Lok Sabha Question No. 3090 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-03-19
Subject: Liabilities arising from AI usage
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Shri Anurag Singh Thakur

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION. NO. 3090

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 19.03.2025

## LIABILITIES ARISING FROM AI USAGE

## 3090. SHRI ANURAG SINGH THAKUR:

Will the Minister of ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state:

- (a) the definition of Artificial Intelligence (AI) that has been adopted in the recently issued AI Governance Guidelines, particularly given observations that 'AI' is largely a marketing term for advanced machine learning applications;
- (b) the manner in which the Ministry plans to balance promoting innovation with mitigating risks specifically;
- (c)  the  manner  in  which  it  intends  to  differentiate  and  regulate  high-risk  versus  low-risk machine learning applications in sectors such as healthcare and aviation;
- (d) whether liabilities arising from AI usage will be primarily managed through contractual agreements or require new state interventions and if so, the details thereof; and
- (e)  the  manner  in  which  existing  digital  technology  laws  and  governance  frameworks  are likely  to  be  integrated  with  the  new  guidelines  to  ensure  responsible,  accountable  and economically enabling AI development in the country?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI JITIN PRASADA)

(a) to(e): The Government of India emphasizes the concept of 'AI for All,' aligning with the Hon'ble Prime Minister's vision to democratise use of technology. This initiative aims to ensure that AI benefits all sectors of society, driving innovation and growth.

Government is committed to harnessing the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for the good of  our  people  in  sectors  like  healthcare,  agriculture  and  education.  At  the  same  time,  the Government is cognizant of the risks posed by AI and the need to create guardrails to ensure that AI issafe and trusted.

Government has constituted  an Advisory Group on AI for India-specific regulatory AI framework under the chairmanship of Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA) to Hon'ble Prime Minister of India with diverse stakeholders from academia, industry and government with an objective to address all issues related to development of Responsible AI framework for safe and  trusted  development  and  deployment  of  AI.  The  report  on  AI  Governance  Guidelines Development  emphasizes  the  need  for  a  coordinated,  whole-of-government  approach  to ensure effective compliance and enforcement as India's AI landscape continues to evolve.Given the evolving nature of AI technologies, the report recommends adoption of a techno  legal  approach  to  AI  regulation.  The  report  acknowledge  that  the  term  "Artificial Intelligence" (AI) has been widely used in industry and policy discourse, often encompassing a  broad  range  of  computational  techniques.  While  commonly  associated  with  advanced machine learning applications, the report emphasises that AI should be defined in a way that reflects  both  its  technological  capabilities  and  socio-economic implications.Recognising AI as  a  rapidly  evolving  field,  the  report  highlights  the  importance  of  keeping  the definition adaptable  to  future  advancements .  Public  consultation  on  the  report  on  AI  Governance Guidelines  Development  has  been  completed  and  more  than  100  suggestions  have  been received.

In addition, the Government has taken several steps to mitigate the risks from misuse of AI enabled technologies like Deepfakes & AI generated content to spread misinformation. The Government  has  notified  the Information  Technology  (Intermediary  Guidelines  and Digital  Media  Ethics  Code)  Rules,  2021  ('IT  Rules,  2021') on  25.02.2021  which  was subsequently amended 28.10.2022 and 6.4.2023. The IT Rules, 2021 cast specific legalobligations  on  intermediaries,  including  social  media  intermediaries  and  platforms,  to ensuretheir accountability towards safe and trusted internet including their expeditious action towards removal of the prohibited misinformation, patently false information and deepfakes. In  case  of  failure  of  the  intermediaries  to  observe  the  legal  obligations  as  provided  in  the ITRules, 2021, they lose their safe harbour  protection under  section 79 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 ('IT Act') and shall be liable for consequential action or prosecution as provided under any extant law.

Also,  the Digital  Personal  Data  Protection  Act,  2023 has  been  enacted  on  11th  August, 2023 whichcasts obligations on Data Fiduciaries to safeguard digital personal data, holding them accountable, while also ensuring the rights and duties of Data Principals.

Union  Cabinet  led  by  Hon'ble  Prime  Minister  has  approved  the  IndiaAI  Mission  on  7 th March 2024, a strategic initiative to establish a robust and inclusive AI ecosystem that aligns with the country's development goals. This mission is driven by a vision to position India as a  global  leader  in  artificial  intelligence  by  focusing  on  seven  foundational  pillars:  IndiaAI Compute,  IndiaAI  FutureSkills,  IndiaAI  Startup  Financing,  IndiaAI  Innovation  Centre, IndiaAI Datasets Platform, IndiaAI Applications Development Initiative and Safe & Trusted AI.

The 'Safe & Trusted' pillar within the IndiaAI Mission aims to encourage the adoption of AI in  a  responsible  manner  with  the  principles  of  safety,  security,  transparency,  and  privacy embedded in the design of AI technology to mitigate the AI risks, placing the idea of 'AI for All'  at  its  very  core.This  pillar  enables  the  implementation  of  Responsible  AI  projects including  the  development  of  indigenous  tools  and  frameworks,  self-assessment  checklists for innovators, and other guidelines and governance frameworks.

Eight Responsible AI Projects have been selected to address the need for robust guardrails to ensure  the  responsible  development,  deployment,  and  adoption  of  AI  technologies.  The projects  cover  a  range  of  critical  themes,  including  Machine  Unlearning,  Synthetic  Data Generation, AI Bias Mitigation, Ethical AI Frameworks, Privacy-Enhancing Tools, Explainable  AI,  AI  Governance  Testing,  and  Algorithm  Auditing  Tools.The  details  of  the selected projects are given at Appendix I.

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## Appendix I

## The details of the selected projects under 'Safe & Trusted AI' Pillar are as under:

| NAME OFTHE THEME                   | SELECTEDAPPLICANT                                                                 | TITLE OFTHE PROJECT                                                                                                                                                               |
|------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Machine Unlearning                 | IIT Jodhpur                                                                       | Machine Unlearning in Generative Foundation Models                                                                                                                                |
| Synthetic Data Generation          | IIT Roorkee                                                                       | Design and Development of Method for Generating Synthetic Data for Mitigating Bias in Datasets; and Framework for Mitigating Bias in Machine Learning Pipeline for Responsible AI |
| AI Bias Mitigation Strategy        | National Institute of Technology Raipur                                           | Development of Responsible Artificial Intelligence for Bias Mitigation in Health Care Systems                                                                                     |
| Explainable AI Framework           | DIAT Pune and Mindgraph Technology Pvt. Ltd.                                      | Enabling Explainable and Privacy Preserving AI for Security                                                                                                                       |
| Privacy Enhancing Strategy         | IIT Delhi, IIIT Delhi, IIT Dharwad and Telecommunication Engineering Center (TEC) | Robust Privacy-Preserving Machine Learning Models                                                                                                                                 |
| AI Ethical Certification Framework | IIIT Delhi and Telecommunication Engineering Center (TEC)                         | Tools for assessing fairness of AI model                                                                                                                                          |
| AI Algorithm Auditing Tool         | Civic Data Labs                                                                   | ParakhAI - An open-source framework and toolkit for Participatory Algorithmic Auditing                                                                                            |
| AI Governance Testing Framework    | Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham and Telecommunication Engineering Center (TEC)         | Track-LLM, Transparency, Risk Assessment, Context & Knowledge for Large Language Models                                                                                           |

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