We are anonymous, we are legion

IEEE-SA InDITA Conference 2018

Admin — 2018-08-01T23:04:18Z

Gurshabad Grover participated in the IEEE-SA InDITA Conference 2018 organized by IEEE Standards Association held IIIT-Bangalore on July 10 and 11, 2018.

Gurshabad gave a brief presentation on how we could apply or reject 'Trust Through Technology' principles in the design of public biometric authentication. The agenda for the event can be accessed here. More details on event website here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/ieee-sa-indita-conference-2018

ICANN Diversity Analysis

akriti — 2018-08-29T11:19:46Z

The by-laws of The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) state that it is a non-profit public-benefit corporation which is responsible at the overall level, for the coordination of the “global internet's systems of unique identifiers, and in particular to ensure the stable and secure operation of the internet's unique identifier systems”. As key stakeholders of ICANN are spread across the world, much of the communication discussing the work of ICANN takes place over email. This analysis of the diversity of participation at the ICANN processes, through a study of their mailing lists, was undertaken by Paul Kurian and Akriti Bopanna.

The by-laws of The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) state that it is a non-profit public-benefit corporation which is responsible at the overall level, for the coordination of the “global internet's systems of unique identifiers, and in particular to ensure the stable and secure operation of the internet's unique identifier systems”.^{^[1]}Previously, this was overseen by the Internet Assigned Number Authority (IANA) under a US Government contract but in 2016, the oversight was handed over to ICANN, as a global multi-stakeholder body.^{^[2]} Given the significance of the multistakeholder nature of ICANN, it is imperative that stakeholders continue to question and improve the inclusiveness of its processes. The current blog post seeks to focus on the diversity of participation at the ICANN process.

As stakeholders are spread across the world, much of the communication discussing the work of ICANN takes place over email. Various [or X number of ] mailing lists inform members of ICANN activities and are used for discussions between them from policy advice to organizational building matters. Many of these lists are public and hence can be subscribed to by anyone and also can be viewed by non-members through the archives.

CIS analysed the five most active mailing lists amongst the working group mailing lists from January 2016 to May 2018, namely:

Outreach & Engagement,
Technology,
At-Large Review 2015 - 2019,
IANA Transition & ICANN Accountability, and
Finance & Budget mailing lists.

We looked at the diversity among these active participants by focusing on their gender, stakeholder grouping and region. In order to arrive at the data, we referred to public records such as the Statement of Interests which members have to give to the Generic Names Supporting Organization(GNSO) Council if they want to participate in their working groups. We also used, where available, ICANN Wiki and the LinkedIn profiles of these participants. Given below are some of the observations we made subsequent to surveying the data. We acknowledge that there might be some inadvertent errors made in the categorization of these participants, but are of the opinion that our inference from the data would not be drastically affected by a few errors.

The following findings were observed:

A total of 218 participants were present on the 5 mailing lists that were looked at.
Of these,, 92 were determined to be active participants (participants who had sent more than the median number of mails in their working group) out of which 75 were non-staff members.

Among the active non-staff participants:

Out of the 75 participants, 56 (74.7%) were male and 19 (25.3%) were female.
57.3% were identified to be members of the industry and technological community and 1.3% were identified as government representatives. 8.0% were representatives from Academia, 25.3% represented civil society and the remaining 8.0% were from fields that were uncategorizable with respect to the above, but were related to law and consultancy.
Only 14.7% of the participants were from Asia while the majority belonged to Africa and then North America with 24% and 22.7% participation respectively
Within Asia, we identified only one active participant from China.

Concerns

The vast number of the people participating and as an extension, influencing ICANN work are male constituting three fourth of the participants.
The mailing list are dominated by individuals from industry.. This coupled with the relative minority presence of the other stakeholders creates an environment where concerns emanating from other sections of the society could be overshadowed.
Only 14.7% of the participants were from Asia, which is concerning since 48.7% of internet users worldwide belong to Asia.^{^[3]}
China which has the world’s largest population of internet users (700 million people)^{^[4]} had only one active participant on these mailing lists.

ICANN being a global multistakeholder organization should ideally have the number of representatives from each region be proportionate to the number of internet users in that region. In addition to this, participation of women on these mailing lists need to increase to ensure that there is inclusive contribution in the functioning of the organization. We did not come across any indication of participation of individuals of non binary genders.

^{^[1]} https://cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/icann

^{^[2]} https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2016-10-01-en

^{^[3]} https://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm

^{^[4]} https://www.internetworldstats.com/stats3.htm

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/icann-diversity-analysis

Digital Native: How smart cities can make criminals out of denizens

nishant — 2018-08-01T00:19:23Z

People download information and share it without knowing about the intellectual property rights. On social media bullying, harassment and hate speech find easy avenues.

The article was published in Indian Express on July 15, 2018.

I first heard about smart cities in 2003. Sitting in India, it seemed to be a very strange concept being developed in the Netherlands, where the planners were trying to arm an entire city with smartness. The idea was that if we deploy enough cameras, devices that see, machines that hear, and data connectivity that envelopes the city in a seamless cloud, it might lead to more order, discipline, and control. To me that felt like a strange experiment because under all of those different imaginations of the city as a neat, organised, controlled environment, were assumptions that were alien to my Indian sensibilities.

It was strange to look at all the promises that “smartness” would deliver — it would make human life easier. It would increase safety and create order out of chaos. It would build new lifestyles that are filled with assistive technologies. In all of these, was the imagination of the city as a laboratory — controlled and efficient, as opposed to riotous and serendipitous. The cities were positioned as filled with intention, so that the interruptions of people, animals, festivals, traffic and crowds would be removed through the deployment of these digital devices and networks. What needed to be preserved was the city and its infrastructure, rather than the individuals and communities that make the city alive and exciting. We wanted our infrastructure to be smart, taking decisions on our behalf, and shaping our lives through the algorithmic protocols that they were coded to embody.

In that faraway time, these had felt like idle speculations. Fifteen years on, I have now come to realise that the biggest motivation for building smart cities was not really facilitating human movement, habitation and habits. Indeed, at the heart of the smart city project was the setting up of a massive surveillance apparatus that would clinically diagnose the unwanted people and processes in the city, and surgically remove them — with the assistance of predictive technologies that would be implemented in policing and planning these city spaces.

Smart cities were not constructed to make people’s lives easier. They were constructed because, increasingly, all the people in a city are imagined as “users”, who need to be instructed through terms of services, how they must behave and live in these city spaces. One of the biggest cultural turns in the massification of the digital web was that almost all users were imagined as potential criminals by the very virtue of them being connected. Internet service providers and regulators knew that if people are connected, they will be violating the law at some point or another, sometimes unknowingly. People download information and share it without knowing about the intellectual property rights. On social media bullying, harassment and hate speech find easy avenues. The largest traffic on the internet is for pornographic and often banned material which finds its audiences on the connected web. Spammers, viruses, hijacked machines, and, often, searches for unexpected items lead people onto the dark web where the questionable human interactions happen frequently.

The introduction of the digital terms of services was essentially to presume that the user was a potential criminal who leases hardware and software, and, platforms from proprietary companies and governments could then control and discipline the user through comprehensive surveillance practices. Construction of smart cities performs a similar function in the physical space. Instead of thinking about citizens as co-owners who shape city spaces, smart cities establish a service level agreement with its occupants, and reduces them to users. Any deviation results in punitive action or devaluation, often curbing the movement, and the rights of belonging to the city spaces.

While it is true that smart technologies can facilitate certain aspects of human life, they depend on unfettered data collection, predictive profiling, correlative algorithms and conditions of extreme invasion and control — which are all predicated on the idea that you will falter. And when you do, the technologies will be there to witness, record, archive, and punish you for the daily transgressions till you are wiped into becoming a predictable, controlled, cleaned up drone that travels in docility across the networked edges of the city. We will be assimilated. Resistance will be futile.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/raw/indian-express-july-15-2018-nishant-shah-digital-native-the-citys-watching

Government Gives Nod To Bill For Building DNA Databases In India, For 'Criminal Investigation And Justice Delivery'

Admin — 2018-07-13T15:25:13Z

The bill will be introduced in Parliament in the Monsoon session.

The article was published in the Huffington Post on July 5, 2018. Elonnai Hickok was quoted.

The government has set the path for creating a DNA bank storing citizen's profiles, as the Union Cabinet cleared a bill for the regulation and use of DNA for policing. The bill is meant to regulate the use of DNA for criminal investigation and justice delivery, and has provisions for the storage of genetic information. The DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill 2018 was passed in a cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and seeks to expand the use of DNA to help solve crimes, identify missing persons, and determine biological relationships between people. It will be introduced in Parliament during the Monsoon Session beginning July 18.

Although the bill includes safeguards on how this data is meant to be used, it's worth pointing out that India still does not have any laws regarding data protection and privacy. The Justice BN Srikrishna Committee on data protection, which was formed in August 2017, was expected to present its report months ago, and there were strong leaks that it would come out in June. However, the report remains under wraps, and there there is no clarity about its recommendations. That's also only the first step, as it has to then be taken up by the government and made into a law.

Scientists who had helped draft the DNA Technology bill told The Telegraph that expanding the use of DNA in criminal investigations could lead to higher conviction rates, especially in cases of murder, rape or human trafficking, among other crimes involving the human body.

"We rely on DNA for two things - it helps establish beyond doubt the biological identity of an individual and it helps beyond doubt to determine whether there is any biological relationship between two persons," said Jayaraman Gowrishankar, former director and now an Indian National Science Academy senior scientist at the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics in Hyderabad.

According to NDTV, there is also a provision for a jail term of up to three years for anyone who leaks information from one of the DNA databases being created, along with a fine of up to Rs 1 lakh. People seeking this information through illegal means face the same punishment.

In other countries, DNA profiles are also used for a number of businesses such as health care, ancestry information, and even DNA-based custom diet plans. However, the draft DNA bill states that the data collected can only be used for the identification of a person, and not other uses.

However, the accuracy of DNA testing in crime scenes has also been called into question over time. The possibility of cross contamination is incredibly high, and has led to innocent people going to prison.

Writing on the subject for The Hindustan Times, Elonnai Hickok, Director, Internet Governance at the Centre for Internet and Society added: "Policy needs to evolve past protections that are limited to process oriented legal privacy provisions, but instead to protections that are comprehensive — accounting for process and enabling the individual to control and know how her/ his data is being used and by whom. Other countries have recognised this and are taking important steps to empower the individual. India needs to do the same for its citizens."

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/huffington-post-july-5-2018-government-gives-nod-to-bill-for-building-dna-databases-in-india-for-criminal-investigation-and-justice-delivery

India's Latest Data Leak: People's Aadhaar Number And Bank Account Are Just One Google Search Away

Admin — 2018-07-13T15:18:46Z

Even Truecaller doesn't reveal this much.

The article by Gopal Sathe was published in Huffington Post on July 12, 2018.

Imagine being able to hack someone's personal data simply by entering their mobile phone number into a Google search. There is a website of the Andhra Pradesh government that's leaking people's phone numbers, Aadhaar numbers, father's names, passbook and bank account numbers, and the district and mandal where they live - all the link to all this information is the first result you get when you search for the phone numbers of people in the database.

The Andhra government has been leaking the personal data of more than 23,000 farmers who have received subsidies from the Andhra Pradesh Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Board, and organisation that encourages the growth of Ayurvedic medicines in the state. The subsidies are offered to farmers and tribals in the state, and all their personal data is available on an open database on an Andhra Government website.

The information is not behind any access control, and you can see all the records, click on them to get the details of anyone, or download everything as an Excel sheet. But what's perhaps worse is that simply by searching for the phone numbers of many of these farmers, we were able to find the detailed information about them. HuffPost India randomly chose a dozen farmers, and in each case, this database was the first result for their phone number on Google.

That's the most concerning part - in most cases, even when the information has leaked, it isn't readily apparent to people. You have to know the website address, or at the very least spend some time poring through dashboards. In the case of this latest leak, all you need is the person's phone number, and all their information is made visible. HuffPost India has reported this issue to the AP government, much like earlier leaks, although at the time of writing the data is still available online.

Who's held responsible?

