1. COPYRIGHT POLICY

Material featured on this website may be reproduced free of charge after taking proper permission by sending a mail to us. However, the material has to be reproduced accurately and not to be used in a derogatory manner or in a misleading context. Wherever the material is being published or issued to others, the source must be prominently acknowledged. However, the permission to reproduce this material shall not extend to any material which is identified as being copyright of a third party. Authorisation to reproduce such material must be obtained from the departments/copyright holders concerned.

2. PRIVACY POLICY

2.1. General

This website does not automatically capture any specific personal information from you (like name, phone number or e-mail address), that allows us to identify you individually. If you choose to provide us with your personal information, like names or addresses, when you visit our website, we use it only to fulfil your request for information.

2.2. Automatic collection and storage of Information

We may gather certain information about the User, such as Internet protocol (IP) address, domain name, browser type, operating system, the date and time of the visit and the pages visited. We make no attempt to link these addresses with the identity of individuals visiting our site unless an attempt to damage the site has been detected.

2.3. Personal information

We do not collect personal information for any purpose other than to respond to you (for example, to respond to your questions). We do not sell or share any personally identifiable information volunteered on this site to any third party (public / private). We only share the information you give us with another government agency if your question relates to that agency, or as otherwise required by law. Our website never collects information or creates individual profiles for commercial marketing. Any information provided to this website will be protected from loss, misuse, unauthorized access or disclosure, alteration, or destruction.

2.4 Site Security

For site security purposes and to ensure that this website remains available to all users, DGFT implements ample mechanisms to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts for DoS, D-DoS or other suspicious cause of damage.

Except for authorised law enforcement investigations, no other attempts are made to identify individual users or their usage habits.

Unauthorized attempts to upload information or change information on this website are strictly prohibited and may be punishable under the Indian IT Act-(2000)

3. HYPERLINKING POLICY

3.1 Links to external websites/portals

At many places in this Website, you shall find links to other websites/portals. These links have been placed for your convenience. Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, is not responsible for the contents and reliability of the linked websites and does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in them. Mere presence of the link or its listing on this website should not be assumed as endorsement of any kind. We cannot guarantee that these links will work all the time and we have no control over availability of linked pages / destinations.

3.2 Links to our website by other websites

We do not object to you linking directly to the information that is hosted on this website and no prior permission is required for the same. However, we would like you to inform us about any links provided to this website so that you can be informed of any changes or updates therein. Also, we do not permit our pages to be loaded into frames on your site. The pages belonging to this website must load into a newly opened browser window of the User.

4. CONTENT OWNERSHIP, MODERATION & APPROVAL POLICY (COMAP)

Authorized contributors of the website prepare content in a consistent and uniform manner to maintain standardization. To present the content as per the requirement of user and to access the relevant content efficiently, the content is contributed through a workflow enabled, role based and web enabled Content Management System available through Back Office Portal. Once the content is contributed (created), it is moderated and approved prior to publishing on the website. The moderation is role based on minimum two levels. If the content is rejected at any of the levels, it is automatically turned to the Creator/Contributor for necessary modification/ action in the system.

Each of the links available on the website and the Sections/Officers which are responsible for the Content Ownership, Moderation and Approval are enumerated in the matrix given below:

5. CONTENT ARCHIVAL POLICY

All the content components, which are valid for a particular period, are attributed with a respective validity date. After the expiry of its validity no content shall be displayed on the portal. For the components not attributed with a validity date, it is stated as perpetual.

• Vacancy - After 365 days from current date.
• Trade Notices - After 1095 days (03 year) from current date.
• Tenders - After 365 days from current date.
• Circulars - After 1095 days (03 year) from current date.
• Public Notices - After 1095 days (03 year) from current date.
• Notification - After 1095 days (03 year) from current date.

6. CONTENT MONITORING AND REVIEW POLICY

The website of Directorate General of Foreign Trade disseminates information and services pertaining to Government keeping the content of the websites current and up to date as the responsibility of the department. Various review policies are defined for the diverse content section and these are, in general, reviewed fortnightly.

The following matrix shows the content review frequency and its responsible Division/entities.

