After press conference organized by BAI headed by Mr. Nishith Desai, and after the take-aways of the conference are out to public through media, Mr. Nishith Desai has given us a green signal to start Unocoin operations which will be starting on 6th Jan 2014 when the logins will be enabled and Unocoin wallets will be accessible. Buying and selling of bitcoins will go live from 8th of Jan 2014. CoinMonk Ventures and Unocoin is very thankful to Nishith Desai and their team for being a part of press conference and guiding us through till here 
- Unocoin Team
Mr. Nishith Desai is a lawyer. That's it. That's all I'm saying.- Unocoin Team
I read an article about the "BAI" as well:
http://www.thehindu.com/business/Economy/bitcoins-per-se-are-not-illegal-in-india-nishith-desai/article5538900.ece
Also read another Indian lawyer's piece articulating the same: Bitcoins are not illegal. But I can't find it now.
It's quite interesting to see that these professionals have publicly backed Bitcoin's legal status, even if it just two law firms. Have you read any published work from Chinese law firms regarding Bitcoin? Perhaps I'm not looking hard enough.
I think there was a Financial Times article that I saw to similar effect. The questions I am interested in are not whether bitcoins "are illegal" per se, but how and whether Indian exchanges can legally operate under current laws (e.g. Is it legal to exchange BTC/INR? Is possible to comply with currency/commodity/AML etc. laws as currently written?)http://www.thehindu.com/business/Economy/bitcoins-per-se-are-not-illegal-in-india-nishith-desai/article5538900.ece
Also read another Indian lawyer's piece articulating the same: Bitcoins are not illegal. But I can't find it now.
It's quite interesting to see that these professionals have publicly backed Bitcoin's legal status, even if it just two law firms. Have you read any published work from Chinese law firms regarding Bitcoin? Perhaps I'm not looking hard enough.
Regarding Chinese law firms, I have not. But I haven't been looking. I am not trying to be pessimistic -- I just find the process here surprising.