Centre for Internet and Society

The Dangers Of Birdsong

praskrishna — 2014-02-12T10:29:10Z

Instant gratification? Social media can quickly turn the game into checkmate if you don’t keep your emotions in check.

Namrata Joshi's article was published in Outlook on January 25, 2014. Sunil Abraham is quoted.

“Woke up from a dream in which I had just learned that I was going to keep wickets for India. In my dream, I thought, let me share this news on Twitter. I didn’t, fearing I would be made a laughing stock.” These are few of a series of stream of consciousness tweets about a dream posted this Monday by author-academician Amitava Kumar. Tweets that don’t just have to do with dreaming of a personal achievement, but also about tweeting it. “Twitter has invaded even our sleeping life,” says Amitava on an e-mail but also admits that he didn’t think for a moment that he was sharing something private in a public place while tweeting his reverie. “Instead, perhaps, I was seeking a private connection with a lot of readers.” Which he did rustle up in good measure. He followed it up by tweeting a picture of his son with him, taken by his 10-year-old daughter Ila, as a homage to a similar photostream by author- photographer-art historian Teju Cole.

Amitava’s unfussy and creative candidness about tweeting things personal, which he prefers to see as “grappling with a form of writing” came in the wake of a weekend of vigorous debate on how social media platforms were bringing the private under unblinking public scrutiny—the immediate hook being the sudden, tragic death of Sunanda Pushkar after her no-holds-barred Twitter war with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar (over the latter’s alleged liaison with her husband Shashi Tharoor, which was consumed with much amusement by their vicarious, at times vicious, followers). The Tharoor incident is not a stand-alone case. Be it a confidentiality clause or diplomatic tact, a professional decision or personal affair or even a death of someone close to you, social media has become a stage to play out the classified and the confidential (see infographic) by the celebrities and the aam aadmi alike. The payback? Spats, comebacks, breakdowns, meltdowns, resignations, embarrassments, humiliations, kerfuffles....

And it’s not something confined to India alone. “US Congressman Anthony Weiner’s tweet of his, let’s call it, torso, to a young woman in Seattle is perhaps the most egregious example of a US politician behaving badly online,” says Amitava. No surprise then that Weiner became a butt of late-night comedy shows.

But the larger question here is why. Why this urge and urgency to share it all? What is it about a platform like Twitter or Facebook that makes people bare and dare? Is it that the immediacy, speed and reach allows them the easiest way to extend the boundaries of their secluded, lonely lives, get instant attention and fan the curiosity of someone out there who they don’t even know? And why is propriety and moderation getting thrown out of the window in the world of virtual exchanges? Adman-columnist Santosh Desai calls Twitter a “broadcast system to the universe”. The tweets are often “thought bubbles”, “something you mutter” without a full sense of what public means. “The spur of the moment opinion or feeling acquires public currency,” he says. “The unraveling of the human being, the opening up of the closed box then becomes a new source of stimulation and pleasure,” he says. “I sometimes wonder how we shared before Twitter. We talk about what we like, don’t like at the drop of a hat. At times you are vulnerable and vent things out without an agenda and without knowing the repercussions. We creative bunch are like that,” says popular actress Divya Dutta.

According to Sunil Abraham, executive director of the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, private information is a currency in the global attention economy. “One of the many ways of climbing the attention economy is to divulge private information. Those in public life like filmstars and socialites understand this completely and exploit all traditional broadcast channels and contemporary multicast channels like social media to amass public attention,” he says. Look closely and the online space is no different from the real. There are as many exceptions as there are rules. So for every exhibitionist handle that exploits our latent voyeurism, there is a Natasha Badhwar, one of the most life-affirming presences on Twitter. For her, like Amitava, sharing is a mode of expression. “Sharing gives us agency. We take back the power to tell our story, express our views, share our version in our own words,” she says. According to her, “honest” sharing fuels empathy. “It is contagious, it makes the reader want to share too,” she says. And from that sharing could emerge a new pool of acquaintances, friends and well-wishers. It may not be a virtual escape from the real but a journey and connect back to the actual, an expansion of the human circle than a depletion of it.

But not all our friends and followers need necessarily be sympathetic. Often they are also brutally savage. “The anonymity allows people to say exactly what they want without considering the implications. They don’t realise that it’s not just a handle but a human being they are talking to,” says Nikhil Pahwa, founder of medianama.com. Amitava compares it to drone warfare. “The technology of remote destruction has introduced a new experience of war, and a new logic of killing. You can kill with greater abandon; you can strike in unexpected places; you are confronted with few consequences of your fatal mistakes. Similarly, Twitter allows a mode of social exchange with less culpability. There are very few consequences for trolls, but disastrous ones for their victims,” he says.

But surely that doesn’t mean that you blur all the lines between the private and the public? How to exercise caution? How much to open up (or not) and how much of your core to keep to yourself? Life, after all, is too complex and fragile for blame games and finger-pointing at social media alone. It’s those using it who need to own up. “People need to take responsibility for what they say. It’s like someone telling me how he was abused for 15 minutes on the phone when he could have easily cut the call,” says Nikhil Pahwa. “It’s a modern form of communication which you have to embrace but there’s a line you must draw. For instance, my wife and I never interact on FB or Twitter. I keep the family to myself. Jokes are fine but I don’t abuse or use swear words,” says actor Ashwin Mushran. “There has to be a sense of decorum. I won’t put out what I gossip about with my friends. I have no strategy but am guarded by my own belief system,” says actor Rajat Kapoor.

“It’s normal human nature to express. Be it anger or frustration, as a counsellor I tell people to not suppress emotions but some moderation and etiquette need to apply in cyber space,” says Mukta Puntambekar deputy director of Pune-based Muktangan Rehabilitation Centre. “You have to accept that your followers and friends will have access to details about you. You have to exercise discretion in saving something of yourself for yourself. There are areas that need not be opened up for all,” says actor-comedian Vir Das, who recently posted an open letter on FB—‘Twitter Bad? Facebook Evil? or We Stupid?’—on the pointlessness of blaming social media for the Tharoor family tragedy. To extend the argument further, and add another layer to it, aren’t we also living in times when privacy itself is evolving, asks Rajesh Lalwani, CEO of blogworks and a self-confessed people-watcher. “My grandmother would not even eat in public. But we eat in restaurants, on the streets,” he says.

Privacy is also becoming an ambiguous, vague and complex entity. Getting tagged in a friend’s photo compromises your privacy without your involvement or participation. “The line between private and public has mostly dissolved because of the temporal persistence of digital traces in cyberspace, the global nature of the network and the ubiquitous and pervasive surveillance state,” says Abraham. “On Twitter and FB, things get circulated...what we put up, whether it’s a tweet, an update or a picture, is permanent unlike memory,” says Desai. The digital trail stays online. “We are leaving our digital footprints behind. What we post might be easy but the implications of it are complicated,” says writer, filmmaker and media observer Amit Khanna.

According to him, there is a gap between the progression of technology and society. “There are newer windows but our minds are not growing apace to handle the connected world in a mature way,” he says. So one needs to be additionally circumspect about what we do online, how much of us we put out there. The ‘creative minds’ don’t see it as cut and dried. Natasha thinks that sharing can make people vulnerable to ridicule. “Confronting and embracing that vulnerability is the only way forward. These are not real fears to cling to, these are fears to shed as we grow and realise the extent of our individual power.” Amitava says he has seen several careers destroyed because of a single tweet. But he’d hate to back down and be cautious. As he puts it, “You’ve got to push the envelope and experiment with expression. I hope that when my wrong moment comes, people will be forgiving.” Amen to that.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/outlook-namrata-joshi-january-25-2014-dangers-of-birdsong

The Curious Incidents on Matrimonial Websites in India

Abhimanyu Roy — 2016-08-30T10:52:50Z

This essay by Abhimanyu Roy is part of the 'Studying Internet in India' series. The author explores how the curious interplays between the arranged marriage market in India the rise of matrimonial sites such as Jeevansathi.com and Shaadi.com. The gravity of the impact that such web-based services have on the lives of users is substantially greater than most other everyday web-enabled transactions, such as an Uber ride or a Foodpanda order. From outright fraud to online harassment, newspaper back pages are filled with nightmare stories that begin on a matrimonial website. So much so that the Indian government has set up a panel to regulate matrimonial sites. The essay analyses the role of matrimonial websites in modern day India, and the challenges this awkward amalgamation of the internet and love gives rise to.

