We are anonymous, we are legion

25 Indians to watch

praskrishna — 2012-11-30T04:46:38Z

From a political scion and an attacking batsman to a crusading web entrepreneur and a ‘Potato Prince’, these are India’s rising stars.

The article was published in the FT Magazine on November 16, 2012. Sunil Abraham is one among the 25 rising Indian stars to watch out for.

Politics

	Priyanka Gandhi Vadra The charismatic scion of India’s pre-eminent political dynasty has shied away from the family business, preferring to raise her children and study Buddhism. But her election-time appearances for mother, Sonia, and brother, Rahul – and her resemblance to her grandmother, former prime minister Indira Gandhi – keep Indians tantalised over a potential entry into full-time political life.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra

The charismatic scion of India’s pre-eminent political dynasty has shied away from the family business, preferring to raise her children and study Buddhism. But her election-time appearances for mother, Sonia, and brother, Rahul – and her resemblance to her grandmother, former prime minister Indira Gandhi – keep Indians tantalised over a potential entry into full-time political life.

Arvind Kejriwal

A former tax inspector turned right-to-information activist, he was the driving force behind India Against Corruption, last year’s campaign for a new anti-graft law. Aiming to tap middle-class disillusionment with existing political parties, he is now forming his own.

Nitish Kumar

Chief minister of Bihar since 2005, this veteran socialist politician has brought economic growth, law and order and hope to what was one of India’s poorest, most-backward and worst-governed states. His humble persona combined with a strong track record on development mean that many see him as a potential future prime minister in a coalition government.

Anurag Thakur

Former cricketer and BJP member of parliament since 2008, Thakur’s ascent through the party’s ranks to the presidency of BJP’s youth wing put him in the spotlight in 2012. The BJP is said to be grooming him to take on Rahul Gandhi of the Congress party, particularly since Varun Gandhi, another scion within the BJP’s fold, has proved rather ineffective.

Sports

No one can replace Sachin Tendulkar, but the arrival of this dashing young batsman has softened the blow of the great cricketer’s impending retirement. With Bollywood looks to match his bold stroke play, the 24-year-old Kohli helped his cricket-mad country win last year’s World Cup – and raised hopes of more to come.

Saina Nehwal

This small-town girl from the northern state of Haryana is a formidable youth icon. Her many international titles have changed the face of Indian badminton and a bronze medal at the London Olympics this year raised hopes for Rio 2016. Will she be able to break through the Chinese wall?

Entertainment

Anurag Kashyap

India’s answer to Quentin Tarantino, Kashyap makes gritty, personal films about the country’s underbelly: terrorist attacks in Mumbai for Black Friday; drug use and prostitution in Dev D; and eastern India’s brutal coal mafia in this year’s two-part epic Gangs of Wasseypur. He cut his teeth writing Water, Canadian director Deepa Mehta’s Oscar-nominated film, among others.

Sneha Khanwalkar

A film composer who eschews the usual Bollywood penchant for cheesy pop, Khanwalkar favours “found sound”, which she gathers by travelling the Indian countryside and picking up on obscure – and not-so-obscure – folk traditions. She hosts MTV’s Sound Trippin, in which she recreates that experience for viewers more used to Celebrity Big Brother knock-offs. Not yet 30, Khanwalkar already claims two of the best modern Bollywood scores, for 2008’s Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! and Gangs of Wasseypur.

	India’s greatest graphic novelist, whose project “Gallery of Losers” was shown on billboards across London during the Olympics. A Goldsmiths college graduate, his books – 2004’s Corridor and 2007’s The Barn Owl’s Wondrous Capers – detail alienation in both modern and old India and have set the standard for a burgeoning art form on the subcontinent.

Irrfan Khan

In a sea of “heroes” – as Bollywood’s buffed-up supermen are called – Khan stands out as an actor. A master of subtlety and character, he has found crossover success in Hollywood in films including Slumdog Millionaire (he played the cop), A Mighty Heart (with Angelina Jolie) and The Amazing Spider-Man. Up next is a role in Ang Lee’s adaptation of the Man Booker prize-winning Life of Pi.

Rohini Devasher

A painter and printmaker trained in New Delhi and the UK, Deveshar uses printmaking and video to explore the rhythms of growth in the natural world, and their digital echoes. Her work, shown widely at home and internationally, stands at the intersection of art and science and is influenced by her passion for astronomy.

Gauri Shinde A director of more than 100 advertising films for major Indian brands, Shinde put her focus on the big screen this year with her writing and directorial debut, English Vinglish, a blockbuster hit about the massive social fault line in India between those who speak English and those who don’t.

Gauri Shinde

A director of more than 100 advertising films for major Indian brands, Shinde put her focus on the big screen this year with her writing and directorial debut, English Vinglish, a blockbuster hit about the massive social fault line in India between those who speak English and those who don’t.

Social/Academia

Gita Gopinath

One of the youngest women to win a tenured economics professorship at Harvard, Gopinath uses complex maths to probe one of the world’s most pressing problems: how to solve sovereign debt crises. Still only 40, she appears frequently as a commentator back home, calling for a radical overhaul of her own government’s increasingly precarious financial position.

Sunil Abraham

India’s government has developed a worrying taste for internet censorship, making plenty of work for one of the country’s most respected online civil advocates. Head of the Centre for Internet and Society, Abraham is trying to wean New Delhi off its taste for crackdowns in India’s fast-growing corner of cyberspace.

Manoj Kumar

The Naandi Foundation CEO has persuaded big Indian corporations to support programmes that battle hunger and the maltreatment of girls, raise educational standards and provide sustainable livelihoods. His Midday Meal programme feeds 1.2 million each day; and its experiments with social enterprises make it one of India’s most innovative charities.

Abhijit Banerjee A development economist at MIT and author of Poor Economics, Banerjee carries out randomised-control field trials to cut through propaganda and evaluate the real impact of programmes to help the poor.

Abhijit Banerjee

A development economist at MIT and author of Poor Economics, Banerjee carries out randomised-control field trials to cut through propaganda and evaluate the real impact of programmes to help the poor.

Susmita Mohanty

Literally a rocket scientist. A protégé of Arthur C. Clarke, with stints at Nasa and Boeing, Mohanty was the youngest ever member of the International Academy of Astronautics. She’s now an aerospace entrepreneur. Her company, Earth2Orbit, recently launched its first client satellite.

