI). A consultation paper is a draft that the public, companies and experts can comment on before rules are finalised.
The proposed guidelines will focus on safety, inclusivity (making sure AI works for everyone) and new threats such as deepfakes and the psychological effects of AI, for example, harm to mental health from chatbots.
The main responsibility for following these rules will lie with the industry (AI companies and platforms), within a "techno-legal" framework: a mix of basic laws and safety features built directly into the technology.
The plan will also include a roadmap for developing homegrown GPUs (Graphics Processing Units, the special chips that power AI), to reduce India's dependence on imported chips.
The move builds on the India AI Governance Guidelines released by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) in November 2025 and on the IndiaAI Mission approved in March 2024.
India's AI Governance Guidelines (2025): How India Plans to Govern Artificial Intelligence
The India AI Governance Guidelines are the Government of India's official framework for how AI should be built, used and kept safe. They were released by MeitY on 5 November 2025. Instead of making one strict new AI law, they rely on existing laws, voluntary commitments by industry and a "techno-legal" approach, where safety is built into the technology itself. Their guiding spirit is "Do No Harm", while still encouraging innovation.
The new consultation paper is the next step after the 2025 guidelines. It keeps the same "techno-legal" idea and puts the main duty on industry, but it moves towards more specific rules on fresh risks such as deepfakes and psychological harm.
IndiaAI Mission: India's National AI Programme
The IndiaAI Mission is the Government of India's main programme to build a complete AI system inside the country: computing power, data, home-grown AI models, skilled people, start-ups and safety tools. The Union Cabinet approved it in March 2024 with a budget of ₹10,371.92 crore for five years. Its vision is "Making AI in India and Making AI Work for India". In simple words, the mission wants India to build its own AI and use it to solve Indian problems in farming, health, education and governance.
The planned roadmap for homegrown GPUs extends the IndiaAI Mission's compute pillar, which so far relies on imported chips. The new safety rules also connect to the mission's Safe and Trusted AI pillar and the IndiaAI Safety Institute, which would help test whether industry is meeting its responsibilities.
Deepfakes and Synthetic Media Governance
A deepfake is a fake photo, video or audio clip made with AI that looks or sounds real. It can show a real person saying or doing something they never did. "Synthetic media" is the wider term for any content created or changed by AI. Governments are now writing rules so that such content is clearly labelled and harmful deepfakes are removed quickly.
The new consultation paper names deepfakes as a key emerging threat. It is expected to build on the 2026 IT Rules amendment by placing more responsibility on AI companies themselves, for example, through labelling and detection tools built into their systems as part of the techno-legal approach.
- Consultation paper on AI regulation expected within about a month (from early October 2026).
- Focus areas: safety, inclusivity, deepfakes, psychological effects of AI.
- Responsibility for implementation: mainly on industry, within a techno-legal framework.
- Roadmap for developing homegrown GPUs to be included.
- India AI Governance Guidelines released by MeitY on 5 November 2025.
- IndiaAI Mission: approved March 2024, ₹10,371.92 crore over five years, seven pillars, 38,000+ GPUs onboarded.
- IT Amendment Rules, 2026 on synthetic content: notified 10 February 2026, in force 20 February 2026; 3-hour takedown for flagged unlawful content.
- AI Impact Summit 2026: Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, February 2026; New Delhi Declaration on AI Impact.