A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.
— Mignon McLaughlin [1]

People say ours is an arranged marriage. In a way, our meeting was arranged by our parents but eventually it was the two of us who decided on the marriage. We met and went out together for a few times. We dated for a while and then agreed to marry...
— Madhuri Dixit [2]

Mignon McLaughlin was a pioneer American journalist. Madhuri Dixit is one of the most popular Indian film actresses in recent memory. They are both women who have led very public lives and they have also had long and happy marriages. Yet, their quotes offer an insight into the very different ways in which they began their marital lives. Unlike the West, love is not inextricably linked to marriage in India. A number of factors such as class, race, caste and financial considerations come into the picture in matrimony – it is not far-fetched to think Ms. Dixit’s parents would not have introduced her to her future groom if he did not fulfill certain criteria.

This makes internet-enabled disruption extremely complex. Any system that aims to disrupt needs to take into consideration systemic elements. E.g. Uber needs to consider fuel prices, regulations, economic fluctuations and real-time demand while setting their prices. However, when unpredictable emotions, sociology and psychological states of not just the individuals involved in the union but also others such as their families come into the picture, things become incredibly complicated. This gives rise to a number of unwanted situations from fraud to blackmail. At the same time, websites such as Jeevansathi.com and Shaadi.com continue to gain more users – an indication that a lot of people have found their life partners on these platforms. To gain an understanding of this situation, let us first ask a question – who is the modern Indian?

Identity Crash

In their contribution to the 2002 book Building Virtual Communities, Dorian Wiszniewski and Richard Coyne first put forth the concept of the mask in the context of online interactions. The authors stated that idiosyncrasies of internet interactions – lack of physical presence, relative anonymity etc. – allowed individuals to reveal more about self-identity than conventional social interactions [3]. In particular, the authors point out that the choices that online contributors make regarding their profiles, style of writing and topics that they follow represent an ideal version of themselves as opposed to their offline social identity which depends more on the perceptions of others about the individual.

Perhaps no-where is this more evident than the modern online media landscape in India. A look at some of the most popular content on the Indian sub-sections of Buzzfeed, Huffington Post and YouTube presents a revealing picture of modern young India that runs counter to the conventional notion of family-centricity and social conservatism. Channels such as Being Indian on YouTube that has videos asking Bengaluru citizens about penis sizes and Mumbaikars on office romances, content produced by popular Buzzfeed authors such as Rega Jha and Sahil Rizwan and hard-hitting editorials from outlets such as Quartz and Huffington Post regarding love, marriage, sexuality and abuse reflect an undercurrent of social liberalism that is unseen in conventional social circles.

But for all that online liberalism, a 2013 survey commissioned by the Taj Group of Hotels and carried out by market research agency IPSOS revealed that 75% of Indians in the age group of 18 to 35 preferred arranged marriages [4]. What explains this apparent cognitive dissonance? A possible answer comes from a study commissioned by the UK government in 2013. The study called ‘What is the relationship between identities that people construct, express and consume online and those offline?’ posits that it is easier to deconstruct online identities compared to offline ones – upload pictures, share content, post status updates. The offline identity, on the other hand, has a sense of permanence associated with it and more difficult to rebuild. In clash between a malleable identity and a permanent one, the permanent one wins out [5].

This gives rise to an interesting conundrum – is it possible for one to take a decision for their offline identity based on information provided by someone who is representing their online self?

Shaadi

Anupam Mittal was working in a business intelligence firm in America during the dot com boom. Every year he used to visit his family back in India. On one of these visits in 1997, he had a chance meeting with a match-maker. After wriggling his way out of the encounter (there were many uncomfortable personal questions for his liking), he came up with an idea for a portal where prospective brides and grooms would be able to upload their profiles and cut out the middleman in India’s marriage ecosystem. This idea led to sagaai.com, which would eventually become shaadi.com [6].

By 2008, Shaadi.com was one of India’s five most popular websites. It had over 300 million page views each month and 6000 profiles were added every day [7]. Since then, the online matrimony market has become more segmented and numerous clones have cropped up – most notably, Jeevansaathi.com and BharatMatrimony.com. While this has somewhat taken the sheen off from Shaadi’s dominance, the portal still remains the market leader in India.

In the numerous interviews that Mittal has given since the launch of Shaadi, he always attributes the success of the portal to one attribute – it makes the process of marriage easier [8]. This statement, however simple it may seem on the surface, actually encompasses a number of factors – a wider pool of prospective spouses, circumventing match-makers, objective representation, and testimonials of satisfied clients. However, collating a large number of prospective brides and grooms and facilitating the union is not a new phenomenon. It has been around for years in India – centuries in fact.

For a very long time, parents who wanted their children to be wedded in India would contact a marriage broker. This individual (or in some cases, agency) would keep on record the details of a large number of prospective life partners. Thereafter, much like a recruitment agency, they would match the details to the request of their clients and arrange a meeting. As news media began to grow in prominence in the nation, matrimony-seekers started to find a way around marriage brokers. This led to the emergence of matrimonial ads in newspapers [9]. The main advantage that matrimonial ads had was that they allowed people access to a huge number of prospective spouses – a much larger pool than those of marriage brokers [10].

To understand why matrimonial websites supplanted both brokers and newspaper advertisements one has to look at the deficiencies in both systems. Brokers while primarily only facilitating introductions actually impact every facet of the wedding [11]. They would make the wedding arrangements, find the purohit (priest), fix the guest list, determine astrological suitability and (in the past) even negotiate the dowry. In each of these transactions, the broker has a profit motive, which is what makes brokers a very troubling medium – they have an incentive to do what is best for them and not for their clients. At its best, this might involve getting more expensive flowers for the ceremony. At its worst, they may knowingly push a bride into a marriage they know is unsuitable but would yield them greater profits.

Of course, if one wanted to not get into this system, they could always put out a matrimony ad in the newspaper. Except, the greatest advantage of matrimonial ads is also their greatest weakness. While it’s true that putting out an ad in a newspaper opened up a large number of choices for a man or woman, it also opened them up to the general public [12]. Instead of having a broker narrow down their options to a few people, the advertisers would now have to sift through a plethora of propositions – many of which they would never even consider. Shaadi was a game-changer in both these aspects. Customizability allowed users to pick and choose who was able to view their profiles on the website – thus eliminating solicitors who did not meet their criteria for a spouse [13]. At the same time, Shaadi’s revenue model limited its operations to only facilitating a meeting between the two parties. This kept in check the profit incentive that was inherent to brokers [14]. By identifying weak points in both models and catalyzing a beneficial change for the user, Shaadi.com (and other matrimonial websites) were able to gain a foothold in India’s marriage industry.

With over 2 million unions that were initiated online since the inception of Shaadi.com, it would seem as though online matrimony is a success [15]. However, there is a dark side to this phenomenon – a 2012 report by the Economic Times found that almost half the divorces in metros were by couples who met through a matrimony website. Unsurprisingly, the main reason for this was misrepresentation of details on online profiles [16].

While the increasing acceptance of online matrimony points to its popularity and the success of decision-making based on the representation of the self-identity of individuals, the high number of divorces suggests that there are clear gaps in the system that can lead to some very uncomfortable situations. An examination of the decision-making process for internet-based tractions is required to understand why online matrimony-seekers make the decisions that they do and the consequences of those choices when it comes to marriage.