This is just the latest in a long line of leaks from AP - in just the last few months, we've reported on a website that let you geo-locate homes on the basis of caste and religion; while another tracked all the medicines people buy, such as generic viagra, along with their phone numbers; and one that tracked pregnant women in ambulances in real time.

A government official we spoke to in AP Secretariat said that while all the departments have been digitised, an understanding of security - and privacy - is yet to come. "Even if you tell them, 'this data is not something you can publish', they disagree and say that it is needed for the beneficiaries to be able to access their own information," he explained.

Karan Saini, a security analyst and consultant who writes on issues of web security and privacy, told HuffPost that the various government departments are generally unresponsive when breaches like this are brought up.

"Lack of outreach is an issue with all of these organisations," said Saini. "NCIIPC is the only one that can even be found by someone looking at the surface. [These organisations] are hard to get a response from."

One reason for this, said Srinivas Kodali, a security researcher who has revealed a tremendous amount of leaks in the AP system, is that there is no official system of accountability in the government when it comes to data leaks.

In May 2017, the AP government passed the Andhra Pradesh Core Digital Data Authority Act, under which in section 37 it states that no legal proceeding shall lie against any officer or employee for anything which is in good faith done. What this means is that leaks and breaches are not something any official in the government can be held responsible for.

This act came out less than a month after the Centre for Internet and Society in Bengaluru published a report stating that 13 crore Aadhaar numbers were leaked - of which 2 crore were from Andhra Pradesh.

A lack of (human) resources

AP officials do acknowledge the problem. "There is a major shortage of cybersecurity professionals, and hiring them is a challenge," said V Premchand, head of the Andhra Pradesh Technology Service, who is in charge of the ongoing security work in the state. AP has seen a major security audit in May this year, and a privacy audit was announced last month.

"The work is ongoing but it is not something that can happen overnight," Premchand explained. However, others argue that the government isn't doing enough to make use of existing manpower. Unlike other countries, the Indian government does not have any real bug bounty program, where security researchers are incentivised to report weaknesses to organisations for cash rewards and recognition.

Sai Krishna Kothapalli, a student at IIT Guwahati and a security researcher, told HuffPost that the government actively discourages security experts from providing their support, rather than encouraging them.

"The US Department of Defense and others have a responsible disclosure program and a lot of people from India take part in that," he said. "Our talent is being used by them instead because the government here does not reply at all."

"India's top hackers are being employed by people outside the country, even though we have the talent here, because will you spend the time and effort to be ignored here, or report issues to a US company and make thousands of dollars instead?"

However, security audits in India are only being carried out by agencies that have been empaneled, and most of the hackers active here don't have the certification, he added. "They're too busy actually doing the work, while these big companies do audits, and leave all kinds of security issues behind."

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/huffington-post-gopal-sathe-july-12-2018-indias-latest-data-leak-is-so-basic-that-peoples-aadhaar-number-bank-account-and-fathers-name-are-just-one-google-search-away

Child-lifting rumours caused 69 mob attacks, 33 deaths in last 18 months

Admin — 2018-07-13T14:53:57Z

45 persons were killed in 40 cases of mob lynching across nine states between 2014 and 3 March 2018 according to data.

The article was published in the Business Standard on July 9, 2018. Swaraj Paul Barooah was quoted.

Two incidents of mob violence reported from Dima Hasao in Assam and Mangaluru in Karnataka on July 6, 2018, take to 61 the number of mob attacks sparked by rumours of child-lifting circulated on social media since beginning of the year.

So far this year, 24 persons have been killed in such mob attacks, an IndiaSpend analysis of news reports from across India shows. This is more than 4.5 times rise in attacks and two-fold rise in deaths of this kind over 2017, when 11 persons were killed in eight separate attacks.

Between January 1, 2017, and July 5, 2018, 33 persons have been killed and at least 99 injured in 69 reported cases. In the first six days of July alone, there have been nine cases of mob violence over child lifting rumours and five deaths, which amounts to more than one attack recorded every day.

In all cases, the victims were assaulted on mere suspicion and no evidence of child lifting was found later. So far, police across states have arrested at least 181 persons in connection with 21 cases, according to information from the news reports.

On July 5, 2018, the central home ministry had directed all states and union territories to contain mob-lynchings fuelled by rumours of child-lifting on social media. Nevertheless, two attacks were reported on July 6, 2018–a father travelling with his own son in Karnataka, and three sadhus or ‘holy men’ travelling in Assam.

Prior to 2017, one mob lynching was recorded in August 2012, in which a driver was killed in Patna, Bihar, on suspicion of kidnapping a minor, according to our database.

The spike in these lynchings over the past year follows a rise in bovine-related hate violence, as recorded in IndiaSpend’s database on cow-related hate crime. Incidents of mob attacks on persons suspected of killing cows have become deadlier during this period, with more deaths reported in attacks.

Social and political commentators have blamed this violence on a rise in socio-political and religious cleavages, a rise of vigilantism and an apparent atmosphere of impunity for attackers.

“The violence started with cow-related vigilantism but it is now building up more violent behaviour–from small to big reasons anything could be the trigger,” psychologist Upneet Lalli, deputy director of the Institute of Correctional Administration in Chandigarh, told IndiaSpend.

Videos of people tied and beaten, begging mobs to spare their lives, have been circulating on WhatsApp groups and other social media, affecting people everywhere, she said, adding, “Once set off for any reason, mob hysteria is extremely difficult to control.”

Social media is aiding and abetting the process, criminologist Vijay Raghavan, dean of the social protection office at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, told IndiaSpend, adding that the growing violence is “clearly being orchestrated by vested interests”.

“A rumour starts in one part of the country and travels to other parts like wildfire–first it was beef, now it is child lifting,” he said. In most cases, the victims and the attackers belong to communities historically pitted against each other, he said, “This changing narrative has a clear pattern of violence that is basically preying on traditional insider-outsider perceptions.”

Our analysis

To analyse instances of mob violence related to child-lifting rumours, our team collected, studied and cross-verified print and online news reports in the English media, which tend to have the widest nationwide coverage, since 2010. All reported incidents were cross-referenced to eliminate discrepancies.

The dataset thus created includes the number of mob attacks, the severity of each attack and details of the victims. Most entries include the names of districts, towns and villages.

Since each observation is based on a newspaper report of the crime, availability of details such as the severity of crime, the number of victims and their identities and ethnicities varies.

Before 2017, only one incident was reported in 2012.

Jharkhand, Maharashtra deadliest

Among all states and union territories, Jharkhand and Maharashtra, with seven and five deaths, respectively, reported the highest death toll. The chances of death in such attacks in these states stood at 350% and 167%, respectively, meaning every reported incident led to more than one death.

Odisha, under the Biju Janata Dal government, reported the most number of attacks, 15, which resulted in one death. Tamil Nadu, run by the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), followed with nine cases and four deaths.

One-third or 30% of attacks were reported from states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party, which also runs the central government.

In the 19 months since January 2017, 10 districts across 16 states have reported more than one case of mob violence. Jeypore, Mayurbhanjh and Rayagada in Odisha and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh have reported three separate incidents each.

More than half or 56% of the attacked victims were men, 22% women, 3% transgender, and for the remaining 18%, the gender was not mentioned in the news reports.

Among those killed, 14 were Hindus, 3 Muslims, and in 16 cases the religious/ethnic identity was not reported.

No correlation between rise in reported child kidnappings and spread of mob violence

Except in Maharashtra, these incidents of violence do not reflect an increase in child kidnapping cases recorded in National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data from 2014 to 2016.

In the two years from 2014, India recorded a 41% rise in kidnapping and abduction of children–from 38,555 in 2014 to 54,328 in 2016–primarily in Uttar Pradesh (9,678), Maharashtra (8,260) and Delhi (6,254), NCRB data show.

As of 2016, Maharashtra, the second-most populous state in India, reported the second-highest number of child abductions. It has also reported the second-highest toll from mob lynchings over child-lifting rumours.

However, there was no such correlation in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, which the NCRB ranked first and third for the number of reported child abductions and kidnappings (which are defined differently in law but basically involve seizing by force and against the victim’s will).

Jharkhand, which reported the highest death toll from mob lynchings, ranked 19 across India for reported child abductions in 2016, as per NCRB data. Tripura, where five people were killed, ranked 24.

This may suggest that fears of child lifting are unfounded and exaggerated. “There is no correlation because the instigators of this violence are not prompted by a genuine fear of kidnapping,” Raghavan said.

However, the data do not account for cases that go unreported–families are hesitant to approach the police, who are seen to be unsympathetic and intimidating–or cases lost in communication between states and NCRB.

The violence is also indicative of how people have lost faith in law enforcement and criminal justice systems to act decisively against child lifting, Lalli said, adding, “Losing faith in the law of the land is a serious threat to society.”

Mob psyche is different from individual psyche, she said, “When an individual acts, there is a sense of responsibility, but in a mob, there is a dispersion of responsibility and guilt.” The mob justifies its act as heroism to save the community, their identity, their children, themselves.

Of the children kidnapped or abducted in 2016, 73% were female and 27% male, NCRB data show. Of the total child victims, 31% (16,938) were kidnapped or abducted for the purpose of marriage, of which only one victim was male; 3% (1,562 female and 26 male) for illicit intercourse; and 1% each for other unlawful activity and adoption. No purpose was mentioned in fully 62% of cases.

77% attacks attributed to fake news

Of the 69 mob violence cases related to rumours of child lifting that have been reported, 77% were eventually attributed to fake news spread through social media. Mobile messenger application Whatsapp, in particular, featured as the rumour source in 28% or 19 of the cases.

The ministry of electronics and information technology on July 2, 2018, issued a warning to Whatsapp, observing that “instances of lynching of innocent people because of large number of irresponsible and explosive messages filled with rumours and provocation are being circulated on WhatsApp”.

“Such a platform cannot evade accountability and responsibility especially when good technological inventions are abused by some miscreants who resort to provocative messages which lead to spread of violence,” the ministry said subsequently in a press release on July 3, 2018, stating clearly that “WhatsApp must take immediate action to end this menace and ensure that their platform is not used for such malafide activities”.

About 13% or 200 million of WhatsApp’s 1.5 billion users are Indian, The Financial Express reported on February 1, 2018. This is 42% of India’s 481 million internet users recorded as of December 2017.

In a letter to the ministry shared with IndiaSpend, the WhatsApp management said it was “horrified by these terrible acts of violence” and listed out the steps it has taken to curb the spread of fake news but emphasised that the challenge “requires government, civil society and technology companies to work together”.

It maintained, however, that messages would continue to have end-to-end encryption to protect users’ privacy and security, encryption being key to WhatsApp’s messaging service. It added that no more than a quarter of WhatsApp users are part of groups; that the majority of groups are small (with fewer than 10 members); and nine in 10 messages are sent from just one person to another.

Cyber privacy experts caution against overreacting against WhatsApp and other social media platforms, arguing in favour of free speech and privacy.

In June, after two cases of mob lynching in Tripura, the government tried to control the situation by shutting down the internet in the area, reports included in our database said.

This is “a slippery slope to quell dissent”, Swaraj Barooah, director at the Centre for Internet and Society, a Bengaluru-based not-for-profit, said, adding, “There are indications that marginalised groups tend to be affected more strongly than others when there are internet shutdowns.”

Lynchings point to a much larger issue than the ubiquitous presence of social media, experts said. “Everyone is focusing on these being rumours–and of course the platform’s ability to exponentially magnify the speed and reach of a message being sent is very relevant–but when and why did we normalise vigilante justice in the first place?” said Barooah. “For instance, would this type of action be okay if these were not rumours, but had actually been true?”

“The root problem is those exploiting historical animosities between communities. We need to properly investigate on a national-level who are the instigators and what are they after–merely arresting people after an incident is not enough,” professor Raghavan said.

Barooah also warned against attempts to force WhatsApp to provide security agencies with decrypted data, as the government had forced the Canadian smartphone maker Blackberry to do in 2013.

“Given that it is already unsure of the extent to which WhatsApp shares metadata with governments, it is important to ensure that its end-to-end encryption facility is not weakened,” Barooah said. “There are certain delicate trade-offs that can be made, but if they are, they should not be made as a knee-jerk reaction to ongoing events but after careful consideration of all the pitfalls. This is especially important in India, given the lack of a privacy law as well as concerns of chilling effects on free speech that are present.”

