Miss Nagendra, one of 10,000 volunteers taking part in Danny Boyle's £27 million extravaganza, admitted she had become overexcited and spontaneously joined in the parade.
"In an error of judgment I resulted in walking with the Indian contingent," she said outside her home in Bangalore, south India.
"Of course I have realised my mistake. I have not breached security which was stated earlier in the media. I have not trespassed, I have not gatecrashed.
"I'm part of the casting committee. Yes, I have hurt the sentiment of my people. I understand it was a mistake and I apologise for the same."
She added: "I understand that I've hurt people's feelings. From my heart, I regret it."
Miss Nagendra, who is studying management at the London School of Business and Finance after a passing a degree in communications from Christ College in Bangalore, admitted was "taken aback" by the scale of public criticism.
She became known as "the woman in red" because of the colour of her top and was subject of angry criticism on social networking sites.
She said she had entered the cast after "rounds of audition" and did not walk into the stadium "off the streets".
"I actually didn't know till I came back," she added to India's NDTV channel.
"I'm a proud woman of India with a lot of enthusiasm and with a lot of power and I was taken aback seeing all the comments.
"I hope this will be forgiven."
She added: "It was chaos. A lot of people were around. It was a huge event as we all know."
"Thousands of people were walking and they were involved and I was blinded. As a result there was an error in judgment, which resulted in this."
Her father has defended her actions and said it was all a misunderstanding as she was told by the organisers to lead out the team.
KL Nagendra, a local businessman, said his daughter was picked for the performance by Boyle, the show creator.
But the acting chef-de-mission of India's Olympic delegation, Muralidharan Raja, said she had "embarrassed us in front of the world" and "hogged all the limelight".
"She had no business to walk in with the Indian contingent," he said.
"We have taken strong exception to this. The march past is for the athletes and officials attached to the contingent."
But Lord Coe, the London 2012 chairman, has confirmed her as a cast member who posed no security threat because she had already been screened by officials as she was a participant.
He dismissed the controversy as her getting "slightly over excited".
"She should not have been in the opening ceremony but don't run away with the idea that she sort of walk in off the street to be able to do that, she hadn't," he said.
India is fielding 81 athletes at the London Games.
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