Manisha J. Nene

Avinash Agarwal, Peeyush Agarwal, Manisha J. Nene

As Artificial Intelligence becomes increasingly embedded in critical telecommunications infrastructure, existing legal frameworks remain ill-equipped to address the distinct risks this development introduces. This paper proposes the AI Regulatory Readiness Index (ARRI), a reproducible instrument for doctrinally assessing the legal preparedness of national frameworks to govern AI in critical digital infrastructure, and applies it across ten jurisdictions spanning five continents. ARRI comprises seven indicators across three dimensions: substantive AI-specific obligations, operational safeguards, and governance coordination, scored on a four-point ordinal scale and aggregated to a normalised 0-100 index. Legal instruments in force as of 28 February 2026 are assessed across telecommunications, cybersecurity, data protection, and AI governance domains. The study finds that global AI regulatory readiness in telecommunications remains concentrated in the lower range, with a mean ARRI score of 34 and a median of 26.5. AI incident reporting and risk classification emerge as the most acute and near-universal gaps, with binding legal definitions of AI-specific incidents largely absent across the legal frameworks applicable to telecommunications in the jurisdictions studied. ARRI scores diverge systematically from existing composite indices. For example, Indonesia achieves ITU Global Cybersecurity Index Tier 1 status yet scores 19 under ARRI, demonstrating that cybersecurity readiness and AI regulatory readiness are legally distinct conditions that existing frameworks conflate. The ten jurisdictions are classified into five regulatory archetypes, and a normative minimum standards framework is proposed, anchoring baseline AI governance readiness at an ARRI score of 67. ARRI is designed to be sector-portable and applicable beyond telecommunications to energy, healthcare, and transport infrastructure.

Avinash Agarwal, Manisha J. Nene

Purpose: India has adopted a vertical, sector-led AI governance strategy. While promoting innovation, such a light-touch approach risks policy fragmentation. This paper aims to propose a cohesive "whole-of-government" architecture to mitigate these risks and connect policy goals with a practical implementation plan. Design/methodology/approach: The paper applies an established five-layer conceptual framework to the Indian context. First, it constructs a national architecture for overall governance. Second, it uses a detailed case study on AI incident management to validate and demonstrate the architecture's practical utility in designing a specific, operational system. Findings: The paper develops two actionable architectures. The primary model assigns clear governance roles to India's key institutions. The second is a detailed, federated architecture for national AI Incident Management. It addresses the data silo problem by using a common national standard that allows sector-specific data collection while facilitating cross-sectoral analysis. Practical implications: The proposed architectures offer a clear and predictable roadmap for India's policymakers, regulators and industry to accelerate the national AI governance agenda. Social implications: By providing a systematic path from policy to practice, the architecture builds public trust. This structured approach ensures accountability and aligns AI development with societal values. Originality/value: This paper proposes a detailed operational architecture for India's "whole-of-government" approach to AI. It offers a globally relevant template for any nation pursuing a sector-led governance model, providing a clear implementation plan. Furthermore, the proposed federated architecture demonstrates how adopting common standards can enable cross-border data aggregation and global sectoral risk analysis without centralising control.

Avinash Agarwal, Manisha J. Nene

The rapid deployment of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in critical digital infrastructure introduces significant risks, necessitating a robust framework for systematically collecting AI incident data to prevent future incidents. Existing databases lack the granularity as well as the standardized structure required for consistent data collection and analysis, impeding effective incident management. This work proposes a standardized schema and taxonomy for AI incident databases, addressing these challenges by enabling detailed and structured documentation of AI incidents across sectors. Key contributions include developing a unified schema, introducing new fields such as incident severity, causes, and harms caused, and proposing a taxonomy for classifying AI incidents in critical digital infrastructure. The proposed solution facilitates more effective incident data collection and analysis, thus supporting evidence-based policymaking, enhancing industry safety measures, and promoting transparency. This work lays the foundation for a coordinated global response to AI incidents, ensuring trust, safety, and accountability in using AI across regions.

