India's leading law firm Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, Mr. Cyril Shroff and O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU) have announced the establishment of the Cyril Shroff Centre for AI, Law & Regulation at Jindal Global Law School (JGLS), India's top-ranked and globally reputed law school.
The Centre is established with the generous support of Mr. Cyril Shroff, Founder & Managing Partner of Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM), through a landmark endowment. This Centre will be India's first dedicated Centre of Excellence with a focus on the complex intersection of artificial intelligence (AI), law, policy and regulation.
India, as a growing digital economy, faces urgent challenges in addressing the ethical, legal, and policy dimensions of AI deployment. The Cyril Shroff Centre for AI, Law & Regulation aims to respond to this pressing need by producing rigorous research, facilitating knowledge creation, shaping public policy, and driving capacity-building initiatives. The Centre will engage with legal institutions, think tanks, government agencies, intergovernmental organisations, corporations, and academia to build responsive AI governance frameworks in India and beyond. The Centre aims to become a centre of excellence to support and co-create ethical frameworks for AI and technology with policymakers and regulators.
The Centre has outlined 10 major objectives that will guide its work. These are:
Mr. Shroff is a third-generation lawyer, who has had an illustrious career spanning over four decades. Affirming his commitment to the technology-based growth of the country and society, Mr. Shroff stated, "Artificial Intelligence is no longer a futuristic idea: it is here, deeply embedded in the way we live, work, and govern. India has an opportunity to lead developing ethical frameworks for policy and regulation of AI and digital technologies. I am delighted to support the establishment of the Cyril Shroff Centre for AI, Law & Regulation at JGLS. This Centre will be a platform for thought leadership, rigorous research, and policy engagement, helping India craft a balanced, ethical, and forward-looking regulatory framework for AI."
Professor (Dr.) C. Raj Kumar, Founding Vice Chancellor, JGU, remarked, "This is a historic moment for JGU and legal education in India. The Cyril Shroff Centre for AI, Law & Regulation will lead national and international efforts to understand and regulate AI's transformative impact on our societies. We are deeply grateful to Mr. Cyril Shroff for his visionary support. This Centre will not only strengthen India's capacity for thought leadership in AI governance but also set new global standards for research, scholarship, and policy engagement in this critical field."
Objectives and Vision
As India's top-ranked law school and among the world's top 100, JGLS offers global excellence, multidisciplinary depth, and robust research infrastructure, providing a strong foundation for the Centre.
To fulfil its vision and mission, the Centre will build strong partnerships with Indian agencies such as NITI Aayog, Ministry of Electronics & IT, RBI, SEBI, and TRAI; global regulators like OECD, EU AI Act institutions, US FTC, and UK AI Safety Institute; leading universities including Harvard, Oxford, Stanford, MIT, and other AI ethics and law centres; and technology leaders like Microsoft, Google, OpenAI, Meta, and firms in India's vibrant tech ecosystem.
The five-year strategic vision of the Centre includes inter alia launching interdisciplinary research projects, AI-integrated law courses, and executive training programmes. It will develop an AI ethics framework for India and policy whitepapers, providing impactful inputs to government and regulatory bodies. In its pursuit to establish a global AI law network, it will host an international AI law summit, and foster stakeholder collaborations and industry partnerships. It will also establish chair professorships and research grants, and publish scholarly works on AI law and governance.
Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas is a full-service law firm with over 108 years of experience. Originally founded in Mumbai, it has national coverage with offices in Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Chennai and GIFT City, as well as international coverage with offices in Singapore and Abu Dhabi. Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas has 1,200 lawyers.