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.

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 the 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 localization 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 2014 provides that if company books and papers (or back-ups of them) are kept electronically in any location, they must also be periodically stored on a server physically located in India. 

India’s National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy requires that “non-sensitive data available either in digital or analog 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 reside in their IT enabled facility” (Section 10).

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 offical purpose. 

India has appended the World Trade Organization (WTO) Telecom Reference Paper to its schedule of commitments.

It is reported that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, the executive authority established in the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Officers and Staff Appointment) Regulation, 2001, for the supervision and administration of services in the telecommunications sector, is independent from the government in the decision-making process.

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.

As per the Consolidated Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Policy Circular 2014, foreign direct investment in telecom services (fixed, mobile and internet) is subject to observance of licensing and security conditions by licensee as well as investors. These conditions are set out in the Unified License, which is required for all telecom services in the entire country.
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) in India are required to comply with the License Agreement for Provision of Internet Services. Additionally, TSPs have to comply with two license agreements in order to operate: the Cellular Mobile Telephone Service (CMTS) License Agreement and the License Agreement for the Provision of Basic Telephone Services (BTS). The first license agreement applies to cellular mobile communications, whereas the second applies to landlines. It is reported that, in practice, these licenses afford the government extensive access to communication data held and processed by service providers.
It is reported that India’s one-time licensing fee (approximately USD 500,000 for a service-specific license, or USD 2.7 million for an all India Universal License) for telecommunications providers serves as a barrier to market entry for small and medium-sized enterprises.

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 landline, Wireless Local Loop and GSM mobile, Broadband, Internet, leased circuits and long distance telecom services.

India lacks a comprehensive framework in place that provides effective protection of trade secrets, but there are limited measures addressing some issues related to them. As per the decision of the Delhi High Court in 1995, a trade secret is defined as any information with commercial value, which is not available in the public domain and the disclosure of which would cause significant harm to the owner. Moreover, Indian courts and tribunals have upheld the protection of trade secrets under other laws such as contract law, copyright law, principles of equity, and common law action of breach of confidence (which is basically a breach of an obligation to keep a piece information secret). In addition to the above, the Information Technology Law of 2000 also sets legal means of protection to confidential information in the form of electronic records.

It is reported that there is an obligation for passive infrastructure sharing in India to deliver telecom services to end users, and it is practiced in the mobile sector and in the fixed sector based on commercial agreements.

India has ratified the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty.

India has ratified the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Performances and Phonograms Treaty.