Some solutions he suggested include making it mandatory that WhatsApp forwards and memes contain originator details, and that a “fact check this” option be inserted at the user end to allow a message to be decrypted. He also suggested that a database of ‘reported hashes’ be created, which all users could download, and which would automatically rate messages on ‘trust’.

It is also important to help people identify fake news and question the information they receive, experts say, pointing out that while India has low literacy and education levels, even highly literate people are not free from confirmation bias.

“We really need to educate people–people naively believe everything they read as true. We’re not doing anything about critical thinking and critical inquiry–we’ve stopped being questioning and that’s a very important part of countering fake news,” Lalli said, adding, “We don’t even respond to information, we’re only reacting.”

How recent attacks tie in with bovine-related vigilantism and violence

IndiaSpend has been maintaining a database of bovine-related violence since 2010, which shows a spurt in violence since the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi assumed power in May 2014.

A preponderant majority of bovine-related hate crimes–98% of the 85 incidents–have occurred since May 2014, our database shows. Only one incident each was reported in 2012 and 2013.

Around 56% of the persons attacked by these groups were Muslim, who accounted for 88% of those killed in this violence. In 2018, 100% of victims attacked in these hate crimes were Muslim.

“There is a clear increase in aggression by one group against the other and a growing inability to empathise and understand those different from ourselves,” Lalli said, “This has essentially made us revert to behaving like tribalistic societies with animalistic instincts–where, when for survival, when you perceive an animal to be a threat, you attack it to kill it.”

In more than a third–28 of 85 incidents–mobs or groups of people were spurred into violence on the mere suspicion of cow slaughter.

Our database also shows that the attacks have become deadlier–the percentage chance of such mob-violence resulting in death has more than doubled from 30% in 2017–regarded as the deadliest year since 2010 (11 deaths in 37 cases)–to 66% in 2018 (four deaths in six cases).

“Society has an innate capacity for violence and it’s very easy to encourage this. Right from Twitter trolling–which is basically extreme verbal aggression–we are unleashing and encouraging violence in different ways and contexts,” Lalli said.

What the government says

Many commentators have remarked that the absence of a strict and prompt response from the government has encouraged such violence. “What action is taken when such cases occur has an important bearing on the continuation of such violence,” Raghavan said, “By not taking strong action, the state is complicit in its orchestration.”

“While we hear about more incidents of violence, we are yet to hear full recognition or condemnation of these acts from the important leaders–in a way it sends out a message that does not discourage the mob,” Lalli agreed, “When you don’t speak out about it and come down on it strongly, it sends out a signal to society that it’s alright to resort to violence for these reasons since nobody gets punished.”

The NCRB “does not maintain specific data with respect to mob lynching incidents (involving minorities) in the country”, the home ministry told Parliament on March 13, 2018.

The ministry did furnish some data on mob lynchings recorded by states from 2014 to 2017, but did not provide information on the motive–whether cow vigilantism, communal or caste hatred, or rumours of child-lifting, etc. The data also did not disclose the identity of the victims.

These data said 45 persons were killed in 40 cases of mob lynching across nine states between 2014 and March 3, 2018. At least 217 persons have been arrested.

In contrast, IndiaSpend’s two databases on mob violence–due to child-lifting rumours and bovine-related hate violence–record 80 cases and 41 deaths during the same period. This is without counting other instances of mob violence related to caste, moral policing and so on.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/business-standard-july-9-2018-69-mob-attacks-on-child-lifting-rumours-since-jan-17-only-one-before-that

Death by Social Media

Admin — 2018-07-10T01:44:15Z

The victims of WhatsApp forwards are outsiders, the political class is silent, the state is helpless. There are clear patterns behind the recent mob lynchings.

The article by Pretika Khanna, Abhiram Ghadyalpatil and Shaswati Das was published in LiveMint on July 9, 2018. Pranesh Prakash was quoted.

The Maharashtra state administration is still trying to come to terms with the shocking lynching on 1 July in Dhule district in northern Maharashtra, where a restive mob of 3,500-plus villagers gathered outside the gram panchayat office in Rainpada village, broke open the locks, and killed five agricultural labourers on the suspicion that they were ‘child-lifters’. There have been 14 incidents of mob lynching and vigilante justice—fuelled by rumours spread on social media—in Maharashtra alone in less than a month since 8 June.

In fact, a police officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity as he is part of the investigating team, says the police machinery was clueless as “no police station in the areas where the mob attacks have occurred has received a formal complaint about kidnappings or children missing before the attacks”. Now, of course, everybody has swung into action. In Maharashtra, at prominent public locations across cities and towns, the state government have put up large boards cautioning people against believing social media rumours.

(Right) an angry mob lynched a hawker on suspicion of being a child-lifter at the Tripura State Rifles camp in Agartala on 29 June. Photo: AFP

Over the last year, there have been a number of deaths fuelled by rumours which spread like lightning via WhatsApp, the messaging platform owned by Facebook Inc. Horrific incidents have been reported from the states of Assam, Tripura, Karnataka, Jharkhand among others. A common rumour—that gangs of children-lifters are out to pick up children—has triggered almost all of these incidents of mob frenzy. Those being targeted include migrants, mentally challenged people, nomadic and denotified tribes and other vulnerable sections of society.

“Over 20 people have been killed. It’s unprecedented not just in India but globally. It is as serious as a breakout of an epidemic. Misinformation has been weaponized to target minorities, individuals, activists…,” says Pratik Sinha co-founder AltNews, a fact-checking website.

Complicating matters is that there are multiple reasons behind this shocking breakdown in law and order. Is the villain of the piece WhatsApp, which has 200 million monthly users, and did it do enough to stop the spread of rumours? Did the all-powerful, all-seeing local administration and police do its best to catch the societal discord before it erupted? What role did an overall, environment play, at a time when society has internalized lynching to such an extent that a Harvard-educated union minister Jayant Sinha recently honoured and garlanded eight people convicted of lynching a coal trader Alimuddin Ansari in Ramgarh, Jharkhand, last June?

Over 20 people have been killed. It’s unprecedented not just in India but globally. It is as serious as a breakout of an epidemic. Misinformation has been weaponized to target minorities, individuals, activists…- Pratik Sinha, co-founder of AltNews, a fact-checking website

Fear of the outsider

Not only have most of the victims been strangers, there are clear patterns behind most mob lynchings in recent times. In 2012, for instance, a rumour that spread like wildfire on social media had the north-eastern people in Bengaluru fleeing the city overnight. “These were not just random rumours, these are targeted. For example, the messages circulated in Bengaluru targeted Hindi-speaking migrants,” said Pranesh Prakash, fellow at the Centre for Internet and Society, a Bengaluru-based think tank.

Experts point out that victims are usually outsiders as they are not seen as being rooted in society. “There is a structural marginalization based on caste, class which is usually attributed with such rumours. Invariably the attack is against those who already have a reputation,” said T.K. Oommen, sociologist and professor emeritus at the Centre for the Study of Social Systems, JNU.

Take the Dhule incident. According to the police official cited earlier, “In Maharashtra particularly there has been a method to this madness against some tribes like the Nath Gosavi tribe, to which the victims in Dhule belonged, and the Phase Pardhis. These communities are routinely identified as of criminal bent and have been on the receiving end much before social media emerged.”

There is a structural marginalization based on caste, class which is usually attributed with such rumours. Invariably the attack is against those who already have a reputation- T.K. Oommen, sociologist and professor emeritus at the Centre for the Study of Social Systems, JNU

Changes in society

“Rumours are not a one-time event. They emerge due to unrest in society. This is usually the situation in a society characterized by fear. The general tendency in society is that they are unreliable. That leads to consequences which are usually bad,” says Oommen.

Even as the Union home ministry has no official record of mob lynching, social media has become the primary catalyst for self-styled cow vigilantes, as well, to bring to book those who have reportedly been indulging in cow slaughter. On 1 April 2017, Pehlu Khan, along with six others, was returning from Jaipur to his village in Nuh, Haryana, carrying cows and calves for the purpose of dairy farming. They were stopped at the Jaipur-Delhi national highway by 200 cow vigilantes, who beat Khan to death.

Since 2014, there have been numerous such incidents of mob violence that have normalized the brutal act. The fact that political leaders have not been openly and quickly condemning such instances sets out a signal to the administration and people at large. All this comes at a time when sociologists and mental health experts point out that there has been a change in the societal set-up. They say that unlike older times, there is no folklore anymore. There is also a breakdown of the traditional society set-up along with a speed up of technology which gives a boost to the spread of such rumours.

Social media has become the primary catalyst for self-styled cow vigilantes, as well, to bring to book those who have reportedly been indulging in cow slaughter

Mental health experts say that people tend to believe messages sent through platforms like WhatsApp as they usually are sent by a trusted source. “As a result, doubts regarding the credibility of the source of the messages tend to get diluted. And therefore, we are inherently more likely to not think of rejecting the content of the message as being false or inauthentic,” said Samir Parikh, director of department of mental health and behavioural sciences at Fortis Healthcare.

The role of WhatsApp

On 8 June, two men, who had gone to Kangthilangso waterfall in Karbi Anglong district in Assam were beaten to death by villagers at Panjuri Kachari on suspicion of being child-lifters.

While the police immediately sprung into action, they are still heavily dependent on the response mechanism of the social media companies. “WhatsApp circulation has increased exponentially and we are now thinking of ways to control the flip side of it. When we are faced with specific cases pertaining to social media we write to the platforms separately, but their response time is long,” said Pallab Bhattacharya, special director general of police (special branch), Assam.

Pranesh Prakash, fellow at the Centre for Internet and Society, a Bengaluru-based think tank.

There is no literacy training on the fact that the platform has rumours and misinformation, how to spot them and avoid becoming a source of it
- Pranesh Prakash, fellow at the Centre for Internet and Society, a Bengaluru-based think tank

According to Prakash, while WhatsApp keeps reminding users that their messages are encrypted, it does not remind its users to not forward unverified information or misinformation, as is prohibited by its acceptable use policy. The acceptable use policy is available only in English, and there is no user conditioning about what kind of messages aren’t acceptable. “Also, there is no literacy training on the fact that the platform has rumours and misinformation, how to spot them and avoid becoming a source of it,” he added.

For instance, Akash Tomar, superintendant of police-city (Ghaziabad) found it challenging to handle the rumours spread through social media platforms during Dera Sacha Sauda riots that took place not very far away from the state and other similar sensitive incidents. “At one point, WhatsApp can help the police in disseminating important and useful information for citizens but off late we have witnessed that such social media platforms have a potential to trigger riots, lynching and other crimes,” Tomar said.

While WhatsApp says it will take appropriate measures to curtail the spread of fake news , simply shooting the messenger is not going to be enough. These murders have not taken place in a digital vacuum.

pretika.k@livemint.com

Komal Gupta and Neetu Chandra Sharma in New Delhi contributed to this story.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/death-by-social-media

'Hope for such swift crackdowns for everyone'

Admin — 2018-07-07T08:52:39Z

The prompt arrest has impressed cybercrime experts, but some are sceptical whether this case will serve as a deterrent for trolls or spell hope for citizens at the receiving end of online abuse.

The article was published in the Times of India on July 6, 2018.

"I don't think this serves as sufficient deterrent for the everyday user. The victim here was a high-profile individual and action was taken after specific instructions from the Union home ministry towards both the police and Twitter," said Pranav MB of the Centre for Internet and Society, a non-profit whose focus areas include digital privacy and cybersecurity.

Pavan Duggal, chairman of the International Commission of Cyber Security Law, too felt the "high-profile stature" of the complainant means this could be an example of "customised justice" and not "generic justice". "The police invariably give step-motherly treatment to the common man whose issues are low priority to them," he said.

Duggal stressed on the need to adopt a "holistic approach" to deter anonymous trolls as a matter of "de facto routine". "We need to come up with strong legal provisions to deal with trolls," he said.

Such steps are becoming imperative given that a recent study by a global cybersecurity firm showed that eight out of 10 persons in India reported some form of online abuse. Another study by a Delhi NGO detailed how vocal women often have to deal with violent threats and sexual remarks. After the arrest, Priyanka Chaturvedi herself pointed out that "they like to target women who have a different opinion" and stressed the need to send a strong message.

