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The SCOMET list is India's controlled-items annex under the Foreign Trade (Development & Regulation) Act, 1992 (FTDR Act), operationalised through Schedule-II Appendix-3 of the ITC(HS) classifications. Export of any SCOMET-listed item, technology, or related software requires a prior individual licence from the Inter-Ministerial Working Group (IMWG) — a process that screens end-use, end-user, and destination country and can take 6-12 weeks. SCOMET historically tracked the four multilateral export-control regimes India is a member or adherent to: Wassenaar Arrangement (2017), Missile Technology Control Regime (2016), Australia Group (2018), and the Nuclear Suppliers Group (adherent, not member).
Categories 1-6 cover nuclear materials/equipment, toxins, materials processing, electronics/computing/telecom, sensors and lasers, and aerospace/propulsion. Category 7 is new — created from scratch by Notification 31/2025-26 — and covers "Certain Emerging Technologies and related items," subdivided into the standard A-E sub-category structure (Systems & Equipment / Test, Inspection & Production / Materials / Software / Technology). Items included:
qubits and controlled error rates; cryogenic CMOS integrated circuits used as quantum-control electronics.
systems.
feature size of 45 nm or below; additive-manufacturing equipment operating under vacuum (relevant to refractory-metal and metallurgical-grade printing).
The 30-day implementation window (effective 23 October 2025) gave existing exporters time to review pipeline orders and apply for retrospective licences if needed. The notification was issued under the FTDR Act read with the Foreign Trade Policy 2023 chapter on dual-use export controls.
several years, expanding the controlled-item perimeter into frontier technologies India has historically not had national capability or strategic-trade-control coverage in.
Conference on Strategic Trade Controls) commitments and the parallel US BIS Sep-2024 quantum/biotech/AM controls and EU dual-use list updates — India is publicly signalling responsible conduct ahead of any future NSG membership push.
origin export of a Category 7 item to a non-allied destination now requires individual licensing, with end-use review.
large exporter of advanced lithography or quantum-computing systems — the binding effect is forward-looking, capturing the domestic build-out under the India Semiconductor Mission and potential Bengaluru/Pune quantum-computing exports as the ecosystem matures.
Not severity 5 because there is no immediate large quantum trade flow being interrupted; this is regime-construction, not regime- disruption.
fab and Micron Sanand ATMP come online, any technology export from these facilities (including service exports of process recipes and tool-set know-how) becomes SCOMET-controlled.
and IISc-affiliated quantum hardware programmes now operate under explicit export-licensing for any abroad-bound prototype or technology transfer.
controls visibly closer to NSG/Wassenaar standards — relevant to ongoing US-India 123 Agreement and Quad critical-and-emerging technology cooperation tracks.
exporters now need to screen project deliverables against Category 7 7D (software) and 7E (technology) — a non-trivial ongoing review for firms like TCS, Infosys, Wipro working on quantum-software or chip-design contracts.
biotech/bioprinting) in subsequent notifications, mirroring the BIS Jan-2025 AI Diffusion Framework approach?
end-user is in a Wassenaar-partner country versus a non-partner?
will the regime remain opaque on enforcement intensity?