Choices

Economic theory bases decision-making on the principle of utility maximization [17]. Fundamentally, given a set of choices we would pick the option that gives us the greatest benefit for the lowest cost. Individuals weigh benefits on a set of criteria that are subjective in nature and differ from person to person – Akash may like 2 chocolates and 1 ice cream for Rs. 10 but Megha might prefer 2 ice creams and 1 chocolate for Rs. 10 instead.

The basic assumption in this model is that the choices are well-defined, i.e. there is no hidden information that might change the decision-maker’s opinion. Any hidden information changes the context within which the decision is taken – Megha certainly would not prefer to have ice creams if it was very cold that day. This has serious implications for a medium where decision-making is governed by trust on the parties furnishing the decision-maker with the facts upon which to make their choice.

Although there are many factors upon which an online suitor would base their decision to pursue a potential spouse, evidence from the operation of matrimonial websites has found that there are actually six criterions that matter the most – education, religion, age, height, work area and caste.[18] Evidence about misrepresentation among these six factors in Indian matrimony is sparse. However, research into western dating websites suggests that most of the fudging tends to occur for height, age and weight [19]. It should come as no surprise that these are the hardest factors to verify – a bride’s family may ask to see proof of the groom’s employment and education but would think twice before asking to measure his height or test his age.

Ensuring honesty on a matrimonial website is a difficult proposition. The profile creators are governed by the same economic theory of decision-making that was laid out earlier. If a prospective suitor thinks he would get a better spouse by increasing their height by a couple of inches or decreasing their age by a few years, why wouldn’t they lie? On the operators’ end, verifying the truth behind any of the claims is also problematic – how do you gauge the veracity of someone’s age by a picture? The problem on the operators’ end goes much deeper though and this is where the situation starts to get murky.

While physical characteristics are the easiest ones to be deceptive about one can also lie about their educational and employment credentials. The mandate of matrimonial websites is to connect brides and grooms. The onus of verifying the truth behind the claims made by either party lies on the opposite group and not on the operators of the medium [20]. Besides, verifying whether someone went to a particular university or not or is employed in the same capacity as their claims requires resources that matrimonial websites do not possess. This gives rise to the most troubling aspect of such websites – fraud.

Deception

In 2014, a Mumbai-based woman met a man named Michael Williams who claimed to be based in the United Kingdom on BharatMatrimony.com. After some weeks of courtship, Williams had swept her off her feet. In late July of that year, he informed her that he would be visiting India but upon his arrival, he informed her that he had been detained by the customs department for carrying excessive foreign currency and would require an ‘anti-terrorist certificate’ in order to be allowed in the country. He asked her for some money – the customs department required Indian currency – and she obliged. However, after receiving her assistance she did not hear from him again. Williams had duped her out of 2.93 lakhs.

Upon contacting BharatMatrimony.com, the portal informed her that they had suspended Williams’ profile and the responsibility of verifying his claims lay with her. After a protracted legal case, the Mumbai High Court ruled that the portal was not liable for fraud [21].

This is not a unique case. Several cases of fraud, sexual abuse and harassment have occurred on matrimony websites [22]. Users have tried several mechanisms to verify the details that they are provided with on these sites. From asking probing questions to discern any possible duplicity to even hiring detectives to find the truth about their possible spouses and (more recently) checking social media profiles, men and women on matrimonial sites go to extreme lengths to determine the veracity of the information that they have been provided with [23]. However, not everyone is as vigilant and quite a few times terrible experiences ranging from theft to sexual assault have begun through a meeting on a matrimonial website [24] [25] [26].

The lack of clear regulation and policy coupled with India’s lax laws governing online transactions make it difficult to draw a line where the responsibility of the websites end and that of the users begin. Fortunately, this situation is changing.

Oversight

Governments in most countries have an unusually significant role to play in an institution that is supposed to be between two people. From inheritance laws to prohibition of certain types of unions – most prominently and controversially the Defense of Marriage Act in the United States – governments straddle a complicated middle ground between having too much influence in marital affairs to having too little.

Even so, the Indian government’s involvement in marriage in especially extensive. From anti-dowry legislation to prohibition of child marriage, the government has always had a vital role to play.

In November 2015, the Indian government decided to set up a panel that would make recommendations for the regulation of matrimonial websites in order to check abuse [27]. The initiative is an undertaking of the Women and Child Development (WCD) ministry. The panel consists of members from the WCD ministry, Home ministry and Department of Electronics and Information Technology along with representatives from matrimonial websites such as Shaadi.com and Jeevansathi.com. Ministry officials pointed out that the growing number of cases of fraud and abuse occurring on such websites was the prevailing reason for the formation of the panel.

In June 2016, the panel made its recommendations. It was now mandatory for websites to keep track of the IP addresses of its users. Documentation from users would now also be solicited to verify their identity and curb instances of fraud. Matrimonial websites are also required to now explicitly spell out that they are for matrimony and not for dating [28].

While the government has cited that these regulations are to protect users of these websites, the operators of these websites have so far declined to comment on the guidelines (at the time of writing of this essay, the full list of guidelines has not yet been made public and have not formally been presented to the operators of matrimonial websites) [29]. However, any protestations from operators notwithstanding, regulation will be an integral part of the future of matrimonial websites in India. This brings us to an important question – what indeed is the future of these websites? Will they withstand the crime that occurs on them or will they become an irreplaceable part of life in India?

Future

The online matrimony industry in India is estimated to be worth $225 million by 2017 [30]. In 2013 over 50 million new subscribers registered across these websites [31]. Despite, the stories of fraud and abuse that start on these portals and end in courts, matrimonial websites are growing and are here to stay.

Operators of these websites are undertaking various market development exercises to bring in new customers. The most visible of these is the segmentation of the market – BharatMatrimony and Shaadi, have launched a number of targeted community driven portals such as PunjabiMatrimony.com, EliteMatrimony.com, Bengalishaadi.com among others [32].

In an interview of February 2015, Gourav Rakshit Chief Operating Officer of Shaadi.com laid out operational changes that the market leader is contemplating implementing. To prevent deceptive information provided by users, stricter guidelines regarding the upload of photographs on the website are being implemented as well as the implementation of a screening procedure for profiles and the development of a stronger relationship with the cyber-crime branch of law enforcement agencies [33].

The final cog in the future of matrimony websites is technology. Mobile and real-time engagement strategies are being actively considered by these websites in their quest to drive up their user base and find new streams of revenue [34].

But this not where the journey of matrimony websites ends. As with every great voyage, its conclusion is the beginning of another great expedition. Just as Shaadi.com and others had rode the early wave of disruption in the Indian wedding industry, so too are a number of new and upcoming internet-based services. Companies such as 7Vachan, Big Indian Wedding and ShaadiMagic offer a host of options for banquet halls, priests, makeup artists, photographers etc. These startups simplify the long process that is planning an Indian wedding. Would-be brides and grooms or their families can easily connect with vendors, make their final choices and organize every aspect of the wedding in a pristine manner instead of the general chaos that ensues while planning a wedding. As these companies prove, the disruption of the wedding industry that was started by matrimonial websites will continue in the foreseeable future [35].

Conclusion

In the March 2005 issue of New York magazine, a New York-based author of Indian-origin chronicles her and her family’s trysts with arranged marriage [36]. The article titled ‘Is Arranged Marriage any worse than Craigslist?’ is an examination of the experiences of the Indian diaspora with an institution that is deeply ingrained in their identity. In it, the author recalls an experience from her childhood wherein she had fallen out of the window of their home as a baby and had broken her arm. According to her father, the primary concern of her mother was that they should never mention this incident to anyone as it would greatly increase the dowry her family would have to pay her husband. Aside from being an event that shows the contradictions that Indian expats face in a western countries, it also shows how deeply the institution of marriage is rooted in Indians’ identity.

