Calling rules in India: a plain-language guide

Sources

• TRAI: Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations (TCCCPR)
• National Customer Preference Register (NCPR / DND) and complaints
• MeitY: Digital Personal Data Protection Act and Rules

Who this is for

You are running outbound or inbound calls, with or without AI, to people in India. This guide explains the main rules in plain language so you can ask the right questions. It is not legal advice.

Two kinds of calls

Indian telecom rules treat calls differently depending on their purpose.

• Promotional calls try to sell or advertise something. They are the most regulated.
• Service and transactional calls relate to something the person already has with you: an appointment, an order, a payment due.

Keep the two kinds in separate campaigns with separate scripts. A reminder call that turns into a sales pitch is a promotional call.

DND and the NCPR

People can register their preferences, including blocking promotional calls, in the National Customer Preference Register (NCPR, commonly called the DND registry). Businesses making promotional calls are expected to check numbers against it and not call people who have opted out of that category, unless the person has given valid consent.

Number series

TRAI has directed that telemarketing calls come from dedicated number series rather than ordinary 10-digit mobile numbers. As we understand it, promotional calls use the 140 series and service or transactional calls use the 160 series (with a 1600 series for entities regulated by financial regulators). The details and dates change, so ask your telecom provider which series you should use for each kind of call.

Consent

Consent should be explicit, recorded and verifiable: who agreed, when, to what and how. An enquiry the person made to you is a strong basis for a follow-up call about that enquiry. A purchased list is not.

• Keep a record of the source and date for every number.
• Make opting out easy and honour it straight away.
• Do not re-add numbers that opted out.

Calling hours

Promotional calls are not allowed late at night or very early in the morning; the usual window is 9 AM – 9 PM IST. Konvrs campaign dialers pause outside 9 AM – 9 PM IST by default.

Personal data: the DPDP Act

Phone numbers, names and call recordings are personal data. The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 requires notice, consent, a clear purpose, security safeguards and honouring people’s rights such as access and erasure. The DPDP Rules were notified in November 2025 and obligations phase in over a transition period (check the current timeline on the MeitY site).

• Tell people what you collect and why, before or at the start of the call.
• Only keep recordings and transcripts for as long as you need them.
• Have a way to handle access and deletion requests.

Telling people it is an AI

We are not aware of a specific Indian rule that requires an AI caller to announce itself, but rules on misleading communication and impersonation apply, and trust is easier to keep when you are honest. We recommend that the agent says it is an AI assistant, who it calls for and why, in the first sentence. Konvrs agents can be set up to do exactly that.

A short checklist

1. Is this call promotional or service? Is the script honest about which?
2. Do you have consent or an enquiry for every number?
3. Have you checked the DND registry where it applies?
4. Are you using the right number series?
5. Is the calling window respected?
6. Does the agent disclose that it is an AI?
7. Is opting out simple and honoured?
8. Do you know where recordings and transcripts are stored and for how long?