Asia: Government, Public Sector

Is India's Election Commission still truly independent? Two developments happened sometime back. The first is the most basic one of all: who gets to choose the people who run our elections? For decades, the government chose them alone. In 2023, the Supreme Court said they should be picked by a neutral panel, the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, and the Chief Justice of India, to build independence into the process, but only until Parliament made its own law. And when it did, it replaced the Chief Justice with a minister chosen by the Prime Minister, giving the government two votes on a three-member panel.

On 16 September 2025, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) released the draft Civil Drone (Promotion and Regulation) Bill, 2025 (hereafter the “Bill”) which is the most extensive legislative revision in the governance of the unmanned aircraft systems in India to date. The Bill proposes a dedicated statutory framework for civilian drones, replacing the Drone Rules, 2021 and introducing a more comprehensive regime for compliance and enforcement.

South Australia's Royal Commission into Artificial Intelligence has released its Terms of Reference, outlining a comprehensive examination of how the state can harness AI's economic and social benefits while managing associated risks. The inquiry will investigate policy frameworks, workforce impacts, education adaptation, and regulatory settings needed to support responsible AI development and deployment.