According to UNICEF, 90% of marriages in India are arranged [37]. Parents center their children’s lives on the event right from the outset. To industrialize an environment that has such deep emotional connections within it is fraught with dangers and the online matrimony business has had to deal with fraud and abuse. But along the way, they have permanently disrupted the way Indians get married. The growing popularity of these websites are a testament not just to their efficacy but also to the spirit of a new India. Government intervention and the oversight of website operators is bringing about greater improvements in fraud detection and abuse prevention on these websites. As the market continues to evolve, bring in more users and cater to new audiences, online matrimony will continue to thrive in India for a very long time to come.

Endnotes

[1] Anonymous. (n.d.). Mignon McLaughlin. In Wikipedia. Retrieved July 31, 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mignon_McLaughlin.

[2] Anonymous. (n.d.). Madhuri Dixit Quotes. In BollyNook. Retrieved July 31, 2016, from http://www.bollynook.com/en/madhuri-dixit-quotes.

[3] Renninger, K. A., & Shumar, W. (2002). Building virtual communities: Learning and change in cyberspace. Cambridge University Press.

[4] IANS. (March 20, 2013). Indians swear by Arranged Marriage. In India Today. Retrieved July 31, 2016, from http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/indians-swear-by-arranged-marriages/1/252496.html.

[5] Miller, D. (2012). What is the relationship between identities that people construct, express and consume online and those offline?.

[6] Anonymous. (May 11, 2012). Shaadi.com’s Anupam Mittal: A Bachelor Finds Success as an Online Matchmaker. In Knowledge@Wharton. Retrieved July 31, 2016, from http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/shaadi-coms-anupam-mittal-a-bachelor-finds-success-as-an-online-matchmaker/.

[7] Challapalli, S. (October 2, 2008). Online matrimonial services open new tech fronts. In The Hindu Business Line. Retrieved July 31, 2016, from http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/todays-paper/online-matrimonial-services-open-new-tech-fronts/article1638067.ece.

[8] Pratap, R. (April 18, 2014). Right Click. In The Hindu Business Line. Retrieved July 31, 2016, from http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/blink/work/right-click/article5925468.ece.

[9] Anonymous. (March 2015). History of Matrimonial Sites. In HatkeShaadi. Retrieved August 24, 2016, from www.hatkeshaadi.com/blog/2015/03/history-of-matrimonial-sites/.

[10] Anonymous. (May 17, 2016). Are you contemplating Marriage? If Yes, Then Find A Soul-Mate via Amar Ujala. In myAdvtCorner.com. Retrieved August 24, 2016, from http://blog.myadvtcorner.com/matrimonial-newspaper-advertisement/are-you-contemplating-marriage-if-yes-then-find-a-soul-mate-via-amar-ujala/.

[11] Anonymous. (April 14, 2014). Matrimonial India sites are better than marriage brokers. In Bharat Bhasha. Retrieved August 24, 2016, from http://www.bharatbhasha.com/marriage.php/440432.

[12] Ahmed, A. (March 19, 2012). Online Matrimonial Sites versus Conventional Matrimonial Methods. In Bharat Bhasha. Retrieved August 24, 2016, from http://www.bharatbhasha.com/marriage.php/356114.

[13] Anonymous. (n.d.). Understand SimplyMarry Better. In SimplyMarry.com. Retrieved August 24, 2016, from http://www.simplymarry.com/matrimonial/faq.

[14] Anonymous. (April 14, 2014). Matrimonial India sites are better than marriage brokers. In Bharat Bhasha. Retrieved August 24, 2016, from http://www.bharatbhasha.com/marriage.php/440432.

[15] Albright, J. M., & Simmens, E. (2014). Flirting, Cheating, Dating, and Mating. The Oxford Handbook of Virtuality, 284.

[16] Julka, H. and Vishwanath, A. (June 26, 2013). Matrimony portals making serious efforts to counter rising tide of divorces, ensure lasting unions. In Economic Times. Retrieved July 31, 2016, from http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-06-26/news/40206906_1_portals-online-bharatmatrimony-com.

[17] Margalit, L. (July 4, 2014). The Rational Model and Online Decision Making. In Psychology Today. Retrieved July 31, 2016, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/behind-online-behavior/201407/the-rational-model-and-online-decision-making.

[18] Anonymous. (May 11, 2012). Shaadi.com’s Anupam Mittal: A Bachelor Finds Success as an Online Matchmaker. In Knowledge@Wharton. Retrieved July 31, 2016, from http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/shaadi-coms-anupam-mittal-a-bachelor-finds-success-as-an-online-matchmaker/.

[19] Hodge, G. (December 10, 2012). The Ugly Truth of Online Dating: Top 10 Lies Told by Internet Daters. In Huffington Post. Retrieved July 31, 2016, from http://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/online-dating-lies_b_1930053.

[20] Dhawan, H. (February 2, 2016). ID proof may become mandatory for registering on Shaadi websites. In Times of India. Retrieved July 31, 2016, from http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/ID-proof-may-become-mandatory-for-registering-on-Shaadi-websites/articleshow/50814355.cms.

[21] Khan, A. (March 29, 2015). HC quashes FIR filed by ‘duped’ woman against matrimonial site. In The Indian Express. Retrieved July 31, 2016, from http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/hc-quashes-fir-filed-by-duped-woman-against-matrimonial-site/.

[22] Nair, S. (November 19, 2015). Government panel to check fraud on matrimonial websites. In The Indian Express. Retrieved July 31, 2016, from http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/govt-panel-to-check-fraud-on-matrimonial-websites/.

[23] Hema. (September 15, 2012). Tips for assessing genuineness of a matrimonial profile. In Matrimonial Blog. Retrieved August 24, 2016, from http://matrimonialblog.com/general/2012/tips-for-assessing-genuineness-of-a-matrimonial-profile-stop-fraud/.

[24] Praveen, P. (July 11, 2015). The web of deceit. In Deccan Chronicle. Retrieved August 28, 2016, from http://www.deccanchronicle.com/150710/lifestyle-relationship/article/web-deceit.

[25] Aman, S. (November 24, 2014). Fraud and Cheats Rule Matrimonial Sites. In The New Indian Express. Retrieved August 28, 2016, from http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/hyderabad/2014/11/24/Fraud-and-Cheats-Rule-Matrimonial-Sites/article2537595.ece.

[26] Ameer, T. (August 12, 2015). Matrimonial portals set to face the music over dubious profiles. In Millenium Post. Retrieved August 28, 2016, from http://millenniumpost.in/NewsContent.aspx?NID=145048.

[27] Philip, S. (June 3, 2016). No casual hookups on matrimonial sites as govt lays down rules. In Live Mint. Retrieved July 31, 2016, from http://www.livemint.com/Politics/1PFh6Uakl1mhEaQTxzGZuK/No-casual-hookups-on-matrimonial-sites-as-government-lays-do.html.

[28] Philip, S. (June 3, 2016). No casual hookups on matrimonial sites as govt lays down rules. In Live Mint. Retrieved July 31, 2016, from http://www.livemint.com/Politics/1PFh6Uakl1mhEaQTxzGZuK/No-casual-hookups-on-matrimonial-sites-as-government-lays-do.html.

[29] Philip, S. (June 3, 2016). No casual hookups on matrimonial sites as govt lays down rules. In Live Mint. Retrieved July 31, 2016, from http://www.livemint.com/Politics/1PFh6Uakl1mhEaQTxzGZuK/No-casual-hookups-on-matrimonial-sites-as-government-lays-do.html.

[30] PTI. (December 17, 2013). Online matrimony business likely to touch Rs. 1,500 cr by 2017. In The Hindu Business Line. Retrieved July 31, 2016, from http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/info-tech/online-matrimony-business-likely-to-touch-rs-1500-cr-by-2017/article5470871.ece.

[31] Ganapathy, N. (June 15, 2016). More fraud cases as India embraces marriage sites. In Straits Times. Retrieved July 31, 2016, from http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/more-fraud-cases-as-india-embraces-marriage-sites.

