Lok Sabha Question No. 533 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-07-23
Subject: Misuse of AI
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Shri Kodikunnil Suresh

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 533

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 23.07.2025

## MISUSE OF AI

## 533. SHRI KODIKUNNIL SURESH:

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

- (a)  whether  the  Government  has  identified  key  risks  associated  with  AI  misuse-such  as deepfakes,  algorithmic  bias,  automated  surveillance,  or  cyber  fraud-and  outline  the  legal framework in place to address them and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) whether the Government has proposed or enacted any specific legislations, amendments or regulations to penalize AI-related offenses including misuse by both private entities and foreign actors and if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether any agencies (such as CERT-In, UIDAI, or cybercrime units) have been empowered or trained to detect and respond to AI-backed threats and if so, the details thereof;
- (d) whether any prosecutions, penalties or legal actions have been initiated in the country to date for AI-related wrongdoing and if so, the details thereof; and
- (e) the timeline for finalization and implementation of any comprehensive AI governance or ethics framework?

## ANSWER

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

(a) to (e):    India's AI strategy is based on the Hon'ble Prime Minister's vision to democratize the  use  of  technology.  It  aims  to  address  India  centric  challenges,  create  economic  and employment opportunities for all Indians.

## AI ecosystem in India at present:

India has a strong information technology ecosystem. It generates annual revenues of more than 250 billion dollars and provides employment to more than 6 million people.

Global rankings such as Stanford AI rankings place India among the top countries in AI skills, capabilities,  and  policies  to  use  AI.  India  is  also  the  second-largest  contributor  to  GitHub  AI projects, showcasing its vibrant developer community.

## India's AI strategy:

India's AI strategy aims to position India as a global leader in artificial intelligence. Government launched  IndiaAI  mission  in  March  2024.  It  is  a  strategic  initiative  to  establish  a  robust  and inclusive AI ecosystem aligned with India's development goals.

## Safe & Trusted AI

- To balance innovation with strong governance frameworks to ensure responsible AI adoption.
- In the first round, 8 projects have been selected addressing issues like machine unlearning, bias mitigation, privacy-preserving machine learning, explainability, auditing tools, and governance testing framework.
- More than 400 applications have been received in the second round.
- An expression of interest was published on 09 th May 2025 for onboarding partner institutions for setting up the IndiaAI Safety Institute.

## Legal provisions under IT Act, 2000:

- Sections 66C (Punishment for identity theft) deals with misinformation, deepfakes, cheating by personation or identity theft.
- Section  66D  of  the  IT  Act  criminalizes  the  use  of  computer  resources  for  cheating  by personation.
- Section 66E prescribes the punishment for capturing and publishing or transmitting the image of a private area of any person without his or her consent.
- Section 67A and 67B  make publishing or transmitting obscene material for instance, which could be generated by using deepfake technology a punishable offence.

## Legal provisions under BharatiyaNyay Sanhita, 2023:

- Section 111 of the BNS punishes the commission of any continuing unlawful activity including economic offence, cyber-crimes, by any person or a group of persons, either as a member of an organised crime syndicate or on behalf of such syndicate.
- Several other sections under the BNS also deal with cyber-crimes like cheating or cheating by personation  such  as  sections  318  (Cheating),  319  (cheating  by  personation),  353  (public mischief), 356 (defamation).

## Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023

- It  casts  obligations  on  Data  Fiduciaries  to  safeguard  digital  personal  data,  holding  them accountable, while also ensuring the rights and duties of Data Principals.

## Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 ('IT Rules, 2021')

- Central  Government  after  extensive  public  consultations  with  relevant  stakeholders  has notified the IT Rules, 2021.
- The  IT  Rules  cast  specific  legal  obligations  on  intermediaries,  including  social  media intermediaries  and  platforms  expeditiously  remove  the  prohibited  misinformation,  patently false information and deepfakes.
- In case of failure of the intermediaries to observe the legal obligations, they are liable for consequential action or prosecution as provided under the extant laws.
- Under  the  IT  Rules  2021,  there  is  a  provisions  grievance  redressal  mechanism  by  the intermediaries which inter-alia provides 24 hours of timelines for any grievances relating to morphed  or  artificially  generated  images  affecting  the  victim.    If  not  satisfied  with  the grievance redressal, aggrieved persons can approach Grievance Appellate Committee.
- Ministry of Home  Affairs has launched a dedicated portal to report cybercrimes [cybercrime.gov.in] and has also started a toll-free number 1930.

## Additional measures to counter deepfakes:

- Government of  India  issues  advisories  from  time  to  time  to  intermediaries/platforms  for ensuring compliance on using Artificial Intelligence foundational model(s) /Large Language Model (LLM)/Generative AI (Artificial Intelligence), software(s) or algorithm(s).
- Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is also actively addressing the key risks associated with AI misuse including deepfakes, algorithmic bias, cyber fraud, and misuse of automated authentication systems.
- The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) issues alerts and advisories regarding  latest  cyber  threats/vulnerabilities  including  malicious  attacks  using  Artificial Intelligence and countermeasures to protect computers, networks and data on an ongoing basis.

Government  has  constituted  an  Advisory  Group  on  AI  for  India-specific  regulatory  AI framework under the chairmanship of Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA) to Prime Minister. It has members from diverse stakeholders from academia, industry and government.

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