MEA Restrictions on Online Events Reflect 'New Level of Paranoia on the Part of Indian State' 'Academics based in India will be under more pressure. Academics based outside India will be discouraged from working on India, as they are today from working on Iran, or other countries which use such intimidation', says UCLA historian Sanjay Subrahmanyam. Representative image of a virtual conference on an online platform. Photo: Chris Montgomery/Unsplash, (CC BY-SA) Rights13/Feb/2021 New Delhi: Revised official guidelines which state that Indiaâs publicly-funded universities, professors and administrators need prior approval from the Ministry of External Affairs if they want to hold online international conferences or seminars on matter relating to the security of the Indian state or issues which are âclearly related to Indiaâs internal mattersâ, have drawn flak from leading academics and organisations in the United States.