[32] afaqs! News Bureau. (September 9, 2009). Bharatmatrimony.com unveils 250 community based matrimonial sites. In afaqs!. Retrieved July 31, 2016, from http://www.afaqs.com/news/story/24904_Bharatmatrimonycom-unveils-250-community-based-matrimonial-sites.

[33] Nair, S. (February 16, 2015). Mobile will disrupt matrimonial space in India, says Gourav Rakshit of Shaadi.com. In First Post. Retrieved July 31, 2016, from http://www.firstpost.com/business/corporate-business/mobile-will-disrupt-matrimonial-space-in-india-says-gourav-rakshit-of-shaadi-com-2097637.html.

[34] Nair, S. (February 16, 2015). Mobile will disrupt matrimonial space in India, says Gourav Rakshit of Shaadi.com. In First Post. Retrieved July 31, 2016, from http://www.firstpost.com/business/corporate-business/mobile-will-disrupt-matrimonial-space-in-india-says-gourav-rakshit-of-shaadi-com-2097637.html.

[35] Soni, S. (September 19, 2015). The great Indian wedding is now an online affair . In Entrepreneur India. Retrieved August 24, 2016, from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/250863.

[36] Jain, A. (March 2005). Is Arranged Marriage Really Any Worse Than Craigslist?. In New York Magazine. Retrieved July 31, 2016, from http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/culture/features/11621/index1.html.

[37] Lai, J. (June 1, 2012). Arranged Marriage: CNN Examines The Age-Old Practice In India. In Huffington Post. Retrieved July 31, 2016, from http://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/arranged-marriage_n_1560049.

Author's Profile

Abhimanyu Roy is a researcher who specializes in the social applications of emerging technologies for the urban poor. His work has been featured at conferences at MIT and the World Bank and in publications by Harvard University.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/raw/the-curious-incidents-on-matrimonial-websites-in-india

The Curious Incident of the People at the Mall

nishant — 2008-12-14T12:13:09Z

The first flash mob in India, in 2003, though short-lived and quickly declared illegal, brought to fore the idea that technology is constructing new sites of defining public participation and citizenship rights, forcing the State to recognise them as political collectives. As India emerges as an ICT enabled emerging economy, new questions of citizenship, participatory politics, social networking, citizenship, and governance are being posed. In the telling of the story of the flash-mob, doing a historical review of technology and access, and doing a symptomatic reading of the subsequent events that followed the ban, this paper evaluates the different ways in which the techno-narratives of an ‘India Shining’ campaign of prosperity and economic growth, are accompanied by various spaces of political contestation, mobilisation and engagement that determine the new public spheres of exclusion, marked by the aesthetics of cyberspatial matrices and technology enabled conditions of governance.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/publications-automated/cis/nishant/the%20curious%20incident%20of%20the%20people%20at%20the%20mall%20%20ACS%20Crossroads.pdf

The Creation of a Network for the Global South - A Literature Review

tanvi — 2016-02-04T13:13:20Z

I. Introduction

The organization of societies and states is predicated on the development of Information Technology and has begun to enable the construction of specialized networks. These networks aid in the mobilization of resources on a global platform.[1] There is a need for governance structures that embody this globalized thinking and adopt superior information technology devices to bridge gaps in the operation and participation of not only political functions but also economic processes and operations.[2] Currently, public institutions fall short of an optimum level of functioning simply because they lack the information, know-how and resources to respond effectively to this newly globalized and economically liberalized world order. Civil society is beginning to seek a greater participatory voice in both policy making and ideating, which require public institutions to institute a method of allowing this participation while at the same time retaining the crux of their functions and processes. The network society thus requires, As argued by Castells, a new methodology of social structuring, one amalgamating the analysis of social structure and social action within the same overarching framework.[3] This Network propounds itself as a 'dynamic, self-evolving structure, which, powered by information technology and communicating with the same digital language, can grow, and include all social expressions, compatible with each network's goals. Networks increase their value exponentially through their contribution to human resources, markets, raw materials and other such components of production and distribution.' [4]

As noted by Kevin Kelly,' The Atom is the past. The symbol of science for the next century is the dynamical Net.…Whereas the Atom represents clean simplicity, the Net channels the messy power of complexity. The only organization capable of nonprejudiced growth or unguided learning is a network. All other topologies limit what can happen. A network swarm is all edges and therefore open ended any way you come at it. Indeed the network is the least structured organization that can be said to have any structure at all. ..In fact a plurality of truly divergent components can only remain coherent in a network. No other arrangement - chain, pyramid, tree, circle, hub - can contain true diversity working as a whole .'[5]

A network therefore is integral to the facilitation, coordination and advocacy of different agenda within a singular framework, which seeks to formulate suitable responses to a wide range of problems across regions. An ideal model of a network would therefore be one that is reflective of the interconnectivity between relationships, strengthened by effective communication and based on a strong foundation of trust.

The most powerful element of a network is however the idea of a common purpose. The pursuit is towards similar ends and therefore the interconnected web of support it offers is in realization of a singular goal,

II. Evolution of the Network

There are certain norms that must be incorporated for a network to be able to work at its best. Robert Chambers, in his book, Whose Reality Counts? Identifies these norms and postulates their extension to every form of a network, in order to capture its creative spirit and aid in the realization of its goals.[6] A network should therefore ideally foster four fundamental elements in order to inculcate an environment of trust, encouragement and the overall actualization of its purpose. These elements are; Diversity or the encouragement of a multitude of narratives from diverse sources, Dynamism or the ability of participants to retain their individual identities while maintaining a facilitative structure, Democracy or an equitable system of decision making to enable an efficient working of the net and finally, Decentralization or the feasibility of enjoying local specifics on a global platform.[7]

In order to attain these ideal elements it is integral to strengthen certain aspects of the practice through performing specific and focused functions, these include making sure of a clear broad consensus, which ensures the co-joining of a common purpose. Additionally, centralization, in the form of an overarching set of rules must be kept to a minimum, in order to facilitate a greater level of flexibility while still providing the necessary support structure. The building of trust and solid relationships between participants is prioritized to enhance creative ideation in a supportive environment. Joint activities, more than being output oriented are seen as the knots that tie together the entire web of support. Input and participation are the foremost objectives of the network, in keeping with the understanding that "contribution brings gain". [8]

Significant management issues that plague networks include the practical aspects of bringing the network into function through efficient leadership and the consolidation of a common vision. A balanced approach would entail a common consultation on the goals of the network, the sources of funding and an agreed upon structure within which the network would operate. It is also important to create alliances outside of the sector of familiarity and ensure an inclusive environment for members across regions, allowing them to retain their localized individuality while affording them with a global platform. [9]

III. Structure

The structural informality of a network is essential to its sustenance. Networks must therefore ensure that they embody a non-hierarchized structure, devoid of bureaucratic interferences and insulated from a centralized system of control and supervision. This requires an internal system of checks and balances, consisting of periodic reviews and assessments. Networks must therefore limit the powers of supervision of the secretariat. The secretariat must allow for the coordination of its activities and allocate appropriate areas of engagement according to the relative strength of the participating members.

One form of a network structure, postulated within a particular research study is the threads, knots and Nets model. [10] It consists of members within a network bound together by threads of relationship, communication and trust. These threads represent the commonality that binds together the participants of the particular network. The threads are established through common ideas and a voluntary participation in the process of communication and conflict resolution. [11]

The knots represent the combined activities which the participants engage in, with the common goal of realizing a singular purpose. These knots signify an optimum level of activity, wherein members of the network are able to support, inspire and confer tangible benefits onto each other. The net represents the entire structure of the network, which is constructed through a confluence of relationships and common activities. [12] The structure is autonomous in nature and allows participants to contribute without losing their individual identities. It is also dynamic and flexible; incorporating new elements with relative ease. It is therefore a collaboration which affords onto its members the opportunity to expand without losing its purpose. The maintenance of such a structure requires constant review and repair, with adequate awareness of weak links or "threads" and the capability and willingness to knot them together with new participants, thereby extending the net.

