CIS Team
CIS undertakes policy-focused, applied, and academic research on topics at the intersection of internet and society, driven by concerns of human rights and public interest. CIS is based in Bengaluru and New Delhi.
Acting Executive Director
Senior Staff
- Puthiya Purayil Sneha
- Aayush Rathi
- Pranav M. B
- Isha Suri
Programme and Policy Officers
- Divyank Katira
- Pallavi Bedi
- Shruti Trikanand
- Shweta Mohandas
- Torsha Sarkar
- Yesha Tshering Paul
- Abhishek Raj
- Cheshta Arora
- Divyansha Sehgal
- Indumathi Manohar
- Yatharth
- Nishkala
- Chetna
- Chiara Furtado
A2K Team Members
Administration and Finance
Non-Resident Fellow
Senior Staff
Acting Executive Director
| Amrita Sengupta | ||
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Amrita Sengupta is the Acting Executive Director, and a Research and Programme Lead at CIS. Her research interests and work lie in the areas of gender and technology, digital cultures, ethics in research methods, digital access, algorithmic biases and tech design, and sustainability and tech. She holds an undergraduate degree in sociology from Miranda House, Delhi University and a post graduate degree in internet studies from the Oxford Internet Institute. In the past, Amrita has worked in managing and implementing large scale people practices, diversity and inclusion in the workplace, as well as in conducting and leading long-form research on impacts of tech on businesses and society, with both quantitative and qualitative methodologies.
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| Anubha Sinha | |
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Anubha Sinha is a researcher working on impact of copyright law on access to knowledge, with a focus on users’ rights. She also tracks and comments on policymaking at international fora such as WTO and WIPO. She is a lawyer by training.
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| Puthiya Purayil Sneha | ||
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Sneha is a researcher with the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), India. Her areas of interest and work include digital media and cultures, methodological concerns in arts and humanities practice and pedagogy, and access to knowledge.
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| Aayush Rathi | ||
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Aayush Rathi does interdisciplinary work on labour informalities, welfare systems and digitisation. He aims to make academic and policy contributions through socio-legal research amplifying the experiences of marginalised communities.
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| Pranav M B |
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Pranav is the Communications Lead at CIS. He has studied humanities and law at National Law School of India University, Bangalore. His previous work at CIS has primarily centred on Artificial Intelligence research, and research on issues surrounding Privacy, Cyber-security, and the Future of Work.
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| Isha Suri |
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Isha Suri is a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Internet and Society. Her areas of interest include Telecom Policy, Competition Law, Internet Governance, Intellectual Property Rights, and Privacy and Data Protection. She holds an LL.B. (Hons.) with a specialisation in Intellectual Property Law from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. She also has a degree in Electrical Engineering that often comes to her aid when grappling with complexities of the techno-legal domain.
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Researchers |
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| Divyank Katira |
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Divyank is a Technology Researcher primarily engaged with the Freedom of Expression and Digital Identity teams at CIS. He is an engineer by training and is interested in computer networks and information security in the context of censorship and surveillance on the web.
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| Pallavi Bedi | ||
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Pallavi is a Senior Policy Officer at CIS, where she works on privacy and data protection. She is a lawyer by training, and holds a BA, LLB (Hons) degree from the National Law Institute University, Bhopal and an LLM from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.
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| Shruti Trikanand | ||
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Shruti Trikanad is a programme officer at CIS, working on the digital identity project. She is interested in producing research to safeguard individual rights and freedoms through the use of technology. She completed her studies in law and humanities from the Gujarat National Law University.
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| Shweta Mohandas | ||
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Shweta is a Policy Officer at the Centre for Internet and Society, India. Her areas of work and interest include Artificial Intelligence, Privacy, and Intellectual Property Rights and India’s policies surrounding them. She is currently researching on the development and use of voice based technologies in India, with a focus on languages, accessibility and privacy.
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| Torsha Sarkar |
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Torsha is a lawyer by training. At CIS, she primarily works on social media regulation, intermediary liability and digital expression. She occasionally explores the connection between constitutional guarantees and gender, sexuality and marital relationships.
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| Yesha Tshering Paul | ||
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Yesha Tshering Paul is a Programme Officer at the Centre for Internet and Society and works on the Digital Identities project. She studied Law at ILS Law College, Pune, and has a Masters in Regulatory Governance from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.
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| Abhishek Raj | ||
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Abhishek is a researcher at the Centre for Internet and Society. His research interests include telecommunications and internet infrastructure, internet governance, digital inclusion, and competition law and policy. Previously, he has worked at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, Competition Commission of India, and Idea Cellular Ltd. Abhishek holds a Masters in Regulatory Governance from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, where he was a Gold Medalist. He also has a bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering.
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| Cheshta Arora | ||
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Cheshta Arora is a collection of cells whose work traverses the ethnographic and the theoretical to find various expressions of future immanent in the present. To that end it has been interested in studying practices and utterances that remain incomprehensible to the present. In the domain of internet studies, it is excited at the moment to chase the cypherpunk dream of privacy, decentralization and distribution.
