Karnataka Innovation Act to Establish Regulatory Sandbox for Emerging Technologies

Key facts

• The Karnataka Department of Information Technology and Biotechnology (IT/BT) is establishing a regulatory sandbox framework under the Karnataka Innovation Act to enable the testing and development of emerging technologies.
• The announcement was made at the 20th edition of the India Digital Summit (IDS) 2026, organised by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) in Bengaluru.
• The IDS 2026 was conducted under the theme India’s AI Moment: Leveraging the Intelligent Economy.
• The Karnataka Innovation Authority Act, 2020, provides a legal framework for the temporary relaxation of regulations to promote innovation in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and deep-tech.
• The Internet and Mobile Association of India and Kantar launched the Internet in India Report 2025, which recorded 958 million active internet users in India in 2025.
• The report highlighted an 8% year-on-year growth in internet users, driven by rural adoption, short-video consumption, e-commerce, and AI usage.