India Will Issue a Consultation Paper on a New AI Law 'in Coming Weeks', Vaishnaw Says
IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on October 23 that the government will issue a consultation paper on a new AI law "in coming weeks," because AI's risks have crossed a "threshold" that demands legislation. Hindustan Times notes that this departs from the ministry's November 2025 guidelines, which preferred amending existing laws. Vaishnaw gave no timeline for a bill and no details on scope, regulator or penalties.
India's IT minister now says the country needs a dedicated AI law, less than a year after his ministry said existing laws could be amended instead. Ashwini Vaishnaw told the NDTV World Summit in Delhi on Friday, October 23 that the government will issue a consultation paper on a new AI law "in coming weeks," Hindustan Times reported.
What Vaishnaw said
He said AI's risks have crossed a "threshold" that now demands legislation, and that the regulation would target AI's harms while keeping humans in control. "We should come up with a new regulation where the harms from the new technology can be regulated. Having said that, we are already working on it," he said. "Our bias has always been towards more towards innovation," he said, adding that the state must "simultaneously" keep citizens safe.
Vaishnaw said AI "has to be human first," that control over agents, models and outcomes "has to be in human hands," and that there must be "some equivalent of stopping things if they go out of control." He said any approach "has to be globally aligned" because "in the digital world, the physical boundaries do not exist." The paper will seek input from civil society, citizens, industry and other stakeholders, he said: "We have discussed a lot with the tech companies. Now we need to discuss with the stakeholders who are users of AI."
What it changes
The IT ministry's India AI Governance Guidelines, released on November 5, 2025, called for focused amendments to existing laws instead of a standalone statute, Hindustan Times notes. The ministry's secretary, S Krishnan, said in December 2025 that no dedicated AI law was planned, according to the paper.
Limits
- Vaishnaw did not say when a bill could reach Parliament and gave no details on its scope, the regulator or penalties, Hindustan Times reports.
- We rely on Hindustan Times' account; we did not find or watch NDTV's own report or video of the session.
- Vaishnaw spoke on October 23, three days before this article; we are covering it now because we missed it at the time.