Swati Ramanathan

Could online confessions help to stop India’s corruption crisis? This thought inspired www.ipaidabribe.com, a site where those forced to pay up can tell their stories anonymously. Established as part of the Janaagraha initiative that Ramanathan co-founded to improve life in Indian cities, the project has spawned imitators in half a dozen countries.

Business

Binny Bansal

As co-CEO of Flipkart.com – the “Amazon of India” – along with Sachin Bansal (no relation), he has turned a Bangalore-based start-up into the country’s most exciting e-commerce business. They have won millions in venture funding and a loyal urban customer base by speedily delivering everything from books to kitchenware.

Phanindra “Phani” Sama

India’s buses are booming, as travel demand rockets but rail capacity stays stuck. Those seeking tickets online are most likely to do so through RedBus. Dreamt up when he couldn’t get tickets for a trip, Sama’s site stitches together the country’s disorganised bus system, and saw its 32-year-old founder sell his 10 millionth ticket this year.

	Bringing new insights to a stuffy 115-year-old Indian conglomerate isn’t easy, nor is being an openly gay man in India’s still-traditional business culture – but Parmesh Shahani manages both, in his role as the founder and head of an ideas and innovation laboratory within the $3.3bn Mumbai-based Godrej group.

Anurag Behar

Engineer and former CEO of Wipro Infrastructure Engineering – a sister company of software giant Wipro – he has previously run the group’s charitable initiatives in education. Now Wipro’s chief sustainability officer, he is driving diversifications into water and clean energy, part of a new company focus.

Cyrus Mistry The man with the biggest shoes to fill in corporate India takes the reins at Tata in late December, replacing Ratan Tata, a man viewed as close to a living saint. The first non-Tata family member to run the nation’s most important business, he faces plenty of questions about how – and whether – to continue his predecessor’s dash for global growth.

Cyrus Mistry

The man with the biggest shoes to fill in corporate India takes the reins at Tata in late December, replacing Ratan Tata, a man viewed as close to a living saint. The first non-Tata family member to run the nation’s most important business, he faces plenty of questions about how – and whether – to continue his predecessor’s dash for global growth.

Roshni Nadar Malhotra

The CEO and executive director of the $5bn Indian IT giant HCL Corporation successfully combines business, social enterprise and philanthropy. Malhotra is the driving force behind Shiv Nadar Foundation’s VidyaGyan Schools in Uttar Pradesh, providing free education to children from poor, rural families.

Jang Bahadur Singh Sangha

Known as the “Potato Prince”, Sangha oversees one of India’s largest and most modern farming operations – and has demonstrated the transformative impact of technology in a country of small-scale subsistence farms. Armed with a master’s degree in plant pathology, he has made modern farming profitable – and almost cool.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/ft-magazine-nov-16-2012-25-indians-to-watch

22 nieuwe leden voor Partnership on AI

praskrishna — 2017-05-19T06:54:20Z

Partnership on AI, een non-profit organisatie ter bevordering van het algemeen begrip van kunstmatige intelligentie en de ontwikkeling van best practices, heeft 22 nieuwe leden aangekondigd.

The news was published by Telecom Paper on May 17, 2017.

Tot de nieuwe leden behoren eBay, Intel, McKinsey & Company, Salesforce, SAP, Sony, Zalando, Cogitai, Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, AI Forum of New Zealand, Center for Democracy & Technology, Centre for Internet and Society – India, Data & Society Research Institute, Digital Asia Hub, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Future of Humanity Institute, Future of Privacy Forum, Human Rights Watch, Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, UNICEF, Upturn, en de XPRIZE Foundation. Partnership on AI werd vorig jaar september opgericht. Tot de oprichters behoren onder meer Amazon, Facebook, IBM, Microsoft, Google DeepMind en Apple.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/telecom-paper-may-17-2017-22-nieuwe-leden-voor-partnership-on-ai

22 companies join Partnership on AI, begin to study AI's impact on work and society

praskrishna — 2017-05-19T05:26:09Z

The non-profit artificial intelligence organization added new groups into its fold, and announced initiatives on developing AI best practices and harnessing the technology for social good.

The blog post by Alison DeNisco was published in TechRepublic on May 17, 2017.

As artificial intelligence (AI) increasingly enters every part of our lives, from chatbots to self-driving cars to office data analysis programs, questions remain about how this technology will impact our future in terms of jobs, safety, and society.

In September 2016, Facebook, Microsoft, IBM, Amazon, and Google announced the creation of a "Partnership on AI to Benefit People and Society" (Partnership on AI), a nonprofit formed to "study and formulate best practices on AI technologies, to advance the public's understanding of AI, and to serve as an open platform for discussion and engagement about AI and its influences on people and society." Apple joined the partnership as a founding member in January 2017.

On Tuesday, the Partnership on AI shared a blog post with updates on the group's progress. Some 22 new organizations are joining the partnership, and more are expected to join in the future, according to the post. Eight are for-profit partners: eBay, Intel, McKinsey & Company, Salesforce, SAP, Sony, Zalando, and Cogitai.

Meanwhile, 14 are non-profits: The Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, AI Forum of New Zealand, Center for Democracy & Technology, Centre for Internet and Society-India, Data & Society Research Institute, Digital Asia Hub, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Future of Humanity Institute, Future of Privacy Forum, Human Rights Watch, Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, UNICEF, Upturn, and the XPRIZE Foundation.

"Together with the founding companies and our existing non-profit Partners (AAAI, ACLU, and OpenAI), these new Partners strengthen and broaden our representation, helping to fulfil our goal to build a diverse, balanced, and global set of perspectives on AI," the post stated.

Notable representatives from these organizations include Dr. Hiroaki Kitano, head of Sony Computer Science Laboratories and a world expert on AI robotics and human-AI collaboration, and Chris Fabian of UNICEF's Office of Innovation, who leads a group of technologists who apply machine learning, data science, and AI to societal problems.

Partnership on AI also announced plans to launch a set of initiatives based on its thematic pillars: Safety-critical AI; fair, transparent, and accountable AI; collaboration between people and AI systems; AI, labor, and the economy; social and societal influences of AI; AI and social good; and special initiatives. These early programs will focus on:

Topic-specific and sector-specific Working Groups to research and formulate best practices
The creation of a Civil Society Fellowship program aimed at assisting people at non-profits and NGOs who wish to collaborate on topics in AI and society
The formation of a cross-conference "AI, People, and Society" Best-Paper Award
The start of an AI Grand Challenges series to stimulate aspirational efforts in harnessing AI to address some of the most pressing long-term social and societal issues

The partners will work together to shape each initiative, and the group will share more information about each project soon, according to the blog post. The group also announced that it is in the process of appointing an executive director, who will oversee the organization's day-to-day operations.

