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Tough Question: Is India AI Policy Discourse Even Helpful?

This post by Shruti Rajagopalan is an awesome way to trigger a genuine debate, whether India's AI policy discourse has been helpful or not.


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Honestly, at the risk of self-promotion, it hasn't. Here are some reasons why, according to our team.


1️⃣ There is endless goalpost shifting around AI policy, on issues related to AI adoption, AI and economics and AI and intellectual property, with 0 realisation that AI communities are increasingly decentralised across the world, not just India, the US, UAE, Singapore and China.


2️⃣ Think tanks (mostly from Delhi and Bengaluru) dominate the discourse. There is no pan-India representation at all in any of the "roundtables" because there is a geography problem. Then, the way think tanks make decisions to publish a research or have their representatives write op-eds makes their motivations questionable since they try to "catch up" with the trend, like a lot of Indian law firms.


Ironically legal practitioners from law firms and chambers who had no idea what is data privacy and protection, and used to write it off as a mere "checklist" are suddenly triggered to publish anything that goes, self-cite themselves too much in some journal or academic paper, and then claim they know everything. It's a bland discourse which is trying to show it knows it all, while many just - don't.


3️⃣ The Government of India equally has no clue what is AI policy to be fair.


In this paper on AI and federalism for the Forum of Federations co-authored by Deepanshu Singh (link: https://www.forumfed.org/document/government-with-algorithms-managing-ai-in-indias-federal-system-number-70/), and even a crucial analysis by Jyoti Panday for AI Now Institute (link: https://ainowinstitute.org/publications/analyzing-indias-ai-industrial-policy) clearly show that there is a sense of confusion in enabling AI policy, with a lot of cracks, from a legal, policy and impact angle. Do read these works. We are endorsing what might make sense, and have nothing against any specific institution or individual per se here.


You can also read our founder Abhivardhan's report on AI Framework Fatigue which he had presented it to product managers in Hyderabad in February 2025 (link: https://indopacific.app/product/iplr-ig-013/)


4️⃣ Last, most think tanks, management firms, and law firms can't keep pace with AI developments in the sillicon valley and beyond. They think AI alignment based on unreliable generative AI systems can enable better AI safety. That's like jumping the gun and ignoring the history of data governance and cybersecurity. Decentralised technology communities engage in safety diplomacy and safety research. While most AI Safety Institutes are yet to materialise their value, it doesn't mean that AI Safety Research goals and metrics don't need to be established. This is where Indian organisations are failing and they are not realising the hype cycles driven by executives and AI researchers (apart from AI influencers).


To understand AI hype, we recommend you to read these works.


[Please note: these are endorsements out of volition.]




We hope this short insight helps.

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