New Delhi: The Union Ministry of Education (MoE) says it will circulate among education institutions a revised Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) notification that withdraws a November missive regarding webinars dealing with subjects related to “India’s internal matters”.
In November 2020, the MEA issued a notification asking organisers to get prior approval from the government to hold online international conferences centred around subjects such as “security of state, border, northeast states, J&K, Ladakh or any other issues which are clearly related to India’s internal matters”.
The same was reiterated by the MoE to education institutions and research councils on 15 January. “Ministry or department, public sector undertakings, central educational institutions, public funded universities, or an organisation owned and controlled by the government of India/state/UT should take approval of its administrative secretary for the event as well as for the list of participants,” the MoE circular said.
The rules applied to public-funded education institutions.
“All events related to security of state, border, northeast states, J&K or any other issues which are clearly related to India’s internal matter; events having foreign funding and events involving sensitive subjects…” will require the MEA’s permission, the circular added.
However, on Wednesday, the MEA issued guidelines to the Ministry of Homes Affairs (MHA) where it said that “in view of the easing of restrictions on travel and assembly of people” — a reference to the Covid pandemic — it is withdrawing the instructions issued in November 2020”, official sources told ThePrint.
In its wake, the MoE said in an official response to ThePrint that it “will circulate the revised guidelines of the MEA to all institutions and research councils”.
A source in the MoE said, “The MEA notification is self-explanatory, we do not need to convey anything further to the institutions. The November 2020 notification has been withdrawn, so things go back to pre-Covid rules in that sense.”
Meanwhile, sources told ThePrint that the government has instructed think tanks and organisations not to hold webinars on “sensitive subjects” over US-based video conferencing app Zoom since it also uses servers located in China.
ThePrint reached the Ministry of External Affairs by phone for more details, but there was no response at the time of the publishing of this article.
Also Read: How can you make a webinar exciting?
Return to pre-Covid rules
Among other things, the November 2020 MEA notification mentioned that “full compliance” is needed under India’s existing provisions of IT data security, personal data and protection of other “sensitive information”.
“In order to ensure oversight and control”, it said, the MEA’s clearance is needed for any event related to “security of state, border, NE states, J&K” as well as events that have “foreign funding and sponsorship”.
A return to pre-Covid rules means that any events involving international participants, or requiring visits to certain areas, will first need to be registered with the MHA for security clearance.
Also Read: For MEA to have a successful restructuring, get the institutional design right