Partnership on AI is not the only group examining the impact AI will have on our world. Elon Musk founded an $11 million AI safety program for funding researchers, and Eric Horvitz of Stanford University is leading the One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence. The White House released two reports in 2016 on preparing for the future of AI, and the effect of AI and automation on the economy. And a US Senate Committee also met last year to discuss the current state of AI, and its potential impact on policy and commerce.

The 3 big takeaways for TechRepublic readers

The nonprofit Partnership on AI, founded by Facebook, Microsoft, IBM, Amazon, Google, and Apple, recently announced that it was adding 22 new organizations to its ranks to research AI and formulate best practices around the technology.
The partnership also announced several initiatives, including working groups to research and create best practices, and a challenge series to inspire people to use AI to address social issues.
Partnership for AI is expected to release more information on each initiative soon, as well as appoint an executive director.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/tech-republic-may-17-2017-22-companies-join-partnership-on-ai

20 years of Google: Privacy, fake news and the future

Admin — 2018-08-30T02:49:06Z

Google once directed you to information. Today, it’s often the source of information, using data you and others have shared, often without you realising it. Public knowledge goes where Google takes it. And 20 years on, not everyone’s happy with the journey.

The article by Rachel Lopez was published in Hindustan Times on August 26, 2018. Pranesh Prakash was quoted.

Happy Birthday, Google. The search engine is 20 this year, and what a ride it’s been! When Sergey Brin and Larry Page were developing software that searched better and loaded faster than Explorer, Navigator and AltaVista, the web itself consisted of just 1 lakh websites.

Google’s mission statement was succinct: To organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible. Their corporate code of conduct was even simpler: Don’t be evil.

Perhaps even Google didn’t realise where its mission would take it. The following decade brought Google News, Gmail, Maps and Chrome. By 2014, the internet had grown to 1 billion websites. The search engine, their core product, had become the default homepage of the Internet.

In May this year, Google quietly dropped the ‘Don’t be evil’ tag. The same month, its Android operating system crossed 2 billion monthly active devices. Seven products (including YouTube and Google Play) now reach a combined 1 billion users.

Google once directed you to information. Today, it’s often the source of information (in ads and top-of-the-page blocs), using data you and others have shared, often without you realising it. Public knowledge goes where Google takes it. And 20 years on, not everyone’s happy with the journey.

“The key concern is that Google has grown so big,” says Pranesh Prakash, policy director at Bangalore’s Centre for Internet & Society. “It’s like the classic line from [Spiderman’s] Uncle Ben: With great power comes great responsibility. In Google’s case, its great size is what brought great power to begin with.”

For billions of Google users, the biggest concerns are now of privacy and accountability, says Nikhil Pahwa, founder of Medianama, which analyses digital and telecom businesses. “There are few checks on Google’s ability to take, retain and process information from users,” he says.

Hits and misses

For Google, all is going according to plan. Its search engine is now smart enough to complete your sentences. It’s learning constantly from what you search for, watch, spend on, share and regret; it knows your commute and your vacation plans. And it’s profiting from this knowledge.

In the UK, Google is being sued for bypassing iPhone privacy settings to track and collect data from 4.4 million users in 2011 and 2012. Information on race, physical and mental health, political leanings, sexuality, shopping habits and locations was apparently used to build advertising categories. Google also creates products for the US government, and has user data from around the world. “Any entity that has this much insight into us, and is in a position to use it, whether for the government or commercial gain, is cause for worry,” says Prakash. Most users aren’t worried, and that’s worrying too. We don’t realise how much data is being tracked or collected. The more we share, the more useful Google gets, and the greater its potential for misuse, for mapping say, beef-eaters, online dissenters, LGBT supporters or single women who work late.

The Internet’s other giant, Facebook, recently suspended 400 apps over privacy concerns, admitting that 87 million users may have had data compromised in 2016. Meanwhile, even non-Google apps are capable of hijacking data using software developed by Google. Weather apps look at your photo gallery, ride-sharing software keep tracking you after the ride, games are checking out your texts as you play. Gmail knows your flight timings, how many steps you’ve walked, and your last bank transaction.

Search for tomorrow

Perhaps the biggest concerns are with Google’s artificial intelligence technology, the brand’s great leap forward fuelled by its massive data reserves. The tech is already being criticised for being fed biased data, creating global services that mirror the prejudices of an insular, mostly white, mostly male, tech industry.

Sara Wachter-Boettcher, author of Technically Wrong, which looks at how technology reflects sexism and the biases of the people that create it, says this creates problems. “Google develops tools that other tech companies rely on to build other products,” she says. So its biases spread to other products too. As machines learn, Google is starting to unlearn too.

“Machine unlearning is basically recognising when a machine has learned something inaccurate, or biased, and then erasing that learning,” says Wachter-Boettcher. In Africa, the company (along with Facebook) now funds a Masters course in machine intelligence to improve the industry’s diversity. Last year, Google took its first steps to curb fake news hits on its search engines with tools that allow users to report misleading or offensive content.

But perhaps it’s time to work towards a future in which Google will be monitored in real time, in different countries, rather than depending on the company to offer a fix after a misstep. Prakash believes that the way forward is reimagining an Internet where Google isn’t the first and last word on everything. “This doesn’t mean more companies like Google but searching that happens in a more decentralised way,” he says. “We need to save the web from large monopolies in the long run.”

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/hindustan-times-rachel-lopez-august-26-2018-20-years-of-google-privacy-fake-news-and-future

13 crore Aadhaar numbers on four government websites compromised: Report

praskrishna — 2017-05-03T15:19:52Z

The lack of information security practices in key government websites which hosts Personally Identifiable Information (PII) has left citizens of the country more vulnerable to identity theft and financial fraud, a research paper has argued.

The article by Akram Mohammed was published by the New Indian Express on May 2, 2017.

A paper by Amber Sinha and Srinivas Kodali of Centre for Internet and Society analysed four government websites and found that more than 13 crore Aadhaar numbers with related PII were available on the websites, exposing lax security features.

The paper published under Creative Commons is titled ‘Information Security Practices of Aadhaar (or lack thereof): A documentation of public availability of Aadhaar Numbers with sensitive personal financial information’ and was released on Monday.

Sinha and Kodali looked at databases on four government portals -- National Social Assistance Programme, National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, Chandranna Bima Scheme, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh and Daily Online Payment Reports website of NREGA, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh.

