The Government of India is looking to institute statutory support for Net Neutrality, as per its first draft National Digital Communications Policy. In fact, Net Neutrality makes it to the Indian governments 7 goals till 2022, which, among other goals, states: Ensure that net neutrality principles are upheld and aligned with service requirements, bandwidth availability and network capabilities including next generation access technologies A slightly more detailed note in the draft policy document indicates that the government intends to amend the ISP and telecom operator license agreements to ensure Net Neutrality in India: Provide Autonomy and Choice for every citizen and enterprise (a) Recognising the need to uphold the core principles of net neutrality: i. Amending the license agreements to incorporate the principles of non-discriminatory treatment of content, along with appropriate exclusions and exceptions as necessary ii. Ensuring compliance with net neutrality principles, by introducing appropriate disclosure and transparency requirements Note that India has among the strongest Net Neutrality regulations in the world, preventing differential/discriminatory pricing of Internet access, and the TRAI has made recommendations to the Department of Telecom regarding institution of strong rules related to throttling of Internet access. License amendments expected In its ruling on the differential access aspect of Net Neutrality, the TRAI had recommended an amendment of license agreements. We quote: "The Authority recommends that the terms of various license agreements governing the provision of Internet services in India (UL, VNO license, UASL and CMTS) be amended in order to incorporate the principles of non-discriminatory…
