Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said MeitY should publish a consultation paper on AI regulation within a month, with safety and deepfakes in focus.

What the minister said

Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw spoke on 8 Oct 2026 at the India launch of the World Bank's World Development Report 2026: The Promise of Artificial Intelligence. He said MeitY should publish a consultation paper on AI regulation within a month.

He said the paper would focus on regulation and rest on four ideas: safety, a human-first approach, skilling, and making sure no person is left behind. He called it probably the base for the rules that will follow. ThePrint describes this as a shift away from relying only on existing laws and voluntary compliance.

Deepfakes and the role of industry

Vaishnaw said deepfakes are getting better every day and that people believe them, which can push them towards wrong actions and beliefs. Harms linked to psychological disorders will also be part of the paper. He said laws alone cannot govern AI and called for a techno-legal approach, with all stakeholders on board.

He also said, "Bulk of the responsibility will have to be taken by the industry," pointing to cybersecurity, safety and harm to users.

How this fits with earlier policy

India's AI Governance Guidelines, released in November 2025, did not propose a separate AI law. They rely on the IT Act, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, consumer laws and sector rules. Firms were to make voluntary commitments first, and MeitY would consider mandatory rules only if that fell short over 9 to 12 months.

MeitY Secretary S. Krishnan said the World Bank report suggests a similar order: existing laws, then voluntary compliance, then regulation. He said the time for some of those steps may have come.

Other plans mentioned

Krishnan said the ministry's immediate mission is the target of training one crore young people in AI skills over the next year. On computing, Vaishnaw put government demand at 10,000 GPUs, with a first tender for 5,000.