Morung Express News
Dimapur | January 31
Universities and professors will now have to get prior approval from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) if they want to hold online international conferences or seminars that are centred around “sensitive subjects”, events relating to national security, or which are “clearly related to India’s internal matters”, the central government has announced.
Additionally, state government ministers, government officials of the rank of Joint Secretary as well as doctors and scientists, will have to first seek the permission of the MEA, if they wish to participate in any such online events.
Permission will also be required for events that involve “sensitive subjects” with provisions for sharing data in any form, according to a revised set of guidelines issued by the Ministry of Education on January 15.
While the guidelines clarified the permissions required for online seminars organised by a government department or publicly-funded university, it also noted that any virtual conference being organised requires approval from their “administrative secretary”.
However, before granting permission, the applicable ministry will be required to ensure that the subject matter for the online event is not related to “security of State, Border, Northeast states”, the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh or “any other issues which are clearly/purely related to India’s internal matter/s”.
For conferences that involve discussions around these specific topics, approval will be required from the Ministry of External Affairs, it said.
In addition, the names of all participants in such seminars will have to be approved in advance by the government. Permission will also be required for events that involve “sensitive subjects” with provisions for sharing data in any form, according to the guidelines.
Besides, “appropriate level of scrutiny” is to be exercised to identify the nature and “sensitivity of data” while examining the contents of the presentation to be made at the seminar, it added.
“While seeking approval/after approval, link to the online event should be shared by email at socoord@mea.gov.in,” the guidelines note, adding that this also applies to programmes having foreign funding or sponsorship.
The education/MEA guidelines encouraged universities to avoid using apps having servers that are controlled by countries or agencies that are “hostile to India” stating, “There should be judicious selection of IT applications/platforms, medium for interaction; preference should be given for those apps having servers not controlled/hosted/owned by countries/agencies hostile to India.”
However, no list of “countries/agencies hostile to India” was provided in the two page guidelines.
The guidelines further stipulated that the administrative secretary of respective ministry/department would be authorized to give permission for participation of officials of the rank of Director and below, subject to usual and necessary checks.
