Sometime last month, the Indian government served what they are calling an ‘advisory’ to various tech firms. As per reports, the advisory asks the big firms operating online to ensure that their services or products are not affecting the integrity of the electoral process in any way.
According to experts, what this really means is that corporations will now have to seek government permission before launching any new online models. This will heavily apply to firms that use AI in their online service models and is being called the ‘future of regulation’ in India.
Not even a year ago the Ministry of Electronics and IT had decided to let AI grow as an unchecked sector. But the rules of the industry are clearly changing.
Possible Effects of This Advisory
This form of regulation is clearly a hindrance to the IT sector as a whole. Constantly changing and adapting AI models are the core of gaining a competitive edge in today’s market. However, this advisory serves as a stance against the use of any models that are not compliant.
VCs are claiming that this move will largely affect how India will compete with the global IT market in the coming years. Silicon Valley leaders and AI entrepreneurs have also labelled this move as being anti-industry.
But there are even deeper implications to this advisory coming into effect. Any model that does not match the requirements of the Indian Ministry of Electronics and IT will have to be updated within 15 days or be shut down.
There have already been some harsh moves in the market with certain apps being taken down from the Google Play Store and then being reinstated later on. The IT Deputy Minister had also taken Google’s Gemini to court due to certain violations.
So, with all of this in mind, it can be stated that large IT corporations will have to play it safe in India to not face any sort of direct ban.
How Does it Affect Startups?
It has been stated via tweets that this advisory does not apply to startups. So the entire AI startup ecosystem for which India is the potential breeding ground will not have to go through the compliance mechanism.
However, there are no hard-and-fast parameters mentioned about how large a corporation has to be in order to come under this advisory policy. So, if a startup was to gain ground they may have to comply with this in the near future.
