India AI law: new deepfake rules signalled by adviser

India may bring a new AI law, a top government adviser has told NDTV, as New Delhi steps up its deepfake crackdown and widens the net on synthetic media. The remarks, reported on 21 October, are the clearest sign yet that talk of an India AI law has moved from speculation to policy.

The comments follow a series of moves this month that have put AI regulation at the top of the policy agenda. On 8 October, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) would release a consultation paper on AI regulation within a month. "The time has come for AI regulation," Vaishnaw said at the launch of the World Bank's World Development Report 2026 on the promise of artificial intelligence, pointing to security risks, manipulated media and wider cybersecurity threats.

Why an India AI law is on the table

Deepfakes have become the sharpest edge of the debate over AI rules in India, and the shift is why talk of an India AI law has gained pace this month. Vaishnaw has called them a nuisance capable of causing serious problems in society, warning that as their quality improves they become harder to spot and easier to believe. When people trust what they see, he said, false narratives spread and can lure people into wrong actions and wrong beliefs.

The government has already started tightening the rules. In February 2026, MeitY notified amendments to the IT Rules requiring platforms that offer AI content tools to label synthetic audio-visual content and embed permanent metadata, to the extent technically feasible. Large platforms must also collect declarations from users who post synthetic content. Platforms that do not comply risk losing the safe harbour protection under section 79 of the IT Act.

A MeitY advisory issued on 8 October went further. It asked social media intermediaries to label or add context to manipulated, synthetic or misleading content, including text, and to prioritise complaints from authorised government agencies. The MeitY advisory warned that false or out-of-context content presented as current or authentic can confuse the public and disturb public order. Taken together, the rules and the advisory amount to a deepfake crackdown with both labelling duties and faster takedowns.

What an India AI law could cover

The consultation paper is expected to examine AI safety, which Vaishnaw has called the most important point, alongside AI-linked harms, cybersecurity threats, the psychological impact of AI systems on users, a human-first approach to deployment, and skilling for an AI-driven economy. How far an India AI law would go beyond the current IT Rules is the open question the paper must answer. Once public comments come in, the paper is expected to form the base for rules across sectors, giving companies clarity before any enforceable obligations follow.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi added an international dimension on 6 October. Meeting board members of the Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA) in Delhi, he called for global standards and common rules for emerging technologies and suggested exploring ways for users to immediately identify the origin of deepfakes and AI-generated content. In a post on X after the meeting, he wrote: "Global standards for emerging tech. Clear identification of AI-generated and deepfake content. Our digital future must expand opportunity while strengthening trust."

February's rule changes also cut the deadline for taking down unlawful content after a government notice or court order from 36 hours to three, according to a Lok Sabha answer given by Minister of State Jitin Prasada on 6 August. Platforms that miss the deadline lose their section 79 exemption, the answer said.

Where the India AI law push goes next

MeitY is also building the infrastructure side of the policy. The ministry plans to empanel AI models and startups for government use through tenders, and has issued a request for expression of interest for 10,000 GPUs, with the first tender covering 5,000. Those tenders sit alongside the India AI law discussion as the capacity side of the same policy.

Whether the outcome is a standalone India AI law or rules made under the existing IT Act will shape how platforms plan compliance. The consultation paper, due next month, will invite comments before any enforceable obligations follow, and that paper will decide how far an India AI law goes.