Galexia

Emerging Best Practice in Do Not Call Registers (8 September 2009)

2.3. India

India set up a National Do Not Call Register in 2007.[11] The register is established by legislation[12] and is administered by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

The Indian register covers landlines and mobile phones. Telemarketers have to submit their target numbers to the National Registry for matching. There is a strong focus in India on SMS marketing, as this is more prevalent than telemarketing to landlines. To date, 18 million numbers have been registered. Although this may seem like a very high number, there are reportedly over 340 million mobile phone numbers in operation in India.

The register is relatively new, but there have been concerns in the community about the low level of fines and the lack of visible impact of enforcement action in India.[13] Although more than 12,000 telemarketers have been fined for breaching the Do Not Call register already, this does not appear to have had a significant impact on the number of calls.[14]

There is no requirement to renew registration in India – numbers stay on the register until they are deregistered or disconnected.


[11] <http://ndncregistry.gov.in/ndncregistry/index.jsp>.

[12] Telecom Unsolicited Commercial Communications Regulations, 2007.

[13] See for example: Prasad S, India’s ‘Do Not Call’ registry farce, ZD Net Asia, 18 March 2008, <http://www.zdnetasia.com/blogs/insideindia/0,3800011235,63002728,00.htm> and Pahwa N, India’s Do Not Call Registry: A Failure, Content Sutra, 17 January 2008, <http://contentsutra.com/article/419-indias-do-not-call-registry-a-failure/>.

[14] Sinha, Only 18 Million Registrations for Do Not Call Registry, Pluggd.in, 13 October 2008, <http://www.pluggd.in/indian-telecom-industry/only-18-million-registrations-for-do-not-call-registry-2883/>.