For example, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization used a system of organizational "milestones" to monitor the progress of the network and keep the network concentrated. It requires a sustained institutional effort to fulfill its mandate of "the right of every child to be protected against vaccine-preventable diseases" and brings together international organizations, civil society and private industry. [13] As postulated within the Critical Choices research study of the United Nations, clearly defined milestones are integral to sustaining an effective support mechanism for donors and ensuring that all relevant participants are on board. [14] This also allows for donors to be made aware of the tangible outcomes that have been achieved by the network. Interim goals that are achievable within a short span of time also afford a sense of legitimacy onto the network, allowing it to deliver on its mandate early on. Setting milestones would require an in depth focus and a nuanced understanding of specific aspects of larger problems and delivering early results on these problems would allow for a foundational base of trust, on the foundation of which, a possibly long drawn out consultative process can be fixed.[15]

A Network might often find alliances outside of its sector of operation. For example, Greenpeace was able to make its voice heard in International Climate Change negotiations by engaging with private insurance companies and enlisting their support.[16] The organization looked towards the private sector for support to mobilize resources and enlist the requisite expertise within their various projects. [17]

A. Funding

The financial support a network receives is essential for its sustenance. The initial seed money it receives can be obtained from a single source however, cross sectoral financing is necessary to build a consensus with regards to issues that may be a part of the network's mandate. The World Commission for Dams (WCD), for example, obtains funding from multiple sources in order to retain its credibility. The sources of funding of the WCD include government agencies, multilateral organizations, business associations, NGO's and Government Agencies, without a single donor contributing more than 10% of the total funding it receives.[18] However, the difficulty with this model of funding is the relative complexity in assimilating a number of smaller contributions, which may take away from its capacity to expand its reach and enhance the scope of its work. Cross sectoral funding is less of a fundamental requirement for networks whose primary mandate is implementation, such as The Global Environment Facility (GEF), whose legitimacy is derived from intergovernmental treaties and is therefore only funded by governments.[19] The GEF has only recently broadened its sources of funding to include external contributions from the private sector.

A network can also be funded through the objective it seeks to achieve through the course of its activities. For example, Rugmark an international initiative which seeks to mitigate the use of child labor in South Asia uses an external on site monitoring system to verify and provide labels certifying the production of carpets without the use of child labor.[20] The monitors of this system are trained by Rugmark and carpet producers have to sign a binding agreement, undertaking not to employ children below the age of 14 in order to receive the certification. The funds generated from these carpets, for the import of which American and European importers pay 1% of the import value, are used to provide rehabilitation and education facilities for the children in affected areas. The use of these funds is reported regularly. [21]

The funding must be sustained for a few years, which is a difficult task for networks that require an overall consensus of participants. The greatest outcomes of the network are not tangible solutions to the problem but the facilitation of an environment which allows stakeholders to derive a tangible solution. Thus, the elements of trust, communication and collaboration are integral to the efficient functioning of the network. However, the lack of tangible outcomes exposes the funders to financial risks. The best way to reduce such risks is to institute an uncompromising time limit for the initiative, within which it must achieve tangible results or solutions that can be implemented. A less stringent approach would be to incorporate a system of periodic review and assessment of the accomplishments of the network, subsequent to which further recommendations may be made for a further course of action.[22]

B. Relationships

A three year study conducted by Newell & Swan drew definitive conclusions with respect to the inter-organizational collaboration between participants within a network. The study determined that there currently exist three types of trust; Companion trust or the trust that exists within the goodwill and friendship between participants, Competence trust, wherein the competence of other participants to carry out the tasks assigned to them is agreed upon and lastly, Commitment trust or the trust which is predicated on contractual or inter-institutional that are agreed upon. [23] While companion and competence trust are easily identifiable, commitment trust is more subjective as it is determined by the agreement surrounding the core values and overall identifiable aims. Sheppard & Tuchinsky refer to an identification based trust which is based on a collective understanding of shared values. Such a trust requires significant investment but they argue, "The rewards are commensurably greater and the he benefits go beyond quantity, efficiency and flexibility." [24] Powell postulates, "Trust and other forms of social capital are moral resources that operate in fundamentally different manner than physical capital. The supply of trust increases, rather than decreases, with use: indeed, trust can be depleted if not used." [25]

Karl Wieck endorses the "maintenance of tight control values and beliefs which allow for local adaptation within centralized systems." [26] The autonomy that participants within a network enjoy is therefore considered to be close to sacred, so as to allow them to engage with each other on an equitable footing, while still maintain their individual identities. Freedman and Reynders believe that networks place a so called 'premium' on " the autonomy of those linked through the network…..networks provide a structure through which different groups - each with their own organizational styles, substantive priorities, and political strategies - can join together for common purposes that fill needs felt by each. "[27] Consequently, lower the level of centralized control within a network, the greater the requirement of trust. Allen Nan resonates with this idea, as is evident from her review of coordinating conflict resolution NGO's. She believes that these NGO's are most effective when " beginning with a loose voluntary association which grows through relationship building, gradually building more structure and authority as it develops. No NGO wants to give away its authority until it trusts a networking body of people that it knows. " [28]

C. Communication and Collaboration

The binding force that ties together any network is the importance of relationships between participants and their interactions with organizations outside the network. Research has shown that face to face interaction works best and although email may be practical, a face-to-face meeting at regular intervals builds a level of trust amongst participants. [29] It is however important to prevent network from turning into 'self-selecting oligarchies' and to prevent this, there needs to be a balance drawn between goodwill and the trust in others' competence along with a common understanding of differently hierarchized values. [30]

There is also an impending need to develop a relationship vocabulary, as suggested by Taylor, which would be of particular use within transnational networks and afford a deeper understanding of cross cultural relationships.[31]

D. Participation

A significant issue that networks today have to address is how to inculcate and then subsequently maintain participation in the activities of the network. This would include providing incentives to participants, encouraging diversity and enabling greater creative inflow across sectors to generate innovative output. Participation involves three fundamental elements; Action, which includes active contribution in the form of talking, listening, commenting, responding and sharing information, Process, which aids in an equitable system of decision making and constructing relationships and the underpinned values associated with these two elements, which include spreading equality, inculcating openness and including previously excluded communities or individuals. [32] Participation in itself envisages a three leveled definition; participation as a contribution, where people offer a tangible input, participation as an organization process, where people organize themselves to influence certain pre-existing processes and participation as a form of empowerment where people seek to gain power and authority from participating.

In order to create an autonomous system of evaluating and monitoring the nature and context of participation, a network would have to attempt to systematically incorporate a few fundamental processes, such as; enabling an understanding of the dynamism of a network through an established criteria of monitoring the levels of participation of the members, creating an explicit checklist of qualifications of this participation, such as the contributions of the participants, the limits of commitment and the available resources that must be shared and distributed, acknowledging the importance of relationships as fundamental to the success of any network., building a capacity for facilitative and shared leadership, tracing the changes that occur when the advocacy and lobbying activities of individuals are linked and using these individuals as participants who have the power to influence policy and development at various levels.[33] Finally, the recognition that utilizing the combined faculties of the network would aid in the effectuation of further change is vital to sustaining an active participation in the network.[34] It is common for networks to stagnate simply because of the lack of clarity on what a network really is or what it entails. There are significant misconceptions as to the activities engaged in by the network, such as the idea that a network "works solely as a resource center, to provide information, material and papers, rather than as forums for two way exchanges of information and experiences," contribute to the misunderstanding regarding the participation requirements within a network.[35] To facilitate an active, participatory function of learning, a network needs to be more than a resource center that seeks to meet the needs of beneficiaries. While meeting these needs is essential, development projects tend to obfuscate the benefit/input relationship within a network, thus significantly depleting its dynamism quotient. [36]

One method of moving away from the needs based model is to create a tripartite functionary, as was created within a particular research study. [37] This involves A Contributions Assessment, A Weaver's Triangle for Networks and An identification of channels of participation.