“We chose major government programmes that use Aadhaar for payments and banking transactions. We found sensitive and personal data and information accessible on these portals,” the report said.

Leaked through portals

“Based on the numbers available on the websites, estimated number of Aadhaar numbers leaked through these 4 portals could be around 130-135 million and the number of bank account numbers leaked at around 100 million.

While these numbers are only from two major government programmes of pensions and rural employment schemes, other major schemes, that have also used Aadhaar for DBT, could have leaked PII similarly due to lack of information security practices,” it said.

They fear that data of over 23 crore beneficiaries under DBT of LPG subsidies could be leaked also. Identity theft and financial fraud “risks increase multifold in India...,” they said.

Aadhaar payments unsafe

In case a financial fraud takes place through Aadhaar enabled Payment System (AePS), the consumer may not be able to assert his claims for compensation due to the terms and conditions around liabilities.

“These terms force the consumer to take liabilities onto oneself than the payment provider..... Regulations and standards around Aadhaar are at a very early and nascent stage causing (an) increase in financial risk for both consumers and banks to venture into AePS,” they added. The authors also pulled up UIDAI for their inability in providing strong legislation against such leaks.

Leaky govt portals

National Social Assistance Programme

PII available - Access to Aadhaar no., name, bank account number, account frozen status 94,32,605 bank accounts linked with Aadhaar

14,98,919 post office accounts linked with Aadhaar numbers.

Though total Aadhaar number is 1,56,42,083, not all are linked to bank accounts

NREGA

PII Details available: Job card no., Aadhaar number, bank/postal account number, no. of days worked, registration no., account frozen status

78,74,315 post office accounts of individual workers seeded with Aadhaar numbers,

8,24,22,161 bank accounts of individual workers with Aadhaar numbers.

10,96,41,502 total number of Aadhaar numbers stored by portal

Other websites

Chandranna Bima Scheme, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh

Daily Online Payment Reports website of NREGA, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/new-indian-express-may-2-2017-akram-mohammed-13-crore-aadhaar-numbers-on-four-government-websites-compromised

11th Meeting of Information Systems Security Sectional Committee (LITD 17)

praskrishna — 2017-04-19T02:57:03Z

Udbhav Tiwari represented CIS at this meeting organized by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) at Manak Bhavan, New Delhi on April 13, 2017.

The meeting was the national mirror meeting for the 28th ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 27 Plenary and Working Group Meetings being held at Hamilton, New Zealand between the April 18 and 25, 2017. The meeting provided a fascinating insight into the government and industry viewpoints on key cyber security and privacy issues, especially on the Aadhaar.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/11th-meeting-of-information-systems-security-sectional-committee-litd-17

11th India Knowledge Summit 2013

praskrishna — 2013-09-26T07:15:29Z

The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry in India (ASSOCHAM) is organizing the 11th Knowledge Summit 2013 in Hotel Shangri-La, New Delhi on October 14 and 15, 2013. The Centre for Internet and Society is supporting this event.

Click to read the original published by ASSOCHAM here , read the tentative agenda here and the event brochure here.

The lack of a national-level doctrine has created an environment where we are entirely reactive in our cyber posture. Indeed, battlefield transcends physical borders and boundaries. The power of a nation-state is not required to inflict widespread damage to critical infrastructure systems; a single malicious actor can wreak havoc. The starkest difference, however, is that today both the private sector and individual citizens have unprecedented access to a myriad of infrastructure systems that can provide entry into sensitive systems – yet they are largely unaware of, and unaccountable for, their responsibilities in defending them.

As cyber networks rapidly transition from a mere utility to the undercurrent of our entire societal infrastructure, this reliance becomes a vulnerability. The modern Cyber Era demands a national-level doctrine that can be adopted by government agencies, armed forces, private sector organizations and individual citizens alike to establish a collective sense of purpose for our Cyber Security.

The Chamber is providing a forum to bring executive leaders, policymakers and academia together with the scientists and practitioners that intimately understand cyber technology to collaborate and begin a debate about the complex issues.

The time has come when we should consider not only the military impact of the new cyber world, but also what role cyber defense will hold in shaping the future of our country’s economy, education, foreign affairs policies and critical infrastructure initiatives. Only then can our government, industry, and private citizens align under common goals to shape a safe and prosperous future.

ASSOCHAM India's Apex Chamber for Commerce & Industry was set up in 1920. Today the Chamber is proud to have more than 450,000 Companies as it's esteemed Member which includes many of the big global technology companies.

ASSOCHAM is privileged to be a Member of the “Cyber Regulation Advisory Committee” set up by Ministry of Communications and IT, and the Joint Working Group (JWG) on Cyber Security set up by the National Security Council Secretariat, Government of India.

The ASSOCHAM’s flagship program the Annual INDIA KNOWLEDGE SUMMIT, organized since 1999 has been Addressed in the past by Noble Laureates, as the Distinguished ‘Key Note Speaker’ including – Dr. Craig Venter, Sir Harry Kroto, Prof. Aaron Ciechanover, Dr. Raj Reddy, Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam, Dr. Kirsty Duncan, Prof. John A Pickett to name a few.

This year the 11th INDIA KNOWLEDGE SUMMIT is being organized from 14-15 October, 2013 in Hotel Shangri-La, New Delhi.

The Theme for this year’s Summit is “Cyber Era - Securing the Future”.

Registration Fees:

International Delegates: $ 200/- for both days
Indian Delegates: Rs. 5,000/- per day
Students: Rs. 2,000/- per day
The Delegate Registration Fee include:
Tea & Coffee
Copy of Background Paper /
Copy of Workshop Study Material

For more details please contact:

Ajay Sharma, Senior Director, M: 9899188488 , eMail: ajay.sharma@assocham.com
Varun Aggarwal, Joint Director, M: 9910613815 , eMail: varun.aggarwal@assocham.com
Himanshu Rewaria, Executive, M: 9654251077 , eMail: himanshu.rewaria@assocham.com
Sahil Goswami Executive, M: 9871962311 , eMail: sahil.goswami@assocham.com

Corporate Office
The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India
ASSOCHAM Corporate Office, 5, Sardar Patel Marg
Chanakyapuri, New Delhi – 110021
Phone: 46550555 (Hunting Line)
Fax: 01123017008/9

Email: assocham@nic.in

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/eleventh-india-knowledge-summit-2013

11th DSCI-NASSCOM Annual Information Security Summit 2016

praskrishna — 2016-12-17T01:14:15Z

Udbhav Tiwari participated as a panelist in the 11th DSCI-NASSSCOM Annual Information Security Summit 2016 in New Delhi on December 14, 2016. The event was organized by DSCI and NASSCOM.

