Indian Government Appoints Inter-Ministerial Body to Steer AI Governance Strategy

The Indian government has formed the AI Governance and Economic Group (AIGEG) to steer national policy, oversee labor impacts, and manage cross-sectoral AI regulation.

On April 16, the Government of India announced in an official statement that, to provide strategic direction to the country’s national AI governance strategy, it had constituted a high-level inter ministerial body named AI Governance and Economic Group (AIGEG) under the leadership of Union Electronics and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnav. The AIGEG is tasked with a variety of responsibilities, such as coordinating policy across ministries, departments, and sectoral regulators, along with overseeing cross-sectoral governance issues.

Furthermore, the Minister of State for Electronics and IT will serve as the vice chairperson of the AIGEG. Senior stakeholders from the Government across policy development, science and technology, security, and economic affairs will constitute the body’s membership. In addition to performing several tasks for AI governance, AIGEG will analyze the impacts of AI adoption on the labor market in advance to develop mitigation strategies and build transition plans that factor in informality, skill diversity, and regional variations. The body will develop a roadmap for AI deployment over the next decade in consultation with industry and other stakeholders. Additionally, it will also classify AI use cases into categories such as “deploy”, “pilot”, and “defer” based on data availability, skills, legal frameworks, and capacity for labor adjustment.    

Moreover, AIGEG will be empowered to ensure firms are held accountable for complying with local laws by reviewing existing mechanisms and issuing guidelines. It will supervise national initiatives on AI governance across the public and private sectors while promoting responsible AI innovation and its beneficial deployment in key sectors. CIO Bulletin views the formation of AIGEG as a carefully planned strategy to help India chart its future of AI governance though accelerated development in a holistic manner.