"Threatening the rape of a child is the lowest thing. It's disgusting," said women's rights lawyer Flavia Agnes. Pointing out the vicious trolling of foreign minister Sushma Swaraj over her ministry's clearance to the passport of a Hindu-Muslim couple, Agnes said: "This has been happening again and again and it is getting out of hand. Arresting is one thing but we need to put an end to this menace."

The swift police action has impressed Mumbai cybercrime investigator Ritesh Bhatia. "It is not too difficult to catch trolls using fake ID these days since social media platforms are ready to provide the police with user logs that help track their IP address. I am glad Twitter responded quickly," said Bhatia. "I also hope that such speedy action is taken for all those who are threatened and abused, irrespective of their profession, status and political affiliations."

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-times-of-india-july-6-2018-hope-for-such-swift-crackdowns-for-everyone

CIS contributes to the Research and Advisory Group of the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace (GCSC)

Arindrajit Basu — 2018-07-05T16:00:02Z

The Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace (GCSC) is an initiative of the Hague Centre for Strategic Studies and the East West Institute that seeks to promote mutual awareness and understanding among various cyberspace communities. It seeks to develop norms and policies that advance the stability and security of cyberspace.

Chaired by Marina Kaljurand, and Co-Chaired by Michael Chertoff and Latha Reddy, the Commission comprises 26 prominent Commissioners who are experts hailing from a wide range of geographic regions representing multiple communities including academia industry, government, technical and civil society.

As a part of their efforts, the GCSC sent out a call for proposals for papers that sought to analyze and advance various aspects of the cyber norms debate.

Elonnai Hickok and Arindrajit Basu’s paper ‘ Conceptualizing an International Security Architecture for Cyberspace’ was selected by the Commissioners and published as a part of the Briefings of the Research and Advisory Group.

Arindrajit Basu represented CIS at the Cyberstability Hearings held by the GCSC at the sidelines of the GLOBSEC forum in Bratislava-a multilateral conference seeking to advance dialogue on various issues of international peace and security.

The published paper and the Power Point may be accessed here.

The agenda for the hearings is reproduced below

GCSC HEARINGS, 19 MAY 2018

HEARINGS: TOWARDS INTERNATIONAL CYBERSTABILITY

Venue: “Habsburg” room, Grand Hotel River Park 15:00-15:15

Welcome Remarks by Marina Kaljurand, Chair of the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace (GCSC) and former Foreign Minister of Estonia 15:15-16:45

Hearing I: Expert Hearing

This session focuses on the topic Cyberstability and the International Peace and Security Architecture and includes scene settings, food-for-thought presentations on the new GCSC commissioned research, briefings and open statements by government and nongovernmental speakers.

“Scene setting: ”Cyber Diplomacy in Transition” by Carl Bildt, former Prime Minister of Sweden

“Commissioned Research I: Lessons learned from three historical case studies on establishing international norms” by Arindrajit Basu, Centre for Internet and Society, India

Commission Research II: The “pre-normative” framework and options for cyber diplomacy” by Elana Broitman, New America Foundation

“Some Remarks on current thinking within the United Nations”, by Renata Dwan, Director United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) (Registered Statements by Government Advisors) (Statements by other experts)

(Open floor discussion) 16:45-17:15

Coffee Break

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cis-contributes-to-the-research-and-advisory-group-of-the-global-commission-on-the-stability-of-cyberspace-gcsc

Digital Native: The bigger picture

nishant — 2018-08-01T00:11:57Z

For all our sleek machines, we are slaves to the much larger Internet of Things.

The article was published in Indian Express on July 1, 2018.

There was a time, at the turn of the millennium, when we were trying to cope with the fact that we live with sapient technologies. It was new, to be thinking of cohabitation with things that speak, interact, listen, and act in tandem with us. I still remember the time when the first pagers and cellphones arrived — how difficult it was for people to figure out the social etiquette for living with these devices.

From those early days, we have come a long way. Digital things are everywhere — and we talk to them everywhere and everywhen. On a regular day, our phones are on our dining tables, our devices are buzzing with notifications silently in our pockets, and they are guiding us in our everyday practices. They are not just bringing us information but also listening to us, pre-empting our moves, doing things that we have not even imagined yet. Living with technologies is old — the new normal is living in technologies.

I was recently reminded by a research team that the cars we drive are giant super-computers with engines. That a new car on the roads has more computational processing power than the land-rover on Mars. Our cars are indeed computing devices and we sit in them, depending on a variety of computational processes to keep us safe, as we are hurled at high speeds ahead. Our smart homes, too, are slowly becoming sapient surfaces with specific functions. Microwaves that remember meal times, coffee machines that sense our proximity and start brewing or refrigerators that keep track of our expired food — they are all very basic computing devices that we are already used to.

However, our life is not just with the devices but the immense networks of other devices that they connect with. I got reminded of this very starkly on a recent trip to India, when I realised that the SIM card that I had bought the last time has been deactivated for non-use. At the same time, procuring a new SIM was going to need patience, time and Aadhaar authentication, which won’t happen at the airport. Additionally, there were no wifi hotspots to use in the middle of the night. Thus started the longest night of my life. In that four-hour digital blackout, I found myself thinking of my condition as a state of disconnectedness, of paralysis. I was surrounded by my two phones (don’t ask), my iPad, my laptop, and, armed to the teeth with charging cords and power-banks. Yet, none of them were of any use.

Once disconnected from the cloud that caters to my entertainment and the services that keep me talking, it was as if all my devices were useless. I scrolled through multiple screens and then gave up, resigning myself to looking at others with data, with malignant longing. It was with great shock that I realised that my devices are only gateway machines. Despite all the money and effort I have spent in selecting specific hardware combinations and care equipment, without their capacity to speak to other machines-servers, controllers, nodes — they are almost entirely pointless.

So used am I to instant interaction, reciprocation and feedback with my devices, I forgot that I am actually in conversation with an Internet of Things that far exceeds my immediate intimacy with my personalised screen. Somewhere in there is a powerful reminder of why data protection and security are so critical, but also fragile in the connected Web. Because we can do almost anything that we like to keep our individual devices secure, but the large networks that give them life and animate them are completely out of our control. In the face of this uncontrollable void, the best we can do is hope that things will be safe. And that illusion is not going to last long — in these moments of disconnection, one realises it. Thankfully, before the head got filled with the dark side of digital connectivity, I chanced upon an old movie I had saved on my laptop to show in a class once. It was Wall-E. I decided to just watch that film about a world where the only live thing was a robot, and in some strange way, found it very comforting.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/raw/indian-express-july-1-2018-nishant-shah-digital-native-bigger-picture

June 2018 Newsletter

praskrishna — 2018-08-11T02:52:10Z

CIS newsletter for the month of June 2018.

Dear readers,

Previous issues of the newsletters can be accessed here.

Highlights

Balbharati – the Maharashtra state bureau of textbook production and curriculum research – has issued a copyright policy that forces all publishers, digital educational-content creators, and coaching classes to obtain expensive licenses for developing material directly or indirectly relating to Balbharati’s content. This is an alarming development for Indian students reported Anubha Sinha in an article in the Asian Times on June 20, 2018.
CIS-A2K has started dialogue with the publishers for the last 6 months regarding FOSS, Open knowledge and content donation to Wikimedia Projects. As a result Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Prakashak Sangh, an apex body of publishers at all India level invited us for a orientation session at their annual gathering in Pune.
Submitted comments on the Draft Digital Communications Policy which was released to the public by the Department of Telecommunications of the Ministry of Communications on 1st May 2018 for comments and views.
Submitted comments on the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations which was released to the public by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on 29th May 2018 for comments and views.
The Task Force on Artificial Intelligence was established by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to leverage AI for economic benefits, and provide policy recommendations on the deployment of AI for India. Elonnai Hickok, Shweta Mohandas and Swaraj Paul Barooah wrote a blog entry on the artificial intelligence task force. The blog entry was edited by Swagam Dasgupta.
The world’s oldest networked infrastructure, money, is increasingly dematerialising and fusing with the world’s latest networked infrastructure, the Internet, wrote Sunil Abraham in an article published in the Economic Times on June 10, 2018.
An essay by P.P. Sneha was published in Summer Hill, a journal published by Indian Institute of Advanced Study. In the essay, edited by Dr. Bindu Menon, Sneha draws upon excerpts from a study on the field of digital humanities and related practices in India, to outline the diverse contexts of humanities practice with the advent of the digital and explore the developing discourse around digital humanities in the Indian context.
The inaugural conference of the Digital Humanities Alliance of India (DHAI) was held at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Indore on June 1-2, 2018. P.P. Sneha was a keynote speaker at the event. Her talk was titled ‘New Contexts and Sites of Humanities Practice in the Digital’.

Articles

Why NPCI and Facebook need urgent regulatory attention (Sunil Abraham; Economic Times; June 10, 2018).
Digital Native: Cause an Effect (Nishant Shah; Indian Express; June 17, 2018).
Maharashtra's Copyright Policy Makes Education Unaffordable (Anubha Sinha; Asia Times; June 20, 2018).

CIS in the News

Allow admins to add users to online group chats only after permission: SFLC.in (Times of India; June 1, 2018).
EC disables easy access to electoral data across states (Akshatha M; Economic Times; June 5, 2018).
Draft bill proposes Rs 1 crore fine, 3 year jail for data privacy violation (Vidhi Choudhury; Hindustan Times; June 8, 2018).
Citizens’ Draft Privacy Bill Seeks To Revolutionise Data Collection, Storage In India (Arpan Chaturvedi; Bloomberg Quint; June 9, 2018).
Police to counter fake news on WhatsApp (Nilesh Christopher and Naveen Menezes; Times of India; June 14, 2018).
'Full belief in fake texts shows cops not trusted' (Times of India; June 18, 2018).
Anushka finds support for her anti-litter tirade (Nina C. George; Deccan Herald; June 19, 2018).
Jindal varsity's international affairs students shine in job market (Economic Times; June 19, 2018).
Data Privacy: Footprints on the Web (Sujit Bhar; IndiaLegal; June 21, 2018).
Death By WhatsApp (News18.com, June 25, 2018).
Tech transformation: how agriculture is being redefined through digital innovation and startups (Your Story; June 29, 2018).

Access to Knowledge

Access to Knowledge (A2K) is a campaign to promote the fundamental principles of justice, freedom, and economic development. It deals with issues like copyrights, patents and trademarks, which are an important part of the digital landscape. Our A2K program comprises 2 projects: Pervasive Technologies done under a grant from International Development Research Centre examining interplay between cost-effective pervasive technologies and intellectual property and encouraging development of such technologies for social good, and Wikipedia under a grant from Wikimedia Foundation to enable the growth of Indic language communities and cultivate new editors in different Indian languages.

Wikipedia

Event Organized

Marathi Publishers' orientation session on FOSS,Open knowledge & Wikimedia Projects (Co-organized by Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Prakashak Sangh and CIS-A2K; Maratha Chamber of Commerce, Tilak Road, Pune; June 17, 2018).

Internet Governance

The Tunis Agenda of the second World Summit on the Information Society has defined internet governance as the development and application by governments, the private sector and civil society, in their respective roles of shared principles, norms, rules, decision making procedures and programs that shape the evolution and use of the internet. CIS is engaged in two different projects. The first one (under a grant from Privacy International and IDRC) is on surveillance and freedom of expression (SAFEGUARDS). The second one (under a grant from MacArthur Foundation) is on restrictions that the Indian government has placed on freedom of expression online.

Privacy

Blog Entries

NITI Aayog Discussion Paper: An aspirational step towards India’s AI policy (Sunil Abraham, Elonnai Hickok, Amber Sinha, Swaraj Barooah, Shweta Mohandas, Pranav M Bidare, Swagam Dasgupta, Vishnu Ramachandran and Senthil Kumar; June 13, 2018).
The AI Task Force Report - The first steps towards India’s AI framework (Authored by Elonnai Hickok, Shweta Mohandas and Swaraj Paul Barooah and Edited by Swagam Dasgupta; June 27, 2018).

Submissions

Comments on the Draft National Policy on Official Statistics (Gurshabad Grover and Sandeep Kumar; June 7, 2018).
Comments on the Draft Digital Communications Policy (Anubha Sinha, Gurshabad Grover and Swaraj Barooah; June 14, 2018).

