For two years, India's official line on AI regulation was roughly "let's not rush this." That line quietly changed this week. At SEMICON India 2026 in New Delhi, both IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and MeitY secretary S. Krishnan said India is now seriously working on AI regulation — and the reason is user safety, not hype.
01.What Vaishnaw actually said
Speaking on the sidelines of the event, Vaishnaw made a simple but pointed argument: every new technology brings benefits and risks, which is why regulation always plays a role. And for AI, the user-safety dimension is unusually large.
Here's the comparison he drew, and honestly it's the sharpest part of his comment. Nuclear technology, he said, is physical — you can see the danger, contain it, and write rules around it. With AI, "the imagination of how to keep AI safe" is much harder. You're regulating something that behaves in ways you can't fully predict.
His conclusion: the government is working with industry to find the right way of regulating, the right way of keeping AI safe, and the right way of keeping citizens safe in the online world.
02.MeitY's bigger reveal: a governance group is back on the table
Krishnan, who heads the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology as its secretary, went further. He acknowledged the existential-risk debate around frontier AI head-on: the threat "is something that people recognise," and it's what frontier AI labs themselves are working on.
But his real news was this — the government had earlier considered building AI Governance Groups and decided it was too soon to regulate. That idea is now being reconsidered. In his words, the Minister has gone on record saying "maybe the time has come to look at AI regulations seriously," and the ministry is "examining seriously" how to regulate the spread of AI.
He also urged coordination at both national and international levels, mentioning India's participation in international initiatives including Pax Silica, where AI and emerging technologies are discussed with other governments.
03.Why the sudden change of tone
The timing is not accidental. Over the past few weeks, researchers and safety experts at leading AI companies — including OpenAI and Anthropic — have gone public with stark warnings about increasingly powerful AI systems, with some raising the possibility of catastrophic consequences. We've covered the global safety debate in detail before, including Jensen Huang's argument that AI safety is an engineering problem, not a legal one.
Indian policymakers clearly read those headlines too. Add the everyday problems — deepfakes, fraud calls that sound like your relatives, misinformation during elections — and the pressure to move from "we'll watch and wait" to "we're working on it" becomes obvious.
04.India won't slow down on adoption
Here's the thing nobody's talking about enough: Krishnan was equally clear that India cannot afford to overlook AI's productivity potential. Manufacturing, healthcare, governance — he wants India to "reap those benefits" while the safety work happens in parallel.
That tracks with everything else happening at SEMICON India 2026, where the government laid out massive chip and skilling ambitions — our earlier coverage of Modi's Semicon India 2026 announcements gives you the full picture. The strategy is regulation plus acceleration, not regulation instead of it.
05.What's still unknown
Temper the excitement a bit, though. Nobody has published a draft law. There's no timeline for the AI Governance Group, no clarity on whether it follows the EU's risk-tiered approach or something lighter, and no word on who sits at the table when industry and government negotiate. "Examining seriously" is progress, but it's still just an intention.
Key Takeaways
- Vaishnaw: AI regulation is necessary, and user safety is its primary purpose
- Krishnan: MeitY is seriously examining how to regulate the spread of AI; an AI Governance Group is back under consideration
- India will coordinate with international initiatives like Pax Silica
- Adoption won't slow — productivity gains in manufacturing, healthcare and governance remain the priority
Frequently Asked Questions
What did MeitY say about AI regulation in India?
At SEMICON India 2026 in New Delhi, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and MeitY secretary S. Krishnan said India is now seriously working on AI regulation — and the reason is user safety, not hype. Krishnan confirmed the ministry is “seriously examining” how to regulate the spread of AI.
What is India's AI Governance Group?
India had earlier considered building AI Governance Groups but shelved the idea as premature. MeitY secretary S. Krishnan said that decision is now being reconsidered, and the Minister has gone on record that “maybe the time has come to look at AI regulations seriously.”
Why is India changing its stance on AI regulation?
Vaishnaw compared AI to nuclear technology — with nuclear you can see and contain the danger, but with AI “the imagination of how to keep AI safe” is much harder. India wants to balance user safety with productivity gains in manufacturing, healthcare and governance.
What This Means for You
If you're a founder or developer building with AI in India, start thinking about compliance now rather than later — documentation of what your AI does, how it handles user data, and where it could cause harm will matter the moment rules arrive. For students and professionals, this is also a signal: AI governance, policy and audit roles are about to become real career paths in India, not just in Brussels or Washington. And for regular users, stronger rules around deepfakes and online fraud can't come soon enough.
Want to be ready before the rules land? Our GPT-6 Astra — Zero to Hero Guide includes a full chapter on using AI safely — permissions, data handling and responsible agent use — plus cost-optimization worksheets that keep your AI projects lean while everyone else burns cash.