The Central government has rolled out a multi-pronged strategy to combat AI-generated deepfakes, combining legal reforms, platform accountability mandates, and large-scale public awareness drives, according to an official statement issued on Thursday, 30 July. Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Jitin Prasada disclosed the details in Lok Sabha, revealing that 6,650 cyber security awareness workshops have reached more than 11.37 lakh people across the country.

Regulatory Reforms: IT Rules Amended

The government strengthened its regulatory framework by amending the IT Rules, 2021 in February 2026 to specifically address harms arising from synthetically generated information (SGI), including deepfakes and other AI-generated content. Under the revised rules, intermediaries are now required to ensure clear labelling and traceable metadata for all permissible AI-generated content, enabling users to distinguish synthetic material from authentic content and reducing the risk of deception or misuse. This marks a significant shift toward platform-level accountability, moving responsibility upstream to the companies hosting and distributing such content.

13 Deepfake Detection Projects Approved

On the technology front, the government has approved 13 responsible AI projects specifically focused on deepfake detection. Key initiatives include Saakshya, a multi-agent detection framework developed jointly by IIT Jodhpur and IIT Madras. Other notable projects are AI Vishleshak, aimed at improving audio-visual forgery detection, and a Real-Time Voice Deepfake Detection System developed by IIT Kharagpur. These projects fall under the Safe and Trusted AI pillar of the IndiaAI Mission, which promotes responsible AI development through indigenous governance frameworks, standards, and evaluation mechanisms.

Mass Awareness Under the ISEA Project

The 6,650 workshops are part of the government's Information Security Education and Awareness (ISEA) project, designed to build human resources in information security and foster broad cyber hygiene awareness. Participants span a wide demographic — school and college students, teachers, law enforcement personnel, government staff, and the general public. Multilingual awareness materials, including handbooks, short videos, posters, brochures, and cartoon stories for children, have been published and distributed across print, electronic, and social media platforms.

CERT-In's Role in Threat Advisories

The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has also been active on the deepfake threat front, regularly issuing guidelines on AI-related risks and countermeasures. The agency shares safety tips, infographics, awareness posters, and videos through its official website and social media handles. This comes amid a global surge in AI-generated misinformation, with deepfake incidents increasingly being used for financial fraud, reputational attacks, and political manipulation — making India's regulatory response part of a broader international trend toward AI governance.

With the amended IT Rules now in force and detection technologies under active development, the government's next challenge will be ensuring enforcement keeps pace with the rapidly evolving capabilities of generative AI tools.