Contributions Assessment is an analysis of what the participants within a network are willing to contribute. It enables the network to assess what resources it has access to and how those resources may be distributes amongst the participants, multiplied or exchanged. [38] This system is predicated on a premise of assessing what participants have to offer as opposed to what they need. It challenges the long held notion of requiring an evaluation to identify problems, to address which recommendations are made and in fact seeks to focus on the moments of excellence and enable a discussion on the factors that contributed to these moments. [39] It thus places a value on the best of "what is" as opposed to trying to find a plausible "what ought to be". This approach allows participants to recognize that they are in fact the real "resource Centre" of the network and are encouraged act accordingly.

A Contributions Assessment may be practically incorporated through a few steps. It must be focused on the contributions, after a discussion on who the contributors may be. The aims of the network must be clarified, along with a specification of the contributions required such as perhaps newsletters, a conference, policy analysis etc. The members of the network must be clear on what they would like to contribute to the network and how such contribution might be delivered. Finally, the secretariat must be able to ideate or innovate on how it can enable more contributions from the networks in a more effective manner. [40]

The Weaver's Triangle has been adapted to be applies within networks and enables participants to understand what the aims and activities of the network are. It identifies the overall aim of the network and the change the network seeks to bring about to the status quo. It then lays out the objectives of the network in the form of specific statements about the said differences that the network seeks to bring about. Finally, the network would have to explain why a particular activity has been chosen. [41] The base of the triangle reflects the specific activities that the network seeks to engage in to achieve the said objectives. The triangle is further divided into two, to ensure that action aims and process aims have equal weightage; this allows for the facilitation of an exchange and a connection between the members of the network. [42]

The Circles of Participation is an idea that has been put forth by the Latin American and Caribbean Women's Health Network. (LACWHN). [43] This Network has three differentiated categories of membership, which it uses to determine the degree of commitment of an organization to the network. R- refers to the members who receive the women's health journal, P refers to members who actively participate in events and campaigns and who are advisors for specific topics. PP refers to the permanent participants within the network at national and international levels. They also receive a journal. This categorization allows the network to make an assessment of the dynamism and growth of a network, with members moving through the categories depending on their levels of participation. [44]

An important space for contributions to the network is the newsletter. This can be facilitated by allowing contributions from various sources, provided they meet the established quality checks, ensuring a balance between regions of origin of the members of the network, ensuring a balance between the policy and program activities of the members and keeping the centralized editorial process to a minimum. This is in keeping with the ideal of a decentralized system of expression that allows each member to retain its individuality while still contributing to the aims of the network. The Women's Global Network on Reproductive Rights (WGNRR) sought to create a similar system of publication to measure the success of their linkages, the levels of empowerment amongst members, in terms of strategizing and enabling localized action and the allocation of space in a fair and equitable manner. [45] Another Network, Creative Exchange customizes its information flow within the network so that each member only receives the information it expresses interest in.[46] This prevents the overburdening of members with unnecessary information.

The activities of the network which don't directly pass through the secretariat or the coordinator of the network can be monitored efficiently by keeping I close contact with new entrants to the network and capturing the essence of the activities that occur on the fringes of the network. This would allow an assessment of the diversity of the network. For example, Creative exchange sends out short follow up emails to determine the number and nature of contacts that have been made subsequent to a particular item in the newsletter. The UK Conflict Development and Peace Network (CODEP) records the newest subscribers to the network after every issue of their newsletter and AB Colombia sends out weekly news summaries electronically which are available for free to recipients who provide details of their professional engagements and why or how they wish to use these summaries. [47] This enables the mapping of the type of recipients the information reaches.

E. Leadership and Coordination

Sarason and Lorentz postulate four distinguishing characteristics that capture the creativity and expertise required by individuals leading and coordinating networks.[48] Knowledge of the territory or a broad understanding of the type of members, the resources available and the needs of the members is extremely important to facilitate an ideal environment of mutual trust and open dialogue between the members. Scanning the network for fluidity and assessing openings, making connections and innovating solutions would enable an efficient leadership that would contribute to the overall dynamism of the network. In addition to this, perceiving strengths and building on assets of existing resources would allow the network to capitalize on its strengths. Finally, the coordinators of a network must be a resource to all members of the network and thus enable them to create better and more efficient systems. They must therefore exercise their personal influence over members wherever required for the overall benefit of the network. Practically, a beneficial leadership would also require an inventive approach by providing fresh and interesting solutions to immediate problems. A sense of clarity, transparency and accountability would also encourage members of the network to participate more and engage with each other. It is important for the leadership within a network to deliver on expectations, while building consensus amongst its members.

A shared objective, a collaborative setting and a constant review of strategies is important to maintain linkages within a network. Responsible relationships underpinned by values and supported by flows of relevant information would allow an effective and fruitful analysis by those who are engaged within a network to do the relevant work. In addition to this, a respect for the autonomy of the network is essential.

F. Inclusion

Public policy networks are more often than not saturated with the economic and social elite from across the developed world. A network across the Global South would have to change this norm and extend its ambit of membership to grass root organizations, which might not have otherwise had the resources or the opportunity to be a part of a network.[49] Networks can achieve their long term goals only if they are driven by the willingness to include organizations from across economic demographics. This would ensure that their output is the result of a collaborative process that takes into account cross cultural norms and differentials across economic demographics.

The participation of diverse actors is reflective of the policy making processing having given due regard to on the ground realities and being sensitive towards the concerns of differently placed interest groups. Networks have been accused of catering only to the needs of industrial countries and subscribing to values of the global north thus stunting local development and enforcing double standards. This tarnishes the legitimacy of the processes inculcated within the network itself. It is therefore all the more essential that a network focused on the global south have a diverse collection of members from across backgrounds and economic contexts. Additionally, the accountability of the network to civil society is dependent on the nature of the links it maintains with the public. Inclusion thus fosters a sense of legitimacy and accountability. The inclusion of local institutions from the beginning would also increase the chances of the solutions provided by the network, being effectively implemented. Local inclusion affords a sense of responsibility and ensures that the network would remain sustainable in the long run. Allowing local stakeholders to take ownership of the network and participate in the formulation of policies, engage in planning and facilitate participation would enable an efficient addressing of significant public policy issues. [50] Thus networks would need to create avenues for participation of local institutions and civil society to engage in a democratic form of decision making.

III. Evaluation

The process of evaluation of a network is most efficiently effectuated through a checklist that has been formulated within a research study for the purpose of evaluating its own network. [51]

This checklist enumerates the various elements that have to be taken into consideration while evaluating the success of a network, as follows;

FIG 1.[52]

