IIIT-H Study On AI Procurement Wins Best Paper Award At IPPN Conference 2026

The award-winning paper, titled “Emerging Institutional Pathways for AI Governance in India: Evidence from Public Procurement and Outsourcing,” was authored by Prof. Aakansha Natani, Assistant Professor at HSRC, Siddhi Wadekar, a PhD scholar, and Sujal Deoda, a dual-degree student pursuing BTech in Computer Science and MS in Computing and Human Sciences.

The conference, hosted by the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) from June 8-11, is among India’s leading public policy forums and was organised in collaboration with the University of Cambridge, National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), International Public Policy Association (IPPA) and other institutions.

Focus On Emerging AI Governance

The study emerged from an ongoing HSRC research project examining policy gaps in India’s AI and data infrastructure.

“Unlike the EU, India currently does not have a dedicated AI Act. Instead, AI governance is guided through advisory documents, frameworks and guidelines, and this regulatory landscape is still evolving,” said Siddhi Wadekar.

This led researchers to investigate where AI governance practices are actually emerging from in the absence of comprehensive legislation.

Analysing Government Procurement

To answer this question, the team analysed publicly available government tenders related to AI systems.

As governments increasingly adopt AI-driven technologies across citizen services, administration and law enforcement, many departments rely on private companies and startups to build and manage these systems due to limited in-house technical expertise.

“The government needs AI-driven technologies but may not have the necessary capacities and expertise to build and maintain them. So it often resorts to outsourcing these services through tenders,” said Sujal Deoda.

The researchers examined procurement notices, tender documents, technical specifications, eligibility criteria, contractual obligations and compliance requirements issued by central and state government agencies.

Methodology And Findings

The study combined computational analysis with qualitative policy analysis to understand both the language used in procurement documents and the governance implications embedded within them.

Rather than focusing solely on what governments were procuring, the researchers examined how tender documents define expectations around AI systems and whether procurement itself is becoming a mechanism through which AI governance is delegated, negotiated and implemented.

The findings highlighted procurement and outsourcing as increasingly important elements of India’s AI governance ecosystem, suggesting that governance frameworks are emerging not only through regulations but also through operational mechanisms such as procurement processes.

Interdisciplinary Collaboration

Prof. Aakansha Natani said understanding AI governance requires expertise across multiple disciplines.

“For this kind of research, you need computer science expertise to understand the technical specifications required for AI systems, as well as political science expertise to examine what’s being written and what is not being written in policy and procurement documents,” she said.

The project brought together expertise from computer science, computational social sciences, public policy and political science, reflecting IIIT Hyderabad’s interdisciplinary research environment.

According to the researchers, the study points to a broader trend where governance is increasingly shaped not only through legislation but also through everyday processes by which technologies are commissioned, procured and deployed.