The global artificial intelligence governance landscape has undergone a dramatic transformation in the last two years, evolving from fragmented principles-based frameworks toward comprehensive risk-based regulatory approaches. This shift reflects the international community’s urgent response to rapid advances in generative AI technologies, yet it has simultaneously been raised as a critical governance deficit. Among the 193 UN Member States, only seven participate meaningfully in major AI governance initiatives, while 118 countries – predominantly from the Global South – remain entirely excluded from shaping the technologies that will define their futures.
India has stepped into this governance vacuum, positioning itself as the de facto leader of Global South nations through a distinctive approach that bridges competing global visions. India’s emergence as a diplomatic bridge-builder represents perhaps the most significant development in international AI diplomacy since the technology’s commercial breakthrough.
India’s Strategic Vision: “AI for All” as Democratic Alternative
India’s AI governance philosophy is rooted in VasudhaivaKutumbakam – emphasising inclusive, sustainable development for both humanity and the planet. This vision aligns with Global South philosophies like Ubuntu from Africa and SumakKawsay from Latin America, all advocating collective well-being over individual or state-centric dominance. This development-centric model contrasts sharply with the market-centric approach of the United States, the rights-centric framework of the European Union, and the state-centric control mechanisms of China.
The practical manifestation of this philosophy emerged during India’s transformative G20 presidency in 2023, with Prime Minister’s proposal for a “framework for Responsible Human-Centric AI governance” emphasising that AI must benefit all countries in socio-economic development, workforce enhancement, and research. The resulting G20 New Delhi Declaration achieved an unprecedented 100 per cent compliance rate from member nations on AI governance commitments, representing one of the most successful multilateral AI agreements to date.
Central to India’s success was its integration of AI governance with Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) development. DPI represents foundational digital systems – like identity, payments, and data exchange platforms – that enable privacy-preserving, consent-driven data sharing for AI model training while maintaining democratic oversight. The G20 Framework for Systems of Digital Public Infrastructure established this DPI-AI integration as a practical mechanism that offers developing nations a pathway to AI adoption, avoiding the technological dependencies inherent in proprietary Western systems or the surveillance implications of authoritarian alternatives.
Addressing Global South Exclusion Through the “Four E” Framework
India’s leadership directly tackles the critical challenges facing Global South countries in AI governance: Extractivism (unfair extraction of data and resources without equitable benefit-sharing), Exclusion (systematic marginalisation from AI development and governance processes), Ethnocentrism (Western-centric AI systems that ignore local cultures and needs), and Enforcement (lack of binding standards to ensure responsible AI development).
The IndiaAI Mission, approved in March 2024 with an INR 10,300 crore allocation over five years, demonstrates a practical commitment to democratising AI access. The mission has deployed 38,000 GPUs and established 30 AI & Data Labs nationwide, with plans for 570 laboratories total. Critically, India offers subsidised GPU access at INR 100 (USD 1.15) per hour compared to the global average of USD 2.50-USD 3.
India’s Digital India Bhashini represents one of the world’s largest multilingual AI projects, featuring 350+ models across 22 official languages and regional dialects. India’s offer to share these with Global South nations embodies true South-South cooperation over extractive tech transfer, directly addressing ethnocentrism in AI development.
Three AI Centres of Excellence, established with INR 990 crore funding across healthcare (AIIMS-IIT Delhi), agriculture (IIT Ropar), and sustainable cities (IIT Kanpur), showcase AI’s role in tackling development challenges. AI-driven tuberculosis diagnosis now covers 72 per cent of districts, cutting detection time from 14 days to 45 minutes – demonstrating how India’s model delivers tangible benefits to its population.
Revolutionary Multilateral Frameworks: OFA, GDPIR, and SIF
Building on G20 momentum, India has created three lasting innovations in global AI cooperation. The One Future Alliance (OFA), a proposed multilateral, multi-stakeholder body based in India, offers technical support for responsible AI governance and promotes South-South collaboration. It marks India’s third major global initiative under the current government, after the International Solar Alliance and the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure.
The Global Digital Public Infrastructure Repository (GDPIR) catalogues 54 AI-ready DPIs from 16 countries, offering standardised documentation for easy replication and adaptation. Its open platform model allows nations to adopt AI-enhanced solutions independently, addressing concerns around data colonialism while leveraging India’s proven experience with implementing DPI at scale through Aadhaar, UPI, and DigiLocker.
Perhaps most significantly, India’s USD 25 million pledge to establish the Social Impact Fund creates a dedicated financing mechanism for AI-powered DPI implementation in Global South countries. This fund provides both financial and technical assistance while creating platforms for global contributions from governments and organisations.
As these frameworks take root, India champions scalable capacity-building across the Global South. Recent bilateral partnerships, such as India Stack for Africa and ASEAN, demonstrate how technical expertise and open APIs can leapfrog legacy infrastructure gaps in other developing economies. The IndiaAI Fellowship, hackathons, and digital literacy campaigns build local AI talent in Tier-2/3 cities, while AI Centres of Excellence foster R&D partnerships with regional counterparts.