The Panel was on "Designing Privacy in Data Centric Business Architectures - Designing Privacy in Product, Services & Operations". Udbhav's co-panelists were: Gowree Gokhle, Partner, Nishith Desai Associates - Moderator; Sachin Lodha, Principal Scientist, TCS Innovation Labs; and Ankur Jain, Director IT & CISO, PayU.

The discussion primarily focused on:

Core Principles - Privacy should not solely be governed by laws, regulations and industry codes but should instead be guided by a core set of principles that companies choose to follow uniformly across their international presence. In fact, laws and regulations should form a basic, minimum standard of requirements and actual practice should attempt to follow these principles to ensure true compliance to the ideals of privacy. These core, minimal principles are: Notice, Transparency, Accountability, Security and Use Limitation.
Privacy as an Incentive - Privacy should be looked at not as a isolated right or legal compliance but an inclusive outlook which can be economically beneficial to both consumer and enterprise facing companies. Customers are increasingly starting to value privacy and providing it in an transparent manner (along with ensuring sufficient modern technical infrastructure) to ensure reliable protection can distinguish business in an increasingly crowded marketplace.
Sound Technological Bedrock - Privacy as a notion in data (and now big data) centric architectures can only be enforced with modern, secure and open technological processes that ensure policy compliance and provide a clear audit trail for any breaches. Measures such as Homomorphic encryption, Multi-party computation, K-anonymity and Identity Management systems must be explored, tested and implemented according to need and requirements of businesses to ensure adequate privacy protection.
Need for a clear Indian legal framework - India's current legal framework with regard to privacy ranges from scattered to non existent, so there is a strong need for their to be a strong, clear and uniform legal framework to govern privacy for both Indian citizens as well as interactions with data from other jurisdictions. This will ensure that organisations will have a clear standard to follow, will have an easier time implementing privacy policies avoid sectoral clashes and can be held accountable for any breaches of legal standards. A large part of the work required for this has been done by the Justice AP Shah Committee on Privacy as well.

For more info see this page

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/dsci-nasscom-annual-information-security-summit-2016

10th NLSIR Symposium - Regulating E-Commerce in India

praskrishna — 2016-12-06T15:48:25Z

Vidushi Marda participated in a panel at the "10th NLSIR Symposium on Regulating E-Commerce in India" at NSLIU on November 27, 2016 in Bengaluru.

The topic for my session was "Liability Regimes - Ensuring Compliance". I spoke about the various kinds of E-Commerce businesses to consider (from aggregators to platforms to the sharing economy) and focussed on issues surrounding intermediary liability and data protection. The panelists were:

Pranav Mehra, Snapdeal
Vidushi Marda, Centre for Internet Society
Arun Prabhu, Partner, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas
Arun Binoy Mattamana, Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Aditya Mudgal, Hindustan Unilever Ltd

Click to see more info

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/10th-nlsir-symposium-regulating-e-commerce-in-india

9th International Asian Conference

praskrishna — 2013-01-25T18:20:22Z

ITechLaw is organizing the 9th Annual Asian ITechLaw Conference on February 14 and 15, 2013 in India's high technology capital - Bangalore, India. Sunil Abraham will be speaking at this event.

This info was published on ITechLaw website on January 22, 2013.

This conference will focus on the latest regulatory, commercial and technology law issues being faced by emerging and growth industries in India and Asia as well as the U.S. and Europe.

Conference Program

Day 1, Thursday, February 14, 2013

07:45 - 08:45	Breakfast
09:00 - 09:10	Plenary Welcome Presidential Welcome John Beardwood, Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, Toronto
09:10 - 09:30	Keynote Address (TBD)
09:30 - 11:15	Intellectual Property Moderator: Calab Gabriel, K&S Partners, New Delhi TBD Pravin Anand, Anand & Anand, New Delhi ISP Liability for IP Infringements Paulo Brancher, BKBG Attorneys at Law, Sao Paulo, Brazil John Doe IP Enforcement in India Sundari Pisupati, Tempus Law & Associates, Hyderabad Counterfeiting in the context of the Semiconductor Industry Gaurav Jabulee, Senior Counsel - Asia, Texas Instruments, Bangalore
11:15 - 11:30	Coffee / Tea / Networking Break
11:30 - 13:00	M & A in the Technology Sector Moderator: Manjula Chawla, Phoenix Legal, New Delhi Successor Liability Sadhana Kaul, GC, 3M, Bangalore Tax Planning for Software and Intellectual Property Transactions Roger Royse, Royse Law Firm, Palo Alto, California Post-M & A Integration of a Tech Company Sivaram Nair, General Counsel, Mphasis India, Bangalore
13:00 - 14:00	Buffet Lunch and Networking
14:00 - 15:30	Licensing and Contracting Moderator: Azmul Haque, Shook Lin & Bok LLP, Singapore Software Licensing Stephane Lemarchand, DLA Piper, Paris, France Contract Termination Richard Marke, BWB, London, UK 21st Century Sourcing - Latest Negotiation Trends and Alternative Contracting Models Nick Pantlin, Herbert Smith Freehills LLP, London, UK Internet Gaming and Gambling Moderator: Ananth Padmanabhan, Advocate, Madras High Court Social Gaming Jenna Karadbil, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, New York Indian Issues in Gaming and Gambling Regulations Talha Salaria, Lawyers at Work, Bangalore Amrut Joshi, Gamechanger Sports Ventures, Bangalore
15:30 - 15:45	Coffee / Tea / Networking Break
15:45 - 17:30	Privacy Issues relating to Employee Data Moderator: Poorvi Chothani, LawQuest International, Mumbai Legal Barriers for BYOD Strategies - A Holistic Approach to Legal Compliance and Security Martin Wiechers, Deutsche Telekom, Germany EU Employee Data Protection Roland Falder, Bird & Bird, Munich, Germany TBD Frederique David, Co-founding partner, TLD Legal, Paris, France Miscellaneous Hot Topics Moderator: Vineet Subramani, Versus, Mumbai Creating an Open Source Policy Heather Meeker, Greenberg Traurig, Palo Alto, California Journalism using Social Media - Issues relating to Freedom of Expression, Privacy and Interpretation of India's Information Technology Act. Swati Sukumar, Advocate, New Delhi Estate Planning for Digital Properties Wendy Goffe, Stoel Rives, Seattle, WA, USA
18:00 - 19:00	I-WIN Tea
19:30 - 22:00	Gala Dinner (Ticketed Event)

