No international conference, seminar or workshop will be allowed in India henceforth without security clearance and scrutiny of the participants by the home ministry and the organisers will have to submit request for clearance at least six weeks before the event.

Security clearance of the home ministry will also be required for grant of the "conference visa" for participants from eight red-flagged countries, including Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, which are on the list since September 2000. Three other countries added in the list are Iran, Iraq and Sudan.

The same kind of security clearance has been mandated for all visitors of Pakistan origin. Participants from other countries, however, will continue to be given the conference visa by the Indian embassies and missions abroad but with a condition that they submit the home ministry's clearance for the event.

Though the detailed guidelines were issued on July 15, the home ministry on Thursday sent a fresh directive to the state governments to strictly adhere to the procedure and ensure that the organisers strictly follow the timeline of submitting the proposals to it at least six weeks before the commencement of the event.

"This would ensure that security clearance for the event and for the participants could be suitably assessed. The issuance of these instructions had also become necessary because security vetting is a time-consuming process and most of the organisers of international events were not strictly adhering to the time schedules prescribed," a ministry official said.

Embassies and missions in countries except those in red-flag list have been told to issue conference visa to a participant only on production of the invite, event clearance by home ministry, administrative approval of the nodal ministry, political clearance from the external affairs ministry and clearance from the state government or union territory concerned.