New Delhi — India’s business leaders and government officials gathered Tuesday for a conference pushing secure AI adoption across key sectors. The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), alongside the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and IndiaAI Mission, organized the event titled “Democratising AI Resources for Economic Growth and Social Good (Securing the Future: Cyber Defence for an AI-driven world).”

AI’s rapid spread into governance, finance, healthcare and manufacturing demands ironclad cyber protections, speakers stressed. Amit Sinha Roy, CII’s principal advisor for digital matters, opened the proceedings. He urged embedding cybersecurity directly into AI systems from the start. “We need predictive, intelligence-driven frameworks,” Roy said, according to participants. Reactive measures no longer suffice for safeguarding data, algorithms and infrastructure.

Roy called for inclusive security solutions that reach small and medium enterprises, not just big corporations. Public-private partnerships, balanced regulations and shared threat intelligence topped his list for bolstering India’s AI landscape.

Abhishek Singh, additional secretary and CEO of the IndiaAI Mission under MeitY, spotlighted the upcoming India-AI Impact Summit 2026. India will host this first global AI summit in the Global South, anchored by principles of people, planet and progress. “AI turns static data into a high-velocity engine for Viksit Bharat,” Singh said. The summit aims to blueprint inclusive growth.

Gulshan Rai, former director general of CERT-In and ex-national cybersecurity coordinator, warned of AI’s deep integration into daily life and economies. Investments surge worldwide and in India, he noted, with a strategic push into agentic AI. These systems, which interact directly with infrastructure, bring tougher security hurdles than generative AI. Rai pointed to problems like outdated software, scarce testing facilities, poor dataset access, messy data setups and weak certification infrastructure.

Government and industry must team up on testing labs, data frameworks, secure-by-design development and upgraded security operations centers, Rai argued. True resilience demands overhauling architecture, testing and national readiness.

G Narendra Nath, joint secretary at the National Security Council Secretariat, declared AI adoption mandatory across sectors. Existing cyber frameworks need expansion for AI risks like prompt manipulation, data provenance issues, third-party vendor threats and spotting attacks versus glitches. Nath pushed structured assessments, transparent training, privacy tech and contractual security mandates. Policy, implementation and AI-boosted defenses must evolve together.

Pavan Duggal, a Supreme Court advocate, slammed gaps in India’s legal toolkit. No dedicated cybersecurity or AI laws exist, he said. The 2000 Information Technology Act misses AI’s autonomy and risks. Duggal demanded an AI resilience framework, clear liabilities and tough enforcement. Self-regulation falls short against organized AI cybercrime.

Neehar Pathare, MD, CEO and CIO at 63SATS Cybertech, detailed surging threats: deepfakes, AI malware and generative attacks. Defenses lag due to budgets, skills shortages and rules. Organizations should deploy AI governance upfront, he advised. Ungoverned AI could spark the next big breach.

A later session featured Jitendra Mohan Bhardwaj, group CISO at Tata Advanced Systems; Vaibhav Koul, managing director for cybersecurity at Protiviti; Anirban Mukherji, founder and CEO of miniOrange; and S Dipin Nair, CISO at Anadrone System Pvt Ltd. Their talks reinforced the push for secure, trusted AI to cement India’s global leadership.