Under Condition 39.23(viii) of the Unified Licence Agreement granted by the Department of Telecommunications, licensees are not permitted to transfer “subscriber accounting information” (except for roaming and related billing purposes) or “user information” (except if pertaining to foreign subscribers using an Indian Operator’s network while roaming, and International Private Leased Circuit subscribers) to any person or place outside of India. “User information” is not defined by Indian telecommunications law, and the requirements do not restrict financial disclosures imposed by statute. Condition 39.23(iii) prohibits the transfer of domestic technical network details to any place outside of India.

Section 4 of the Public Records Act states that no person shall take or cause to be taken public records out of India without the prior approval of the Central Government, except if done for any official purpose. 

India’s National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy requires that “non-sensitive data available either in digital or analogue forms but generated using public funds” must be stored within the borders of India. The policy states that data belongs to the "agency/department/ministry/entity which collected them and resides in their IT-enabled facility” (Section 10).

In 2015, India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) issued guidelines for a cloud computing empanelment process under which cloud computing service providers may be provisionally accredited as eligible for government procurement of cloud services. The guidelines require such providers to store all data in India to qualify for accreditation.
In addition, Section 2.1.d of the Guidelines for Government Departments on Contractual Terms Related to Cloud Services requires that any government contracts contain a localisation clause mandating that all government data residing in cloud storage networks is located on servers in India.
Furthermore, Section 1.17.4 of the Master Service Agreement: Procurement of Cloud Services outlines, among other things, that cloud service providers must offer cloud services to the purchaser from a MeitY-enrolled data centre which is located in India, the data must be stored within India, and must not be taken out of India without explicit approval by the purchaser.

Rule 3.5 of the Companies (Accounts) Rules of 2014 provides that if company books and papers (or backups of them) are kept electronically in any location, they must also be periodically stored on a server physically located in India. 

In April 2018, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued a one-page directive stating that, within six months, all payment data held by payment companies should be held in local facilities. The Directive noted that this would help the RBI gain "unfettered supervisory access" to transaction data, which it needs to ensure proper monitoring.
Following a negative response from international payment companies such as MasterCard, Visa and American Express, the RBI has proposed (in "Frequently Asked Questions" of its website) to ease this restriction so as to allow payment firms to store data offshore as long as a copy was kept in India. The RBI has further clarified that for cross-border transaction data consisting of a foreign component and a domestic component, a copy of the domestic component may be stored abroad if required.
With respect to the processing of payment transactions outside India, the RBI requires that the data must be stored only in India after processing and should be deleted from systems abroad and brought back to India no later than 24 hours after processing. Any subsequent activity, such as settlement processing after payment processing done outside India, must be undertaken on a real-time basis, pursuant to which the data must be stored only in India.
The RBI has clarified that banks, especially foreign banks, can continue to store banking data abroad. Still, with respect to domestic payment transactions, the data must be stored only in India.

According to the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) Maintenance of Insurance Records Regulations, 2015 (Regulation 3.9), "Insurers are required that [...] (ii) the records pertaining to policies issued and claims made in India (including the records held in electronic form) are held in data centres located and maintained in India." In addition, the 2017 Regulations on Outsourcing of Activities by Indian Insurers provide that Indian insurers, even in cases where they outsource their services outside India, must retain all original records in India.

Rule 7 of Information Technology Rules 2011 states that the export of sensitive personal data or information within or outside India is permissible, provided that the same standards of data protection required in India are adhered to and that transfer is necessary for the performance of a lawful contract or has been consented to by the provider of the information. Sensitive personal information includes passwords, financial information such as bank account or credit/debit card details, sexual orientation, physical and mental health condition, and biometric information, among others.

India has not joined any agreement with binding commitments to open transfers of data across borders.

India has not yet enacted specific legislation concerning data protection. Currently, the regulation of personal data processing is primarily governed by the Information Technology Act of 2000 and the Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive Personal Data or Information) Rules of 2011, which were promulgated under the Act. Additionally, sector-specific laws, such as those applicable to the financial services and telecommunications sectors, contribute to the regulatory framework.
The Digital Personal Data Protection Act was enacted on 11 August 2023 and will come into force on a date to be notified by the Government of India. As of February 2024, the Act has not yet become effective. Once in effect, the Act is expected to establish a comprehensive data protection regime in India.

Section 5 of Direction No. 20(3)/2022-CERT-In mandates data centres, virtual private server providers, cloud service providers, and virtual private network service providers to mandatorily collect and retain certain subscriber-related information accurately for a minimum period of five years after the subscriber is no longer availing the underlying services. These data sets include subscriber names, period of hire including dates, IPs allocated and used, e-mail address along with IP and time stamp used at time of registration, purpose of availing the services, verified address and contact numbers, and ownership pattern of subscribers. Virtual asset service providers, virtual asset exchange providers and custodian wallet providers must also maintain KYC information and records of financial transactions for a period of 5 years. Specific to transaction records, Direction No. 20(3)/2022-CERT-In states that information must be maintained accurately in such a way that individual transactions can be reconstructed along with the relevant constituents such as IP addresses, time zones, transaction ID, public keys or equivalent identifiers, addresses or accounts involved, nature and date of transaction, amount transferred, etc.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, the incumbent, is fully owned by the Government of India. BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd.) provides all types of telecom services, namely telephone services on landlines, Wireless Local Loop and GSM mobile, Broadband, Internet, leased circuits and long-distance telecom services.

According to the License Agreement for Provision of Internet Services, the Internet Service Provider licensee shall maintain all commercial records, call detail records, exchange detail records, and IP detail records with regard to the communications exchanged on the network. Such records shall be archived for at least two years for scrutiny by the Licensor for security reasons and may be destroyed thereafter unless directed otherwise by the Licensor.

India does not mandate functional separation for operators with significant market power (SMP) in the telecom market. However, the Accounting Separation Regulation is applicable to all the service providers having aggregate turnover of not less than rupees one hundred crore (approx. 12,182,700 USD) during the accounting year for which report is required to be submitted from operations under the telecom license(s) issued to them under section 4 of the Indian Telegraph Act 1885. The telecom service providers are required to submit their audited accounting separation reports based on a historical cost basis every year and on a replacement cost basis every second year within seven months of the end of the accounting year.

According to the Consolidated Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Policy Circular 2020, foreign direct investment in telecom services (including fixed, mobile, and internet) is subject to compliance with both licensing and security conditions by the licensees and investors. These regulatory requirements have been in place since the implementation of the Consolidated FDI Policy Circular 2013 (Section 6.2.15). The conditions are outlined in the License Agreement for Unified License, which applies to all telecom services across the country.
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) in India must comply with the License Agreement for the Provision of Internet Services. Additionally, TSPs are required to adhere to two separate license agreements: the Cellular Mobile Telephone Service (CMTS) License Agreement, which governs cellular mobile communications, and the License Agreement for the Provision of Basic Telephone Services (BTS), which covers landlines. Reports suggest that these licenses provide the government with significant access to communication data held and processed by service providers.
It is also noted that India’s one-time licensing fees—approximately USD 500,000 for a service-specific license or USD 2.7 million for an all-India Universal License—act as a barrier to market entry for small and medium-sized enterprises.