All Blogs
Funding of National Optic Fibre Network (NOFN) - Who's Accountable?
The National Optic Fibre Network, a part of the Government's Digital India Initiative, has been in the news since the recent Expert Committee Report. In this Blog, the author examines the Accountability of the funding of the project.
Effective Activism: The Internet, Social Media, and Hierarchical Activism in New Delhi
This post by Sarah McKeever is part of the 'Studying Internets in India' series. Sarah is a PhD candidate at the India Institute, King’s College London, and her work focuses on the impact of social media on contemporary political movements. In this essay, she explores the increasingly hierarchical system of activism on the Internet, based on Western corporate desire for data, and how it is shaping who is seen and heard on the Internet in India.
CIS Cybersecurity Series (Part 24) – Shantanu Ghosh
CIS interviews Shantanu Ghosh, Managing Director, Symantec Product Operations, India, as part of the Cybersecurity Series.
CIS Cybersecurity Series (Part 23) – Justin Searle
CIS interviews Justin Searle, security expert, as part of the Cybersecurity Series.
Freedom of Expression in a Digital Age
The Centre for Internet & Society, the Observer Research Foundation, the Internet Policy Observatory, the Centre for Global Communication Studies and the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania organized this conference on April 21, 2015 in New Delhi.
Net Neutrality and the Law of Common Carriage
Net neutrality makes strange bedfellows. It links the truck operators that dominate India’s highways, such as those that carry vegetables from rural markets to cities, and Internet service providers which perform a more technologically advanced task.
CIS Cybersecurity Series (Part 22) - Anonymous
CIS interviews a Tibetan security researcher and information activist, as part of the Cybersecurity Series. He prefers to remain anonymous.
Reading Devanagari script based sites like Konkani Wikipedia in Kannada Script
This is a small hack to read websites with Devanagari script (used for Hindi, Marathi, Nepali, Maithili and a few more languages) based sites like Konkani Wikipedia in Kannada script.
Free Speech Policy in India: Community, Custom, Censorship, and the Future of Internet Regulation
This note summarises my panel contribution to the conference on Freedom of Expression in a Digital Age at New Delhi on 21 April 2015, which was organised by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) and the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) in collaboration with the Internet Policy Observatory of the Center for Global Communication Studies (CGCS) at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania
Users and the Internet
This post by Purbasha Auddy is part of the 'Studying Internets in India' series. Purbasha is a SYLFF PhD fellow at the School of Cultural Texts and Records (SCTR), Jadavpur University, with more than eight years of work experience in digital archiving. She has also been teaching for the last two years in the newly-started post-graduate diploma course in Digital Humanities and Cultural Informatics offered by the SCTR. In this essay, Purbasha explores the constructions of the ideas of the Indian Internet users through the advertisements that talk about data packages, mobile phones or apps.
Regulatory Perspectives on Net Neutrality
In this paper Pranesh Prakash gives an overview on why India needs to put in place net neutrality regulations, and the form that those regulations must take to avoid being over-regulation.
India’s digital check
All nine pillars of Digital India directly correlate with policy research conducted at the Centre for Internet and Society, where I have worked for the last seven years. This allows our research outputs to speak directly to the priorities of the government when it comes to digital transformation.
Report: 5G Technologies Workshop by IEEE
A report on the 5G Technologies Workshop organised by the Bangalore Chapter of the IEEE Communication Society at Bangalore on May 22 -23, 2015.
The Centrality of Cash Flows
Greece's experience tells us that cash flows are crucial to economic outcomes. No matter how far-reaching the vision, ambition, and slogans, the effects of cash flows are profound and inevitable.
Anti-Spam Laws in Different Jurisdictions: A Comparative Analysis
This paper is divided into three sections. The first section puts forth a comparative table of the spam laws of five different countries - the United States of America, Australia, Canada, Singapore and the United Kingdom - based on eight distinct parameters- jurisdiction of the legislation, definition of ‘spam’, understanding of consent, labelling requirements, types of senders covered, entities empowered to sue, exceptions made and penalties prescribed. The second section is a brief background of the problem of spam and it attempts to establish the context in which the paper is written. The third section is a critical analysis of the laws covered in the first section. In an effort to spot the various loopholes in these laws and suggest effective alternatives, this section points out the distinctions between the various legislations and discusses briefly their respective advantages and disadvantages.
Statement by the Centre for Internet and Society on the Broadcast Treaty at SCCR 30
The 30th Session of the World Intellectual Property Organization's ("WIPO") Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights ("SCCR") is underway in Geneva from 29 June, 2015 to 03 July, 2015. While CIS was unable to attend this meeting, we have the following statement to make on negotiations on the Proposed Treaty for Broadcasting Organizations.
WhatsApp and the Creation of a Transnational Sociality
This post by Maitrayee Deka is part of the 'Studying Internets in India' series. Maitrayee is a postdoctoral research fellow with the EU FP7 project, P2P value in the Department of Sociology, University of Milan, Italy. Her broader research interests are New Media, Economic Sociology and Gender and Sexuality. This is the second of Maitrayee's two posts on WhatsApp and networks of commerce and sociality among lower-end traders in Delhi.
Report on eSpeak Tamil Computing with NVDA Training Workshop in Tirunelveli
The training workshop by the NVDA team was held at Anne Jane Askwith Higher Secondary School for the Visually Impaired, Palayamkottai, Tirunelveli from June 3 - 7, 2015. Sixteen delegates attended the workshop.
Report on Training in eSpeak Marathi
The NVDA team conducted a training at SIES College, Sion, Mumbai on June 28, 2015. Thirty-four delegates attended the training programme. Harshad Jadhav was the trainer.
WhatsApp and Transnational Lower-End Trading Networks
This post by Maitrayee Deka is part of the 'Studying Internets in India' series. Maitrayee is a postdoctoral research fellow with the EU FP7 project, P2P value in the Department of Sociology, University of Milan, Italy. Her broader research interests are New Media, Economic Sociology and Gender and Sexuality. This is the first of Maitrayee's two posts on WhatsApp and networks of commerce and sociality among lower-end traders in Delhi.
