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Sound Public Policy to Boost Government’s AI Governance Guidelines
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has unveiled governance guidelines for Artificial Intelligence (AI), which signifies regulation of technology, so that AI can be put to best use and a framework be developed which can be adopted across different wings of the government, regulators, public bodies as also by industry.
MeitY, under the IndiaAI Mission, came out with a comprehensive framework to ensure safe, inclusive, and responsible AI adoption across sectors. The guidelines were formally introduced by a set of government officials, advisers, academics and scientists, which suggests substantial efforts have been made by all stakeholders to bring out a sound framework. It was also opened for public consultation.
Core Components of MeitY’s AI Governance Framework
These guidelines propose a robust governance framework to foster innovation, while ensuring risk mitigation. The framework essentially comprises four key components:
- Seven guiding principles (Sutras) for responsible and ethical AI presence.
- Key recommendations across six pillars of AI governance.
- An action plan to be followed on a short, medium, and long-term basis.
- Practical guidelines for industry, developers, and regulators to ensure transparency and accountability for AI deployment.
The objective is to create sandboxes for innovation at the same time ensure risk mitigation within an adaptive system.
Role of Policymakers in Implementation and Enforcement is key
The key to the success of adoption and subsequently adoption of these guidelines, however, rests with the policy making arms across sectors, ministries and states – who will ensure enablement through infrastructure and capacity building, regulate basic principles of these guidelines and create an oversight mechanism – through short, medium, and long term steps, and operationalise the recommendations made through the guidelines. Equally important are the right policy frameworks for industry actors, as also public in general to ensure consistent implementation of the recommendations.
Multistakeholder Participation is important
Since the framework is designed to support evolving conceptions involving responsible innovation and accountable implementation of sound AI policy, considerable involvement of individual researchers, think tanks, academic institutions, domain experts, industry, and civil society throughout the timelines will play a key role.
Institutional Mechanisms for AI Oversight
The guidelines talk about setting up an AI Governance Group (AIGG) to be supported by a Technology & Policy Expert Committee (TPEC), besides the AI Safety Institute (AISI) under the supervision of IndiaAI Mission be well-resourced to provide technical expertise on safety issues, while sector regulators such as RBI, SEBI, TRAI, CCI, etc. continue to exercise enforcement powers.
All the above mentioned steps will yield results on the backing of sound, practical and implementable public policy frameworks that meet the requirements of individual ministries as also sectoral regulators.
Legal Landscape Surrounding AI in India
The current laws in India relevant to AI systems are spread across various Acts led by the Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act), which is the mother act of India’s digital regulation. In addition, there are other laws such as the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS), Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDP Act), the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 (CPA), etc. Besides, there are sectoral legislations such as the Telecommunications Act, 2023, RBI and SEBI regulations etc.
The robustness of the frameworks, through a targeted policy making mechanism which can assimilate the tenets of different acts, regulations and legislation will reflect the key benefits of AI governance guidelines.