NATIONAL 

1.  Government enacts First Ever Online Gaming Legislation ^[1]

India has entered a new regulatory era with the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025, (“Online Gaming Act”) which has now become law following Presidential assent and was published in the Official Gazette on 22 August 2025. This is the country’s first dedicated legislation to establish a uniform, national-level framework for online gaming by balancing innovation, consumer protection, and state oversight. The Online Gaming Act is a two-pronged framework as it promotes and recognises legitimate gaming formats such as e-sports, educational games, and social gaming, while placing an absolute ban on online money games that involve deposits, wagers, or financial stakes.  A dedicated Gaming Authority will oversee classification, registration, and grievance handling, while banks and intermediaries are barred from processing payments linked to money games. Violations, including running, advertising, or facilitating prohibited games, can lead to imprisonment of up to 5 years and fines extending to INR 2 crore for repeat offences, with offences classified as cognizable and non-bailable. The Online Gaming Act provides for user grievance redressal, blocking of illegal platforms, and authorisation of investigation powers for designated officers, including search and seizure across both physical and digital spaces. Further, the Central Government can order blocking of such services, notwithstanding anything in the IT Act or its rules. By combining promotion of skill-based innovation with strict consumer safeguards, the Online Gaming Act seeks to encourage a responsible digital gaming ecosystem while tackling risks of addiction, fraud, and unlawful activities.

The Online Gaming Act has not yet come into effect, though the Government is reportedly planning to implement it in the coming months. In the meantime, the existing patchwork of gaming laws will continue to apply.

While the Online Gaming Act is yet to come into force, this interim period is an opportunity for companies to get ahead. Businesses should review whether their games fall within permitted formats like e-sports or educational/social gaming, start building compliance and grievance redressal processes, reassess payment and advertising models in view of upcoming restrictions, and closely track government notifications. Taking these steps now will help companies avoid last-minute disruptions and position themselves as responsible players in India’s evolving gaming ecosystem.

2. RBI’s FREE-AI Committee charts Ethical Roadmap for AI in Finance^[2]

The RBI’s FREE-AI Committee has released, Framework for Responsible and Ethical Enablement of Artificial Intelligence (FREE-AI) (“AI Framework”), setting out a forward-looking blueprint for AI adoption in the financial sector. The AI Framework highlights AI’s potential to enhance customer engagement, fraud detection, credit access, and supervisory tools, while also warning of risks such as bias, opacity, cybersecurity threats, and systemic vulnerabilities.

At the core of the AI Framework are seven guiding ‘Sutras’ i.e., trust, people first, innovation with responsibility, fairness, accountability, explainability, and resilience. These principles flow into 26 specific recommendations across two tracks: enabling innovation and mitigating risks. On the innovation side, the FREE-AI Committee calls for shared data and compute infrastructure, an AI innovation sandbox, funding support for smaller institutions, and development of indigenous financial sector-specific AI models. On the risk side, it prescribes board-approved AI policies, strong data governance, AI-specific audits, incident reporting, consumer protection safeguards, and cybersecurity measures.

The AI Framework stresses that governance must rest with the board, institutions must maintain AI inventories and disclosure frameworks, and accountability for outcomes lies with the deploying entity, not the algorithm or vendor.

The AI Framework is among the most comprehensive regulatory blueprints for AI in finance worldwide. By blending innovation enablement with stringent governance, the RBI signals that AI must serve inclusion, efficiency, and resilience, without compromising ethics or trust. If implemented, this framework could position India as a global leader in responsible AI regulation, shaping the future of fintech governance.

3. Union Minister clarifies RTI–DPDP Overlap^[3]

There has been considerable public debate and institutional uncertainty over whether the DPDP Act diluted the right to seek information under the RTI Act, 2005. Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act exempts disclosure of personal information that has no relation to public interest or would cause an unwarranted invasion of privacy. Critics argued that the amendment to this provision, in light of the DPDP Act, could expand the scope of privacy exemptions and thereby restrict access to information, undermining transparency.

Addressing these concerns in the Lok Sabha, Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting clarified that the amendment merely aligns the RTI framework with the Supreme Court’s constitutional recognition of privacy in the landmark Justice K.S. Puttaswamy case. It was explained that while personal information is indeed protected from unwarranted disclosure, Section 8(2) of the RTI Act continues to allow release of such information if the larger public interest justifies it. In other words, the amendment harmonises privacy and transparency, rather than curtailing the citizen’s right to information.

4. Parliamentary Committee flags Rising Cybercrime Risks and calls for Stronger Safeguards^[4]

The Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs (“Committee”) has tabled its 254th Report on Cybercrime – Ramifications, Protection and Prevention (“Cyber Report”) offering one of the most comprehensive reviews of India’s cyber threat landscape to date. The Committee notes that cybercrime has evolved from small-scale frauds to industrialised operations fuelled by Crime-as-a-Service platforms, AI-driven deepfakes, ransomware, and cloud vulnerabilities. Financial scams, identity theft, ransomware, and “digital arrest” frauds have surged, with the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal logging nearly 54 lakh complaints worth over INR 31,500 crore in losses since inception. The Cyber Report underscores the psychological and social toll of cybercrime, particularly on women and children targeted through cyberbullying, sextortion, and deepfakes, and warns of its national security dimension as transnational syndicates exploit cryptocurrencies, dark web markets, and human trafficking networks.

