Universities and professors will now have to get prior approval from the Ministry of External Affairs to hold online international conferen...
Universities and professors will now have to get prior approval from the Ministry of External Affairs to hold online international conferences 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.
While “sensitive subjects” has been vaguely defined as anything that is “political, scientific, technical, commercial and personal”, the phrase “internal matters” was left open to the government’s interpretation.
In a set of revised guidelines issued on January 15, accessed by Scroll.in, the Ministry of Education said that any virtual conference organised by a government department or a publicly-funded university will require 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, the Centre said.
In addition, the names of all participants in virtual seminars will have to be approved in advance by the government, the guidelines...
