EAM’s remarks at Trust & Safety India Festival 2025 (October 07, 2025)

Dr. Ranjana Kumari ji,

Friends,

It is a great pleasure to join you all this morning as we commence the Trust and Safety India (TASI) Festival. As a pre-Summit event for the February 2026 AI Impact Summit, it kicks off a set of conversations that are of great interest both in India and to the world. I commend the Centre for Social Research India and you, Dr. Ranjana Kumari ji personally, for taking this initiative.

2. Friends, in human history, the advancement of progress has been determined by the march of technology. Yet, that has not always been a linear path. The promise and the perils have always been two sides of the same coin. Choices made in the deployment and application decided the difference between empowerment and exploitation, between democratization and domination and between partnership and polarization. Today, we are at the cusp of an immense change and decisions made by us, individually and collectively, will help decide the fate of foreseeable future.

3. Now, if any of you think that this is an exaggeration, consider what is likely to happen in just the next few years. AI will transform our economies, it will change our work habits, it will create new health solutions, it will enhance educational access, it will improve efficiencies and it could even lead to a new lifestyle. The difference with the past is that this particular transformation that is going to come upon us - this will be all-pervasive and not just sectoral. It will impact every citizen in every corner of the world. New efficiencies and new possibilities will certainly emerge; but so too will new players and new power centres. For this very reason, we need to adopt a balanced approach to the governance of AI and to ensure that there are adequate guardrails in place to protect digital nagriks. As Prime Minister Narendra Modi has noted: "Technology is a force for good, but only if humanity guides it".

4. Friends, Trust and Safety are essential for the implementation of Responsible AI. For a society like India, this means development of indigenous tools and frameworks, self-assessment protocols for innovators and establishing relevant guidelines. Only then can we be assured that the development, deployment, use and governance of AI is safe and accessible. India bears a special responsibility because many other nations - especially those of the Global South - they look to us for inspiration, and certainly in the case of the digital public infrastructure, today what we have achieved in the last decade, if you see today the scale of delivery, the improvement in governance, the efficiencies with which we serve the public, I think it is already resonating across the world. As a Foreign Minister, when I go abroad, this is often the topic of conversation, and I can see very much, this being extrapolated into the world of AI as well.

5. Now, different societies have put different levels of emphasis on the benefits and on the risks of AI. Understandably, some of the narrative is influenced by those who have skin in the game. But at the end of the day, it is imperative that we take a sober and we take a balanced view. After all, concerns about bias, ethics, privacy and vulnerability are well-founded, deriving from pre-existing experiences. We also need to take particular precaution against the danger of losing trust in institutions and practices that underpin our daily life. Already, we see an inclination to question the umpire or even the playing field when results don't go in our favour. Maintaining - and I would argue in the era of AI - even strengthening trust therefore is of utmost importance.

6. Friends, encouraging a global discourse on AI is obviously essential. Indeed, every time a game changing technology has appeared on the horizon, it has triggered off similar endeavours. But history is also a witness to the reality that those exercises have not been easy. There is the obvious temptation to put narrow self-interest above collective good. And that is why we need to rise to this particular challenge, because what is at stake cannot be over-stated. It is not just the ambitions of polities but the personal interest of every citizen on this planet.

7. Now we, in India, we have consistently advocated for global AI governance and the shaping of an international agenda. We have demonstrated this during our G20 Presidency and strongly urged its usage for advancing Sustainable Development Goals, while safeguarding trust, safety, fairness and accountability. As a founding member of the Global Partnership on AI, we promoted the New Delhi Declarations which envisaged responsible and inclusive AI. We participated in the AI Summits in Bletchley Park and Seoul and co-chaired the Paris AI-Action Summit last year. The AI-Impact Summit in 2026 - with a focus obviously on impact - will take this forward.

8. So let me conclude by saying this - this is an endeavour whose success depends on our ability to ensure multi-stakeholdership. And that is why the TASI Festival today is important because it sends out a strong inclusive and pro-people message on this critical issue. I thank the organizers once again for inviting me and wish your deliberations all success.

Thank you very much.

New Delhi
October 07, 2025