So does Sedo operate in breach of the .IN Registry rules when selling/auctioning .IN domains?
Yes but they don't care. When I did my auction a couple of years ago they took my money but did not promote the auction at all, so maybe they considered that complying?
And:
If you would like the .in registry to look as stupid as they are acting then have an Asia regional cctld auction, for instance .cn are actively promoted by auction and China is starting to dominate the domain market. Maybe throw in some .my, .hk, .jp, .com.au,.co.nz, etc.
And then add something like " we would love to be promoting our local cctld .co.in
/ .in however, strange as it may seem it is not allowed.Hence we are offering those from neighboring countries that do wish to promote their domain names"
The conference will attract international exposure and it would be interesting to see the spluttering responses from the registry.
Just my two pennies worth!