AMCHAM, in collaboration with Dua Associates, organized the first IT Legal Summit on May 9th in New Delhi. Ms. Ranjana Khanna, Director General CEO, AMCHAM, in her welcome remarks, shared that there is a need for enabling framework and regulations for the emerging data economy. She stressed the importance of trust and transparency in the digital age especially in view of significance of AI. In his opening remarks, Mr. C.R. Dua, National Executive Board Member, AMCHAM and Chairman, Dua Associates, stated that technology today has penetrated every aspect of our lives and the government has a very daunting task to cater to the citizens of India. Mr. Alok Lall Chief Operating Officer, Microsoft India and South Asia spoke about the opportunities to democratize AI for citizens at large and spoke about apps such as Bhashini and Jugalbandi. He spoke about the need of a PPP model with involvement from industry, academia and the government for AI fluency across the country. Technologies and policies should be in place for responsible AI to reduce biases and be more inclusive. The IT act is helping to ensure that user harm is prevented through a regulatory model for AI. The keynote address was made by Mr. Abhishek Singh, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India. He mentioned that India has leap frogged in information and technology in the last 2 years, specifically with the enactment of telecom and DPDP acts. The legal framework in both the acts is a great enabler, and exemplary for companies to follow. Mr. Singh shared how DPI – tectological approach has helped digital payments succeed where privacy and consent of the user has been built in through the design.

Session 1: Demystifying Data Governance & Privacy Laws: Navigating DPDP Act and Beyond was moderated by Mr. Prateek Bedi, Partner, Dua Associates with Ms. Bhawna Ranganadhan, Co-Chairperson – Anti-Corruption & FCPA Compliance Committee, AMCHAM and Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, Legal Compliance, Genpact India, Ms. Garima Rathore Director, Government Affairs and Public Policy Microsoft and Mr. Vivek Sonny Abraham Senior Director, External Strategy – India & South Asia, Salesforce. The discussion focused on the evolving legislative landscape in India and the plethora of technology interventions for the ease of citizens. With India’s DPDP Act and rules being framed with sufficient safeguards in place for adjudication including digital office for virtual hearings, the need for a voluntary code of ethics for IA for all stakeholders and the importance that social media intermediaries work with the government of India work to achieve it was highlighted. Data fiduciaries and processors face challenges of identification of personal data to be retained and processed by the organization for which the rules should emerge with specifications. The session touched upon the need for industry to drive more user awareness especially with regards to consent, best practices for compliance strategies and how global companies aligned with GDPR would now need to align with the Indian act. Challenges related to AI being industry agnostic remain and every industry requires its own standards to guard the AI models in which they operate. Data protection and the challenge of re-consenting was also discussed.

Session 2: Navigating the Intersection: Emerging Technologies and Intellectual Property Laws was moderated by Mr. Ashish Singh, Partner, Dua Associates with Mr. Mohit Choudhary, Director, Legal (General & IP), Carrier Corporation and Mr. Puneet Chopra, Telecom CTO, Hewlett Packard Enterprise India. The speakers shared how the law is treating AI for prosecution and sighted examples of the same to ensure that proper justice is achieved. The session highlighted the primary challenges in data protection, IP protection, data mining, patents and how to define inventorship and authorship. On the positive side, AI could benefit in fostering sustainable objectives including carbon neutrality. Industry law and innovators should work together to prevent IP infringement and ensure protection through AI.

Session 3: Charting the Course: AI Regulations in India was moderated by Mr. Kishore Balaji, Executive Director – Government & Regulatory Affairs, IBM South Asia with Ms. Juhi Chawla, Partner, Dua Associates, Mr. Rohit Chaudhari, Client Architect Manager PS & CME Vertical, Hewlett Packard Enterprise India, Mr. Saurabh Awasthi VP and General Counsel, Kyndryl India, Mr. Sandeep Aurora, Public Policy and Government Affairs, Microsoft and Mr. Vivek Sonny Abraham, Senior Director, External Strategy – India & South Asia, Salesforce. The discussion provided a glimpse into the AI regulation in India and in the context of other countries. India’s AI strategy focuses upon a large population and varied sectors which would require different level of regulations for different sectors. Speakers spoke about the importance of ethical AI, the importance of IP laws identifying owners correctly and referenced the EU act which has hard restrictions and regulations. The panel recommended India should consider how to regulate AI with geopolitical relationships in mind and build a globally cohesive AI framework of governance and regulation to be globally interoperable. The panel discussed the need to evolve a principle based regulation with aspects including self and voluntary regulations and declarations.

Session 4: Safeguarding Digital Frontiers: Cyber Security, Risks Prevention & Compliance in India was moderated by Mr. Prasanto Kumar Roy, Senior Advisor, FTI Consulting with Ms. Niyati Ojha, Legal Counsel, HP India and Dr. Gulshan Rai, Senior Advisor, Dua Associates. The session explored cyber security as a sector agnostic requirement where industry plays a critical role to shape and implement policies. Speakers highlighted the importance of revising and updating policies so it becomes more relevant to India’s regulatory and compliance today. The biggest challenges exist in multiple compliances and interacting with regulatory offices. With cyber security as the need of the hour for companies, governments and consumers, the concern remains the feasibility of policy implementation and the adaptability of the dynamic nature of trends and emerging technologies.

Session 5: Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme and Technology was moderated by Mr. Tabrez Ahmad, Group Director, Public Policy, Asia Pacific & Japan, Dell Technologies with Dr. Gulshan Rai, Senior Advisor, Dua Associates, Mr. Kunal Chaudhary, Partner, EY India, and Ms. Anubhuti Bhrany, Senior Director & Head Government Affairs, India, Flex. The session emphasized that PLI has been a very successful initiative taken by the government. Industry suggested that companies should directly engage with the government on the queries while or before making submission for the application to reduce the burden of compliance and cost to company. Before the PLI was launched, it was designed after considering the market analysis, segmentation, and the capabilities of the ecosystem, hence it differs from sector to sector. The panel said the next stage of PLI would be critical, as it will be defining the value additions and move towards localization of components to further enhance exports. As industry tries to achieve localization of components, it’s impossible without economies of scale in India. Industry suggested IP should also be included as a value addition in the PLI and for structured representations to be shared with government, while conducting stakeholder consultations. Industry recommended sectoral inputs task force to resolve immediate queries. The discussion highlighted that the domestic consumption of the products being made in India would not meet the expectations of the government, which is a mandate under PLI and that companies intended to export 80-85% for the global markets.

Session 6: Regulation of Automation & Robotics in India was moderated by Mr. Gautam Shahi, Partner, Dua Associates with Mr. Mohit Choudhary, Director, Legal (General & IP), Carrier Corporation and Mr. Thaj Mathew, Vice President & General Counsel, Honeywell International. The session explored industry concerns regarding automation and the assumptions and bias taken into account while making algorithms. The learning and development sessions conducted by companies include 90-95% tech knowledge and the remaining for general compliance. Knowledge and understating of ethics and regulatory framework of the particular geography is important. With the new regulations that are going to be introduced, the industry needs a feasible timeline of the implementation without impacting the cost and continuity of businesses. With ethical Al and automation, its possible to create more technically skilled jobs for the future work force, hence tomorrow’s recruitment would be based on talent and skill. The session discussed how companies now were looking to hire adaptive and problem solvers irrespective of the previous areas of expertise. The conference concluded with a vote of thanks by Ms. Elizabeth Jose, Director, AMCHAM who thanked partners: Dua Associates (knowledge partner), Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Microsoft and Salesforce.