Participation in Event

Is Privacy Obsolete? (Organized by TERI; Bangalore; June 22, 2018). Pranesh Prakash was a panelist.

Free Speech & Expression

Blog Entry

Network Disruptions Report by Global Network Initiative (Akriti Bopanna; June 12, 2018).

Telecom

CIS is involved in promoting access and accessibility to telecommunications services and resources, and has provided inputs to ongoing policy discussions and consultation papers published by TRAI. It has prepared reports on unlicensed spectrum and accessibility of mobile phones for persons with disabilities and also works with the USOF to include funding projects for persons with disabilities in its mandate:

Submission

Comments on the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations (Sandeep Kumar, Torsha Sarkar, Swaraj Barooah, and Gurshabad Grover; June 22, 2018).

Researchers at Work

The Researchers at Work (RAW) programme is an interdisciplinary research initiative driven by an emerging need to understand the reconfigurations of social practices and structures through the Internet and digital media technologies, and vice versa. It aims to produce local and contextual accounts of interactions, negotiations, and resolutions between the Internet, and socio-material and geo-political processes:

Participation in Event

Digital Humanities Alliance of India - Inagural Conference 2018 (Co-organized by IIM and IIT, Indore with support from CIS; IIM, Indore; June 1 - 2, 2018). P.P. Sneha was a speaker and gave the keynote address.

Essay

New Contexts and Sites of Humanities Practice in the Digital (Paper) (P.P. Sneha; June 25, 2018).

About CIS

The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) is a non-profit organisation that undertakes interdisciplinary research on internet and digital technologies from policy and academic perspectives. The areas of focus include digital accessibility for persons with disabilities, access to knowledge, intellectual property rights, openness (including open data, free and open source software, open standards, open access, open educational resources, and open video), internet governance, telecommunication reform, digital privacy, and cyber-security. The academic research at CIS seeks to understand the reconfigurations of social and cultural processes and structures as mediated through the internet and digital media technologies.

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Please help us defend consumer and citizen rights on the Internet! Write a cheque in favour of 'The Centre for Internet and Society' and mail it to us at No. 194, 2nd 'C' Cross, Domlur, 2nd Stage, Bengaluru - 5600 71.

► Request for Collaboration

We invite researchers, practitioners, artists, and theoreticians, both organisationally and as individuals, to engage with us on topics related internet and society, and improve our collective understanding of this field. To discuss such possibilities, please write to Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, at sunil@cis-india.org (for policy research), or Sumandro Chattapadhyay, Research Director, at sumandro@cis-india.org (for academic research), with an indication of the form and the content of the collaboration you might be interested in. To discuss collaborations on Indic language Wikipedia projects, write to Tanveer Hasan, Programme Officer, at tanveer@cis-india.org.

CIS is grateful to its primary donor the Kusuma Trust founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin for its core funding and support for most of its projects. CIS is also grateful to its other donors, Wikimedia Foundation, Ford Foundation, Privacy International, UK, Hans Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, and IDRC for funding its various projects.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/june-2018-newsletter

Tech transformation: how agriculture is being redefined through digital innovation and startups

Admin — 2018-07-06T15:39:53Z

At a recent YES Bank panel and digital startup competition, it was evident that India’s digital boom was lending the Indian startup ecosystem a distinctly agri-flavour.

The blog post was published in Your Story on June 29, 2018. CIS was mentioned in the report.

The convergence of mobile networks, broadband internet, cloud platforms, IoT, AI and open data is helping transform one of the world’s oldest professions. This is of great significance as agriculture and related sectors like dairy production form the backbone of the Indian workforce. Today, tradition is merging with technology as the IT services sector is helping open up new opportunities for both seasoned and emerging entrepreneurs.

New fronts are opening up across the sector from organic farming and hydroponics to drones and agri apps. Startups are also playing a key role in transforming agriculture, which accounts for half of India’s workforce, but only about 13 percent of its GDP.

Entrepreneurship trends

An interesting trend to watch for is the rise of the number of agri-entrepreneurs, many of whom have no background in agriculture. There is more interest now in this sector compared to even five or ten years ago. Another indicator is the number of agri-tech competitions, awards and investors that are emerging. India’s demographic dividend is also attracting more youth segments to the agricultural sector, with cross-fertilisation across states, economic sectors, and scientific fields.

The challenges seem formidable, but need to be acknowledged and tackled. Thousands of farmers commit suicide each year due to debt problems, as documented by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). This is a sad reality in states such as Maharashtra, Odisha, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and others.

Many issues being tackled by startups relate to productivity and distribution, according to Sahil Kini, Vice President, Aspada Investment. There are large yield gaps in Indian farming as compared to its global counterparts, due to inadequacies in domains ranging from farm inputs and equipment to farming practices and retail connects. Multiple intermediaries, poor refrigeration during transportation, small farm sizes, and lack of fairness in financial stakeholders are other challenges.

Agri-tech startups

Today, the agri-tech sector is witnessing a number of startups in India disrupting everything from organic farming and equipment rentals to connected supply chains and cloud-based analytics. The startups in this report showcase the diversity in the sector, followed by an analysis of the broader ecosystem. Some cover pricing of produce, others include equipment marketplaces; still others cover digital workflow and smart supply chains.

Farms2Fork offers farmers water monitoring solutions that ensure better productivity by reducing water wastage. The solution includes IoT wireless soil sensors, AI support, and real-time analytics. While earlier agri-tech solutions were based on batch processing of data, Farms2Fork operates on real-time data.

Agribolo, founded in 2015, is a farming services platform spanning activities such as information dissemination, quality input procurement, market linkages, irrigation facilities and farming equipment. The franchise network, launched in Rajasthan, uses the aggregator model to connect farmers to experts, development institutions, financial services, and training institutes.

AgroWave, founded by an IIT Delhi alumna in 2017, aims to optimise agriculture supply chain using research, analytics, and technology. Demand and supply analytics connect farmers in Panipat, Sonipat, Harpur, and Rajasthan to caterers, retail shops, restaurants, and canteens.

Truce, founded by an IIT Bombay alumnus, is a B2B web and mobile platform that directly connects farmers and suppliers to wholesalers and retailers. The app is available in Hindi, English, Marathi and Gujarati, and enables tracking quotes and orders.

Farm Again has converted 2,500 acres of land into organic farms, along with tech tools to trace the product’s origin, when sold in outlets such as Reliance Retail, Big Bazaar, and More. IoT devices are used to monitor and record moisture content and soil conditions, with pipes for water and fertiliser inputs.

Crofarm, a Delhi-headquarted agri-supply chain startup founded in 2016, buys fresh produce directly from farmers and supplies them to online and offline retailers. It supplies nearly 8-10 tonnes of fruits and vegetables from its two distribution centres in Delhi NCR, and connects 100 retailers to more than 5,000 farmers.

Aibono improves farm yields by using AI on a cluster of parameters like weather and soil condition. The testing and measurement services indicate parameters such as crop stress, along with recommendations on the right fertiliser mix to be used based on the soil condition.

Gold Farm, founded in 2012, helps farmers book farm equipment such as solar-powered pumps in districts of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Beneficiaries have included over 25,000 farmers on ground, who tap the services of 250 booking agents and over 500 tractor owners connected via a mobile app. The equipment is also tracked with IoT devices, resulting in rich data sets for analysis and forecasting.

Earthy Tales, founded in NCR in 2016, works with farmers across 11 states to provide chemical-free fruits, vegetables, groceries, and dairy products. These include snacks, jams, preserves, and pickles, provided direct to consumers. Other services include mentoring for farmers and farm cooperatives.

ONganic Foods works with small farmers to boost their organic produce. Based on contract farming, it identifies higher-priced grains and spices and gives quality inputs to farmers to increase their yield. It connects farmers to various government schemes as well as e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and Spencer’s Retail.

Oxen Farm Solutions offers agricultural equipment on rent using a ‘Farming as a Service’ (FaaS) model. The platform connects farmers, farm equipment manufacturers, and government schemes. Access to such machinery can boost farm productivity in an affordable manner. The company operates in Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Odisha, and connects to corporates such as PepsiCo and Yes Bank.

Farmizen is a mobile-based platform that lets users grow vegetables and fruits on mini-farms, and monitor the process of growing food on a real-time basis. Located in the outskirts of Bengaluru, users get pictures and live videos of their farm plots. The startup also provides recommendations based on real-time inputs from the field as well as pre-defined schedules for over 50 different types of crops.

Harvesting, founded by in 2016, has offices in California and Bengaluru, and offers smart farming solutions based on analytics and AI. It also uses farmer profiles to build creditworthiness profiles for financial organisations. The idea is to provide both increased farm productivity and better financial services.

SatSure uses IoT and Big Data to provide financial security to farmers, via its 15-year database of satellite images. It makes recommendations clustering techniques for farmers to get an estimate of the total agriculture production, and provides this data to agri-insurance companies as well.

Organic Thelawala enables a transparent pricing mechanism so that the consumer knows the price of the produce as well as how much of the selling price actually goes to the farmer. It is s assisting 13,000 farmers to switch to organic farming, thereby, creating a positive impact on bio-diversity, soil contamination, water, and air pollution. Further, by providing free thelas (pushcart), the team promotes micro-entrepreneurship among pushcart vendors and farmers.

Earth Food, based in Pune, provides chemical-free produce at market price. It has collaborated with Reliance Fresh and Nature Fresh. It uses a healthy mix of traditional methods and innovation to keep pollution and wastage to a minimum, thereby benefitting both consumers and the environment.

Jayalaxmi Agrotech, founded by alumni of IIMB and VEC helps farmers minimise crop loss and improve productivity via its many crop- specific mobile applications in local languages that provide timely information on agriculture and animal husbandry.

Gramophone, based in Indore, is a platform that combines both advisory and sale of inputs under a single roof. Farmers can access mentors for help with everything from crop selection to land productivity and more.

Triton Foodworks, based in Delhi, is a hydroponics startup growing fruits and vegetables. It has reportedly set up more than 2 lakh sq ft of hydroponic farms across three locations in India, and produces more than 700 tons of fruits and vegetables each year.

vDrone, based in Bengaluru, uses drones and thermal imaging to increase yield. It analyses areas of the farm that need attention, and helps the farmer cater to these needs. Parameters include soil, cropping pattern, and use of fertilisers.

Ninjacart, based in Bengaluru, enables retailers and merchants to source fruits and vegetables directly from farmers without resorting to middlemen. It connects 2,500 farmers and handles 14,000 tons of fruits and vegetables, accounting for revenue of around Rs 4 crore every month.

BigHaat, based in Bengaluru, is an online agro e-store for farmers that lets them buy seeds, crop protection nutrients and solutions, and agro instruments. Last-mile connectivity is enabled via logistics partners like India Post and Ship Rocket. The footprint spans 50,000 farmers across 20 states.

Ravgo is an agri-equipment rental marketplace based on the model of the sharing economy. It is solving the farm mechanisation problem among India farmers who cannot afford to buy the farm machinery. The target market is currently small farmers based in Punjab.

Kisanmade, launched in Moradabad, UP is an e-commerce platform set up in Moradabad to empower farmers by eliminating the intermediary between the farmer and the consumer. It also aims to increase the farmer’s income and decrease the kitchen’s expense by 10-15 percent.

FlyBird Innovations, founded in Bengaluru, uses sensors in the soil to detect moisture content and control irrigation in farms across South India. The information is used to optimise irrigation practices, improve crop yield, and save water, time, and labour. It claims 25-30 percent savings of water and improvement of crop yield by 10-15 percent.

Kamal Kisan reduces labour costs with innovative agri-equipment, with reported savings of up to 50 percent. Tools include sugarcane planters, versatile mulch layers, bed makers, vegetable handy planters, and power weeders.

farMart connects farmers who own machinery with those who need it but don’t have access to it. Large farmers put underutilised agri-machinery up for rent on the farMart platform, and are connected to farmers who need such machinery; they can then book it via app or call centre. The database includes 300 villages and 1,500 farmers.

AgroStar, a Pune-based m-commerce startup, sells agricultural inputs directly to farmers. The platform can be accessed online or giving the company’s 1800 number a missed call. Products are sourced from national and multinational brands, and include seeds and nutrients.