Day 2, Friday, February 15, 2013

08:00 - 08:45	Breakfast
09:00 - 09:30	Keynote Address (TBD)
09:30 - 11:15	Privacy: Data Protection Issues Across the Globe Moderator: Gabriela Kennedy, Hogan Lovells, Hong Kong Cross Border Transfers of Employee Data Dr. Wolfgang Büchner, Jones Day, Munich, Germany Data Protection Reform in the EU Kristian Foss, Gille advokater DA, Oslo, Norway Addressing the Criminal Aspects of Data Protection Violations Claire Bernier, Altanalaw, Paris, France
11:15 - 11:30	Coffee / Tea / Networking Break
11:30 - 13:00	E-Commerce Moderator: Raji Nagarkar, Cisco, Bangalore Privacy Aspects of E-Commerce in Australia Philip Catania, Corrs Chambers Westgart, Melbourne, Australia Retail Trading and E-Commerce in India Samuel Mani, MCM, Bangalore Commerce in the Social Media TBD
13:00 - 14:00	Buffet Lunch and Networking
14:00 - 15:30	Outsourcing Moderator: Bradley Joslove, Franklin, Paris Current Issues - Customer Perspective Mark Rasdale, A&L Goodbody, Dublin, Ireland Current Issues - Service Provider Perspective Kalpana Muthireddi, CSC India, Bangalore 2nd Generation Outsourcing Transactions Ulrich Baeumer, Osborne Clarke, Cologne, Germany
15:30 - 15:45	Coffee / Tea / Networking Break
15:45 - 17:00	Cloud 2.0 Issues Moderator: Rajesh Narang, VP legal & CS, Mindtree, Bangalore Virtual Offices and Cloud Computing - Legal Issues Genevieve Gill, GenLaw, Auckland, New Zealand Regulating the Cloud S.P. Purwar, J. Sagar Associates, Gurgaon Information Security in the Cloud Nagakumar Somasundaram, Amba Research, Bangalore
17:00 - 18:00	Censorship of Online Content Moderator: Stephen Mathias, Kochhar & Co., Bangalore Panel Discussion with the following Panelist Marc S Friedman, SNR Denton, New York, USA Priti Suri, PSA, New Delhi Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, Centre for Internet and Society
18:00 - 18-30	Closing Remarks Raffle Valedictory John Beardwood, Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, Toronto
18:30 - 20:00	Closing Reception

See the speakers list here

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/itech-law-india-ninth-intl-asian-conference

১৩ কোটি আধার তথ্য ফাঁস চার সরকারি পোর্টাল থেকে! বিস্ফোরক দাবি রিপোর্টে

praskrishna — 2017-05-20T11:45:42Z

খোদ সরকারি পোর্টাল থেকে কয়েক কোটি আধার নম্বর ও যাবতীয় তথ্য ‘ফাঁস’!

This was published by Amar Bazar Patrika on May 2, 2017.

অভিযোগ, গত কয়েক মাসে প্রায় ১৩ কোটি আধার নম্বরের যাবতীয় ব্যক্তিগত ও সংবেদনশীল তথ্য ফাঁস হওয়ার ঘটনা ঘটেছে। আর এসবই হয়েছে চারটি সরকারি পোর্টাল থেকে তথ্যপ্রযুক্তি সুরক্ষার ঘাটতির জেরে! যা ঘিরে এখন তোলপাড় দেশ।

সম্প্রতি, এমনই বিস্ফোরক রিপোর্ট প্রকাশ করেছে অলাভদায়ক সংগঠন সেন্টার ফর ইন্টারনেট অ্যান্ড সোসাইটি (সিআইএস)। তাদের আশঙ্কা, চারটি সরকারি পোর্টালের মাধ্যমে ১০ কোটি মানুষের ব্যাঙ্ক অ্যাকাউন্ট নম্বরও ফাঁস হয়ে থাকতে পারে।

সংস্থার দাবি, যে চারটি পোর্টাল থেকে এই সব তথ্য ফাঁসের অভিযোগ, তার মধ্যে দু’টি অন্ধ্রপ্রদেশ সরকারের ওয়েবসাইট। বাকি দুটি পোর্টাল হল ন্যাশনাল সোশ্যাল অ্যাসিস্ট্যান্স প্রোগ্রাম এবং ন্যাশনাল রুরাল এমপ্লয়মেন্ট গ্যারান্টি স্কিম-এর।

এই গোটা ঘটনার জন্য ইউনিক আইডেন্টিফিকেশন অথরিটি অফ ইন্ডিয়া বা ইউআইডিএআই–কেই দায়ী করেছে সিআইএস। তাদের দাবি, আধার নিয়ন্ত্রক সংস্থার ‘দায়িত্বজ্ঞানহীনতার’ জন্যই এই উদ্ভুত পরিস্থিত সৃষ্টি হয়েছে।

সিএনআই-এর আরও দাবি, বিভিন্ন সরকারি ও বেসরকারি পোর্টাল—যারা আধার তথ্য ব্যবহার করে থাকে, তাদের নিজস্ব সুরক্ষা-ব্যবস্থা খতিয়ে দেখেনি ইউআইডিএআই। ফলত, এই বিপত্তির সম্মুখীন কয়েক কোটি মানুষ।

যদিও, ইউআইডিএআই -এর দাবি, তাদের ডেটাবেস থেকে কোনও তথ্য ফাঁস হয়নি।

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/amar-bazar-patrika-may-2-2017-13-crore-aadhaar-leaked-due-to-poor-security-in-4-govt-websites

ভারতে পাঁচশোরও বেশি স্টেশনে ফ্রি ওয়াই-ফাই চালু হবে

praskrishna — 2015-10-02T14:19:34Z

"তবে ভারতে সেন্টার ফর ইন্টারনেট অ্যান্ড সোসাইটির গবেষণা-প্রধান সুমন্দ্র চট্টোপাধ্যায় মনে করেন এই পদক্ষেপগুলো মসৃণভাবে রূপায়ণ করাটাই হবে প্রধান চ্যালেঞ্জ।

