New AI Rules Aim to Protect Trust, Rights, and Democracy in the Age of Synthetic Media
Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, announced that India will introduce comprehensive deepfake regulations "very soon." Speaking at the NDTV World Summit 2025 in New Delhi on October 18, the Minister stressed the need to manage AI's dual nature.
AI can enable harmless novelty, but it also has the power to “harm society in ways humans have never seen before.” This puts India at a critical crossroads, balancing its aggressive push for AI innovation with the urgent necessity to safeguard rights and democracy.
Vaishnaw's declaration follows earlier advisories in 2024, but the new framework promises more enforceable, specific rules for synthetic media. The Minister framed the government's approach as distinctly “techno-legal.”
This means the solution must combine legislative amendments with technical mandates and enforcement tools. "The world of AI cannot be regulated simply by passing a law," he asserted, emphasizing that technical solutionscombined with regulation will be “more effective.”
This regulatory drive coincides with an "Innovation at Full Throttle" push. India is supporting six major AI models, two of which are slated to use approximately 120 billion parameters.
These models are being designed to be “free from biases like Western models have.” To fuel this, two domestic semiconductor assembly units have begun production, backed by major investments like Google LLC’s $15 billion commitment for an AI facility.
This high-speed rollout necessitates rapid regulation to ensure that “Your face and your voice should not be used in a harmful way for society.” The coming rules will likely mandate compliance and technical readiness from technology companies.
This includes new obligations for provenance, transparency, and model accountability for generative AI platforms. Hosting platforms may be asked to institute “red-flag” systems for synthetic content and track historic versions.
In response to this shift, Dr. Deepak Kumar Sahu, Founder and CEO of FaceOff Technologies Pvt. Ltd., highlighted the need for AI-driven trust infrastructure.
Dr. Sahu emphasized FaceOff’s indigenous innovation, developing its multimodal AI platform in-house to counter generative AI threats. The forthcoming regulations, paired with India’s rapid AI development, could position the country as a global leader in responsible AI governance—a crucial development with major elections ahead.