CropIn leverages GIS and data science to deliver a range of services apps to farmers and other players in the agri chain. It feeds real-time data and advice on practices related to a range of crops.

Other notable agri startups are NubeSol (soil fertility maps) and Sree Sai Aerotech Innovations (drones for monitoring crop health). Some industry players are also leveraging the platform model – such as Trringo, launched in 2016 by India’s largest tractor maker company, Mahindra and Mahindra. The franchisee network enables farmers to access tractors at an affordable price. Over 100,000 farmers have signed up, from West and South India.

There are also international players in the Indian agri market, such as PEAT. The German startup is working with 30,000 farmers across India to help mitigate crop damage. It identifies patterns of plant diseases, pests, or nutrient deficiencies via crop images.

Ecosystem

The broader agri startup ecosystem includes a number of think tanks, research labs, incubators and accelerators. For example, ONganic is supported by the Technology Development Board, Government of India and Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprise and incubated at the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata.

Goa has an agri-focused incubator called Centre for Innovation and Business Acceleration (CIBA). TiE Bangalore and NUMA have held startup showcases in collaboration with Villgro, featuring agri-entrepreneurs.

At the recent YES Bank Transformation Series (YBTS) speakers and panelists included Ramanathan Ramanan, Mission Director, Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog; Raju Kapoor, Head, Corporate Affairs, Dow AgroSciences India; Hemendra Mathur, Venture Partner, Bharat Innovations; Nitin Puri, Senior President, Food and Agribusiness Strategic Advisory and Research, YES Bank; and Amardeep Sibia, CEO, SatSure.

At the 2017 edition of YBTS three agri-tech winners were awarded out of 15 finalists. Winners included teams from IIM Shillong (Rs 5 lakh for a smart soil sensor proposal), IIM Bangalore (Rs 3 lakh for a solar-powered drip technology proposal), and ISB Hyderabad (Rs 2 lakh for IoT-based SIM-enabled farm data sensors).

The Government of India is also catalysing agri- entrepreneurship with programmes like the Agri-Udaan Accelerator and the Agri Grand Challenge. Government-backed funding agencies like the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) is incentivising banks to lend at highly affordable rates to startups.

Incubators in this space include Villgro, a-IDEA, ABI-ICRISAT, Startup Oasis, IIMC Innovation Park, IIT Kanpur SIIC, KIIT TBI, and CIIE, IIMA. They provide mentorship and connects to farmer cooperatives, NGOs, channel partners, and individual farmers in some cases.

Indigram Labs Foundation (ILF), supported by Department of Science and Technology via the National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board, Government of India, is a technology-based incubator founded in 2015 to promote creativity and innovation in agriculture, renewable energy, and rural healthcare industry. Its host organisation is Indian Society of Agribusiness Professionals (ISAP).

ISAP has set up more than 1,800 agri-based ventures through its Agri-Clinics and Agri-Business Centres (ACABC) programme and has around 50 agri-business experts in various verticals who help in mentoring incubates, according to Manisha Acharya, CEO, Indigram Labs Foundation.

It has graduated 18 startups, such as New Leaf Dynamic Technologies(refrigeration system powered by farm waste), Intello Labs (AI-based deep-tech solution for crop inspection and agricultural products grading), Sainhun Ventures(honey by-products), Nutrelis Agro Foods (organic groceries, beverages), and Innosapiens Agro Technologies (phenomics device for pre-detection of pests).

Indigram takes an equity of up to 5 percent in the startup. In the long run, agri incubators need support in areas like trained manpower, pilot testing costs, rural outreach, and patent advisory services, according to Acharya.

International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) hosted an agri-business investors camp in Hyderabad on June 12. The camp addressed three themes: agri-technology, agri-engineering and food processing.

IIM Ahmedabad’s technology business incubator, Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE), has launched a food and agri-business accelerator in partnership with a-IDEA, the business incubator at Indian Council of Agricultural Research’s (ICAR) National Academy of Agricultural Research Management (NAARM). Top teams are provided seed investment of up to Rs 30 lakhs each. CIIE also has a sustainability focused fund called Infuse Ventures.

Funding

Recent reports have tracked the investment line-up for Agricx Lab (Ankur Capital, CIIE), Agrostar (IDG Ventures, Aavishkaar Venture Management), Agrowave (Daffodil Software), Airwood (StartupXseed Ventures), Arya Collateral (Aspada), Farm Taaza (Epsilon Venture Partners), Farmizen (Venture Highway), FarmLink (Pioneering Ventures, Syngenta), Gobasco (Matrix Partners India), KisanHub (Notion Capital, IQ Capital, Calibrate Management), KrishiHub (INVENT accelerator, Villgro Innovation Fund), NinjaCart (Trifecta Ventures), RML AgTech (IvyCap Ventures), Utkal Tubers (CapAleph Indian Millennium SME Fund, Zephyr Peacock India), and VillFarm (Unitus Seed Fund, Rianta Capital).

Crofarm has received funding from angels such as Rajan Anandan (MD, Google India) and Jitendra Gupta (MD, PayU India). Gold Farm raised funds from Infuse Venture and the Mahindra Group. Truce was funded by 3one4capital, Beenext, FreeCharge founders, Snapdeal founders and Anupam Mittal, CEO, People Group. CropIn, raised funds from Ankur Capital; Agrostar received investments from Aavishkar. Other active agri-focused funds include Omnivore Partners and Rural Agri Ventures; Germany development agency GIZ has also roped in international partners for further cooperation.

Among Indian states, Karnataka formalised an agri-startup fund in 2017 through K-BITS with a corpus of Rs 10 crore, with an additional Rs 8 crore planned for 21 agri-startups this year. A centre of excellence for agriculture is also planned, where startups will work with farmers.

Other government initiatives, according to Sahil Kini of Aspada Investment include Agricultural Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme, 2008; and Money Lending (Regulation) Act, 2008.

Entrepreneur tips

A number of mentor panels and pitch jurors have offered guidance for agri-entrepreneurs. These include, for example, the importance of customer immersion. Here are some of the tips they have shared.

On-the-ground realities in emerging economies are shifting rapidly, and founders should have a finger on the pulse of effective trends and aspirations.
Disciplines like design thinking offer useful and actionable frameworks.
Metrics should be holistic and include activity, business, and social impacts. There should be one or two key success metrics for primary focus, and the rest should be supporting or complementary metrics. This helps founders monitor their progress and assists investors in assessing the long-term viability of the venture.
Founders should build a well-rounded team, with a mix of engineering, design, and social science backgrounds. Sometimes founders get too carried away with the technology; having a holistic mix in the core team will help contextualise the offerings, use and impact.
India’s social problems call for bold and ambitious innovators who can tackle challenges at scale. The social cost of failure is high for social enterprises (as compared to merely pivoting an app design); hence collaborative partnerships are important.
Social entrepreneurs should learn how to work with partners who are not social enterprises. They should be clear about their offerings, values, and philosophy. Partnerships are an art and a science. Partners should be picked carefully, and the relationship should evolve over time.
Founders will frequently need to pitch to funders, investors, partners, regulators, customers, and employees. The pitch should focus less on product features and more on problem resolution. Techniques like storytelling are effective here.
Founders should enumerate the range of risks involved, eg. regulatory and lack of ecosystem trust. Secondary impacts should also be assessed, since some risks are more indirect than others.

The road ahead

This is a great time to integrate different domains of knowledge and skills in agri-innovation. In addition to fresh farm produce, there are lucrative opportunities in processed products such as pickles, papads, chutneys, and murabbas. This calls for effective post-harvest management infrastructure such as storage, preservation, cold chain and refrigerated transportation.

New models such as the FaaS model can lead to more sustainable paths to profitability. The platform model can leverage data analytics to identify emerging business trends and opportunities and thus attract more venture capital, according to a report published by Bain and Company in partnership with Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. Such models are also getting significant corporate backing, such as Trringo by Mahindra and Mahindra for tractor rentals and John Deere (with EM3 Agri Services) for harvester fleets.

Smartphones powered by affordable mobile broadband networks are helping improve workflow of farms and dairies. This opens the door to new pay-per-use business models and innovation stacks, connecting the farm to the fridge and fork. Banks and financial organisations also need to step up to the challenge and offer more creative models of financing for farmers, entrepreneurs, incubators, and accelerators.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced a target for farmers’ incomes to be doubled by 2022, India’s 75th year of Independence. Schemes like the government’s Startup Agri India scheme, the Digi Gaon (Digital Village) initiative, and Bharat Net project can all work together towards making this a reality. Initiatives like agri-hackathons can also bring together aspiring entrepreneurs from diverse sectors.

However, there are certain challenges:
Pricing decisions should be made more transparent and less politically driven (particularly before elections), with sufficient market validity and testing. This includes setting the price of onions and sugar, and promising ‘free’ electricity for farmers.
Increased promotion and adoption of open data are other trends to watch for. An open data ecosystem can grow India’s GDP by $22 billion by 2020, according to report by YES Bank and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). India’s Open Government Data (OGD) platform can step up to this challenge.
The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) is pushing for these initiatives to reach ordinary people and marginalised communities. Other sources of data include rural internet kiosks, community e-centres, and online agricultural systems.
Agri-tech entrepreneurs can go beyond incremental change to truly effect exponential change, and transform the agricultural sector while also giving back to society. Successful agri-preneurs in India can also take their innovations global.

The agricultural sector is now shedding its rustic persona to emerge as a trendy space to be in. Inclusive, sustainable, and scalable solutions are the way ahead.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/your-story-june-29-2018-tech-transformation-agriculture-redefined-digital-innovation-startups

Draft bill proposes Rs 1 crore fine, 3 year jail for data privacy violation

Admin — 2018-06-29T16:48:48Z

The move comes at a time when user data of Indians is under threat from social media firms accused of data mining and sharing information with private companies for advertising and marketing purposes. There has also been a growing concern over Aadhaar.

The article by Vidhi Choudhury was published in the Hindustan Times on June 8, 2018. Sunil Abraham was quoted.

Even as a 10-member government panel is due to submit its recommendations for a new data privacy bill, a group of lawyers on Friday uploaded a model citizens’ code, which they said could give the panel pointers to what India’s final privacy law should be.

The Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) launched its community project, ‘Save our Privacy’, in what it described as a bid to safeguard individuals’ right to privacy. This model code, titled ‘Indian Privacy Code, 2018’, has been drafted by lawyers such Gautam Bhatia, Apar Gupta and Raman Jit Singh Chima, among others.

Many of these lawyers made a joint submission to the Justice BN Srikrishna Committee in the past. On Friday, they sent him an email with the copy of the code with its seven core principles. The core principles follow what IFF calls a “rights-based approach to protect people from harmful use of their personal data”.

“In a world where personal data has power, people need to be put in charge of their own lives,” said New Delhi-based lawyer Apar Gupta.

The draft bill sets a penalty of up to Rs 1 crore for the violation of privacy of citizens and a prison sentence of up to three years. It also provides for a penalty of up to Rs 10 crore to anyone found to be performing surveillance unlawfully, with a prison term of up to five years.

The move comes at a time when user data of Indians is under potential threat from social media companies that have been accused of data mining and sharing user information with private firms for advertising and marketing purposes.

There has also been a growing concern in India over the validity of the Aadhaar law. A Constitution bench of the Supreme Court has finished hearing a slew of petitions against the unique identity number and has reserved its judgment.

On 31 July, the government constituted the panel headed by Justice Srikrishna to study various issues relating to data protection and suggest a draft data protection bill.

IFF said in a statement that it had concerns over the “composition, lack of diversity and transparency” of the committee. It also said it was concerned about the lack of urgency India had shown about making a privacy law, and that its civil society project was important to build awareness on privacy and data protection in India.

“The Indian Privacy Code, 2018 ensures that right to privacy does not undermine the Right to Information Act. All the other existing laws including the Telegraph Act and the Aadhaar Act should be subject to this law,” Chima said.

“We hope the Justice BN Srikrishna Committee considers and adopts the language we propose,” he added.

According to a senior official at the home ministry who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the privacy bill hasn’t come up for discussion yet. “In any case, the said bill will be taken up by the IT ministry first. The IT ministry will be responsible for piloting the proposed bill on privacy and MHA will, in the later stages, give its opinion on security issues related to the proposed bill,” he said.

