Building further on the National Strategy on AI, the approach paper, the first part of the strategy titled “Towards Responsible AI for All”, aims to establish broad ethics principles for design, development and deployment of AI in India – drawing on similar global initiatives but grounded in the Indian legal and regulatory context.

The second part of the strategy which will be released shortly explores means of operationalization of principles across the public sector, private sector and academia.

Within this framework, it is hoped that AI can flourish, benefitting humanity while mitigating the risks and is inclusive bringing the benefits of AI to all. The paper incorporates insights, feedback and experiences consolidated through inter - ministerial consultations, large-scale global multi-stakeholder consultations and a series of 1-1 consultations with AI ethics experts in India and globally, as well as wider public consultations, conducted over the last 15 months.

In a foreword, Dr Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog stated that AI is a technology that continues to advance rapidly and the discourse on AI ethics and governance is also evolving. “Globally, a number of different sets of ‘AI ethics principles’ have been put forward by multilateral organizations, private sector entities and various nation states. For India, these principles are grounded in the fundamental rights afforded to citizens by the Constitution. Apart from establishment of principles however, it is also necessary for India to frame means of implementing the principles across the public sector, private sector and academia in a manner that balances innovation and governance of potential risks.”

The paper was launched online yesterday. The World Economic Forum Center for Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR) was the knowledge partner on this endeavour. In addition, renowned AI experts Ms. Kay Firth Butterfield, Ms. Arunima Sarkar from World Economic Forum, Microsoft, Prof Amit Sethi, Prof Balaraman Ravindran, Prof Gary Marchant, Google, Mr John Havens and Srichandra (IEEE), Prof Mayank Vatsa, Dr Shefalika Goenka and her team at PHFI, Dr P Anandan and Dr Rahul Panicker from Wadhwani Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Dr Rohini Srivatsa, and Vidhi Center for Legal Policy contributed to the paper. Valuable inputs were also provided by various union ministries, government departments and regulatory institutions namely MeitY, DST, DBT, PSA’s Office, RBI and NHA. 

Read the paper here