The Business Software Alliance (BSA), a global trade group that counts enterprise giants such as Microsoft, IBM, AWS, and Adobe, as its members, has called on the Indian government to enable an exception for “text and data mining” in India’s copyright law.
It has also recommended the removal of restrictions to cross border data transfers while expanding access to “non-sensitive high-value government datasets”. On AI regulation, the industry body has asked the government to ensure that the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023, supports processing of personal data for AI training.
It further pushed for the development of an open industry standard for reliable content authentication and provenance mechanisms. These policy recommendations by the BSA are part of a report titled ‘enterprise AI adoption agenda for India’ that was released during an AI pre-summit forum held in New Delhi on Thursday, November 6.
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The forum is one of 800 such events being held in the lead up to the India AI Impact Summit that is scheduled to be held in February 2026. It is set to be the first-ever global AI summit to be hosted in the Global South, after similar editions were held in Bletchley Park, Seoul, and Paris in the last few years.
Speaking at the forum on Thursday, Abhishek Singh, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), said that the Indian government is working with partners such as NASSCOM to ensure that AI agents and coding tools can be used to improve the output of human engineers rather than replace them.
The proliferation of AI coding tools could replace human coders and some jobs in the sector might be impacted, Singh said.
“When AI tools become more efficient, we also run the risk of some people being adversely impacted. Therein, the whole issue comes in of how do we give them the necessary skills and impart abilities to take up opportunities that come up in agentic AI or physical AI? That requires considerate effort in partnership with industry,” the IT Ministry official added.Story continues below this ad
Stating that he expects huge participation, especially from countries in the Global South, Singh further urged members of the BSA and other attendees to have global CEOs attend the roundtable with Prime Minister Modi during the AI Impact Summit.
BSA’s enterprise AI adoption agenda for India includes key policy recommendations that could serve as roadmaps to Indian policymakers in facilitating AI adoption among Indian businesses. Last month, a NITI Aayog report estimated that accelerated adoption of AI across industries could contribute $500-600 billion USD to India’s GDP by 2035, while increasing productivity and efficiency in the workforce.
“BSA’s recommendations to accelerate AI adoption in India are based on real-world feedback from industry leaders about the opportunities for India, as well as the challenges for industry to address in partnership with the government,” said BSA CEO Victoria Espinel.
Additionally, BSA called for AI innovation hubs to be set up in partnership with global enterprise companies “to deepen talent pipelines and accelerate adoption of AI-enabled tools and capabilities.”Story continues below this ad
It also advocated “expanding IndiaAI FutureSkills by incorporating sector-specific training, scaling nationwide AI training academies, such as those at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and building a national AI curriculum in partnership with industry and government.”