AI in India: Strategy Must Precede Mission

India aspires to lead global AI governance but lacks a comprehensive national strategy. Without democratic oversight and institutional clarity, this ambition risks becoming technocratic and ineffective.

Current Efforts Of India

• Currently, India’s AI efforts are primarily channelled through the IndiaAI Mission, led by bureaucrats and operating as a non-profit entity under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

The Fundamental Flaw: Missions Cannot Replace Strategy

• India’s grand aspiration faces a critical hurdle: the absence of a comprehensive, democratically grounded national AI strategy. 
• The IndiaAI Mission, despite its existence, cannot substitute for a full-fledged national strategy. 
• Missions are vehicles for executing predefined priorities; they are effective only after those priorities have been clearly established. 
• India has not yet clearly articulated its fundamental national priorities for AI.

Unresolved Questions and Grave Risks

India’s approach to AI remains burdened by unanswered fundamental questions. There is a need to define:

• What are India’s national priorities for AI?
• Which governance values should guide the development and deployment of AI?
• How should the institutions responsible for AI be structured and operate effectively?

Strategic Risks of Skipping Foundational Questions

• Compromised Leadership and Strategic Autonomy: Without its own clear strategy, India risks becoming strategically dependent on foreign AI technologies.
• Opaque and Undemocratic Governance: The current vacuum could lead to an AI governance model that is technocratic, opaque, and lacking democratic legitimacy. This would mean vital decisions being made by a small group of technical experts without sufficient public debate or accountability.
• Technological Dependencies: Recent geopolitical events underscore how reliance on external technology can be leveraged for strategic advantage by other nations.
• Data Governance Challenges: Data is the fundamental raw material for AI. Without transparent and democratically debated frameworks for how public data platforms manage, access, and govern data, India risks reinforcing corporate monopolies and eroding public trust.
• Profound Employment Disruption: AI is already transforming India’s labour market.
  • India’s top IT firms have eliminated thousands of jobs due to AI integration.
  • The workforce faces a significant risk of displacement from generative AI.
  • National AI initiatives lack focus on employment transition, workforce planning, or social protections. 
    • Discussions remain too narrowly technical, with minimal input from labour economists, civil society, or workforce experts.
• Energy and Water Strain: AI systems are energy-intensive. 
  • Global data centre electricity demand is expected to double. 
  • India already faces power shortages and water stress in major tech hubs like Bengaluru and Hyderabad. 
  • Yet, these critical energy and water implications are barely addressed in policy discussions.
• Ethical Concerns and Erosion of Public Trust: As AI is integrated into sensitive domains like healthcare, policing, and welfare, the risks of bias, discrimination, and lack of accountability increase. 
  • Without strong regulatory frameworks, public trust will inevitably decline.

Way Forward

• National AI Strategy: A comprehensive national AI strategy must be developed, endorsed by the Union Cabinet, and presented in Parliament for holistic debate.
• Parliamentary Standing Committee on AI: A permanent standing committee on AI and emerging technologies should be established within Parliament. 
  • This body would oversee government AI initiatives, address ethical concerns, ensure accountability, and enable public consultations.
• Impact Study on AI-Driven Employment Disruption: A national commission should conduct a detailed study on AI’s employment impacts across sectors, with a focus on the disruption of entry-level white-collar jobs.

Conclusion

India’s credibility in global AI governance depends on coherence and resilience at home. Building a democratic consensus and a robust institutional framework is challenging, but essential, if India is to become a true global leader in AI.