INDIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Shivalik Chandan, Hardik Choudhary, Dhruv Singh and Arjun Khurana, G&W Legal
analysis to identify deficiencies in current regu - lations related to AI governance, such as those relating to deepfakes, cybersecurity and intel - lectual property rights. Key recommendations include establishing an interministerial authority for cohesive governance, creating a technical secretariat to oversee AI systems and maintain incident databases, and encouraging voluntary commitments from AI developers, including transparency reports and security assessments. While comprehensive, the report is not legally binding. 4. Internet of Things 4.1 Machine-to-Machine Communications, Communications Secrecy and Data Protection In the absence of specific laws governing machine-to-machine communications or IoT, the more general laws on privacy, interception, monitoring, blocking, etc, apply to this space as well. Additionally, as mentioned earlier, upon the enactment of the DPDPA, extra requirements will be put in place, as well as greatly enhanced pen - alties for failures to ensure compliance. Other than the above, the following may be of particular note. • In 2018, the Indian government issued a directive that issuers of SIM cards to be utilised for the purposes of M2M commu - nications were to follow verification norms prescribed under the unified licence regime for telecoms operators. The directive also prescribed a number of restrictive features to be implemented on such SIMs for M2M communication. The restrictive features were relaxed somewhat in 2019, further to repre - sentations by industry.
• In January 2022, the government issued a directive stating that a no-objection certifi - cate (NOC) would need to be issued by the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) for the sale or rental of international roaming SIMs/global calling cards of foreign operators – including for the purpose of M2M communi - cations. Only companies registered under the Indian Companies Act may make applications for an NOC, and in the case of companies with foreign investment, they must be compli - ant with the extant foreign direct investment regulations of India. The directive also stated that where innovative app-based solutions were to be offered through the use of such SIMS, they would be approved by the DoT on a case-by-case basis, pursuant to pres - entations and other requested information being submitted. NOCs are valid for a period of three years, with further renewal for up to three years at a time. • In 2022, the government of India issued guidelines for the granting of a unified licence for telecoms services, which included authori - sation for three categories of M2M services. Additional guidelines were also issued by the DoT in 2022 which, among other things, required the registration of M2M service providers. In addition to the above, on 24 December 2023, the Indian parliament passed the Telecommu - nications Act 2023 (the “Telecom Act”), which aims to replace the archaic Telegraph Act, 1885 (the “Telegraph Act”) and the Wireless Telegra - phy Act, 1933 (the “Wireless Telegraphy Act”). Provisions of the Telecom Act are discussed in detail under 6. Telecommunications . The new law will also be applicable to the M2M space, and will require holders of existing licences, reg - istrations and permissions to eventually seek authorisation from the government.
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