LICHEN Group of Education (“LICHEN”, “we”, “us” or “our”) is an educational admission consultancy and the official representative in India of Andijan State Medical Institute, Uzbekistan. We operate the website https://www.lichengroupofeducation.com.
We are committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, how we use and share it, how long we keep it, and the rights available to you.
This Policy is issued in accordance with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (the “DPDP Act”), the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive Personal Data or Information) Rules, 2011.
Under the DPDP Act, LICHEN is the “Data Fiduciary” — the entity that decides why and how your data is processed — and you are the “Data Principal”, the individual the data relates to.
We collect only the personal data necessary for the specific purpose for which you approach us:
- Identity and contact data — full name, mobile number and email address, submitted through our enquiry form, WhatsApp, phone or email.
- Enquiry data — your course of interest (MBBS, MD, Nursing or other programs) and any message you choose to send us.
- Admission and academic data, collected only if you proceed with an application — 10th and 12th mark sheets, NEET score card, date of birth, passport details, photographs, and parent or guardian contact details.
- Technical data — basic, non-identifying website usage information such as pages viewed, browser type and approximate region, used only to keep the site working and improve it.
We do not knowingly collect financial account details, biometric data, health records or any other sensitive personal data through this website. Please do not enter such information in the free-text message box.
Your personal data is processed only for the following lawful purposes, and never for an unrelated purpose:
- To respond to your enquiry and provide MBBS and medical admission counselling.
- To assess your eligibility and to prepare, submit and follow up on your application to Andijan State Medical Institute.
- To assist with the admission letter, invitation letter, student visa, travel and pre-departure formalities.
- To send you admission-related updates on important dates, documents and fee schedules for the academic session you enquired about.
- To maintain internal records and to comply with applicable Indian law or a lawful order of a court or government authority.
We process your personal data on the basis of the free, specific, informed, unconditional and unambiguous consent you give us — for example, by ticking the consent checkbox on our enquiry form before submitting it.
Where you voluntarily share your data with us for a clearly stated purpose (such as messaging us on WhatsApp to ask for admission details), we may process it as a “certain legitimate use” under Section 7 of the DPDP Act, strictly for that purpose.
Giving consent is entirely voluntary. If you choose not to share the data marked as required, however, we may not be able to process your admission enquiry or application.
We do not sell, rent or trade your personal data. We share it only with the following recipients, and only as far as necessary for the purposes above:
- Andijan State Medical Institute, Uzbekistan — for admission processing, issuance of the admission and invitation letters, and university enrolment.
- Embassies, consulates and government authorities — for student visa and immigration formalities.
- Service providers acting as Data Processors on our behalf under contract — for example our email delivery provider, website host and travel or ticketing partners.
- Legal, regulatory or law-enforcement authorities — where disclosure is required by Indian law or by a valid order of a court or authority.
Every Data Processor we engage is bound by a written contract requiring them to protect your data, use it only for our stated purposes, and delete it when the engagement ends.
Because the university you are applying to is located in Uzbekistan, processing your application necessarily involves transferring your personal data outside India.
Such transfers are made in accordance with Section 16 of the DPDP Act — only to countries not restricted by the Central Government, and only to the extent required to process your admission, enrolment and visa. We apply the same standard of protection to your data wherever it is processed.
We retain your personal data only for as long as necessary for the purpose it was collected for, or for as long as the law requires.
- Enquiries that do not lead to an application — retained for up to 1 (one) year from your last interaction with us, then erased.
- Admitted and enrolled students — retained for the duration of the course and for any further period required for academic, visa or statutory record-keeping.
- Withdrawn consent — on withdrawal we erase your personal data, and cause our Data Processors to erase it, unless retention is required by law.
As required by Section 8(5) of the DPDP Act, we take reasonable security safeguards to prevent a personal data breach. These include restricting access to your data to authorised counsellors on a need-to-know basis, transmitting data over encrypted (HTTPS) connections, using reputed service providers, and reviewing our practices periodically.
In the event of a personal data breach, we will notify the Data Protection Board of India and each affected Data Principal in the manner and within the timelines prescribed under the DPDP Act.
Please note that no method of transmission over the internet is completely secure, and you share information with us at your own discretion.
The DPDP Act, 2023 gives you the following rights over your personal data. You may exercise any of them by contacting our Grievance Officer using the details in Section 13.
- Right to access information — obtain a summary of the personal data we hold about you, how it is being processed, and the identities of the Data Fiduciaries and Processors with whom it has been shared.
- Right to correction and erasure — have inaccurate or misleading data corrected, incomplete data completed, data updated, and data erased where it is no longer needed for the purpose it was collected for.
- Right to grievance redressal — have your complaint about our handling of your data addressed by us before you approach the Data Protection Board of India.
- Right to nominate — nominate another individual to exercise these rights on your behalf in the event of your death or incapacity.
- Right to withdraw consent — withdraw your consent at any time, as easily as it was given (see Section 10).
You may withdraw your consent at any time by writing to us at lichengroupofeducation@gmail.com with the subject line “Withdraw Consent”, or by calling us on +91 8510005927.
Withdrawal is free of charge and does not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdrew. Once you withdraw, we will stop processing your data and will erase it, unless the law requires us to retain it.
You also have a duty under the DPDP Act to furnish only authentic, correct information and not to raise false or frivolous complaints.
Many of our applicants are school-leaving students and some may be below 18 years of age. In line with Section 9 of the DPDP Act, we process the personal data of a child — any person under 18 — only after obtaining verifiable consent from a parent or lawful guardian.
If you are under 18, please do not submit the enquiry form yourself. Ask your parent or guardian to submit it, or to be present and consent on your behalf.
We do not undertake tracking or behavioural monitoring of children, and we do not display targeted advertising to children.
The same protection applies to a person with disability who has a lawful guardian: we act on the consent given by that guardian.
Our website is a static, informational site. We do not use cookies to build advertising profiles of visitors. Any cookies used are strictly necessary for the site to function or to understand aggregate, anonymous site usage.
Our site links to third-party services such as Google Maps, WhatsApp, Instagram and the website of Andijan State Medical Institute. Once you follow such a link you leave our website, and your data is then governed by that third party’s privacy policy. We are not responsible for the practices of those services.
For any question, request or complaint about this Policy or about how your personal data is handled — including to exercise any of the rights in Section 9 — please contact:
Grievance Officer
LICHEN Group of Education
- Address
- Office No-791, Gaur City Mall, Greater Noida, Delhi NCR, 201301, India
- Response
- We acknowledge and respond to every request within 30 (thirty) days of receipt.
If you are not satisfied with the resolution provided by our Grievance Officer, you may escalate your complaint to the Data Protection Board of India in the manner prescribed under the DPDP Act, 2023.
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or in the law. The revised version will be posted on this page with an updated “Last updated” date.
Where a change materially affects how we use data you have already given us, we will seek fresh consent from you.
We encourage you to review this page periodically.