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| Divyansha Sehgal | ||
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Divyansha Sehgal is a YLT Fellow at the Centre for Internet and Society interested in issues of access, equity, speech and fairness in tech. She is an engineer by training.
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Indu came to a career in design via theatre, dance, and scuba diving. As Communications Designer, she works on making CIS research publications, annual reports, podcasts, events, and op-eds, more accessible to a larger audience through visual design— whether it be through layout design, infographics, social media creatives or web banners.
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Yatharth is a Design Researcher with CIS. His interest areas include New Media Arts, Creative Technology and Design Edcation with Anti Caste and Critical perspectives. He is a Designer and Media Artist by training from National Institute of Design Ahmedabad. |
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Nishkala
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Nishkala is a researcher at CIS. Her research interests include urban inequality and the particular ways in which it is manifesting via platform labor, and in the digital world. She has a degree in development studies and mechanical engineering. |
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Chetna
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Chetna is a social science researcher with a background in economics. She is interested in interdisciplinary research and seeks to understand the world in a more wholesome manner. After graduating with a master's from the University of Hyderabad in 2021, she has contributed to many research projects specifically pertaining to labour. At CIS, she researches the nature of work and challenges faced by workers in the platform economy. |
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Chiara Furtado
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Chiara is a researcher at CIS, working on digital labour and the platformisation of work in the global south. Her areas of interest involve the politics of labour and technology, and differential experiences with digitalisation in contexts of structural inequalities. She has studied development and economics.
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A2K Team Members
Subodh is Senior Program Officer in A2K team at CIS. He has been active on various development issues and has worked with several organizations across India. He is an active WIkimedian in several projects since 2015. He is working with CIS-A2K from 2017. Presently, he is building partnerships with various institutions, communities and research & social organisations to create free knowledge on Wikimedia projects. Digitisation and relicensing (releasing content in free license) are also his focus areas. He is developing 'Wiki communities with concern' for reliable, qualitative and sustainable content generation in the field of environment and gender issues.
- E-mail: [email protected]
| Jayanta Nath | |
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Jayanta is Wikisource Program Officer in A2K team at CIS. Prior to joining CIS-A2K, he was working in civil engineering sector. He is an active Wikimedian in several projects since 2007. He is working with CIS-A2K since 2018. Presently, he is facilitating and supporting the Wikisource communities in developing the language projects. He is coordinating capacity building programs and digitisation activities in various institutions. Email: [email protected] |
| Nitesh Gill | |
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Nitesh is a Program Officer in A2K team at CIS. She is an active Wikimedian since 2015. She joined the A2K team in 2019. Currently, she is coordinating content creation programs in collaboration with communities. She is supporting the communities and individuals through the A2K request page. She is handling social media channels and overall communications. Email: [email protected] |
| K N Medini | |
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Medini is a Program Officer in A2K team at CIS. Prior to joining CIS, she worked in NGO sector. Medini has been working closely with the CIS-A2K team since 2019 handling finance and administration works besides providing logistics support towards organising events.
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Administration and Finance
| Ajoy Kumar | |
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Ajoy is an Administrator at the CIS. He manages all the events organised by CIS including hotel and travel bookings, does the liasoning with government offices and Members of Parliament, etc. Ajoy also works as a part-time lawyer doing property documentation.
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| Nagaraj MP | |
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Nagaraj has a background in Advanced Accountancy with a specialisation in NGO Accounting and Practices. As Manager - Finance and Operations, he handles the preparation of accounts statements, statuary compliance, budget and monitoring, and accounts for all research projects at CIS. He has previously worked at Centre for the Study of Culture and Society (CSCS), ‘Kalike’ associate organisation of TATA Trusts, India Foundation for the Arts (IFA), Ramaiah Public Policy Centre, and CIS in its early days.
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Nima Lama
Nima has been in charge of security at CIS since 2015. He maintains the daily staff register and provides assistance to the administration team. Prior to CIS, Nima worked as a security person at a car parking solution. Velankanni Royson
Royson is the Office Assistant in the Bangalore office. He assists the administration department in organising events, takes videos of the events, uploads them to the CIS website, Blip TV, YouTube, etc.
- Email: [email protected]
Non-Resident Fellow
Ambika Tandon studies the intersections of gender and technology. She focuses on women’s work in the digital economy, and the impact of emerging technologies on social inequality. She is also interested in developing feminist methods for technology research.
- E-mail: ambika[at]cis-india.org
- Twitter: @AmbikaTandon
Arindrajit Basu is a Non-resident Fellow at the Centre for Internet & Society, India, where he focuses on the geopolitics and constitutionality of emerging technologies. He is a lawyer by training and holds a BA, LLB (Hons) degree from the National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata, and an LLM in public international law from the University of Cambridge, U.K.
- E-mail: [email protected]
- Twitter: @BasuArindrajit
Filed under:
Internet Governance