CNN Central News & Network–ITDC India Epress/ITDC News Bhopal: As artificial intelligence accelerates globally, most governments are focused on regulation, risk mitigation and compliance. But a growing body of thinking suggests that rules alone won’t be enough to guide the systems shaping economies and societies.
Drawing on her work with technology companies and policymakers across Europe and Asia, investor and NJF Holdings founder Nicole Junkermann argues that the next phase of AI development will depend less on oversight frameworks and more on the values embedded into the technology itself.
“Regulation can limit harm after the fact,” she says. “But it doesn’t determine what gets built, or why. That’s a question of incentives, design choices and ultimately moral judgement.”
India is emerging as one of the most important testing grounds for this shift.
With its combination of engineering talent, digital infrastructure, entrepreneurial energy and public sector ambition, the country is not simply adopting AI. It is actively shaping how it is developed and deployed. Initiatives such as the IndiaAI Mission are accelerating investment into sovereign AI capabilities, from compute infrastructure to research and startups, with an explicit focus on responsible and inclusive deployment.
At the same time, a new generation of Indian AI companies is beginning to take shape. Firms such as Sarvam AI and Krutrim are focused on building models and systems tailored to India’s linguistic, cultural and economic context, rather than replicating Western approaches. Their focus is less on frontier scale alone, and more on real-world applicability.
That combination creates a unique opportunity.
While much of the global AI ecosystem is concentrated in the United States and China, India is not locked into either model. It has the space to define its own approach, one that integrates innovation with societal priorities from the outset.
“India doesn’t have to retrofit ethics into AI later,” Nicole Junkermann says. “It can build them in from the start. That’s a structural advantage.”
This matters because the limitations of current governance models are becoming clearer. Regulatory frameworks such as the EU’s AI Act focus heavily on classification, compliance and enforcement. These are necessary tools, but they are reactive by nature.
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