India should avoid regulating artificial intelligence (AI) prematurely as excessive oversight risks stifling innovation, former Niti Aayog Chief Executive Amitabh Kant said on Thursday, calling for a light-touch framework that allows experimentation and private-sector-led disruption.
Speaking at a Bharat Ki Soch discussion in New Delhi, Kant said India was “too early for regulation” in AI and warned against adopting what he described as Europe’s approach to governance.
“Don’t do like what Europe has done. Don’t kill it. Europe has killed innovation. Once the government gets in, they kill innovation,” he said, adding that bureaucratic processes often hinder emerging technologies.
He said India should instead allow startups to scale and innovate before introducing strict controls, arguing that regulation should follow disruption rather than precede it.
“Without disruption, you can’t have regulations at this stage,” Kant said.
India’s Strategy: Data, Energy And Talent
Kant said India’s competitive advantage in artificial intelligence would not come from competing with the United States in frontier models or China in chip manufacturing, but from leveraging its data ecosystem, engineering talent and renewable energy capacity.
He said India should focus on controlling select “nodes” of the global AI value chain, particularly multilingual datasets, large-scale deployment systems and talent development.
“What India has is, it controls 20 per cent of the world. Artificial intelligence runs on data,” he said.
Kant added that India’s vast digital population generates significant data that helps refine global AI systems, arguing that data from the Global South is already shaping models that are later monetised globally.
He also emphasised that AI systems must be designed for multilingual and low-bandwidth environments to serve India’s population effectively.
“AI is not fit for purpose if it is not multilingual, if it is not low bandwidth, if it is not transformational for citizens,” he said.
Renewable Energy As AI Infrastructure Advantage
A central theme of Kant’s remarks was the link between artificial intelligence growth and energy consumption, particularly the rising demand from data centres and computing infrastructure.
He said global competition in AI would increasingly depend on access to large-scale, clean and reliable energy sources.
“Computing power, data centres, all require energy. There’s a shortage of energy in the world,” he said, adding that India’s renewable energy capacity could become a strategic advantage.
Kant claimed that India’s data centre ecosystem already consumes more energy than some major global cities and countries, underlining the scale of future demand.
“If we produce about 1,500 gigawatt of renewables, all data centres will come to India,” he said.
India’s installed renewable capacity currently stands at around 270 GW, with a government target of 500 GW by 2030. However, coal still accounts for around 72 per cent of electricity generation, and India remains heavily dependent on fossil fuel imports.
Kant said reducing this dependency was critical, noting that India imports around USD 180 billion worth of fossil fuels annually.
“You can’t make yourself dependent on imports from the rest of the world,” he said, linking energy independence to long-term strategic security.
Policy Debate Over IT Rules And AI Governance
Kant’s remarks came amid ongoing policy discussions in India over artificial intelligence regulation and digital governance frameworks.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology recently proposed amendments to the Information Technology Rules, introducing stricter labelling requirements for synthetic or AI-generated content and extending consultation deadlines.
Earlier amendments brought AI-generated content under regulatory oversight, requiring platforms to label synthetic information and comply with government takedown requests within hours.
A separate Private Member’s Bill introduced in Parliament in late 2025 has proposed the creation of an ethics committee for AI, mandatory bias audits, restrictions on AI use in sensitive sectors and penalties of up to Rs 5 crore.
Kant, however, cautioned against over-regulation at this stage, arguing that India’s existing framework remains “pro-innovation”.
“India’s regulations today, drafted by this government, are the best in the world. We should push for innovation,” he said, adding that more stringent rules should only come once the sector matures.
His comments come amid growing debate among policy experts and civil society groups over whether India’s current approach adequately addresses risks such as bias, transparency and accountability in AI systems.
Semiconductor Push And Supply Chain Independence
Kant also highlighted semiconductors as a strategic pillar of India’s long-term technological independence, calling chips essential for artificial intelligence, defence, automobiles and clean energy systems.
“Chips are going to run the world,” he said, pointing to the highly concentrated global semiconductor supply chain.
He noted that only a few companies dominate key segments such as GPU manufacturing and lithography equipment, underscoring the need for India to develop its own capabilities.
“There is only one company in the world that manufactures GPUs right now, Nvidia,” he said, adding that global dependencies reinforce the urgency of domestic production.
India’s Semiconductor Production-Linked Incentive programme has approved multiple projects, but industry assessments have flagged underutilisation of allocated funds and a lack of unified strategic coordination across semiconductor, AI and quantum initiatives.
The government has announced a second phase of its semiconductor mission in the 2026–27 Union Budget, though detailed financial allocations and timelines have not yet been disclosed.
Kant said geopolitical disruptions, supply-chain fragmentation and energy shocks made self-reliance in critical technologies essential for India’s economic future.
Balancing Innovation And Regulation
Kant said India’s long-term growth strategy should focus on achieving higher state-level growth rates and leveraging structural advantages in energy and technology.
He argued that if Indian states sustain growth above 10 per cent over three decades, the national economy would naturally expand at over 10 per cent.
“Every single state of India must aim to grow at 10 per cent plus for the next three decades,” he said.
However, he acknowledged that external risks such as geopolitical conflicts, rising oil prices and global economic uncertainty could weigh on near-term growth, which has been projected at around 6.6 per cent.
Kant said India’s broader ambition should be to build an AI ecosystem that serves its domestic population while positioning the country as a global deployment hub for artificial intelligence technologies.
“If India is able to use AI to solve the problem of 1.5 billion Indians, it will become the model for transforming the lives of the next 5 billion people moving from poverty to middle class,” he said. |
