INDE PERSPECTIVE

India frames global AI regulation from its claimed position as Global South leader and the world's largest democracy — a dual status that Indian media systematically mobilize to differentiate from both China's authoritarian model and American technological hegemony. The Times of India and Republic TV extensively covered the AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi, where PM Modi unveiled the M.A.N.A.V. vision — an acronym meaning 'human being' in Hindi. This 'human-centric' positioning contrasts with Trump's pro-business approach and Chinese state control, but remains largely declarative: the India AI Governance Guidelines published by MeitY in November 2025 are not legally binding.

India's legislative framework is a patchwork under construction. The IT Rules 2026, effective February 20, specifically target deepfakes and synthetic content — a priority driven by India's electoral context and mass manipulation risks in a country of 1.4 billion. The AI Ethics and Accountability Bill proposes a statutory ethics committee, mandatory bias audits, and penalties up to 5 crore rupees. But The Indian Express and NDTV note this text has little chance of passing soon, with the Modi government favoring the 'light-touch' approach — a term directly borrowed from Washington's vocabulary.

What Indian media largely conceals is India's massive dependence on American technologies. The strategic non-alignment claimed — buying Russian oil, cooperating with China through BRICS, allying with the US via the Quad — doesn't work the same way in AI, where foundation models, cloud computing, and chips are almost exclusively American or Chinese. The rhetoric of 'Bharat' as a 5,000-year civilization clashes with the reality of a country with no sovereign reference LLM.