7. SECURITY POLICY

7.1 Website Security Policy

DGFT has a responsibility to protect from disclosure to unauthorized parties the personally identifiable information (name, address, date of birth, etc.) of its website users.

7.2 Notice and Disclosures

DGFT will not sell, trade, and disclose the personally identifiable information of its website users to any third parties.

7.3 Data Quality and Access

DGFT takes all steps possible to ensure that the data on the website is accurate. If something is found to be inaccurate, every effort will be made to correct the same as quickly as possible. The information contained on the DGFT website is subject to change without prior advance notice. While using the DGFT website certain information such as your IP Address and time spent on pages may be collected. This non-personal information is collected in order to monitor any unauthorized use or access to the DGFT site. Anyone caught attempting to harm, steal information from, or otherwise damage the DGFT website will be prosecuted under the relevant law.

7.4 Data Security

DGFT website is hosted on cloud and is being developed and managed by Service Implementor. DGFT has taken every precaution to secure information on DGFT website. The DGFT website is placed in protected zone with implementation of firewalls and IDS (Intrusion Detection System) and high availability solution.

The site has been audited for website security by CERT-IN empanelled agency and has certified to be safe for hosting. The hardening of the server has been done as per the industry standard. The access to the server is restricted both physically and through the network as far as possible.

All the development work is done on separate development environment locally and well tested on staging server before updating it on the production server.

Audit and Log of all activities referring to the operating system, access to the system and access to applications are maintained and archived. All rejected accesses and services are logged and listed in exception reports for further scrutiny. All newly released system software patches, bug fixes and upgrades are deployed regularly and reviewed.

8. USER REGISTRATION POLICY

The users will not misuse the content of the website or quote its content in any other possible form that could harm or demean the content on this portal. The users shall use the system as per the standard usage guidelines or process as defined. The data captured as part of registration process shall be used to send the relevant communication on both email and SMS. Access and use of the services provided by DGFT website is subject to your acceptance of the website policy and terms & conditions. By accepting these terms and conditions you agree to be bound by the above terms. If you disagree with any part, you may not access the foresaid services.

9. COOKIE POLICY

A cookie is a piece of software code that an internet web site sends to your browser when you access information at that site. A cookie is stored as a simple text file on your computer or mobile device by a website’s server and only that server will be able to retrieve or read the contents of that cookie. Cookies let you navigate between pages efficiently as they store your preferences, and generally improve your experience of a website. This website uses the following types of cookies to enhance your experience and interactivity:

• Analytics cookies for anonymously remembering your computer or mobile device when you visit our website to keep track of browsing patterns.
• Service cookies for helping us to make our website work efficiently, remembering your registration and login details, settings preferences, and keeping track of the pages you view.
• Non-persistent cookies a.k.a per-session cookies. Per-session cookies serve technical purposes of providing seamless navigation. These cookies do not collect personal information on users, and they are deleted as soon as you leave our website. The cookies do not permanently record data and they are not stored on your computer’s hard drive. The cookies are stored in memory and are only available during an active browser session. Again, once you close your browser, the cookie disappears.

You may note additionally that when you visit website, you may be required to accept cookies. If you choose to have your browser refuse cookies, it is possible that the website may not function properly.

10. WEBSITE MONITORING PLAN

DGFT has a Website Monitoring Policy in place and the website is monitored periodically to address and fix the quality and compatibility issues around the following parameters:

• 10.1 Performance - Performance of web pages is analysed and optimised.
• 10.2 Functionality - All modules of the website are tested for their functionality.
• 10.3 Broken Links - The website is thoroughly reviewed to rule out the presence of any broken links or errors.
• 10.4 Traffic Analysis - Site usage statistics and traffic is monitored on a daily basis.
• 10.5 Feedback - User feedback is received on the website through a Feedback Form.

11. CONTINGENCY MANAGEMENT PLAN

DGFT website endeavours to be functional and running at all times to provide information and services to the users. All possible efforts will be made to minimize the downtime of the website as and when required. In eventualities like defacement / hacking of the site, data corruption, hardware / software crash and natural disasters, all efforts will be made to restore the site in the shortest possible time. In case of occurrence of any natural calamity (beyond control of any person) at DC, the entire website traffic is automatically redirected to DR centre.