Cold Calling Laws in India

Which laws cover cold calling in India?

The main law is the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2018 (TCCCPR), issued by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). The rules were tightened in February 2025 by the Second Amendment and again on 18 September 2026 by the Third Amendment, which takes effect in stages, 30, 60 and 90 days after its publication in the Gazette.

Telecom operators enforce the rules day to day. They register the businesses that send commercial calls, apply each customer's preferences, handle complaints and bar or disconnect the lines of senders who break the rules. The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 separately covers the personal data in your call list.

Is cold calling legal in India for B2B calls?

Yes, on the same terms as any other sales call. The TCCCPR defines a commercial communication by its purpose: any call or message whose primary purpose is to inform about, advertise or solicit business for goods or services. It defines a customer as any telecom subscriber. A call that pitches your service to a company's purchasing manager is covered in the same way as a call to a consumer.

So B2B calling into India needs the same setup: a registered sender, the right number series and a list checked against DND preferences. Calling an Indian business from your own mobile number doesn't get around this.

Do you need to register to make sales calls in India?

Yes. A business that sends commercial calls registers with an Indian telecom operator, which records senders on its DLT (distributed ledger) platform. Anyone who sends commercial communications without registering is what TRAI calls an Unregistered Telemarketer (UTM). UTMs typically call from ordinary 10-digit mobile or landline numbers.

Since the 2025 amendment, promotional calls may only be made from 140-series numbers, and service and transactional calls from the 1600 series. The 2026 amendment stops operators' spam alerts and call management apps from blanket-flagging the 140xx, 1600xx and 1601xx series, so a registered call isn't automatically labeled as spam.

How do DND preferences work in India?

DND (Do Not Disturb) preferences are the choices each phone subscriber registers with their operator about which commercial calls they'll accept. A registered sender's promotional calls are checked against them.

• Each subscriber can block all commercial calls that need explicit consent, or block only promotional calls.
• Preferences can be narrower: by category of product, by mode (call or message), by time band and by type of day.
• A sender can reach a subscriber who blocked promotional calls only with that person's explicit consent, recorded through the operators' consent system.
• Subscribers can complain through the TRAI DND app, their operator's app or website, or by calling or texting 1909, within 7 days of the call.
• The 2026 amendment adds an appeal: a subscriber who disagrees with how a complaint was resolved can appeal within 15 days.

Can you call someone who enquired about your service?

Yes, for a limited time. Under the 2026 amendment, an enquiry about your goods or services creates a relationship for 7 days from the date of the enquiry, and an application for your product or service for 3 months. The enquiry has to be made in writing or by digital means, and you have to keep it in a form you can verify.

After that window, treat the lead like any other promotional call: a registered 140-series number and the person's DND preferences.

Are automated calls and robocalls allowed in India?

Only if you declare them first. Since the 2025 amendment, senders have had to tell their operator in advance that they use autodialers or robocalls.

The 2026 amendment defines an application-to-person (A2P) call as one started by software, an autodialer or a recorded or artificial voice, without a person dialing it. Every sender has to declare its A2P calls to its operator, with the number ranges it will use, and undeclared A2P calls are treated as unsolicited. These provisions start 60 days after the amendment's publication, in mid-November 2026.

Operators can also charge up to Rs 0.05 a minute to carry A2P calls, except calls from the 140xx, 1600xx and 1601xx series.

What are the penalties for unsolicited calls in India?

TRAI's penalties for senders work through their phone lines. When 5 or more different people complain about the same sender within 10 days, the operator suspends outgoing calls on all of that sender's lines and investigates. If it confirms the sender made unsolicited commercial calls, a first violation bars outgoing calls on every line the sender has, with every operator, for 15 days. A second violation disconnects all the sender's lines for one year, blacklists the sender and blocks the devices used for the calls.

The 2026 amendment adds AI-based detection. Operators flag numbers that are likely to be sending spam and share the list, and 5 or more flagged numbers from one sender within 10 days start graded action, from KYC re-verification to disconnection. Action can also start at 3 complaints in 10 days when the number is already flagged.

What does the DPDP Act mean for your call list?

A contact's name and number are personal data. Under section 4 of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, you can process them only with the person's consent or for one of the legitimate uses listed in section 7. Marketing isn't on that list, though section 7 does cover data someone gave you voluntarily for a specific purpose, such as a request for a quote.

The Act doesn't apply to personal data that the person made publicly available themselves (section 3). The DPDP Rules were notified on 14 November 2025 with an 18-month phased timeline, so most duties apply from May 2027. The highest penalty is up to Rs 250 crore, for failing to keep personal data secure. The 2026 TRAI amendment adds that nothing in its regulations exempts a sender from the DPDP Act.

Are there legal calling hours in India?

TRAI's regulations don't set fixed calling hours. Instead, subscribers can block promotional calls in time bands and on days of their choosing, and a registered sender's calls are checked against those preferences. For B2B calls, the working day is the practical window.

Before you call Indian businesses: a checklist

• Register as a sender with an Indian telecom operator, or call through a registered telemarketer.
• Make promotional calls from 140-series numbers, never from ordinary 10-digit numbers.
• Check every number against DND preferences, unless you hold explicit consent.
• Keep written or digital proof of any enquiry, and call within 7 days of it.
• Declare any autodialer or recorded-voice calls to your operator before you use them.
• Record where each contact came from, and stop calling anyone who asks you to.