তাঁর কথায়, ‘সিলিকন ভ্যালির এই নৈশভোজটা দারুণ ব্যাপার সন্দেহ নেই। কিন্তু যেটা তত দারুণ নয় তা হল এই যে নতুন পার্টনারশিপ হতে চলেছে তার গভর্ন্যান্স কীভাবে হবে, কোন আইনি নথি মেনে হবে তা একেবারেই পরিষ্কার নয়।’ মি চট্টোপাধ্যায় বলছেন সম্প্রতি ভারতে এনক্রিপশন পলিসি নিয়ে যে বিতর্ক হল তাতে এটা পরিষ্কার হয়ে গেছে যে এ দেশে যাবতীয় যা কমিউনিকেশন হবে সরকার কোনও না কোনওভাবে তা তাদের নাগালে রাখতে ইচ্ছুক! ফলে এই সব কর্মসূচী বাস্তবায়নের পর্যায়ে আসতে গেলেই মব কোম্পানি জানতে চাইবে এনক্রিপশন বা ট্রান্সপারেন্সির প্রশ্নে ভারতের অবস্থান কী। তখন সরকার কী করে সেটাই দেখার!’ বলছেন সুমন্দ্র চট্টোপাধ্যায়।"

This was published in BBC on September 28, 2015. Sumandro Chattapadhyay is quoted.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/9ad9be9b09a49c7-9aa9be98199a9b69b0993-9ac9c79b69bf-9b89cd99f9c79b69a89c7-9ab9cd9b09bf-9939af9bc9be987-9ab9be987-99a9be9b29c1-9b99ac9c7

7th India Digital Summit 2013

praskrishna — 2013-02-13T06:32:31Z

This summitt organised by Internet and Mobile Association of India is being held in New Delhi from January 16 to 17, 2013 at the Lalit Hotel

Sunil Abraham is the moderator for Plenary Session 3: Discussion on Social Media – Freedom, Moderation or Regulation.

Click to download the agenda

Theme of the Summit

951 million mobile users with 448 million mobile data subscribers; 137 million Internet users and rural Internet growing 7x in the last two years make India one of the top three digital markets in the world. One of only top two at this scale with free market economy democratic polity; and the only one where there is still headroom for growth. The time to invest in Digital India is now.

By 2020 riding on a government investment of 4 billion USD [roughly 10 billion USD on PPP terms] Internet users is expected to be 600 million; and mobile would possibly penetrate 100% of rural India creating the largest free economy digital market in the world.

The Digital Opportunity now and in the next 5 years in India is explosive. And the need to create a Digital Economy on scale is a developmental necessity. The opportunity, however, lies in addressing the current challenges of the ability to provide: low cost connectivity, universal access, usable content, secure networks, affordable devices and enabling policy.

Building on the theme of “Creating the World’s Largest Free Market Digital Economy” the 7th India Digital Summit will focus on five tracks: Infrastructure, Regulatory Frameworks, Services & Content, Entrepreneurship / Innovation and Business 3.0.

Webcast of the Event

Day 1, January 16, 2013

Inaugural
Welcome Address Mr. Hitesh Oberoi, Chairman, IAMAI & Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Info Edge India Limited Address by Chief Guest Mr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Government of IndiaKeynote Address by Mr. R Chandrashekhar, Chairman (TC) & Secretary , Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications and IT
Plenary Session 1: 1000 digital startups a year: How to make it happen?
Session Chair and presenter: Mr. Satyan Gajwani, CEO, Times Internet Presenter ‐ Mr. Mahesh Murthy, Founder, Pinstorm and Co-founder, Seedfund Mr. Manish Vij, Founder, VUN Network Mr. Pranay Gupta, Joint CEO, Centre for Innovation Mr. Rajesh Sawhney, Founder, GSF Accelerator & Superangels Mr. Mukund Mohan, CEO in Residence, Microsoft Startup Accelerator
Business track Topic: Importance of Creativity to Digital Advertising
Session Chair and presenter Neville Taraporewalla, Sr. Director - Emerging Markets\| India, Malaysia,Thailand & Korea, Advertising and Online, Microsoft Discussion: M Mohit Hira, Senior Vice President & Regional Business Leader-Airtel, JWT Vineet Gupta, Managing Partner, 22feet Communications Arun Sharma, VP Marketing - Head Media & Rural, Bharti Airtel Vikas Tandon, Managing Director, Indigo Consulting Aditya Save, Head-Media & Digital Marketing, Marico Audience Interaction
“Lowering the barrier for mobile web - for both operators and users”
Keynote Address by Mr. Peter Panait Løjmand, Senior Vice President, Opera Software Interaction with Mr. Sanjay Goyal, Chief Executive Officer, ACL Wireless
Plenary Session 2: Cloud – Leveraging the Cloud for Business Efficiency
Session Chair and presenter Mr. Manoj Chugh, Regional President, Global Accounts-APJ, EMC Presenters: Mr. Manav Khanna, Sr. Consultant –Enterprise Security, SafeNet Inc. Mr. Jasminder Singh Gulati, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Nowfloats Mr. Ravi Shankar, Chief Executive Officer, Nevales Networks Mr. Mandar Kulkarni, Vice President, Solution Engg & Pvt. Cloud Practice, Netmagic Mr. Balaka Baruah Aggarwal, Business Evangelist, Amazon Web Services Mr. Jaydeep Nargund, Head Services-India, AKAMAI Mr. Vivek Ravindran, Director-Core & App Platform, Microsoft
Email Marketing Roundtable with juvlon
Email Marketing in the Year of the Snake - 2013 Presented by Mr. Naresh Bhagtani, CEO, Juvlon, Niche Software
“Unique Identity and Its Positive Externalities for Inclusiveness"
Keynote Address by Mr. Nandan Nilekani , Chairman, UAIDI Interaction with Mr. Shubhashis Gangopadhyay, IDF research
“Bharat Broadband [NOFN]: Going extra mile with public investment”
Keynote Address by Mr. Sam Pitroda Interaction with Mr. Lalitesh Katragadda, Country Head-India Products, Google
Plenary Session 3: Discussion on Social media – Freedom, moderation or regulation
Session Chair & Moderator: Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, The Centre for Internet and Society
Discussion with: Rajesh Kalra, Chief Editor, Times Internet R Sukumar, Managing Editor, Mint Shivam Vij, Kafila.org
Track 3: The last mile of customer connect: m-Engagement from OPENHOUSE
Presenter: Mr. Ankit Singh, Senior Manager, Enterprise mobility, IMI Mobile Mr. Ramesh Raman , Senior manager, Marketing, IMI Mobile

