Regulators
Government eases food business rules, introduces perpetual FSSAI licences
Perpetual licences and higher turnover limits aim to cut red tape
NEW DELHI: The Union Health Ministry of India has approved a set of regulatory reforms designed to simplify compliance for food businesses while maintaining strict food safety standards across the country.
The reforms, developed after consultations with states, union territories and industry stakeholders, also draw on recommendations from a high level committee on non financial regulatory reforms set up by NITI Aayog.
One of the most notable changes is the move towards perpetual validity for registrations and licences issued by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. Earlier, food business operators had to renew these periodically. Under the new framework, the licences will remain valid indefinitely, cutting down paperwork, compliance costs and repeated visits to licensing authorities.
Officials say the change will allow regulators to spend less time on administrative renewals and more on monitoring, enforcement and capacity building within the food sector.
The ministry has also raised the turnover threshold for registration from Rs 12 lakh to Rs 1.5 crore. Businesses with turnover up to Rs 50 crore will now fall under state licensing, while companies above that level will require central licensing. The revised thresholds will come into effect from 1 April 2026.
The change is expected to simplify compliance for micro and small food enterprises by reducing fees, paperwork and pre-inspection requirements. For state authorities, the adjustment is meant to sharpen focus on oversight and enforcement within their jurisdictions.
Street food vendors stand to gain as well. Vendors already registered with municipal corporations or town vending committees under the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014 will now be treated as automatically registered under FSSAI rules. The step is expected to benefit more than one million vendors by removing the need for multiple registrations across departments.
Another key feature of the reforms is the introduction of a technology driven risk based inspection system. Instead of routine checks for all operators, inspections will be prioritised based on factors such as the type of food handled, past compliance records and third party audit results.
The ministry said the approach would ensure focused oversight while reducing unnecessary inspections for businesses with strong compliance histories.
Taken together, the reforms aim to strike a balance between easing the regulatory load on food businesses and ensuring that food safety standards remain firmly in place for consumers.
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.
