The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has set up an eight-member expert committee to create a framework for the responsible and ethical use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the financial sector. This initiative, called the Framework for Responsible and Ethical Enablement of AI (FREE-AI), aims to ensure that AI adoption in financial services is robust, comprehensive, and adaptable.
Committee Leadership and Objectives
The committee will be led by Pushpak Bhattacharyya, a professor at IIT Bombay’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering. Its primary goal is to assess AI adoption in global and Indian financial services and review regulatory and supervisory approaches to AI, with a focus on the financial sector.
The committee will also identify potential risks associated with AI in finance and propose frameworks for evaluation, mitigation, and monitoring. This includes compliance requirements for financial institutions such as banks, non-banking finance companies (NBFCs), fintechs, and payment system operators (PSOs).
Additionally, the committee will recommend governance frameworks to ensure the responsible and ethical adoption of AI in India’s financial sector.
Committee Members
Apart from Bhattacharyya, the committee includes:
- Debjani Ghosh, Independent Director at the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub
- Balaraman Ravindran, Professor at IIT Madras
- Abhishek Singh, Additional Secretary at the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology
- Rahul Matthan, Partner at Trilegal
- Anjani Rathor, Group Head and Chief Digital Experience Officer at HDFC Bank
- Sree Hari Nagaralu, Head of Security AI Research at Microsoft India (R&D)
- Suvendu Pati, CGM of the FinTech Department, RBI
The committee is expected to submit its report within six months of its first meeting.
Leave a Reply