The Committee recommends tightening accountability for social media and digital platforms, including penalties for failing to comply with takedown directions. It calls for legal tools to counter AI-generated content and deepfakes, including watermarking norms to authenticate digital media. To strengthen institutional capacity, it has proposed State Cybercrime Coordination Centres to supplement the national I4C network, along with sector-specific Computer Security Incident Response Teams for healthcare, transport, and telecom. The Cyber Report further urges robust safeguards on OTT platforms, such as stricter age verification and review mechanisms for harmful content, and emphasises the need for transparent grievance redressal systems with fixed timelines to rebuild user trust.

5. Supreme Court steps into Dispute regarding Google’s In-App Billing Policy^[5]

The Supreme Court has stayed further proceedings arising from the Madras High Court’s order in the dispute over Google India Digital Services Private Limited’s (“Google”) app store billing practices. The Madras High Court had earlier held that Google could not force Testbook Edu Solutions Private Limited to adopt its proprietary billing system, a ruling that aligned with broader concerns of app developers about high commissions and lack of choice. Google appealed, arguing that its billing system is integral to ensuring secure payments and platform integrity. By granting a stay, the Supreme Court has effectively put the High Court’s order on hold, keeping Google’s billing policy in force for now. The case raises a deeper issue i.e., whether dominant platforms can mandate their own payment systems as a condition of market access, or whether such policies cross into anti-competitive conduct. It sits at the intersection of competition law, digital platform regulation, and consumer rights.

6. Government notifies Policy for Data Sharing from the National Transport Repository^[6]

The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways has released a comprehensive Data Sharing Policy for the National Transport Repository (“NTR”) (“Data Sharing Policy”), which houses over 39 crore vehicle records and 22 crore driving licence records from platforms like Vahan, Sarathi, e-Challan, e-DAR, and FASTag. The Data Sharing Policy aims to unlock transport data for governance, enforcement, research, and service delivery, while embedding strong privacy and security safeguards aligned with the DPDP Act.  Under the Data Sharing Policy, law enforcement and national security agencies will have full access to unmasked personal data for legitimate functions. Government departments and State Transport Authorities can draw upon NTR datasets for official duties, while academia and researchers will be restricted to anonymised or aggregated data. Citizens may access their own records and limited verification fields of others’ RCs or DLs, subject to usage limits. Private sector entities such as insurers, banks, and transport service providers may be granted access only with Aadhaar-based, OTP-driven consent from the individual concerned. Access will primarily be through secure APIs hosted on NIC’s NAPIX exchange, supported by audit trails, IP whitelisting, and annual security certifications from CERT-IN empanelled auditors. Bulk transfers are permitted only in exceptional cases, and all shared data must remain stored within India. Crucially, all recipients are deemed Data Fiduciaries under the DPDP Act, making them directly accountable for misuse, non-compliance, or breaches.

7. Patent Office issues New Guidelines for Computer-Related Inventions aligning with New Age Technologies^[7]

The Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs & Trademarks has notified the Revised Guidelines for Examination of Computer Related Inventions (CRIs), 2025 (“Revised Guidelines”) marking a major shift in how India approaches patents in emerging technologies. The Revised Guidelines include a stepwise methodology supported by flowcharts and more than 60 illustrative examples, to help examiners and applicants assess when a claim is excluded from patentability. For the first time, there is a dedicated chapter on AI, ML, Deep Learning, Blockchain, Quantum Computing, and Cloud Computing, offering scenario-based examples and disclosure requirements that highlight when such inventions can move outside the scope of exclusion. A jurisprudence chapter and extensive annexures further aid predictability in decision-making.

This development is a landmark moment for India’s patent ecosystem. By directly addressing AI, quantum, and blockchain within the CRI framework, the Patent Office has given inventors and applicants much-needed clarity on how disruptive technologies will be treated under Indian law.

8. Government holds Industry Consultation on National Data Centre Policy^[8]

Government through the National e-Governance Division, recently convened an industry consultation on the draft National Data Centre Policy, 2025 (“Policy”), which seeks to position India as a global hub for trusted digital infrastructure. The Policy aims to expand India’s data centre capacity, streamline clearances, promote energy-efficient operations, and build resilience against cyber and physical risks. During the consultation, stakeholders from the data centre industry, cloud service providers, and allied sectors engaged with policymakers on land, power, connectivity, and regulatory bottlenecks.

The consultation highlights the Government’s push to make data centres not just enablers of cloud and AI adoption but also pillars of cyber resilience and green growth. The final contours of the policy will be closely watched by investors, as it could shape the competitiveness of India’s digital infrastructure ecosystem for the next decade.