Now, AIGR Foundation Initiates Process To Form A Gaming Self-Regulatory Body

The All India Gaming Regulator (AIGR) Foundation is currently in the process of forming a self-regulatory body (SRB) under the online gaming rules that were officially notified in April this year.

The organisation is in the process of applying with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), ET reported. The ministry is presently taking time to review the applications and assess factors such as the composition of the board members, among other things.

Taking the first step towards forming an SRB, AIGR has now registered itself as a legal entity under section 8 of the Companies Act.

Interestingly, former Indian cricketer Virender Sehwag is one of the directors of the AIGR Foundation. As Sehwag is free from any conflict of interest, he is eligible to become the director.

“He has a lot of credibility on and off the field. The government has laid down clear guidelines about qualified people from different facets of life as part of the Board, and that is what AIGR is working towards. It is still very early days,” a source said as quoted in the report.

In July, Inc42 reported that four industry bodies of the online gaming sector filed three different applications for the formation of SRBs, and MeitY would take at least three months to finalise the SRBs.

Under the online gaming rules, all online games would be determined as permissible or not by SRBs. The industry can have one or multiple SRBs, as per the rules. Gaming companies would have to be registered under one of the SRBs to offer products/services in India.

As many as 120 startups, which are primarily the members of the All India Gaming Federation (AIGF), Egaming Federation (EGF), and Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports (FIFS) worked together to come up with proposals for SRBs. The applications were filed under two different collectives.

While around 100 startups associated with the AIGF worked on one SRB application, 20 startups, who are members of EGF and FIFS, collaborated for another application.

Esports Players Welfare Association (EPWA) was another industry body to file an application with the MeitY to constitute an SRB.