Privacy Policy — 29th ETM 2026

1. Who we are

This portal is operated by the Centre for High Technology (CHT), a technical body under the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Government of India, to run registration, abstract submission, sponsorship and exhibition booking for the 29th Energy Technology & Innovation Meet (ETM 2026), co-hosted by Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL).

For the purposes of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDP Act) and the Information Technology Act, 2000, CHT is the Data Fiduciary for personal data collected through this portal.

2. Scope of this policy

This policy covers the public website, the participant portal, the abstract submission and booking flows, transactional emails we send, and on-site check-in at the event. It does not cover third-party websites linked from this portal, which have their own policies.

3. Personal data we collect

We collect only what is needed to run the event:

Identity and contact details: name, salutation, designation, organisation, department, email address, mobile number, city, state and country.
Account details: login email and an encrypted password. We never store passwords in readable form.
Registration and booking details: participant segment (for example PSU, start-up, MSME, academia), delegate names for group bookings, sponsorship tier or exhibition stall choices, and dietary or accessibility needs if you tell us.
Eligibility and billing details: GSTIN, PAN, DPIIT recognition number, Udyam registration number, institutional email and billing address, used to apply the correct fee category and issue GST-compliant invoices.
Abstract submissions: titles, abstracts, author and co-author names, affiliations, and uploaded files.
Payment details: transaction identifiers, amount, status, and proof of offline payment (for example a UTR number or bank receipt). Card, UPI and net-banking details are entered on Razorpay's secure page and are not received or stored by us.
Event attendance: ticket and badge data, QR codes, and check-in time stamps.
Technical data: IP address, browser type, device information, pages visited and error logs, collected automatically for security and to keep the portal working.

4. How we use your data

To create and secure your portal account.
To process registrations, bookings, payments, invoices and refunds.
To verify eligibility for segment-specific fees and prevent misuse of concessional categories.
To review, select and schedule abstracts and to publish the conference programme.
To issue tickets and badges and to manage entry and security at the venue.
To send transactional messages such as account credentials, acknowledgements, approvals and event logistics.
To prepare anonymised or aggregated statistics about participation.
To meet legal, audit, tax and government reporting obligations.

We do not sell personal data, and we do not use it for advertising or automated decisions that have legal effects on you.

5. Consent and legal basis

We process your personal data on the basis of the consent you give when you create an account or submit a form, and for legitimate uses permitted under Section 7 of the DPDP Act, including compliance with law and functions of the State.

You may withdraw consent at any time by writing to us (see Contact). Withdrawal does not affect processing already carried out, and we may be unable to continue your registration or booking without the data.

6. Who we share data with

We share personal data only as needed to run the event:

Co-host and partners: HPCL and FIPI, for event organisation, session management and hospitality.
Venue: ONGC's Advanced Training Institute, Goa, for entry and security lists.
Service providers who process data on our instructions: Supabase (database and file storage), Vercel (website hosting and privacy-friendly analytics), Razorpay (online payments) and Resend (email delivery).
Public programme: names, designations and affiliations of speakers, session chairs and abstract authors, and selected abstract titles, may be published on the agenda and in event material.
Government and law-enforcement authorities, auditors, and tax authorities where required by law.

We do not give delegate contact lists to sponsors or exhibitors. Sponsors and exhibitors may receive your details only if you share them directly, for example at their stall.

7. Cookies and analytics

We use only essential cookies, needed to keep you signed in and to protect forms against misuse. These cannot be switched off without breaking the portal.

We use Vercel Web Analytics to count page views. It does not use cookies or build a profile of you across sites. We do not use advertising or third-party tracking cookies.

8. Where data is stored

Data is stored with our service providers on secure cloud infrastructure. Some providers may process data outside India. Where this happens we rely on their contractual and technical safeguards and comply with any restrictions notified by the Government of India under Section 16 of the DPDP Act.

9. How long we keep data

Account, registration and abstract data: until 24 months after the event, to handle follow-up queries, proceedings and certificates, then deleted or anonymised.
Invoices, payment records and related tax data: for the period required by the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, the Income-tax Act, 1961 and government audit rules.
Security and server logs: up to 180 days, unless needed to investigate an incident.

10. How we protect data

We use encrypted connections (HTTPS), encrypted password storage, role-based access for administrators, database row-level security, audit logging of administrative actions, and restricted, server-side handling of all writes.

No system is completely secure. If a personal data breach occurs, we will notify the Data Protection Board of India and affected users as required by law.

11. Your rights

Under the DPDP Act you have the right to:

Get a summary of the personal data we hold about you and how it is processed.
Correct, complete or update inaccurate data. Most profile details can be edited in the participant portal.
Ask us to erase data that is no longer needed, subject to legal retention duties.
Withdraw consent.
Nominate another person to exercise your rights in case of death or incapacity.
Have your grievance addressed by our Grievance Officer, and if unresolved, complain to the Data Protection Board of India.

To exercise any right, email us from the address linked to your account. We may ask you to verify your identity.

12. Photography and recording at the event

Sessions and public areas at the venue may be photographed, filmed or streamed. Images and recordings may be used in official reports, websites and social media of CHT, MoP&NG, HPCL and partners. If you do not wish to be photographed, tell the registration desk on arrival and we will take reasonable steps to respect this.

13. Children

This portal is for professionals, researchers and students aged 18 or over. We do not knowingly collect data from children. If a person under 18 needs to register, a parent or lawful guardian must contact us first so that verifiable consent can be obtained.

14. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. The date at the top of the page shows the latest version. If a change materially affects how we use your data, we will notify registered users by email.

15. Contact and grievance officer

Grievance Officer, 29th ETM 2026 Portal, Centre for High Technology (CHT), OIDB Bhawan, Plot No. 2, Sector 73, Noida, Uttar Pradesh 201301, India.

Email: cht-itsupport@cht.gov.in. For registration and payment queries you may also write to d.saha@cht.gov.in.

We aim to acknowledge every request within 72 hours and to resolve it within 30 days.