2025 has been a busy year for Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI). Advertising regulations in India have had to keep pace with the rapid evolution of AI-driven marketing and an increasingly complex digital ecosystem. ASCI responded to these changes by significantly strengthening its monitoring systems and mechanisms. While maintaining our commitment to speedy resolution, we are focused on expanding our partnerships with digital platforms, enhancing our AI-powered ad scanning capabilities, and handling record volumes of complaints.
ASCI has worked closely with stakeholders to protect consumers from misleading claims in this high-risk category, so its work on regulating betting, gambling and offshore betting advertising is particularly important.
In 2026, ASCI will continue to lead the evolution of the Indian advertising industry. The company is preparing for the next wave of AI applications in advertising, from generated content to targeting algorithms, ensuring innovation and consumer trust go hand in hand. We remain focused on proactive regulation, industry collaboration, and building a framework that protects consumers while enabling creativity and business growth.
Medianews4u.com has the latest information Manisha Kapur, ASCI Executive Director and CEO
Q. In 2026, ASCI will continue to focus on proactive regulation, industry collaboration, and building a framework that protects consumers while fostering creativity and business growth. What does this include?
ASCI’s approach in 2026 will focus on proactively monitoring to stay ahead of emerging risks, preparing for the next wave of AI-driven advertising, and strengthening collaboration with advertisers, agencies, platforms, and regulators. ASCI continues to balance innovation and creativity with the imperatives of consumer trust and protection through research-led frameworks, industry consultations, and policy dialogue platforms.
Q. How is AI helping ASCI regulate?
ASCI is actively evaluating AI as a means to enhance its efforts in the area of self-regulation. This enables you to scan digital ads at scale, identify violations early, and prioritize high-risk categories faster. In 2025, ASCI strengthened its monitoring systems, including AI-powered ad scanning. This enabled organizations to review a record amount of digital advertising, with over 93% of violations identified through proactive monitoring (across the board, not just AI).
Q. ASCI has done a lot of work on regulating betting, gambling and offshore betting advertising. Do you think the government did the right thing by banning RMG? Has it reduced the challenge of regulating betting, gambling and offshore betting advertising?
ASCI believes that clear regulations and enforcement are essential in high-risk categories. Despite the ban, the challenge of regulating such advertising does not automatically ease, as a large number of offshore and illegal gambling advertisements continue to target Indian consumers.
What has proven effective is coordinated and sustained action, combining proactive monitoring of digital platforms, prompt reporting of violations to statutory regulators, and ongoing, sometimes daily takedown. In this context, ASCI continues to play a key role in supporting government action and ensuring vigilance in the betting and gambling advertising ecosystem.
Q. What are the major categories with the most advertising violations in 2025?
Data published in ASCI's Semi-Annual Complaints Report (April-September 2025) showed that offshore and illegal gambling accounted for the majority of violations and accounted for the largest share. This is followed by personal care, healthcare, food and beverage, and education.
Q. Will digitalization make advertising monitoring more complex?
Yes, digital advertising is massive, fast-moving, and fragmented across platforms, formats, and creators. With 97% of violations originating from digital media, monitoring requires advanced technology, platform partnerships, and constant vigilance. The scale and speed of digital advertising makes proactive technology-enabled monitoring essential.
Q. What steps will be taken to strengthen active surveillance in 2026? Will AI help?
In 2026, ASCI will significantly strengthen its proactive monitoring framework by exploring appropriate AI tools and expanding collaboration with digital platforms. These systems enable continuous, large-scale scanning of advertising content across a variety of formats and languages, enabling early identification of potentially misleading or non-compliant claims, especially in high-risk categories such as health, financial services, gaming, and influencer advertising.
AI plays a key role in moving surveillance from reactive to predictive, helping to alert you to emerging patterns, repeat violations, and evolving risks in near real-time. This allows for faster escalation, timely takedowns, and more targeted engagement with advertisers and platforms.
Q. I'm having trouble with influencers who don't follow ASCI's guidelines for paid disclosure. Are these guidelines particularly important for finfluencers?
ASCI conducted its second dipstick study on Forbes India's Top 100 Digital Stars of 2024 with a total of over 110 million followers. The study found a 76% increase in the number of influencers who do not disclose paid collaborations, compared to 69% a year ago, resulting in non-compliance with both ASCI's influencer advertising guidelines and the regulatory disclosure norms highlighted by the CCPA. These findings were published in our semi-annual report.
Disclosure norms are important across all influencer categories, but they are especially important for finfluencers and health influencers, as their advice can directly impact the financial and health status of consumers. Transparency allows viewers to understand commercial intent and make informed choices. ASCI's findings show that even top influencers often fail to meet disclosure requirements, and SEBI's regulations restricting the use of trend data to promote certain scripts and funds highlight why clear disclosure is essential to prevent misleading advice, unfair market influence, and the misuse of investor education as a cover for promotion.
Q. A few years ago, ASCI launched a new digital campaign urging consumers not to ignore misleading advertising and to register complaints with ASCI. What marketing activities will ASCI undertake in 2026 to increase consumer awareness?
In 2026, ASCI will continue to invest in consumer education through sustained digital activities, partnerships, and programs like AdWise, which aims to reach 1 million schoolchildren by the end of 2026. AdWise is a national consumer education program for school children that was launched in September and aims to improve advertising literacy among children in grades 3 to 8.
Overall, the focus will be on helping consumers recognize misleading advertising, understand their rights, and actively participate in advertising self-regulation. ASCI will continue its ongoing digital outreach efforts to educate consumers about identifying misleading advertising and using ASCI's complaint mechanisms.
Q. How often does ASCI hold meetings with stakeholders, from broadcasters to advertisers and agencies, to sort out issues?
Stakeholder engagement remains a priority for ASCI. The organization regularly engages with advertisers, agencies, platforms, and other stakeholders through a combination of formal and informal discussions, issue-based consultations, and structured platforms. These interactions help address concerns in a timely manner and support the joint development of responsible advertising practices across the ecosystem.
Q. Is there a problem with proxy advertising by alcoholic beverage brands?
Yes, surrogate advertising remains a concern, especially when promotions seek to circumvent legal regulations. ASCI actively monitors such advertising and works to suppress misleading or prohibited advertising within existing self-regulatory and legal frameworks.
Q. Are false and misleading claims a major challenge in healthcare advertising? What is the way forward?
Misleading claims in healthcare advertising remain a serious concern, particularly when the advertisement violates the medicine/magical cure law (objectionable advertising) or makes unsubstantiated claims that may affect the health and safety of consumers. ASCI is addressing this issue through rigorous scrutiny of health-related claims, proactive digital surveillance, and expedited processing of high-risk cases.
The way forward lies in strengthening evidence-based advertising, continuing to educate advertisers and influencers, deterring repeat violations, and working closely with statutory regulators to ensure timely enforcement and strengthen consumer protection.
Q. Should platforms be held responsible for the ads they serve?
Given the scale and speed at which ads are disseminated online, platforms play a critical gatekeeping role in today's digital advertising ecosystem. Advertisers remain responsible for their claims, but platforms must proactively support compliance through better screening, faster removal of objectionable content, and closer cooperation with self-regulatory and statutory bodies.
Recognizing this shared responsibility, ASCI issued an advisory in January, for example in relation to LinkedIn, highlighting the role platforms should play in enabling compliant advertising, particularly with respect to disclosure and transparency.
