DPDP rules to be released by 28 September: Vaishnaw

The Centre would bring out the long-awaited administrative rules for the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act before September 28, electronics and information technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced Thursday.

Two other crucial government directives, the rules for the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 and a national AI governance framework, will also be announced by that date, he said.

The DPDP rules will be followed by a comprehensive set of frequently asked questions, Vaishnaw said. This will include the ones put to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) by 22 press bodies regarding how contentious provisions of the DPDP Act will practically affect journalism in India, other officials said. The DPDP Act had been officially notified more than two years back, following more than a decade of debate, judgements and legislation on how to protect the privacy and data of users while the draft rules were released in January.


Stressing that the government has engaged with the gaming industry for the past three years, Vaishnaw said one more round of stakeholder consultations will be held before the gaming rules are promulgated with effect from October 1. In August, the government passed the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill 2025 in Parliament that
shut down real money-based online games owing to rising cases of suicides, addiction, and shifting psychological behaviour due to these games.

The government will also develop more than 500 data labs under the IndiaAI Mission nationwide, at a cost of Rs. 500 crores to drive grassroot AI research and adoption Vaishnaw said.

While the national AI governance framework will not be prescriptive in nature, it will clearly define the boundaries of AI safety, and how checks and balances should be placed on the rapid adoption of AI going forward, Vaishnaw said.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had established a multi-stakeholder advisory group chaired by the Principal Scientific Advisor to establish a framework. The group has had over 3000 consultations so far, Vaishnaw said.

The framework will also act as a model for the world, at a time when it is becoming clear that common governance norms are required for AI globally, the Minister said. "Given the profound impact of AI, all nations must come together on this. I don't know if it will lead to a common governance framework in a year's time or not, but globally, the thinking is moving towards this," Vaishnaw said.

Global governance for AI

The government hopes the framework will become a point of discussion at the global India AI Summit to be held in New Delhi in February, 2026, and evolve into a tool for social upliftment.

Vaishnaw said India will also create dialogue ensuring the global south benefits from the AI boom, as reported by ET. "We want AI tech to be accessible for all nations. There is a proposal right now to provide common compute facilities to countries in the global south," he said.

Thursday's event also saw the second cohort of eight Indian firms selected under the India AI mission to receive incentives for establishing foundational AI models, being announced. Avataar.ai, Bharatgen, Fractal Analytics, TechMahindra, Zeinteiq Innovations, Genloop Intelligence, NeuroDX and Shodh AI shall be eligible to receive subsidised GPU compute under the Rs 1500 crore outlay for training indigenous AI models. Last week, ET was the first to report on the names which successfully clinched the selection. The latest batch follow the four startups shortlisted so far - Sarvam, SoketAI, Gan AI, and Gnani AI. Vaishnaw stressed these firms are also progressing well, and are expected to unveil their models during the upcoming Summit.

While India will require the large omnibus models which the initial cohort had been planning, the second of firms will also focus on small language models to solve specific problems, including healthcare, manufacturing and material sciences, the Minister said.