I&B Ministry
I&B minister to take CAS review meeting
NEW DELHI: Information and broadcasting minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi will review developments on CAS vis-a-vis court cases.
The meeting was scheduled to happen either today or early next week. Pointing out that the government is committed to implementing CAS, Dasmunsi told indiantelevision.com on Friday, “I’ll review CAS in a meeting and try to understand the issues that have beset it.”
The minister however, refused to spell out in detail his agenda on CAS. “The ministry’s broad stand on CAS has been conveyed to the (Delhi) high court.”
In a reply filed before the Delhi HC some days back, the government sought eight to nine months’ time to implement the court’s order on rolling out addressability in Indian cable homes in select cities.
Dasmunsi also hinted that a big roadblock in the way of smooth implementation of CAS are the different voices in which the various industry stakeholders are speaking.
“There hardly seems to be a consensus amongst them,” the minister said on the sidelines of a book release function in the capital.
On 10 March 2006, the Delhi HC had directed the government to roll out CAS in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata within 30 days time.
The directive came on a petition filed by a bunch of MSOs, including Hathway and INCablenet, alleging that a delay in implementing CAS since 2004 has resulted in huge financial losses to them.
The I&B ministry held a series of meeting with the industry, NGOs and consumer bodies soon after the court order, but said in view of inconsistency in the approach of the stakeholders, more time would be needed to iron the differences.
The next date of hearing of the CAS case is 24 May.
I&B Ministry
Government sets up AI governance group to steer policy
AIGEG to align ministries, assess jobs impact, guide AI deployment.
MUMBAI: If artificial intelligence is the engine, the government is now building the dashboard and making sure everyone reads from the same screen. The Centre has constituted a new inter-ministerial body to coordinate India’s approach to AI, formalising a key recommendation from its governance framework and the Economic Survey. The AI Governance and Economic Group (AIGEG), set up by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, will act as the central platform to align AI-related policy across ministries, regulators and departments, an attempt to bring coherence to what has so far been a fragmented and fast-evolving landscape.
The group will be chaired by union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, with minister of state Jitin Prasada as vice chairperson. Its composition reflects both technological and economic priorities, bringing together the principal scientific adviser, the chief economic adviser, and the CEO of NITI Aayog, alongside key secretaries from telecommunications, economic affairs and science and technology. A representative from the National Security Council Secretariat is also part of the group, while the MeitY secretary will serve as member convenor.
At its core, AIGEG is designed to do two things: coordinate and anticipate. On the policy front, it will review existing regulatory mechanisms, issue guidance across sectors and ensure companies remain compliant with evolving legal frameworks. Beyond that, it will oversee national initiatives on AI governance, with a focus on enabling responsible innovation rather than merely regulating it.
The economic dimension is equally central. The group has been tasked with assessing how AI-driven automation could reshape jobs identifying which roles are most at risk, where those impacts may be geographically concentrated, and whether technology will augment or replace human labour. Based on these assessments, it will develop mitigation strategies and transition plans, signalling a more proactive stance on workforce disruption.
In parallel, AIGEG will work with industry stakeholders to chart a long-term roadmap for AI adoption, categorising use cases into “deploy”, “pilot” or “defer” buckets depending on readiness factors such as data availability, skill levels and regulatory clarity. The aim is to move from broad ambition to structured execution deciding not just what can be built, but what should be built now.
The group will function as the apex layer in India’s AI governance architecture, supported by a Technology and Policy Expert Committee that will track global developments, emerging risks and regulatory priorities. Together, the two bodies are expected to shape both the pace and direction of AI adoption in the country.
In a landscape where technology often outruns policy, the creation of AIGEG signals an attempt to close that gap ensuring that India’s AI journey is not just rapid, but also coordinated, accountable and economically grounded.