A government official on condition of anonymity said that its for the Justice Srikirshna Committee to look at the model privacy code launched today and decide what they want to use from it.

When contacted, Ajay Sawhney, secretary for ministry of electronics and technology said: “The Justice Srikrishna Committee will submit its report shortly.”

“The reason civil society is doing this is because the government is not sharing their draft bills,” said Sunil Abraham, founder of think tank Centre for Internet and Society (CIS). In 2013, CIS had also published a citizen’s draft privacy protection bill.

(With inputs from Azaan Javaid)

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/hindustan-times-june-8-2018-vidhi-choudhary-draft-bill-proposes-rs-1-crore-fine-3-year-jail-for-data-privacy-violation

The rise of AI in Indian healthcare industry: An innovative asset to the rescue

Admin — 2018-08-06T02:40:50Z

The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly increasing with the growth of start-ups and large Information and Communications Technology (ICT) companies that offer AI healthcare solutions for healthcare challenges in India.

The blog post was published by Media India Group on June 27, 2018. CIS research was quoted.

There is an uneven ratio of skilled doctors to patients in our country. According to the Indian Journal of Public Health (2017 edition), India had 4.8 practicing doctors per 10,000 population. It is expected to grow to 6.9 per 10,000 people by the year 2030, but the minimum doctor to patient ratio recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) is 1:1000. AI is an effective measure to tackle challenges like the uneven ratio, making doctors more skilled at their jobs, catering to rural areas for a high-quality healthcare, training doctors and nurses to tackle complex procedures.

How does AI in healthcare function?

AI in the healthcare sector is a range of technologies that enable machines to sense, comprehend, act and learn so that they can carry out administrative and healthcare functions, be used in research and for training purposes. Some of the technologies included in the healthcare sector are natural language processing, intelligent agents, computer vision, machine learning, chatbots, voice recognition etc. These technologies can be adopted at varying levels across the healthcare ecosystem. Machine learning can be used to merge an individual’s omic (genomic, proteomic, metabolic) data with other data sources to predict the probability of developing a disease, which can then be addressed through timely intercessions such as preventative therapy.

AI in the healthcare sector in India

AI in the healthcare sector in India is potentially developing. According to a report by the CIS India published earlier this year, AI could help add USD 957 billion to the Indian economy by 2035. Of the USD 5.5 billion that was raised by global digital healthcare companies in July-September 2017 quarter, at least 16 Indian Healthcare IT companies received funding, the report said. State governments are also providing support to AI start-ups.

AI is capable of solving various healthcare challenges in India. The technological innovation is proving to be beneficial in diagnosis procedure, monitoring of chronic conditions, assisting in robotic surgery, drug discovery etc. Among several companies that are exploring various uses of AI in the healthcare segment, Microsoft is taking a major initiative along with Apollo and other hospitals to expand its use in several segments like cardiology, eye-care, diseases like Tuberculosis, HIV etc.

Healthcare start-ups are majorly engaging themselves in the use of Artificial Intelligence.

A list of six healthcare start-ups that are using Artificial Intelligence in India:

Niramai, a Bengaluru-based start-up founded in the year 2016, is using AI for pain-free breast cancer screening.
MUrgency, a Mumbai-based healthcare mobile application is helping people connect in need of medical emergency responses with qualified medical, safety, rescue and assistance professionals.
Advancells, a Noida-based start-up provides stem cell therapy, also known as regenerative therapy, has a large potential in the field of organ transplantation.
Portea, a Bengaluru-based start-up offers home visits from doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and technicians for patients. Patients who are unable to visit hospitals can receive assistance from doctors and medical professionals using remote diagnostics and monitoring equipments, point-of-care devices.
AddressHealth, a Bengaluru-based start-up provides primary pediatric healthcare services to school children where they are screened for hearing, vision, dental health, anthropometry, alongside a medical competition.
LiveHealth, a Pune-based start-up works as a management information system (MIS) for healthcare providers. It collects samples, manages patient records, diagnoses them and generates reports.

Artificial Intelligence, the next-gen innovative thing will act as an “invisible hand” in revolutionising the healthcare sector and is expected to grow in India to USD 372 billion by 2022.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/media-india-group-june-27-2018-binita-punwani-rise-of-ai-in-indian-healthcare-industry

The AI Task Force Report - The first steps towards India’s AI framework

Elonnai Hickok, Shweta Mohandas and Swaraj Paul Barooah — 2018-06-27T14:32:56Z

The Task Force on Artificial Intelligence was established by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to leverage AI for economic benefits, and provide policy recommendations on the deployment of AI for India.

The blog post was edited by Swagam Dasgupta. Download PDF here

The Task Force’s Report, released on March 21st 2018, is a result of the combined expertise of members from different sectors and examines how AI will benefit India. It sheds light on the Task Force’s perception of AI, the sectors in which AI can be leveraged in India, the challenges endemic to India and certain ethical considerations. It concludes with a set of policy recommendations for the government to leverage AI for the next five years. While acknowledging AI as a social and economic problem solver, the Report attempts to answer three policy questions:

What are the areas where government should play a role?
How can AI improve quality of life and solve problems at scale for Indian citizens?
What are the sectors that can generate employment and growth by the use of AI technology?

This blog will look at how the Task Force answered these three policy questions. In doing so, it gives an overview of salient aspects and reflects on the strengths and weaknesses of the Report.

Sectors of Relevance and Challenges

In order to navigate the outlined questions, the Report looks at ten sectors that it refers to as ‘domains of relevance to India’. Furthermore, it examines the use of AI along with its major challenges, and possible solutions for each sector. These sectors include: Manufacturing, FinTech, Agriculture, Healthcare, Technology for the Differently-abled, National Security, Environment, Public Utility Services, Retail and Customer Relationship, and Education. While these ten domains are part of the 16 domains of focus listed in the AITF’s web page, it would have been useful to know the basis on which these sectors were identified. A particular strength of the identified sectors is the consideration of technology for the differently abled as well as the recognition to the development of AI systems in spoken and sign languages in the Indian context.

Some of the problems endemic to India that were recognized include infrastructural barriers, managing scale and innovation, and the collection, validation and distribution of data. The Task Force also noted the lack of consumer awareness, and inability of technology providers to explain benefits to end users as further challenges. The Task Force — by putting the onus on the individual — seems to hint that the impediment to the uptake of technology is the inability of individuals to understand the benefits of the technology, rather than aspects such as poor design, opacity, or misuse of data and insights. Furthermore, although the Report recognizes the challenges associated to data in India and highlights the importance of quality and quantity of data; it overlooks the importance of data curation in creatinge reliable AI systems.

Although the Report examines challenges to AI in each sector, it fails to include all challenges that require addressal. For example, the report fails to acknowledge challenges such as the lack of appropriate certification systems for AI driven health systems and technologies. In the manufacturing sector, the Report fails to highlight contextual challenges associated with the use of AI. This includes the deployment of autonomous vehicles compared to the use of industrial robots.

On the use of AI in retail, the Report while examining consumer data and its respective regulatory policies, identified the issues to be related to the definition, discrimination, data breaches, digital products and safety awareness and reporting standards. In this, the Report is limited in its understanding of what categories of data can lead to discrimination and restricts mechanisms for transparency and accountability to data breaches. The Report could have also been more forward looking in its position on security — including security by design and security by default. Furthermore, these issues were noted only in the context of the retail sector and ideally should have been discussed across all sectors.

The challenges for utilizing AI for national security could have been examined beyond cost and capacity to include associated ethical and legal challenges such as the need for legal backing. The use of AI in national security demands clear accountability and oversight as it is a ground for legitimate state interference with fundamental rights such as privacy and freedom of expression. As such, there is a need for human rights impact assessments, as well as a need for such uses to be aligned with international human rights norms. Government initiatives that allow country wide surveillance and AI decisions based on such data should ideally be implemented only after a comprehensive privacy law is in place and India’s surveillance regime has been revisited.

Recognizing the potential of AI for the benefit of the differently abled is one of the key takeaways from this section of the Report. Furthermore, it also brings in the need for AI inclusivity. AI in natural language generation and translation systems have the potential to help the large number of youth that are disabled or deprived. Therefore, AI could have a large positive impact through inclusive growth and empowerment.

Although the Report examines each of the ten domains in an attempt to provide an insight into the role the government can play, there seems to be a lack of clarity in terms of the role that each department will and is playing with respect to AI. Even the section which lays down the relevant ministries for each of the ten domains failed to include key ministries and departments. For example, the Report does not identify the Ministry of Education, nor does it list the Ministry of Law for national security. The Report could have also identified government departments which would be responsible for regulation and standardization. This could include the Medical Council of India (healthcare), CII (manufacture and retail), RBI (Fintech) etc. The Report also does not recognize other developments around AI emerging out the government. For example, the Draft National Digital Communications Policy (published on May 1, 2018) seeks to empower the Department of Telecommunication to provide a roadmap for AI and robotics. Along similar lines, the Department of Defence Production has also created a task force earlier this year to study the use of AI to accelerate military technology and economic growth. The government should look at building a cohesive AI government body, or clearly delineating the role of each ministry, in order to ensure harmonization going forward.

Areas in need of Government Intervention

The Report also lists out the grand challenges where government intervention is required. This includes data collection and management and the need for widespread expertise contributing to research, innovation, and response. However, while highlighting the need for AI experts from diverse backgrounds, it fails to include experts from law and policy into the discussion. While identifying manufacturing, agriculture, healthcare and public utility to be places where government intervention is needed, the Report failed to examine national security beyond an important domain to India and as a sector where government intervention is needed.

Participation in International Forums

Another relevant concern that the Report underscores is India’s scarce participation as researchers, AI developers and government engagement in global discussions around AI. The Report states that although efforts were being made by Indian universities to increase their presence in international AI conferences, they were lagging behind other nations. On the subject of participation by the government it recommends regular presence in International AI policy forums. Hence, emphasising the need for India’s active participation in global conversations around AI and international rulemaking.

Key Enablers to AI

The Report while analysing the key enablers for AI deployment in India states that positive societal attitudes will be the driving force behind the proliferation of AI. Although relying on positive social attitudes alone will not help in increasing the trust on AI, steps such as making algorithms that are used by public bodies public, enacting a data protection law etc. will be important in enabling trust beyond highlighting success stories.

Data and Data Marketplaces

While the Report identifies data as a challenge where government intervention is needed, it also points to the Aadhaar ecosystem as an enabler. It states that Aadhaar will help in the proliferation of AI in three ways: one as a creator of jobs as related to the collection and digitization of data, two as a collector of reliable data, and three as a repository of Indian data. However, since the very constitutionality of Aadhaar is yet to be determined by the Supreme Court, the task force should have used caution in identifying Aadhaar as a definitive solution. Especially while making statements that the Aadhaar along with the SC judgement has created adequate frameworks to protect consumer data. Additionally, the Task Force should have recognized the various concerns that have been voiced about Aadhaar, particularly in the context of the case before the Supreme Court.

This section also proposes the creation of a Digital Data Marketplace. A data marketplace needs to be framed carefully so as to not create a situation where privacy becomes a right available to only those who can afford it. It is concerning that the discussion on data protection and privacy in the Report is limited to policies and guidelines for businesses and not centered around the individual.

Innovation and Patents

The Report states that the Indian startups working in the field of AI must be encouraged, and industry collaborations and funding must be taken up as a policy measure. One of the ways in which this could be achieved is by encouraging innovations, and one of the ways to do so is by adding a commercial incentive to it, such as through IP rights. Although the Report calls for a stronger IP regime that protects and incentivises innovation, it remains ambiguous as to which aspect of IP rights — patents, trade secrets and copyrights — need significant changes. If the Report is specifically advocating for stronger patent rights in order to match those of China and US, then it shows that the the task force fails to understand the finer aspects of Indian patent law and the history behind India’s stance on patenting. This includes the fact that Indian patent law excludes algorithms from being patented. Indian patent law, by providing a higher threshold for patenting computer related inventions (CRIs), ensures that only truly innovative patents are granted. Given the controversies over CRIs that have dotted the Indian patent landscape, the task force would have done well to provide more clarity on the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of patenting in this sector, if that is their intent with this suggestion.

