I&B Ministry
Subhash Kamath elected as ASCI chairman
NEW DELHI: BBH & Publicis Worldwide India Chief Executive Officer Subhash Kamath has been elected chairman of the board of governors of the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI). The vote was held at the board meeting that followed the thirty-fourth annual general meeting this afternoon. Kamath is an industry veteran, having spent more than 32 years building brands across various sectors.
Ketchum Sampark P. Ltd MD NS Rajan, was elected the vice-chairman, and IPG Mediabrands India P. Ltd CEO Shashidhar Sinha was reappointed as an honorary treasurer at the same meeting.
The Board of Governors includes Abanti Sankaranarayanan, co-chairman & Board Member, ISWAI; D Shivakumar group executive president, Aditya Birla Management Corporation P. Ltd; Girish Agarwal, director, Dainik Bhaskar Group; Harish Bhat, Director, Tata Consumer Products Ltd; KV Sridhar, chief creative officer (Global), Nihilent Ltd; Madhusudan Gopalan, CEO, Procter & Gamble Hygiene and Hbealth Care Ltd; Rohit Gupta, president – network sales & international business, Sony Pictures Networks India P. Ltd; Prof SK Palekar, Centre For Developmental Education, IFIM Business School; Priya Nair, executive director Beauty, and Personal Care, Hindustan Unilever Ltd; Prasun Basu, president – south Asia, Nielsen (India) P. Ltd; Sivakumar Sundaram, president revenue, Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd; Umesh Shrikhande, CEO, Taproot India Comm. P. Ltd.
Incoming chairman, Subhash Kamath said: “It’s a genuine privilege to accept this role as chairman of ASCI. Having served ten years on the board, I have had the honour of working and learning from very senior and experienced leaders of the industry. More importantly, I have learned the immense value of self-regulation and the far-reaching impact of the work ASCI has done over the years. Our industry today is at a crucial stage. With the digital revolution influencing brand messaging and engagement with consumers, advertising is evolving rapidly. And with the recent formation of the Central Consumer Protection Authority constituted by the government, self-regulation will be even more crucial in promoting consumer confidence and trust. As I have always said, with great creative power, comes great responsibility. So I look forward to working closely with the ASCI team to continue the good work set up by my predecessors and to introduce some newer, more future-facing initiatives as well.”
Recalling his year-long tenure at ASCI, outgoing chairman Rohit Gupta, said: “I thank all my colleagues, ASCI members and everyone who was part of this incredible journey. I am glad I was given an opportunity to drive the body that spearheaded important changes in the advertising industry. This year has been the most eventful for ASCI as we tackled several challenges. The pandemic saw many misleading ads, which were dealt with immediately. The Ministry of AYUSH reached out for help in flagging misleading advertisements regarding prevention and treatment of COVID-19. We also signed up with TAM to monitor 3,000 digital portals for misleading claims. We successfully met the three objectives we had set: increasing our consumer base, monitoring the digital space, and working closely with government bodies. I wish Kamath and the board the very best.”
Over the past year, ASCI’s independent Consumer Complaints Council met 45 times and deliberated on complaints pertaining to 3,773 advertisements.
● Complaints were upheld against 2,126 advertisements (versus 1,486 in 2018-19) while those against 298 were not Upheld as the advertisements in question were not considered to be in contravention of ASCI’s codes
● 192 advertisements were found to be prima facie in violation of The Drugs and Magic Remedies (DMR) Act or The Drugs and Cosmetics Rules (Schedule J). These were promptly escalated to the Ministry of AYUSH or the Ministry of Health for their immediate attention
● In several cases, state AYUSH officials, the FDA or the Central Council for Indian Medicine issued show-cause notices to the advertisers.
It concluded with a touching tribute to Brahm Vasudeva, the non-executive chairman of Hawkins Cookers and the first chairman of ASCI, who passed away in July. His commitment to self-regulation in advertising and to the ASCI cause was recalled fondly.
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.
