India currently does not have a comprehensive legal framework for data protection. On July 27, 2018, the government of India’s Committee of Experts (also known as the Justice B.N. Srikrishna Committee) released a Draft Protection of Personal Data Bill82 along with an accompanying report
titled A Free and Fair Digital Economy Protecting Privacy, Empowering Indians.83 The Bill, like the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, establishes a set of rights but does not appear to include rights to protect against automated decision-making.84 According to an analysis by the Centre for Internet and Society, “the Bill creates a framework to address harms arising out of AI, but does not empower the individual to decide how their data is processed and remains silent on
78 Press Release, Ministry of Defence, Artificial Intelligence (Aug. 1, 2018), http://pib.nic.in/newsite/Print
Release.aspx?relid=181324, archived athttps://perma.cc/R6W8-WBAJ; Press Release, Ministry of Defence, AI Task Force Hands Over Final Report to RM (June 30, 2018), http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx? relid=180322, archived at https://perma.cc/5GCW-M3Q5.
79 See R.SHASHANK REDDY,INDIA AND THE CHALLENGE OF AUTONOMOUS WEAPONS 7 (Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace, June 2016), https://carnegieendowment.org/files/CEIP_CP275_Reddy_final.pdf, archived at
https://perma.cc/4R3L-ANUX.
80 Statement by Commodore Nishant Kumar, Director (Military Affairs), Ministry of External Affairs, Government of
India During the First Session of the Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS) Held in Geneva on April 9, 2018, PERMANENT MISSION OF INDIA TO CONFERENCE ON
DISARMAMENT, http://meaindia.nic.in/cdgeneva/?6850?003, archived at https://perma.cc/DPS9-QLW4.
81 Bedavyasa Mohanty, Amidst Calls for a Ban, India Leads the Debate on Lethal Autonomous Weapons, OBSERVER
RESEARCHER FOUNDATION (ORF) (Nov. 29, 2017), https://www.orfonline.org/research/amidst-calls-ban-india- leads-debate-lethal-autonomous-weapons/, archived at https://perma.cc/ND39-SG79.
82 Personal Data Protection Bill, 2018,
http://meity.gov.in/writereaddata/files/Personal_Data_Protection_Bill,2018.pdf, archived at https://perma.cc/GN5K- NJNG.
83 COMMITTEE OF EXPERTS UNDER THE CHAIRMANSHIP OF JUSTICE B.N.SRIKRISHNA,AFREE AND FAIR DIGITAL
ECONOMY PROTECTING PRIVACY,EMPOWERING INDIANS (2018), http://meity.gov.in/writereaddata/files/Data_ Protection_Committee_Report.pdf, archived at https://perma.cc/URX5-YQF6.
84 Amber Sinha & Elonnai Hickok, The Srikrishna Committee Data Protection Bill and Artificial Intelligence in
India, CIS (Sept. 3, 2018), https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-srikrishna-committee-data-protection- bill-and-artificial-intelligence-in-india, archived at https://perma.cc/Z88N-7VMS.
Regulation of Artificial Intelligence: East/South Asia and the Pacific
the issue of ‘black box’ algorithms” and is “focused on placing the responsibility on companies to prevent harm.”85
The Committee’s report states that
[t]he second group of rights relate to the right to object to automated decision-making and to access the logic behind it. In our view, these rights, again a response by the EU to emerging challenges from Big Data and AI, have a legitimate rationale. They are aimed at curbing harms due to prejudice and discrimination in output data owing to evaluative determinations without human review. The solution provided by this right is to simply involve a step of human review, which is not per se immune from prejudice. This is a change pertaining to the operational structure of an organisation. Such a change may be necessitated, provided it is carefully tailored to specific organisations and the nature of their processing activity. This, in our view, is better achieved through an accountability framework which requires certain data fiduciaries, which may be making evaluative decisions through automated means, to set up processes that weed out discrimination. This is a constituent element of privacy by design which should be implemented by entities proactively, audited periodically and monitored by the DPA in case there are examples of unlawful processing. At the same time, such a model does not entirely denude the individual of agency. If discrimination has ensued as a result of per se lawful, yet discriminatory automated processing, individuals are always at liberty to go to courts for breach of fiduciary duties. Thus, the interests underlying such rights, can be more efficaciously achieved by an ex ante accountability model.86
B. Automated Vehicles
The Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India lists legislative subjects that are in the exclusive or concurrent jurisdiction of the central government or state governments. The regulation of motor vehicles in India appears to be under the concurrent jurisdiction of both the central and state governments.87 Motor vehicle road safety is regulated by the central level by the Motor Vehicles Act88 and the Central Motor Vehicle Rules.89 State governments have their own laws and policies. The current Motor Vehicle Act does not appear to allow for automated vehicles (AVs) or AV testing. However, amending legislation, which was passed in the Lok Sabha (lower house of Parliament) on April 10, 2017, but is still pending before the upper house chamber, the Rajya Sabha, includes an exemption that may allow testing of AVs:
85 Id.
86 COMMITTEE OF EXPERTS UNDER THE CHAIRMANSHIP OF JUSTICE B.N.SRIKRISHNA,supra noteat83,at 74-5. 87 Legislative subject no. 35, “Mechanically propelled vehicles,” is on the concurrent list of the Constitution of
India. (INDIA CONST. Seventh Sched., List III—Concurrent List, Item 35, https://www.india.gov.in/sites/ upload_files/npi/files/coi-eng-schedules_1-12.pdf, archived at https://perma.cc/7LKA-PXMU.)
88 Motor Vehicles Act, No. 59 of 1988, http://www.tn.gov.in/sta/Mvact1988.pdf, archived at
https://perma.cc/ZZY9-EZJQ
89 Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, http://www.tn.gov.in/sta/Cmvr1989.pdf, archived at https://perma.cc/X9T3-
Regulation of Artificial Intelligence: East/South Asia and the Pacific
Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act and subject to such conditions as may be prescribed by the Central Government, in order to promote innovation and research and development in the fields of vehicular engineering, mechanically propelled vehicles and transportation in general, the Central Government may exempt certain types of mechanically propelled vehicles from the application of the provisions of this Act.90
At the end of July 2018, the Minister of Road Transport and Highways was reported to have said that “[w]e won’t allow driverless cars in India. I am very clear on this. We won’t allow any technology that takes away jobs. In a country where you have unemployment, you can’t have a technology that ends up taking people’s jobs.”91