Lucknow, October 24 — Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday urged collective action to tackle cyber crimes such as deepfakes, cyber fraud and identity theft, and to maintain the credibility of digital evidence, IANS reported. He was speaking on the second day of the three-day international conference Tech Sangam 2026 at the Uttar Pradesh State Institute of Forensic Science (UPSIFS) in Lucknow.

Source: IANS via Hi India

During the event, Adityanath inaugurated the LexQ Centre of Excellence, dedicated to quantum forensics and legal compliance. He also launched a Consent Management Portal, laid the foundation stone for the 'Abhedya' project, and unveiled the book 'AI in Construction', IANS reported. Nation Press described the LexQ centre's 'Law with Labs' model as designed to move legal education and investigation into working laboratories, and said multiple institutions exchanged memoranda of understanding covering faculty exchange, joint certification and collaborative research at the conference.

Source: Nation Press

Cautioning against over-dependence on artificial intelligence, the Chief Minister said AI can be a valuable aid but should not become the ultimate decision-maker. 'We should not simply follow AI's reasoning or accept its decisions as the ultimate truth. If we become entirely dependent on AI for everything, the very power that helps us could also become a challenge,' he said, according to IANS.

Adityanath said that under the new criminal laws, forensic evidence is emphasised in offences carrying a punishment of more than seven years. Forensic laboratories are being developed in all 18 police ranges of the state — 12 have already been completed and six are in the final stages — and more than 150 forensic vans have been deployed across Uttar Pradesh for rapid evidence collection, he said.

The Chief Minister also said Uttar Pradesh has set a target of developing five gigawatts of data-centre capacity by 2030 and is working on establishing five major data-centre clusters. He said the state accounts for approximately 60 per cent of India's total expressway network and now has five international airports and 17 domestic airports — figures stated by the Chief Minister at the event.