Day 2, January 17, 2013

“Future of Apps and their Monetization”
Keynote Address by Mr. Ilja Laurs, Founder and Chairman, GetJar Moderated by : Mr. Kiruba Shankar
“Communications challenges in the age of Social media”
Keynote address by Dr Shashi Tharoor, Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Government of India Interaction with audience Moderated by Mr. R Jagannanthan
Track 4: CXOs Closed door discussion on Local Language – The Game Changer
Session moderated by Gyan Gupta, Chief Operating Officer, Dainik Bhaskar; Address by speakers Mr. Arvind Pani, Co-founder, Reverie language Technologies Mr. Ajay Gallwale, Founder, Maayboli Mr. C Mathew, DGM (Marketing), Malayala Manorama Mr. Manoj Gupta, Head, VAS & Applications, Micromax Audience Interaction Summarising by Moderator
Start-Up Unconference
A peer to peer, informal sharing of views between new entrepreneurs and start-ups of our industry
Chaired by: Mr. Sanjiv Bikhchandani, Founder and Executive Vice Chairman, Infoedge Moderator by: Kiruba Shankar
Plenary Session 5: Discussion on e-Commerce 2.0– Emerging trend
Session Chair & Moderator: Mr. Avnish Bajaj, Managing Director, Matrix Partners In Discussion with: Mr. Alok Mittal, Managing Director, Canaan Patners India Mr. Sachin Bansal, Co-founder & CEO, Flipkart Mr. Sundeep Malhotra, Chief Executive Officer, HomeShop18 Mr. Muralikrishnan B, Country Manager, eBay Mr. Mukesh Bansal, Founder, Myntra.com Mr. Ankur Warikoo, Chief Executive Officer, Groupon India
Plenary Session 6: Marketers Viewpoint – Online and Mobile Marketing
Session Chair: Mr. Upen Rai, Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director, AntFarm Presenters: Mr. Sanjay Tripathy, EVP - Head Marketing, Products and Direct Channels - HDFC Life Mr. Manish Kalra, Chief Marketing Officer, Makemytrip Mr. Vinay Bhatia, Customer Care Associate and VP - Marketing and Loyalty, Shoppers Stop Mr. Samil Malhotra, Vice President Sales and Marketing. The Lalit Suri Hospitality Group Mr. Manu Kumar Jain, Co-founder & Managing Director, Jabong
Plenary Session 7: Interaction: Attracting and retaining talent for Digital Industry
Thought sharing by Industry Leaders Interaction between Industry leaders and Students Industry Leaders: Mr. Sanjiv Bikhchandani, Founder and Executive Vice Chairman, Infoedge Mr. Deep Kalra, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Makemytrip Mr. Anupam Mittal, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, People Group Mr. Dinesh Agarwal, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, IndiaMART Mr. Neville Taraporewalla, Sr. Director , Emerging Markets-India, Malaysia, Thailand & Korea, Advertising and Online, Microsoft Student Entrepreneurs: FMS IMT Ghaziabad IITD Moderated by Kiruba Shankar
India Digital Award Ceremony

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/7th-india-digital-summit-2013

7th Best Practices Meet 2015

praskrishna — 2015-07-17T13:11:20Z

Data Security Council of India (DSCI) organized the 7th edition of its Best Practices Meet (BPM) from July 9 - 10, 2015 at Hotel ITC Gardenia in Bengaluru. BPM2015 had “Architecting Security for Digital Transformation” as its theme. Sunil Abraham and Elonnai Hickok were speakers at this event.

The two-day deliberations, reflected on policy, endeavours at national and industry levels, proposed industry steps, market response, best practices, industry standards and technology designs and see how they play their roles in architecting of information systems and enterprise security within organizations. Sunil Abraham was a panelist in the session "Architecting Security for transformation to Digital India". Elonnai Hickok was a panelist in the session "Steering privacy in the age of extreme innovation technology & business models."

See the Agenda

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/best-practices-meet-2015

6th Biannual Surveillance and Society Conference

praskrishna — 2014-05-05T04:57:59Z

Malavika Jayaram is a speaker at the conference organized by Eticas Research and Consulting at the University of Barcelona and CCCB from April 24 to 26, 2014.

Malavika will present on the UID and biometrics at the session on “Surveillance: Ambiguities and Uncertainties". Malavika's talk title is "Biometrics in beta: experimenting on a nation (while normalising surveillance for 1.2 billion people)" and is being held on April 26. See the full event details on this page.

In the developing world, privacy is often portrayed as a luxury, as something alien to local culture and of interest only to the elite. This ignores the probability of the most marginalized sections of a society being disproportionately impacted by privacy intrusive technologies. The hype about ‘big data’, ‘open data’, ‘data for development’, ‘ICT4D’ and other buzzwords often ignores the fact that the global south is particularly vulnerable to data collection and processing. Literacy issues (lingual and technical), a massive digital divide, desperate socioeconomic conditions and the lack of a robust data protection law render ideas of consent or tradeoffs all but meaningless.

Techno-utopian welfare schemes present technology as progressive, neutral and frictionless – a seductive and compelling narrative in a region wracked by inequalities, corruption, lack of transparency and structural violence. This vision underpins the world’s largest biometric ID project, which has already registered the irises and fingerprints of 540 million people without even being completed. Yet the assumption that bodies can be rendered into infallible verifiers, as repositories of unchanging truth, ignores embedded biases and normative baselines within such technologies. Welfare projects are further complicated when they are architected as public-private partnerships: the collusion of governmental and corporate agendas in creating massive databases and profiles, in a manner that transforms the citizen-state relationship in profound ways, has sweeping implications for choice, autonomy, anonymity and ultimately, democracy. This is true even when the systems function as intended, without mechanical failure, data breaches, or other consequences of trading privacy for convenience, welfare and security.

I would like to discuss the risks of using technologies such as biometrics to solve socioeconomic problems, and their potential for excluding the very demographics that they seek to include. I intend to locate my presentation in the context of India’s growing surveillance state, which deliberately intends to use the unique identification number to link disparate databases. I propose to describe the new Centralised Monitoring System, the relative legal vacuum in which data is mined and harvested, and the shaky constitutional foundations on which many of these new regimes stand. In so doing, I will effectively have provided a tour of India’s Rogue’s Gallery of recent incursions into the zone of privacy, free speech, informational self-determination and dignity. I hope also to redress in some small measure the largely western focus of academic and policy debates in this field, despite the risks of developing countries seeking to commoditize and export identity schemes, normalize censorship or opportunistically benefit from the west no longer having the moral ground to resist third country surveillance practices.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/ssn-2014-sixth-biannual-surveillance-and-society-conference