Hams in India who received amateur radio licences in paper form are being required to replace those certificates with a digital licence no later than the 15th of September by logging into the Saral Sanchar, a web-based portal of the Department of Telecommunications.

There is no application fee for the process, which provides amateurs with a QR code-authenticated certificate. This is the equivalent of the amateur radio booklets that had been issued manually with paper certificates until December 31st, 2019.

In early 2020, India began issuing all new and renewed amateur radio certificates digitally. The Telecommunication Rules of 2024 now require the holders of the older paper certificates to use the digital web-based portal as well. Failure to migrate will mean that when the licence expires, it cannot be renewed.