Ethical AI framework

Responsible AI

In terms of establishing an ethical AI framework, the Task Force suggests measures such as making AI explainable, transparent, and auditable for biases. The Report addresses the fact that currently with the increase in human and AI interaction there is a need to have new standards set for the deployment of AI as well as industrial standards for robots. However, the Report does not go into details of how AI could cause further bias based on various identifiers such as gender and caste, as well as the myriad concerns around privacy and security. This is especially a concern given that the Report envisions widespread use of AI in all major sectors. In this way, the Report looks at data as both a challenge and an enabler, but fails to dedicate time towards explaining the various ethical considerations behind the collection and use of data in the context of privacy, security and surveillance as well as account for unintended consequences. In laying out the ethical considerations associated with AI, the report does not make a distinction between the use of AI by the public sector and private sector. As the government is responsible for ensuring the rights of citizens and holds more power than the citizenry, the public sector needs to be more accountable in their use of AI. This is especially so in cases where AI is proposed to be used for sovereign functions such as national security.

Privacy and Data

The Report also recognises the significance of the implementation of the Aadhaar Act, the privacy judgement and the proposed data protection laws, on the development and use of AI for India. Yet, the Report does not seem to recognize the importance of a robust and multi-faceted privacy framework as it assumes that the Aadhaar Act and the Supreme Court Judgement on privacy and potential privacy law have already created a basis for safe and secure utilization and sharing of customer data. Although the Report has tried to be an expansive examination of various aspects of AI for India, it unfortunately has not looked in depth at the current issues and debates around AI privacy and ethics and makes policy recommendations without appearing to fully reflect on the implementation and potential impact of the same. Similar to the discussion paper by the Niti Aayog, this Report does not consider the emerging principles of data protection such as right to explanation and right to opt-out of automated processing, which directly relate to AI. Furthermore, there is a lack of discussion on issues such as data minimisation and purpose limitation which some big data and AI proponents argue against.

Liability

On the question of liability, the Report only states that specific liability mechanisms need to be worked out for certain categories of machines. The Report does not address the questions of liability that should be applicable to all AI systems, and on whom the duty of care lies, not only in case of robots but also in the case of automated decision making etc. Thus, there is a need for further thinking on mechanisms for determining liability and how these could apply to different types of AI (deep learning models and other machine learning models) and AI systems.

AI and Employment

On the topic of jobs and employment, the Report states that AI will create more jobs than it takes as a result of an increase in the number of companies and avenues created by AI technologies. Additionally, the Report provides examples of jobs where AI could replace the human (autonomous drivers, industrial robots etc,) but does not go as far as envisioning what jobs could be created directly from this replacement. Though the Report recognizes emerging forms of work such as crowdsourcing platforms like Mturk, it fails to examine the impact of such models of work on workers and traditional labour market structures and processes. Going forward, it will be important that the government and the private sector undertake the necessary steps to ensure that fair, protected, and fulfilling jobs are created simultaneously with the adoption of AI. This will include revisiting national and organizational skilling programmes, labor laws, social benefit schemes, relevant economic policies, and exploring best practices with respect to the adoption and integration of AI in work.

Education and Re-skilling

The task force emphasised the need for a change in the education curriculum as well as the need to reskill the labour force to ensure an AI ready future. This level of reskilling will be a massive effort, and a thorough review and audit of existing skilling programmes in India is needed before new skilling programmes are established and financed. The Report also clarifies that the statistics used were based on a study on the IT component of the industry, and that a similar study was required to analyse AI’s effect on the automation component. Going forward, there is the need for a comprehensive study of the labour intensive sectors and formal and informal sectors to develop evidence based policy responses.

Policy Recommendations

The Task Force_, in its policy recommendations, notes that the successful adoption of AI in India will depend on three factors: people, process and technology. However, it does not explain these three factors any further.

National Artificial Intelligence Mission

The most significant suggestion made in the Report is for the establishment of the National Artificial Intelligence Mission (N-AIM) — a centralised nodal agency for coordinating and facilitating research, collaboration and providing economic impetuous to AI startups. The mission with a budget allocation of Rs 1,200 crore over five years aims, among other things, to look at various ways to encourage AI research and deployment. Some of the suggestions include targeting and prototyping AI systems and setting up of a generic AI test bed. These suggestions seems to draw inspiration from other countries such as the US DARPA Challenge and Japan’s sandbox for self driving trucks. The establishment of N-AIM is a welcome step to encourage both AI research and development on a national scale. The availability of public funds will encourage more AI research and development.Additionally, government engagement in AI projects has thus far been fragmentedand a centralised body will presumably bring about better coordination and harmonization. Some of the initiatives such as Capture the flag competition that seeks to centre around the provision for real datasets to catalyze innovation will need to be implemented with appropriate safeguards in place.

Other recommendations

There are other suggestions that are problematic — particularly that of funding “an inter-disciplinary large data integration center in pilot mode to develop an autonomous AI Machine that can work on multiple data streams in real time and provide relevant information and predictions to public across all domains.” Before such a project is developed and implemented there are a number of factors where legal clarity is required; a few being: data collection and use, accuracy and quality of the AI system. There is also a need to ensure that bias and discrimination have been accounted for and fairness, responsibility and liability have been defined with consideration that this will be a government driven AI system. Additionally, such systems should be transparent by design and should include redress mechanisms for potential harms that may arise. This can be through the presence of a human in the loop, or the existence of a kill switch. These should be addressed through ethical principles, standards, and regulatory frameworks.

The recommendations propose establishing operation standards for data storage and privacy, communication standards for autonomous systems, and standards to allow for interoperability between AI based systems. A significant lacuna in this list is the development of safety, accuracy, and quality standards for AI algorithms and systems.

Similarly, although the proposed public private partnership model for research and startups is a good idea, this initiative should be undertaken only after questions such as the implications of liability, ownership of IP and data, and the exclusion of critical sectors are thought through.

Furthermore, the suggestion to ‘fund a national level survey on identification of cluster of clean annotated data necessary for building effective AI systems’ needs to recognize the existing initiatives around open data or use this as a starting place. The Report does not clarify if this survey would involve identifying data.

Conclusion

The inconspicuous release of the Report as well as the lack of a call for public comments results in the fact that the Report does not incorporate or reflect on the sentiments of the public or draw upon the expertise that exists in India on the topic or policies around emerging technologies, which will have a pervasive and wide effect on society. The need for multi stakeholder engagement and input cannot be understated. Nonetheless, the Report of the Task Force is a welcome step towards understanding the movement towards an definitive AI policy. The task force has attempted answering the three policy questions keeping people, process and technology in mind. However, it could have provided greater details about these indices. The Report, which is meant for a wider audience, would have done well to provide greater detail, while also providing clarity on technical terms. On a definitional plane, a list of technologies that the task force perceived as AI for this Report, could have also helped keep it grounded on possible and plausible 5 year recommendations.

Compared to the recent Niti Aayog Discussion Paper, this Report misses out on a detailed explanation on AI and ethics, however, it does spend some considerable amount of time on education and the use of AI for the differently abled. Additionally, the Report’s statement on the democratization of development and equal access as well as assigning ownership and framing transparent rules for usage of the infrastructure is a positive step towards making AI inclusive. Overall, the Report is a progressive step towards laying down India’s path forward in the field of Artificial Intelligence. The emphasis on India’s involvement in International rulemaking gives India an opportunity to be a leader of best practice in international forums by adopting forward looking and human rights respecting practices. Whether India will also become a strong contender in the AI race, with policies favouring the development of a socio-economically beneficial, and ethical-AI backed industries and services is yet to be seen.

The Task Force consists of 18 members in total. Of these, 11 members are from the field of AI technology both research and industry, three from the civil services, one from healthcare research, one with and Intellectual property law background, and two from a finance background. The specializations of the members are not limited to one area as the members have experience or education in various areas relevant to AI. https://www.aitf.org.in// There is a notable lack of members from Civil Society. It may also be noted that only 2 of the 18 members are women

The Report on the Artificial Intelligence Task Force, Pg. 1,http://dipp.nic.in/sites/default/files/Report_of_Task_Force_on_ArtificialIntelligence_20March2018_2.pdf

ibid.

The Artificial Intelligence Task Force https://www.aitf.org.in/

The Report on the Artificial Intelligence Task Force, Pg. 8

The Report on the Artificial Intelligence Task Force, Pg. 9,10.

The Report on the Artificial Intelligence Task Force, Pg. 9

ibid.

Artificial Intelligence in the Healthcare Industry in India https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/files/ai-and-healtchare-report

Artificial Intelligence in the Manufacturing and Services Sector https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/files/AIManufacturingandServices_Report _02.pdf

The Report on the Artificial Intelligence Task Force, Pg. 21.

Submission to the Committee of Experts on a Data Protection Framework for India, Centre for Internet and Society https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/files/data-protection-submission

The Report on the Artificial Intelligence Task Force, Pg. 22

Draft National Digital Communications Policy-2018, http://www.dot.gov.in/relatedlinks/draft-national-digital-communications-policy-2018

Task force set up to study AI application in military,https://indianexpress.com/article/technology/tech-news-technology/task-force-set-up-to-study-ai-application-in-military-5049568/

It is not just technical experts that are needed, ethical, technical, and legal experts as well as domain experts need to be part of the decision making process.

The Report on the Artificial Intelligence Task Force, Pg. 31

Constitutional validity of Aadhaar: the arguments in Supreme Court so far, http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/constitutional-validity-of-aadhaar-the-arguments-in-supreme-court-so-far/article22752084.ece

ibid.

CIS Submission to TRAI Consultation on Free Data http://trai.gov.in/Comments_FreeData/Companies_n_Organizations/Center_For_Internet_and_Society.pdf

The Report on the Artificial Intelligence Task Force, Pg. 30

Section 3(k) of the patent act describes that a mere mathematical or business method or a computer programme or algorithm cannot be patented.

Patent Office Reboots CRI Guidelines Yet Again: Removes “novel hardware” Requirement

https://spicyip.com/2017/07/patent-office-reboots-cri-guidelines-yet-again-removes-novel-hardware-requirement.html

The Report on the Artificial Intelligence Task Force, Pg. 37

The Report on the Artificial Intelligence Task Force, Pg. 7

ibid.

The Report on the Artificial Intelligence Task Force, Pg. 8

National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence: http://niti.gov.in/writereaddata/files/document_publication/NationalStrategy-for-AI-Discussion-Paper.pdf

Meaningful information and the right to explanation,Andrew D Selbst Julia Powles, International Data Privacy Law, Volume 7, Issue 4, 1 November 2017, Pages 233–242

The Principle of Purpose Limitation and Big Data, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319467399_The_Principle_of_Purpose_Limitation_and_Big_Data

M-Turk https://www.mturk.com/

For example a lesser threshold of minimum wages, no job secuirity etc, https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guilty-planet/httpblogsscientificamericancomguilty-planet20110707the-pros-cons-of-amazon-mechanical-turk-for-scientific-surveys/

The Report on the Artificial Intelligence Task Force, Pg. 41

Report of Artificial Intelligence Task Force Pg, 46, 47

ibid.

The DARPAChallenge https://www.darpa.mil/program/darpa-robotics-challenge

Japan may set regulatory sandboxes to test drones and self driving vehicles http://techwireasia.com/2017/10/japan-may-set-regulatory-sandboxes-test-drones-self-driving-vehicles/

Mariana Mazzucato in her 2013 book The Entrepreneurial State, argued that it was the government that drives technological innovation. In her book she stated that high-risk discovery and development were made possible by government spending, which the private enterprises capitalised once the difficult work was done.

https://tech.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/technology/govt-of-karnataka-launches-centre-of-excellence-for-data-science-and-artificial-intelligence/61689977,https://analyticsindiamag.com/amaravati-world-centre-for-ai-data/

The Report on the Artificial Intelligence Task Force, Pg. 47

Report of Artificial Intelligence Task Force Pg. 49

The Report on the Artificial Intelligence Task Force, Pg. 47

The AI task force website has a provision for public comments although it is only for the vision and mission and the domains mentioned in the website.

National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence: http://niti.gov.in/writereaddata/files/document_publication/NationalStrategy-for-AI-Discussion-Paper.pdf

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-ai-task-force-report-the-first-steps-towards-indias-ai-framework