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- Mechanisms for establishing rules ensuring Net neutrality in India, are at present mainly enforced by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). At present, there are no specific legislation regarding Net Neutrality in India. On 12 July 2018, The Department of Telecommunications made rules, approving the recommendations from TRAI, which heavily favoured net neutrality in India. These rules barred any form of data discrimination. Internet service providers which violate these rules may have their licenses cancelled. The rules make an exception for "critical IoT services" or "specialized services" such as autonomous vehicles and remote surgery operations. The debate on network neutrality in India gained public attention in December 2014, after Airtel, a mobile telephony service provider in India, announced additional charges for making voice calls (VoIP) from its network using apps like WhatsApp, Skype, etc.More recently, the spectacular rise of Reliance Jio and the reduction in the total number of Internet service providers to three has raised concerns regarding the market moving towards a monopoly. Such a transformation could have serious implications for net neutrality in the country. In March 2015, TRAI released a formal consultation paper on Regulatory Framework for Over-the-top (OTT) services, seeking comments from the public. The consultation paper was criticised for being one sided and having confusing statements. It received condemnation from various politicians and Indian Internet users. The last date for submission of comment was 24 April 2015 and TRAI received over a million emails. On 8 February 2016, TRAI passed the "Prohibition of Discriminatory Tariffs for Data Services Regulations, 2016", prohibiting telecom service providers from levying discriminatory rates for data. This move was welcomed by millions of Indians and also by people from other countries who are fighting or fought for net neutrality, and the inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners Lee. (en)
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