I&B Ministry
India’s digital shield: New rules to safeguard your online world
MUMBAI: In the digital universe, where every swipe and click creates a footprint, who’s watching over your safety?
There’s no “digital police” patrolling the internet highways, and yet, the need for a saviour has never been greater.
Enter India’s Draft Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025—a bold, pioneering move to protect your online identity.
With a sharp focus on safeguarding personal data and fostering trust, these rules operationalise the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDP Act). Crafted meticulously, the framework aims to balance innovation with privacy, creating a secure environment for individuals and businesses alike in an increasingly digital economy.
Picture a world where your data is your own, guarded against misuse, while businesses thrive in a regulated, transparent ecosystem. That’s the vision India has laid out, setting a global benchmark for digital safety and governance.
Stay tuned as we delve into the intricacies of this landmark regulation and explore how it could redefine your experience in the digital realm.
The draft rules place citizens at the core of the data protection framework. They empower individuals with rights such as informed consent, data erasure, and appointing digital nominees. Mechanisms are also in place to address grievances efficiently. Special provisions protect children’s online safety, granting parents and guardians more control.
“Citizens can manage their data seamlessly while businesses continue to thrive under a balanced framework,” states the document.
India’s framework seeks to balance innovation and regulation, creating a flexible model that is less restrictive compared to global counterparts. It minimises compliance burdens on small businesses and startups, ensuring smooth transition periods for organisations of all sizes. Stakeholders have praised this unique approach as a template for global data governance.
Emphasising a “digital by design” philosophy, the rules incorporate advanced grievance redressal mechanisms and fully digital workflows. The Data Protection Board will function as a digital office, handling complaints and adjudications without requiring physical presence.
This approach aims to enhance trust, transparency, and efficiency in data protection governance.
The draft rules cater to startups and MSMEs with graded responsibilities while assigning significant obligations to larger data fiduciaries. The Data Protection Board ensures fairness by balancing penalties with the nature and gravity of defaults.
The introduction of annual data protection impact assessments and audits for larger fiduciaries underscores the government’s focus on accountability.
The draft rules draw inspiration from global best practices and extensive stakeholder inputs. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology invites public feedback until February 18, 2025, via the MyGov platform.
To enhance awareness, a comprehensive campaign will educate citizens about their rights and responsibilities, fostering a culture of data responsibility.
These rules solidify India’s leadership in shaping equitable digital policies, ensuring innovation-driven and inclusive growth.
Important Links
Draft Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025
Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023
I&B Ministry
India turns up the heat on piracy, orders Telegram to axe 3,142 channels and blocks 800 websites
New legal teeth, nodal officers and notices to intermediaries signal that the government is done playing nice with copyright thieves
NEW DELHI: India’s war on film piracy just got significantly more aggressive. The government has ordered Telegram to remove 3,142 channels distributing pirated content, blocked access to around 800 websites through internet service providers, and put the full weight of freshly sharpened legislation behind the crackdown. The message from New Delhi is unambiguous: the free ride for copyright thieves is over.
Minister of state for information and broadcasting L. Murugan spelled out the legal architecture to the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. The Cinematograph (Amendment) Act, 2023, he said, now contains specific provisions designed to make piracy a genuinely painful proposition. Sections 6AA and 6AB prohibit unauthorised recording and transmission of films, with violations attracting a minimum of three months’ imprisonment and a fine of Rs 3 lakh. At the upper end, offenders face three years behind bars and fines of up to 5 per cent of a film’s audited gross production cost — a figure that, for a big-budget production, could run into crores.
The legislation also gives the government powers to act against intermediaries hosting infringing content, by notifying them under Section 79(3) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, and compelling takedowns and blocking actions. Under Section 79(3)(b), intermediaries are legally required to remove or disable access to unlawful content upon receiving government notice or court orders. The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, add a further layer of obligation, requiring platforms to ensure their services are not used to host or distribute content that violates copyright or proprietary rights.
To put enforcement into practice, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has established a dedicated institutional mechanism, complete with nodal officers to receive complaints. Copyright holders, authorised representatives or individuals can report piracy through a prescribed format, after which the government issues notices to intermediaries to disable access to infringing links.
The most headline-grabbing action came on 11 March 2026, when Telegram was formally notified under Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act and directed to remove and disable 3,142 channels found to be distributing unauthorised content belonging to OTT platforms, content owners and producers. The complaints that triggered the action came from OTT platforms including JioCinema and Amazon Prime Video, which alleged that copyrighted films, web series and other material were being shared on the platform on a massive scale. Telegram’s architecture, with its large file-sharing limits and capacity for user anonymity, has made it a favoured vehicle for exactly this kind of large-scale piracy.
The Telegram action sits within a broader pattern of escalating enforcement. Just days before the Lok Sabha statement, the ministry banned five OTT platforms for streaming obscene content: MoodXVIP, Koyal Playpro, Digi Movieplex, Feel and Jugnu. In July 2025, the Centre ordered the blocking of 25 OTT platforms accused of streaming obscene, vulgar or pornographic material, a list that included ALTT, ULLU, Big Shots App, Desiflix, Boomex, Navarasa Lite, Gulab App, Kangan App, Bull App, Jalva App, ShowHit, Wow Entertainment, Look Entertainment, Hitprime, Feneo, ShowX, Sol Talkies, Adda TV, HotX VIP, Hulchul App, MoodX, NeonX VIP, Fugi, Mojflix and Triflicks.
Rule 3(1)(b) of the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, provides the regulatory hook for those actions, prohibiting platforms from hosting content that is obscene, pornographic, invasive of privacy, gender-harassing, racially or ethnically objectionable, or that promotes hatred and violence.
For an industry that loses billions of rupees annually to piracy, the direction of travel is welcome. The question, as always, is not whether the laws exist, but whether the enforcement machinery can keep pace with the ingenuity of those determined to circumvent it. Three thousand channels down, and the pirates are already busy opening three thousand more.
