Nasscom and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights' (OHCHR) B-Tech Project on Thursday, 18 June jointly called for AI governance to move beyond high-level declarations and into practical, human-rights-based implementation. The appeal came at a closed-door consultation held in New Delhi, bringing together senior leaders from industry, startups, international institutions, embassies, government, academia, and civil society.

What the Consultation Covered

The event — titled 'AI Governance Dialogue for Global Majority: India Consultation' — focused on how safety, human rights, and responsible AI principles can be translated into real-world deployment decisions. Participants examined the persistent gap between globally articulated AI principles and the ground realities faced by organisations in markets such as India and the broader Global South, where diverse user contexts, infrastructure constraints, and resource limitations complicate implementation.

Discussions also centred on operationalising human-rights protections across the AI lifecycle, including concrete due diligence tools such as audits, benchmarking, impact assessments, and accessible grievance-redressal mechanisms.

What Nasscom and OHCHR Said

'As AI adoption scales across sectors and regions, the next phase of governance must be rooted in practical implementation,' Nasscom said in a statement. The industry body added that India and the broader Global Majority 'bring critical experience in deploying technology across diverse, complex and resource-constrained environments,' calling these perspectives 'essential to shaping AI governance frameworks that are not only globally aligned, but also workable on the ground.'

The OHCHR B-Tech Project emphasised that AI development and deployment 'must be grounded in human dignity and human rights.' It noted that 'moving from high-level principles to real-world implementation requires embedding human rights due diligence across the AI lifecycle, in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.'

Background and Context

The dialogue built on a Safe and Trusted AI event held during the AI Impact Summit in February 2026. It aimed to deepen regional perspectives from the Global Majority on responsible business conduct in the AI sector, and to generate implementation-grounded inputs from emerging markets. This comes amid a broader global push — including at the UN and G20 levels — to establish binding or quasi-binding AI governance standards, a conversation in which India's scale and deployment diversity gives it an outsized stake.

Why It Matters for India

India's rapid AI adoption across sectors — from healthcare and agriculture to financial services and public administration — means governance frameworks designed for high-income, infrastructure-rich environments may not translate cleanly. Notably, the consultation's emphasis on grievance-redressal and impact assessments signals a shift toward accountability mechanisms that civil society groups have long demanded but which remain nascent in Indian regulatory practice.

What Comes Next

The inputs generated at the consultation are expected to feed into broader international AI governance discussions. Industry observers will watch whether Nasscom's advocacy translates into concrete policy recommendations to the Indian government, particularly as the Centre works on its own AI regulatory posture ahead of anticipated global standard-setting exercises.