December 5, 2025 — New Delhi:
The Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) has published a detailed summary of insights from a high-level, closed-door roundtable hosted in New Delhi ahead of the upcoming 2026 AI Impact Summit.
Held shortly after India introduced the Digital Data Protection Act Rules and its latest AI governance guidelines, the session focused on how Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) can be positioned as a core techno-legal architecture for safe, equitable, and accountable AI governance in the country.
According to Arun Teja Polcumpally, JSW Science and Technology Fellow at ASPI Delhi and author of the summary, India’s AI governance framework must evolve in tandem with DPI.
“For DPI to support responsible AI, it must be designed with built-in safeguards—fairness, inclusivity, equitable data access, privacy protection, secure interoperability, and broad scalability,” he notes.
Key Recommendations from the Roundtable
Participants outlined several strategic recommendations to shape India’s discussions at the 2026 AI Impact Summit:
- Robust legal and policy frameworks are essential for implementing DPIs as effective techno-legal tools for AI governance.
- DPIs can support AI development and deployment cycles, offering verifiable and transparent governance mechanisms.
- Governments must continuously invest, update, and modernize DPI systems to keep pace with rapidly advancing AI technologies.
The group also emphasized the need for international cooperation to build open, secure, and transparent AI ecosystems.
“India should create an open-source toolkit for designing DPI-based techno-legal mechanisms for AI governance, developed jointly with global partners—similar to the Universal DPI Safeguards framework,” participants suggested.
They further recommended providing free or low-cost access to essential AI infrastructure, including GPU-based compute power, open-source AI models, regulatory sandboxes, and curated public datasets—steps that would accelerate safe and responsible AI innovation.
Don’t miss other upcoming events at ASPI:
China 2026: What to Watch Report Launch
10 December, 2025
10 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. EST
Join us for the launch of CCA’s annual flagship “China 2026: What to Watch” featuring a keynote conversation with Ian Bremmer, spotlight presentations, and panel discussions with CCA’s top China experts.
Members of the media interested in attending or accessing an embargoed version of the report should email pr@asiasociety.org.
U.S.-India 2025: Strains, Shifts, and the Road Ahead
11 December, 2025
8:30 – 9:30 a.m. EST
Online
Join the ASPI for an end-of-year expert webinar examining the developments that unsettled U.S.-India ties in 2025, the status and stakes of the unfinished trade deal, and the strategic calculations in both capitals. The virtual discussion, moderated by Farwa Aamer, Director of South Asia Initiatives, Asia Society Policy Institute, will feature Lisa Curtis, Senior Fellow and Director, Indo-Pacific Security Program, CNAS; Akshay Mathur, Senior Director, Asia Society Policy Institute in New Delhi; and Jane Mellsop, Director of Trade, Investment, and Economic Security, Asia Society Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.
Risks and Opportunities for the U.S.-Japan Alliance
16 December, 2025
9 – 10:30 a.m. EST
Join the ASPI for an end-of-year discussion on the risks and opportunities for the U.S.-Japan alliance. The conversation will be moderated by Demetri Sevastopulo, U.S.-China Correspondent at the Financial Times, and feature Emma Chanlett-Avery, Director for Political-Security Affairs at the Asia Society Policy Institute; Hiroyuki Akita, Foreign Affairs Correspondent for Nikkei News; Mira Rapp-Hooper, Partner at The Asia Group; Michael Schiffer, Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation; and Jamie Morgan, Non-Resident Fellow at Carnegie Mellon Institute for Strategy and Technology.
Members of the media interested in attending the U.S.-Japan panel should email pr@asiasociety.org.
