New Delhi, Nov 5: The Government of India has released comprehensive guidelines for responsible Artificial Intelligence (AI) governance, marking a major step ahead of the India-AI Impact Summit 2026.

The framework was unveiled by Prof Ajay Kumar Sood, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, in the presence of senior officials from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), including Secretary Shri S Krishnan and IndiaAI Mission CEO Shri Abhishek Singh. The new guidelines outline a robust governance framework aimed at fostering innovation while ensuring AI systems remain safe, transparent, and human-centric.

The framework features seven guiding principles, six governance pillars, an action roadmap for phased implementation, and practical measures for developers, industry, and regulators.

Prof Sood emphasised that the core principle of the framework is “Do No Harm,” stressing the need for innovation within a risk-mitigated, adaptive system. Shri S. Krishnan noted that the focus remains on human-centric AI that serves society while addressing potential harms. Shri Abhishek Singh highlighted that the framework reflects wide public and industry engagement, ensuring AI in India remains inclusive, affordable, and trustworthy.

The guidelines were developed by a high-level expert committee chaired by Prof. Balaraman Ravindran of IIT Madras, comprising policymakers, industry leaders, and researchers. They aim to serve as a foundational reference for national and international collaboration on safe and inclusive AI adoption. At the event, winners of the IndiaAI Hackathon for Mineral Targeting, organised with the Geological Survey of India, were also announced. Teams were recognised for innovative AI and ML solutions to advance mineral exploration using geological and remote-sensing data. The launch marks a significant milestone in India’s leadership in ethical and inclusive AI development, setting the stage for the India AI Impact Summit 2026, to be held in New Delhi on February 19–20, 2026.

New Delhi, Nov 5: NexCAR19, the world’s first humanised CAR-T therapy developed in India, has made gene therapies affordable and accessible while also maintaining scientific quality and patient safety, said the Ministry of Science and Technology on Wednesday.

NexCAR19 is a prescription drug for treating specific relapsed or refractory B-cell Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphomas and B-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia when frontline therapy or other standard treatments have been unsuccessful. It was developed using a lentiviral vector.

“NexCAR19, India’s first living drug, has made gene therapies both affordable and accessible without compromising scientific rigour or patient safety,” the Ministry said.

NexCAR19, developed by ImmunoACT — a gene therapy company incubated at IIT Bombay — and supported by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), was among the three path-breaking innovations gifted to the nation by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the ongoing ESTIC2025 conclave in the national capital.

The other two include QSIP: India’s own quantum security chip; and 25-qubit QPU: India’s first quantum computing chip, powering the future of computation.

CAR-T, or the Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell, has emerged as a breakthrough in cancer treatment. Clinical trials conducted globally have shown promising results in end-stage patients, especially in patients suffering from Acute Lymphocytic Leukaemia.

Recently, DBT via the Biomanufacturing initiative under the BioE3 Policy gave funding to ImmunoAct for setting up a 200L GMP lentiviral vector and plasmid platforms to scale up the production and also to make this new therapeutic modality more affordable.

“This platform will likely incorporate advanced bioreactor technologies to facilitate high-density cell growth and continuous production and enable higher yields and better performance of lentiviral vectors. The GMP-grade gene delivery vector can help at least 1000 patients per year for cell and gene therapy,” the Ministry said.

Amid rising cancer cases in the country, the DBT is also promoting early and late translational research to develop novel and indigenous CAR-T-based therapeutics to combat the deadly disease.

DBT is supporting interdisciplinary teams to venture into immunotherapeutic solutions for a broader spectrum of cancers, including both liquid and solid cancers, and also ways to overcome the associated toxicities, the Ministry added.

This includes cancers like Multiple Myeloma (MM), Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia, refractory or relapsed B-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, and glioblastoma.