Avinash Agarwal, Manisha J. Nene

Purpose: The governance of artificial iintelligence (AI) systems requires a structured approach that connects high-level regulatory principles with practical implementation. Existing frameworks lack clarity on how regulations translate into conformity mechanisms, leading to gaps in compliance and enforcement. This paper addresses this critical gap in AI governance. Methodology/Approach: A five-layer AI governance framework is proposed, spanning from broad regulatory mandates to specific standards, assessment methodologies, and certification processes. By narrowing its scope through progressively focused layers, the framework provides a structured pathway to meet technical, regulatory, and ethical requirements. Its applicability is validated through two case studies on AI fairness and AI incident reporting. Findings: The case studies demonstrate the framework's ability to identify gaps in legal mandates, standardization, and implementation. It adapts to both global and region-specific AI governance needs, mapping regulatory mandates with practical applications to improve compliance and risk management. Practical Implications - By offering a clear and actionable roadmap, this work contributes to global AI governance by equipping policymakers, regulators, and industry stakeholders with a model to enhance compliance and risk management. Social Implications: The framework supports the development of policies that build public trust and promote the ethical use of AI for the benefit of society. Originality/Value: This study proposes a five-layer AI governance framework that bridges high-level regulatory mandates and implementation guidelines. Validated through case studies on AI fairness and incident reporting, it identifies gaps such as missing standardized assessment procedures and reporting mechanisms, providing a structured foundation for targeted governance measures.

Avinash Agarwal, Mayashankar Kumar, Manisha J. Nene

As AI systems increasingly influence critical sectors like telecommunications, finance, healthcare, and public services, ensuring fairness in decision-making is essential to prevent biased or unjust outcomes that disproportionately affect vulnerable entities or result in adverse impacts. This need is particularly pressing as the industry approaches the 6G era, where AI will drive complex functions like autonomous network management and hyper-personalized services. The TEC Standard for Fairness Assessment and Rating of AI Systems provides guidelines for evaluating fairness in AI, focusing primarily on tabular data and supervised learning models. However, as AI applications diversify, this standard requires enhancement to strengthen its impact and broaden its applicability. This paper proposes an expansion of the TEC Standard to include fairness assessments for images, unstructured text, and generative AI, including large language models, ensuring a more comprehensive approach that keeps pace with evolving AI technologies. By incorporating these dimensions, the enhanced framework will promote responsible and trustworthy AI deployment across various sectors.

Avinash Agarwal, Manisha J. Nene

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into telecommunications infrastructure introduces novel risks, such as algorithmic bias and unpredictable system behavior, that fall outside the scope of traditional cybersecurity and data protection frameworks. This paper introduces a precise definition and a detailed typology of telecommunications AI incidents, establishing them as a distinct category of risk that extends beyond conventional cybersecurity and data protection breaches. It argues for their recognition as a distinct regulatory concern. Using India as a case study for jurisdictions that lack a horizontal AI law, the paper analyzes the country's key digital regulations. The analysis reveals that India's existing legal instruments, including the Telecommunications Act, 2023, the CERT-In Rules, and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, focus on cybersecurity and data breaches, creating a significant regulatory gap for AI-specific operational incidents, such as performance degradation and algorithmic bias. The paper also examines structural barriers to disclosure and the limitations of existing AI incident repositories. Based on these findings, the paper proposes targeted policy recommendations centered on integrating AI incident reporting into India's existing telecom governance. Key proposals include mandating reporting for high-risk AI failures, designating an existing government body as a nodal agency to manage incident data, and developing standardized reporting frameworks. These recommendations aim to enhance regulatory clarity and strengthen long-term resilience, offering a pragmatic and replicable blueprint for other nations seeking to govern AI risks within their existing sectoral frameworks.

Souham Biswas, Manisha J. Nene

In the recent years, the problem of identifying suspicious behavior has gained importance and identifying this behavior using computational systems and autonomous algorithms is highly desirable in a tactical scenario. So far, the solutions have been primarily manual which elicit human observation of entities to discern the hostility of the situation. To cater to this problem statement, a number of fully automated and partially automated solutions exist. But, these solutions lack the capability of learning from experiences and work in conjunction with human supervision which is extremely prone to error. In this paper, a generalized methodology to predict the hostility of a given object based on its movement patterns is proposed which has the ability to learn and is based upon the mechanism of humans of learning from experiences. The methodology so proposed has been implemented in a computer simulation. The results show that the posited methodology has the potential to be applied in real world tactical scenarios.