AI IN INDIA: STRATEGY MUST PRECEDE MISSION

Without a transparent, democratically grounded national strategy on AI, India's ability to shape global Al norms will remain constrained

- Ruchi Gupta, Executive Editor of the Future of India Foundation and an Aspen Global Leadership Fellow.

India has declared its ambition to be a global leader in Artificial Intelligence (AI) governance. As the world's largest democracy and a tech-savvy nation, it is well-positioned to champion an inclusive and human-centric approach to AI. But this aspiration risks being undermined by the absence of a comprehensive, democratically anchored national Al strategy.

India's current AI initiatives centre on the IndiaAI Mission, led by a bureaucrat and housed as an independent unit within a Section 8 company under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. The Mission cannot substitute for a national strategy. Missions are vehicles for executing priorities, but only after priorities have been clearly defined.

In India's approach to AI, fundamental questions remain unresolved. What are our national priorities? Which governance values should guide us? How should institutions be structured? Moving forward without answering these questions poses two risks: it may compromise India's ability to lead and maintain strategic autonomy; and it may embed an Al governance model that is technocratic, opaque, and lacking democratic legitimacy.

The many risks