Lok Sabha Question No. 2236 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-03-12
Subject: Challenges posed by AI
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Shri Kota Srinivasa Poojary

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2236

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 12.03.2025

## CHALLENGES POSED BY AI

## 2236.      SHRI KOTA SRINIVASA POOJARY:

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

- (a)  whether  the  Government  has  identified  key  challenges  posed  by  Artificial  Intelligence (AI)  including  ethical  concerns,  privacy  issues  and  job  displacement  and  if  so,  the  details thereof;  (b)  the  steps  taken  by  the  Government  for  ensuring  an  open,  safe,  trusted  and accountable internet for users in the country amidst AI growth;
- (c) whether the Government is considering to constitute an Advisory Group for assessing the impact of AI across different sectors like healthcare, agriculture, education, Governance, DPI and others and if so, the details thereof; and
- (d)  the  measures  being  taken  by  the  Government  to  build  AI  awareness  and  skills  to effectively address emerging challenges along with the details of National AI Portal?

## ANSWER

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

(a) to (d): 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.

India  is  regarded  as  the  skills  capital  in  technology  and  Artificial  Intelligence.  The  most reliable ranking in AI is placing India among the top countries with AI Skills, AI capabilities, and policies  to  use  AI.  Stanford  University  has  ranked  India  among  the  top  four  countries along with the US, China, and the UK in the Global and National AI vibrancy ranking based on 42 indicators. GitHub, which is community of developers has ranked India at the top with the global share of 24% of all projects.

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. Hallucination, bias, misinformation and deepfakes are some of the challenges posed by AI.

Government is cognizant of the need to create guardrails to ensure that AI is safe and trusted. Accordingly, the Government after extensive public consultations with relevant stakeholders 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  legal  obligations  on intermediaries, including social media intermediaries and platforms, to ensure their 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 IT Rules, 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 which casts 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.

Government  has  constituted  an  Advisory  Group  on  AI  for  India-specific  regulatory  AI framework under the chairmanship of 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.

IndiaAI  FutureSkills  Pillar  of  the  IndiaAI  Mission  envisions  to  augment  the  number  of graduate  and  post-graduate  in  AI  domain  by  awarding  IndiaAI  fellowship  to  B.Tech  and M.Tech students of  all  the  All-India  Council  for  Technical  Education  (AICTE)  recognized engineering  institutions.  Till  now  the  fellowship  has  been  awarded  to  130  B.Tech  and  40 M.Tech students. Further, top NIRF ranked research institutes were approached to intake new PhD scholars  under  IndiaAI  PhD  fellowship.  Additionally,  Under  the  IndiaAI  FutureSkills Pillar, IndiaAI Data Labs are being setup in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities across India, to impart foundational-level courses in Data and AI such as Annotation, Data Cleaning, Data Analytics, etc.  IndiaAI  has  established  IndiaAI  Data  Lab  in  National  Institute  of  Electronics  & Information Technology (NIELIT's) Delhi centre and & ICET, Nagaland. Also Additionally, IndiaAI in collaboration with NIELIT is establishing 27 IndiaAI data labs in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities across the country, details of which are placed at Appendix II.

The  Government,  through  various  initiatives,  is  undertaking  several  measures  to  build  AI awareness and skills to effectively address emerging challenges. Government has organized the  RAISE  2020  to  bring  together  global  leaders,  policymakers,  industry  experts,  and academicians to discuss and explore ways to harness the potential of Artificial  Intelligence (AI) for social empowerment.

India as a founding member and current council chair of the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence  (GPAI)  has  organized  the  Global  IndiaAI  Summit  and  GPAI  Summit  in  July 2024  and  December  2023  where  various  stakeholders  from  government,  industry  and academia engaged in discussions and deliberations for development of AI based solutions in a safe  and  trusted  manner.  The  summits  served  as  a  platform  for  sharing  knowledge  and experiences  on  the  responsible  development  and  deployment  of  AI  technologies  and  build awareness  about  the  challenges  posed  by  AI.  India  has  taken  lead  in  ensuring  that  AI  is available for all and for developing global framework for safety & trust for AI models and applications.

MeitY  has  launched  the  "National  AI  Portal"  (https://indiaai.gov.in/)  which  serves  as  a comprehensive repository of Artificial Intelligence (AI) initiatives in the country. The portal acts  as  a  single  point  of  reference  for  individuals,  researchers,  and  industry  professionals seeking  information  about  AI  initiatives  in  India,  including  academic  research,  startups, policy  initiatives,  and  other  related  information.  The  IndiaAI  portal  hosts  a  wide  array  of articles, publications, and thought leadership pieces that aim to enhance the understanding of AI and its potential applications. In addition to articles, the IndiaAI portal hosts webinars and online sessions to build awareness and skills and cover a broad spectrum of topics related to AI, including ethical issues, technological advancements etc.

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## Appendix I

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

| NAME OF THE THEME                  | SELECTED APPLICANT                                                                | TITLE OF THE 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                                                                                           |

List of Data & AI labs planned by IndiaAI in collaboration with NIELIT in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities across the country:

|   S.No. | NIELIT Centre   | State/UT          |
|---------|-----------------|-------------------|
|       1 | Gorakhpur       | Uttar Pradesh     |
|       2 | Lucknow         | Uttar Pradesh     |
|       3 | Shimla          | Himachal Pradesh  |
|       4 | Aurangabad      | Maharashtra       |
|       5 | Patna           | Bihar             |
|       6 | Buxar           | Bihar             |
|       7 | Muzaffarpur     | Bihar             |
|       8 | Kurukshetra     | Haryana           |
|       9 | Ropar           | Punjab            |
|      10 | Haridwar        | Uttarakhand       |
|      11 | Bikaner         | Rajasthan         |
|      12 | Tezpur          | Assam             |
|      13 | Bhubaneswar     | Odisha            |
|      14 | Calicut         | Kerala            |
|      15 | Guwahati        | Assam             |
|      16 | Itanagar        | Arunachal Pradesh |
|      17 | Srinagar        | J&K               |
|      18 | Jammu           | J&K               |
|      19 | Ranchi          | Jharkhand         |
|      20 | Imphal          | Manipur           |
|      21 | Gangtok         | Sikkim            |
|      22 | Agartala        | Tripura           |
|      23 | Aizawl          | Mizoram           |
|      24 | Shillong        | Meghalaya         |
|      25 | Kohima          | Nagaland          |
|      26 | Leh             | Ladakh            |
|      27 | Silchar         | Assam             |

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