Lok Sabha Question No. 626 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-12-03
Subject: AI Ethical Certification Project
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Dr. Nishikant Dubey

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 626

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 03.12.2025

## AI ETHICAL CERTIFICATION PROJECT

## 626.   DR. NISHIKANT DUBEY:

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

- (a)  the  steps  taken/being  taken  by  the  Government  to  upskill  the  workforce  in  Artificial Intelligence (AI) governance and development to address challenges posed by rapid AI adoption including potential job displacement;
- (b) whether the AI Ethical Certification Project and Privacy Enhancing Strategy Project under the Ministry has established measurable objectives and timelines and if so, the details thereof; and (c) the details of international collaborations or partnerships undertaken by the Government to codevelop ethical AI governance frameworks and standards?

## ANSWER

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

(a) to (c): India's AI strategy is based on the Hon'ble Prime Minister's vision to democratise 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  index  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:

The government launched the IndiaAI mission in March 2024.

It  is  a  strategic  initiative  to  establish  a  robust  and  inclusive  AI  ecosystem  aligned  with  India's development goals. It aims to develop a strong pool of AI-skilled professionals and to strengthen regional AI innovation across the country

- 27  IndiaAI  Data  and  AI  Labs  have  been  established  in  Tier-2  and  Tier-3  cities,  in collaboration with NIELIT
- o Imparts  foundation-level  courses  on  AI,  data  and  related  fields  such  as  Data Annotation, Data Curation, Data Cleaning, Data Science, etc
- 174 ITIs and Polytechnics across 27 States/UTs approved for setting up additional IndiaAI Data and AI Labs
- AI capacity building through fellowships for PhD, postgraduate & undergraduate students; More than 228 fellowships awarded till date

## Safe and Trusted AI

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.

## AI Ethical Certification Project

- Project titled 'NishPaksh: Tools for Assessing Fairness of AI Models'
- Led by IIIT Delhi in collaboration with Telecommunication Engineering Centre (TEC), DoT
- Objective: develop tools and a software platform to assess and rate fairness of AI models as per TEC's fairness assessment standards
- Deliverables include
- o Open-source fairness assessment toolbox and APIs
- o Documentation, test frameworks and reports
- Intended users include industry, standards bodies and Government agencies

## Privacy Enhancing Strategy Project

- Project 'Robust Privacy -Preserving Machine Learning Models' is being led by IIT Delhi and  supported  by  a  consortium  of  academic  and  regulatory  partners  (IIIT  Delhi,  IIT Dharwad, TEC)
- Aims to  develop  robust,  privacy-preserving  distributed/federated  learning  methods  and associated certification and test procedures suitable for deployment in Indian wireless and adversarial environments
- Advances federated learning, a technique that trains AI models without centralised data storage, while ensuring resilience against adversarial threats and communication challenges

India has positioned itself at the forefront of global AI cooperation through active participation in multilateral platforms such as the Global Partnership on AI (GPAI). It has previously served as the Council Chair, as well as through its leadership during the G20 Presidency in 2023.

In addition, India also co-chaired the Paris AI Action Summit 2024 with France, underscoring its commitment to advancing inclusive, equitable, and innovation-friendly AI governance.

India is set to host the India - AI Impact Summit 2026 from 16th to 20th February 2026 at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi.

For the first time, the global series of AI summits will be hosted in the Global South, reflecting a decisive shift toward a more inclusive and representative global AI dialogue.

The Summit is structured around seven core pillars, including the Safe & Trusted AI pillar, which aims to advance the global adoption of responsible AI practices.

Under the IndiaAI Mission, MeitY has also released the IndiaAI Governance Guidelines on 5 November  2025.  This  comprehensive  framework  lays  the  foundation  for  safe,  inclusive,  and responsible AI deployment across sectors.

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