Navigating BRICS Complexities: Democracy Within Multipolarity
India’s role in BRICS highlights both opportunity and friction, especially as the group expands to 11 nations, including authoritarian regimes with divergent AI governance models. The July 2025 BRICS Statement on Global AI Governance showcases India’s diplomatic skill in uniting members around UN-centred multilateralism while upholding its democratic values.
India’s AI model – focused on transparency, accountability, multi-stakeholder input, and rights-based principles – contrasts sharply with China’s state-led approach and Russia’s digital isolationism. Still, India has built consensus on shared priorities like digital sovereignty, UN-led governance, Global South representation, and support for open-source development.
India’s hosting of the AI Impact Summit in February 2026 – marking the first time a Global South nation leads this forum – represents a historic milestone. Centred on the theme “People, Planet, and Progress” and expecting participation from 100+ countries, the summit positions India to showcase credible alternatives to the US-China AI duopoly.
India-China tensions continue to limit BRICS AI cooperation, despite diplomatic steps like the October 2024 border disengagement deal. India navigates these challenges through a multi-alignment strategy – balancing BRICS ties with Western partnerships, pursuing issue-based cooperation where interests align, and using BRICS institutions to compartmentalise AI collaboration from broader bilateral disputes.
India’s AI Governance Reality: Challenges and Strategic Assets
Despite diplomatic achievements, India faces significant structural hurdles alongside unique advantages that position it advantageously in global AI governance. The challenge-opportunity dynamic reveals both constraints and exceptional assets.
Infrastructure and Capacity Constraints
As of August 2025, India’s computing capacity of just 40 petaflops falls far short of the US’s total of 6,696 petaflops, while heavy reliance on imported semiconductors for around 90 per cent of hardware creates vulnerabilities. These constraints reflect in limited research output: India contributes just 1.4 per cent of AI papers at top conferences and holds 0.4 per cent of global AI patents, while China leads in both metrics. Talent retention remains challenging, with half of U.S.-trained Indian AI PhDs staying abroad, whereas China retains 94 per cent of its AI talent.
Regulatory fragmentation presents additional obstacles. The Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023, while providing important privacy protections, creates complex consent requirements for large-scale AI model training without clear safe harbours. Multiple overlapping laws – the IT Act 2000, DPDP Act, and draft AI guidelines – have yet to cohere into unified AI-specific legislation, creating uncertainty for innovators and investors. The rural-urban digital divide leaves significant population segments under-connected, while data centres face power and cooling challenges in tropical climates.
Strategic Assets and Competitive Advantages
However, India possesses unique strengths that counterbalance these challenges. The country boasts the world’s highest AI skill penetration and ranks first globally with 24 per cent of all AI projects on GitHub. India’s 13 million developer base contributes actively to generative AI projects, while over 140 GenAI startups have raised USD 1.5 billion since 2020, creating the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem.
India’s DPI provides an unmatched foundation for AI scaling, connecting 90 crore Indians to the internet and generating massive structured datasets through Aadhaar’s biometric database and UPI’s transaction networks. This successful integration of AI into existing DPI demonstrates scalable models for public service delivery that avoid the surveillance implications of authoritarian approaches.
India’s multilingual capabilities offer strategic differentiation. Open-source initiatives and indigenous foundational models like BharatGen and Sarvam-1 support Indian languages and can anchor Global South-led AI ecosystems, reducing reliance on Western or Chinese proprietary systems. A proposed “Digital Public Model Commons” could formalise this effort, promoting innovation rooted in local linguistic and cultural contexts.
India’s Path to AI Governance Leadership
Against a backdrop of competing national AI models, India’s “AI for All” vision offers a compelling third way. While the OECD AI Principles provide foundational guidance to over 70 jurisdictions, and UNESCO’s AI Ethics Recommendation stands as the first global normative framework for all 194 member states, these efforts remain dominated by developed nations. The UN High-Level Advisory Body’s proposals – such as an International Scientific Panel on AI and a Global AI Fund – mark ambitious steps toward comprehensive global governance, yet highlight the urgent need for more inclusive representation.
The upcoming AI Impact Summit presents a pivotal opportunity to institutionalise Global South leadership. Strategic partnerships with middle powers – Brazil, South Africa, Indonesia, Turkey – could create sufficient coalition mass to influence global standards without triggering great power competition. This approach leverages India’s bridge-building diplomatic experience while advancing inclusive governance principles.
Looking ahead, India’s diplomatic agenda should focus on consolidating leadership through coalition-building and advocating for the formalisation of multistakeholder mechanisms – such as a Global South AI Alliance or an international DPI consortium. By joining forces with like-minded nations, India can help shape rules, standards, and funding strategies responsive to local needs rather than imposed by technological powers.
As generative AI reshapes concepts of sovereignty, inclusion, and developmental equity, India’s “AI for All” vision serves not only as a pluralistic alternative to fragmentation or technocratic capture, but as a powerful model for governance that serves all of humanity – not just the privileged few. Through practical initiatives like the Social Impact Fund, innovative frameworks like GDPIR, and diplomatic leadership through forums like BRICS and the AI Impact Summit, India is positioning itself as the architect of a more equitable global AI future.
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