INTRODUCTION
The cloud service industry in India has generally been an
unregulated space, despite multiple attempts by the government over
the past decade to introduce legal and policy frameworks. The
National Telecom Policy, issued by the Department of
Telecommunications in 2012, was one of the first policy attempts
that addressed the need to adopt cloud computing. In 2018, the
Digital Communications Policy replaced the 2012 policy with an aim
to establish India as a global hub for cloud computing and create a
light touch regulatory framework for the industry. Simultaneously,
the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India - the nodal telecom
regulator - released two consultation papers between 2017 and 2019,
with recommendations on cloud services, a proposal for a regulatory
framework, and suggestions on the establishment of an industry body
to govern and regulate cloud service providers in India. The
recommendations were met with significant opposition from
