India Launches 7-Sutra AI Governance Guidelines for Safe Innovation

The Government of India released the AI Governance Guidelines for Enabling Safe and Trusted AI Innovation on February 15, 2026, ahead of the AI Impact Summit 2026. The framework introduces a 7-Sutra roadmap based on the principles of trust, people-first governance, innovation over restraint, fairness and equity, accountability, understandability by design, and safety, resilience, and sustainability.

Developed by a Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology drafting committee established in July 2025, the guidelines aim to democratize AI access in sectors such as healthcare and agriculture. This techno-legal approach seeks to align with the national goal of Viksit Bharat 2047 by balancing inclusive economic growth with evidence-based risk management, specifically addressing gaps in generative AI, liability, and deepfakes.

To institutionalize these guidelines, the government is establishing the AI Governance Group, the Technology and Policy Expert Committee, and an AI Safety Institute. These bodies will work alongside existing infrastructure, including the IndiaAI Mission's subsidized compute facility of over 38,000 GPUs and the National Supercomputing Mission's 40+ petaflop systems, such as AIRAWAT and PARAM Siddhi-AI.