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Published (non-binding, current)Non-binding · Strategy / action plan

National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence

Record IN-04

Issued by
NITI Aayog, Government of India
Jurisdiction
India
Level · region
National · South & Southeast Asia
Published / adopted
2018-06-04
Language
English

Summary

Discussion paper by NITI Aayog that lays the groundwork for India's national AI strategy under the banner #AIforAll, focused on AI for social and inclusive growth in healthcare, agriculture, education, smart cities and infrastructure, and smart mobility and transportation. It proposes research centres, the AIRAWAT compute platform, skilling and data marketplaces. Its chapter on ethics, privacy and security addresses bias and explainability, calls for a data protection law and sector-specific guidelines, and proposes a negligence test for damage caused by AI, safe harbours where an AI product was properly designed, tested and monitored, and ethics councils at each research centre.

Safety topics

accountability & liabilitytransparency & labellingresearch prioritiesinternational cooperation

Scope

Borderline scope Existing scope_note is kept: discussion paper mainly on AI adoption with one chapter on ethics, privacy and security.

Status notes

NITI Aayog prepared the paper under the mandate in the Finance Minister's budget speech for 2018-19 to establish a National Program on AI. It leaves execution and financial details aside pending wider consultation and says its recommendations would need a significant budgetary allocation. It proposes Centres of Research Excellence (COREs) for core research and International Centres for Transformational AI (ICTAIs) for applied research, with ICTAI Inc. as an umbrella body, a 'CERN for AI', a task force on intellectual property, and a Centre for Studies on Technological Sustainability for ethical, privacy and legal questions. On liability it also proposes a framework for apportioning damages and an actual-harm requirement for lawsuits, and it says the accountability debate should shift to identifying the component that failed and how to prevent it in future. NITI Aayog's AIRAWAT approach paper of January 2020 dates the release to 4 June 2018; NITI's publication page for the paper shows a publication date of 27 June 2018.

Sources

Open the official source https://www.niti.gov.in/sites/default/files/2023-03/National-Strategy-for-Artificial-Intelligence.pdf

Local copy

Archived. Last attempt 2026-10-18 03:23:08 UTC

Official source (third-party copy, not published) archive/_runs/2026-10-16-discover-leads-2018/C007/2026-10-16/official.pdf
Retrieved 2026-10-16 12:18:48 UTC
SHA-256 da5404dbb584c8956aae707dfcfe324dc1df11a179bc8288af0e898f4e37dcc5

Verification

A
The instrument's own official text, or an official register, was stored and confirms the title, date and status. checked 2026-10-18 · official-url-fetched
Recheck of 18 Oct 2026. Stored again in this run: the NITI Aayog PDF from niti.gov.in (114 pages, unchanged, same SHA-256 as the copy of 16 Oct 2026), NITI's publication page for it (node 708) and NITI Aayog's AIRAWAT approach paper of January 2020. The paper confirms the title, NITI Aayog's authorship and mandate (foreword signed by its CEO), that it is a discussion paper, and the recommendations in the summary and notes, including the chapter 'Ethics, Privacy, Security and Artificial Intelligence'. The paper itself carries no date and its cover has no text layer; date_published rests on the AIRAWAT paper ('released ... on 4th June, 2018'). NITI's publication page gives 'Wed, 06/27/2018 - 19:32', which looks like the date the item was posted on the site; the discrepancy is in the notes.
Second check: Independent check by Claude Code (claude-sonnet-5-5), 2026-10-18: 5 field(s) supported, fixes applied to scope_note.

History

  1. 2026-10-18scope_note: A discussion paper mainly on AI adoption, research and skilling in five sectors, → Existing scope_note is kept: discussion paper mainly on AI adoption with one cha — pipeline run 2026-10-18-recheck-south-asia-1 (recheck), candidate IN-042026-10-18-recheck-south-asia-1 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
  2. 2026-10-16Added to the register — found in pipeline run 2026-10-16-discover-leads-2018, candidate C007 (IN/executive)2026-10-16-discover-leads-2018 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)

Citation

NITI Aayog, Government of India. National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence. 2018-06-04. https://www.niti.gov.in/sites/default/files/2023-03/National-Strategy-for-Artificial-Intelligence.pdf. Status: Published (non-binding, current); verified 2026-10-18 (level A). Local copy archive/_runs/2026-10-16-discover-leads-2018/C007/2026-10-16/official.pdf retrieved 2026-10-16 12:18:48 UTC, SHA-256 da5404dbb584c8956aae707dfcfe324dc1df11a179bc8288af0e898f4e37dcc5. Every AI Policy Ever, version 1.18 (snapshot 2026-10-18), record IN-04.

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