According to Notification No. 5 (2015-2020), the import of goods (new as well as second-hand, whether or not refurbished, repaired, or reconditioned) notified under the Electronics and Information Technology Goods (Requirement of Compulsory Registration) Order, 2012 is prohibited unless they are registered with the Bureau of Indian Standards and comply with its labeling requirements, or on a specific exemption letter from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) for a particular consignment.

As per the Foreign Trade Policy, 2015-2020, India has distinguished between goods that are new and those that are second-hand, remanufactured, refurbished or reconditioned. The country allows the import of second-hand capital goods by end-users without an import license, provided the goods have a residual life of five years. In addition, users are required to present the certificate of an Indian chartered engineer attesting that such spare parts have at least 80% residual life of the original spare part, while second-hand domestic capital goods are not subject to this requirement. Problems reported by industry representatives include excessive details required in the license application, quantity limitations set at specific part numbers, and long delays between application and license issuance. According to a 2018 amendment (DGFT Notification No. 58/2015-2020), second-hand goods imported for repair, refurbishment, reconditioning or re-engineering purposes can be exported back under the customs notification provided that the waste generated during the repair or refurbishment of the imported items is treated in accordance with national environmental laws/regulations/rules/regulations/standards.

On 30 July 2020, the Indian Directorate General of Foreign Trade through Notification No. 22/2015-2020 amended the import policy of color television sets from "Free" to "Restricted". According to the Notification, a license shall be required for imports of these TV sets, which include smart TVs.

It is reported that during the course of 2020, the Ministry of Information and Technology, based on the provisions of Section 69A of the Information Technology Act and relevant provisions of the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking Access to Information by the Public) Rules, 2009, banned 267 apps in view of the emerging nature of security threats posed by these apps and the detrimental nature of these apps to sovereignty, defense and law and order in India. The Ministry has reportedly pointed out that these apps raise data security and privacy concerns. On June 29, 2020, 59 apps were banned; on September 2, 2020, 118; and on November 24, 2020, 43.

According to the Import Export Classification, Indian Trade Classification – Harmonized System (ITC-HS) Code, and Import Policy 2012, certain goods require special permission or licensing in order to be imported. Selected consumer goods, including radio and TV broadcast transmitters and communication jamming equipment, are qualified as licensed/restricted items that can only be imported after obtaining an import license from India’s Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT). However, it has been reported that India is increasingly using import licenses at the discretion of the authorities to limit imports of sensitive products. In addition, it is reported that the licensing system is not automatic as it involves delays and authorized quantities can be lower than requested. The granting of licenses is limited to actual users.

According to Notification No. 107/(RE-2013)/2009-2014, GSM mobile handsets’ with duplicate International Mobile Equipment Identity Number (IMEI) or fake IMEI & ‘CDMA mobile handsets’ with duplicate Electronic Serial Number (ESN)/ mobile equipment identifier (MEID) or fake ESN/MEID are added to the list of ‘Prohibited’ items for import. The Government has taken over from a private agency to issue and manage IMEI allocation for mobile phones in India.

The indicator "6.2.4 - Government Internet shut down in practice" of the V-Dem Dataset, which measures whether the government has the technical capacity to actively make internet service cease, thus interrupting domestic access to the internet or whether the government has decided to do so, has a score of 2 in India. This corresponds to "The government shut down domestic access to the Internet several times this year."

The Indian state has reportedly shut down the internet several times in recent years. In 2021, the state shut down the internet when Indian farmers staged a months-long protest against new agricultural laws in the country's capital. Also, in 2022, a shutdown was reported in the western Indian city of Udaipur when a Hindu tailor was killed by a Muslim in an incident that raised fears of communal violence. Finally, it is reported that nearly one-third of the outages counted between 2020 and 2022 were aimed at preventing cheating on exams.

According to the Temporary Suspension of Telecom Services (Public Emergency or Public Safety) Rules, 2017, national or state-level officials are allowed to issue temporary suspension orders to shut down telecom services in times of public emergency or threats to public safety. However, each order should contain reasons for shutdowns of telecom services and should be forwarded to a review committee for assessment.

It is reported that in April 2022, the Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) issued several orders to social media and news companies to block access to twenty-two YouTube channels, three Twitter accounts, one Facebook account, and a news webpage. The MIB noted that those twenty-two YouTube channels were spreading “anti-Indian” content and false information regarding the “situation in Ukraine”, which could endanger India’s foreign relations. The MIB decision follows the adoption of the Information Technology Rules of February 2021, giving the ministry the power to restrict access to content during emergencies where “no delay is acceptable". In addition, it has been reported that the government has routinely blocked specific websites or successfully pressured social media platforms to block content in India. According to reports, nearly 7,000 social media posts and accounts were blocked in 2022.

According to Art. 4.2 of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, a significant social media intermediary (defined as a social media intermediary having a number of registered users in India above five million) providing messaging services must enable identification of the first originator of the information on its computer resource as may be required by a judicial order or an order passed by a competent authority. In complying with an order for the identification of the first originator, a significant social media intermediary will not be required to disclose the contents of the electronic message related to the first originator or other users. No order must be passed in cases where there are less intrusive means of identifying the originator of the information.

According to Art. 8 of the Information Technology Rule, an officer so designated by the Central Government under the Rules (known as 'Designated Officer') can on the receipt of a request from any nodal officer of a government organisation or a competent court or by an order of any agency of the government can block access by the public to any information transmitted, received, stored or hosted in any computer resource. The request will be examined by a committee consisting of the designated officer and its chairperson and representatives, who shall determine if the information must be blocked.

According to Art. 3.3 of the Information Technology Intermediaries Guidelines Rules, intermediaries are required to deploy technology-based automated tools or appropriate mechanisms with appropriate controls, for proactively identifying and removing or disabling public access to unlawful information or content.

Section 69 of the Indian Information Technology Act (IITA) requires intermediaries to extend all facilities and technical assistance to intercept, monitor or decrypt information as well as to provide information stored in a computer or provide access to a computer resource, when called upon to do so by certain agencies. This extends to online intermediaries which are required to designate an officer to facilitate the execution of such orders. Intermediaries that fail to meet these obligations may be punished with imprisonment of up to seven years.

According to the Use of Aadhaar e-KYC service of Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI) for issuing new mobile connections and re-verification of existing subscribers-OTP based authentication regulation, Indian citizens are required to register their SIM card with their Aadhaar Card (a type of national identity card). Foreigners have to provide their passport, a photocopy of their Indian visa/ travel permit, a passport-sized photo and contact details.