NextFin News - As the global race for artificial intelligence supremacy intensifies, India has formally unveiled a governance strategy that deviates from the European Union’s comprehensive regulatory approach. On February 10, 2026, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) notified the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2026. This move, timed just days before the AI Impact Summit 2026 scheduled for February 16-20 in New Delhi, signals India’s intent to lead the Global South by utilizing existing statutory laws supplemented by surgical, high-impact amendments rather than enacting a standalone AI Act.
The new framework, spearheaded by the Indian government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, focuses on three core pillars: People, Planet, and Progress. By integrating AI into its Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI)—including the Aadhaar biometric system and the Unified Payments Interface (UPI)—India is attempting to democratize access to compute power and data. The 2026 amendments specifically target "Synthetically Generated Information" (SGI), mandating that platforms remove non-consensual deepfakes within two hours and other unlawful AI content within three hours. This "techno-legal" approach seeks to preserve innovation while addressing the immediate harms of misinformation and digital impersonation that disproportionately affect developing economies.
India’s decision to bypass a specialized AI law in favor of existing frameworks like the Information Technology Act 2000 and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023 is a calculated economic maneuver. According to the India AI Governance Guidelines released in late 2025, the government believes that "responsible innovation should be prioritized over cautionary restraint." This philosophy is rooted in the need to maintain India’s competitive edge as a global hub for AI services and scientific publications, where it currently ranks first globally in AI-related research output according to the Network Readiness Index 2025.
However, the reliance on existing laws creates a complex liability landscape. While the 2026 amendments provide a clear definition of SGI, they place a significant burden on intermediaries to deploy "reasonable and appropriate technical measures" to prevent the creation of unlawful content. For the Global South, this model offers a blueprint for nations that lack the institutional capacity to enforce complex, EU-style compliance regimes. By focusing on specific harms—such as deepfakes and discriminatory hiring—India is demonstrating that targeted interventions can be more agile than broad-spectrum legislation.
Data from the India AI Mission, which operates with a budget of over ₹10,300 crores (approximately $1.25 billion), suggests that the government is shifting its focus toward infrastructure sovereignty. The recent 2026-27 Union Budget included tax holidays until 2047 for foreign firms establishing data centers in India, provided they contribute to the domestic AI stack. This "Sovereignty as a Service" model aims to break the monopoly of Northern tech giants by creating localized compute pools. Yet, this expansion brings environmental risks; data centers in India face increasing scrutiny over water consumption and energy demands, a challenge the current governance guidelines acknowledge but have yet to regulate with binding standards.
The impact of this governance model is already visible in the public sector. The Ministry of Women and Child Development recently made facial recognition mandatory for accessing rations under the POSHAN app, a move that has sparked debate over digital exclusion. While the government argues these tools reduce leakages, civil society groups point to technical glitches that prevent the most vulnerable from receiving aid. This tension highlights the primary risk of the Indian template: in the absence of a dedicated AI regulator, the onus of proving algorithmic bias or exclusion falls entirely on the citizen, often through a slow and overburdened judicial system.
Looking forward, India’s "middle path" is likely to gain traction across Africa and Southeast Asia. As U.S. President Trump maintains a deregulatory stance in the United States, India’s hybrid model—combining laissez-faire innovation with strict, rapid-response rules for social harms—presents a viable alternative to both Western and Chinese models. The success of this template will depend on whether the 2026 amendments can effectively curb the weaponization of generative AI in upcoming regional elections without stifling the vibrant startup ecosystem that New Delhi has worked so hard to cultivate.
Explore more exclusive insights at nextfin.ai.