1. What is a network? 'Networks are energising and depend crucially on the motivation of members' (Networks for Development, 2000:35) This definition is one that is broadly shared across the literature, although it is more detailed than some. A network has: A common purpose derived from shared perceived need for action Clear objectives and focus A non-hierarchical structure A network encourages Voluntary participation and commitment The input of resources by members for benefit of all A network provides Benefit derived from participation and linking 2. What does a network do? Facilitate shared space for exchange, learning, development - the capacity-building aspect Act for change in areas where none of members is working in systematic way - the advocacy, lobbying and campaigning aspect Include a range of stakeholders - the diversity/ broad-reach aspect 3. What are the guiding principles and values? Collaborative action Respect for diversity Enabling marginalised voices to be heard Acknowledgement of power differences, and commitment to equality 4. How do we do what we do, in accordance with our principles and values? Building Participation Knowing the membership, what each can put in, and what each seeks to gain Valuing what people can put in Making it possible for them to do so Seeking commitment to a minimum contribution Ensuring membership is appropriate to the purpose and tasks Encouraging members to be realistic about what they can give Ensuring access to decision-making and opportunities to reflect on achievements Keeping internal structural and governance requirements to a necessary minimum. Building Relationships and Trust Spending time on members getting to know each other, especially face-to-face Coordination point/secretariat has relationship-building as vital part of work Members/secretariat build relations with others outside network - strategic individuals and institutions Facilitative Leadership (may be one person, or rotating, or a team) Emphasis on quality of input rather than control Knowledgeable about issues, context and opportunities, Enabling members to contribute and participate Defining a vision and articulating aims Balancing the creation of forward momentum and action, with generating consensus Understanding the dynamics of conflict and how to transform relations Promoting regular monitoring and participatory evaluation Have the minimum structure and rules necessary to do the work. Ensure governance is light, not strangling.Give members space to be dynamic Encourage all those who can make a contribution to the overall goal to do so, even if it is small. Working toward decentralised and democratic governance At the centre, make only the decisions that are vital to continued functioning. Push decision-making outwards. Ensure that those with least resources and power have the opportunity to participate in a meaningful way. Building Capacity Encourage all to share the expertise they have to offer. Seek out additional expertise that is missing. 5. What are the evaluation questions that we can ask about these generic qualities? How do each contribute to the achievement of your aims and objectives? Participation What are the differing levels or layers of participation across the network? Are people participating as much as they are able to and would like? Is the membership still appropriate to the work of the network? Purpose and membership may have evolved over time Are opportunities provided for participation in decision-making and reflection? What are the obstacles to participation that the network can do something about? Trust What is the level of trust between members? Between members and secretariat? What is the level of trust between non-governing and governing members? How do members perceive levels of trust to have changed over time? How does this differ in relation to different issues? What mechanisms are in place to enable trust to flourish? How might these be strengthened? Leadership Where is leadership located? Is there a good balance between consensus-building and action? Is there sufficient knowledge and analytical skill for the task? What kind of mechanism is in place to facilitate the resolution of conflicts? Structure and control How is the structure felt and experienced? Too loose, too tight, facilitating, strangling? Is the structure appropriate for the work of the network? How much decision-making goes on? Where are most decisions taken? Locally, centrally, not taken? How easy is it for change in the structure to take place? Diversity and dynamism How easy is it for members to contribute their ideas and follow-through on them? If you map the scope of the network through the membership, how far does it reach? Is this as broad as intended? Is it too broad for the work you are trying to do? Democracy What are the power relationships within the network? How do the powerful and less powerful interrelate? Who sets the objectives, has access to the resources, participates in the governance? Factors to bear in mind when assessing sustainability Change in key actors, internally or externally; succession planning is vital for those in central roles Achievement of lobbying targets or significant change in context leading to natural decline in energy; Burn out and declining sense of added value of network over and above every-day work. Membership in networks tends to be fluid. A small core group can be a worry if it does not change and renew itself over time, but snapshots of moments in a network's life can be misleading. In a flexible, responsive environment members will fade in and out depending on the 'fit' with their own priorities. Such changes may indicate dynamism rather than lack of focus. Decision-making and participation will be affected by the priorities and decision-making processes of members' own organisations. Over-reaching, or generating unrealistic expectations may drive people away Asking same core people to do more may diminish reach, reduce diversity and encourage burn-out

V. Learning and Recommendations

In order to facilitate the optimum working of a network several factors need to be taken into consideration and certain specific processes have to be incorporated into the regular functioning of the network. These are for example,

Ensuring that the evaluation of the network occurs at periodic intervals with the requisite level of attention to detail and efficiency to enable an in depth recalibration of the functions and processes of the network. To this effect, evaluation specialists must be engaged not just at times of crises or instability but as accompaniments to the various processes undertaken by the network. This would enable a holistic development of the network.
It is also important to understand the underlying values that define the unique nature of the network. The coordination of the network, its functions and its activities are intrinsically linked to these values and recognition of this element of the network would enable a greater functionality in the overall operation of the network.
A strong relationship between the members of the network, predicated on trust and open dialogue is essential for its efficient functioning. This would allow the accumulation of innovative ideas and dynamic thought to direct the future activities of the network.
The Secretariat or coordinator of the network must be able to engage the member in monitoring and evaluating the progress of the network. One method of enabling this coordination is through the institution of 'participant observer' methods at international conferences or meetings, which allow the members of the network to report back on the work that they have, which is linked to the work of other members.
The autonomy of a network and its decentralized mechanism of functioning are integral to retain the individuality of its members, who seek to pursue institutional objectives. The members seek to facilitate creative thinking and share ideas and this must be supported by financial resources. A strong bond of trust between the members of a network is therefore essential to enable long term commitments and the flourishing of interpersonal communication between members.
It is important that the subject area of operation of the network be comprehensively defined before the network comes into existence.
As seen with the experience of Canadian Knowledge Networks, it is beneficial to be selective in inviting participant to the network and following a rigorous process of review and selection would ensure that only the best candidates are selected so as to facilitate effective partnerships with other networks, as a result of demonstrable expertise within a particular field.
The management of a network must be disciplined, with clearly demarcated project deadlines and an optimum level of transparency and accountability. At the helm of leadership of every successful network, there has been intelligent, decisive and facilitative exchange, which is essential in securing a durable and potentially expandable space for the network to operate in.

A. Canadian Perspectives

A study of Canadian experiences was conducted by examining The Centers of Excellence and the Networks of Centers of Excellence (NCEs), which were funded through three Federal Granting Councils.[53] An initial observation that was made through the course of this study was that each network is intrinsically different and there is no uniform description which would fit all of them. The objectives of the Networks of Centers of Excellence Program are broadly, as follows; to encourage fundamental and applied research in fields which are critical to the economic development of Canada, to encourage the development and retention of world class scientists and engineers specializing in essential technologies, to manage multidisciplinary, cross sectoral national research programs which integrate stakeholder priorities through established partnerships and finally, to accelerate the exchange of research results within networks by accelerating technology transfers, made to users for social and economic development. [54] Extensive interviews carried out in the course of the research conducted by the ARA Consulting Group Inc. drew up particularly relevant conclusions with respect to the NCEs.

Firstly, they have been able to produce significant "cultural shifts" among the researchers associated with the network. This is attributed to the network facilitating a collaborative effort amongst researchers as opposed to their previous working, which was largely in isolation. The benefits of this collaboration have been identified as providing innovative ideas and leading the research itself in unprecedented directions. This has the effect of equipping Canada with the capability to compete on a global level with respect to its research endeavors. The culture shift has also allowed researchers to be more aware of the problems that plague industry and has instigated more in depth research into the development of the industrial sector. Government initiatives that have attempted to cohesively apply academic research to industry have had limited success. The NCE's however have managed to successfully disintegrate the barriers between these two seemingly disparate fields. This has resulted in a faster and more effective system of knowledge dissemination resulting in durable and self-sustaining economic development, which takes place at a faster rate. The NCE's have also been able to contribute to healthcare, wellness and overall sustainable development through their cross sectoral research approach, a model that can be used worldwide.

Another tangible effect has been that the relationship between industry and academic research is evolving into a positive and collaborative exchange, as opposed to the previous state which was largely isolationist, bordering on confrontational.[55] A possible cause of this is the increased representation of companies in the establishment of networks resulting in them influencing the course of research. This has not been met with any resistance from academic researchers who are driven by the imperative of an open publication. [56] Besides influencing the style of management, industrial representation has also brought about an increase in the level of private sector financial contributions made to NCEs. It is believed that these NCEs may even be able to support themselves in the next 7-8 years through the funding they receive from the commercialization of their research.

A third benefit that has emerged is the faster rate of production of new knowledge and innovative thinking. This is the result of collaborative techniques which is made more efficient through the use of modern technology. The increasing number of multi authored cross institutional scholarly publications made available by the NCE is evidentiary of this trend. The rate and quantity of technology transfers has also increased exponentially as a result of this. Knowledge networks also facilitate the mobilization of human resources and address cross disciplinary problems, resulting in an efficient and synergistic solutions. Their low cost, fast pace approach has been instrumental in constructing an understanding of and capacity to engage in sustainable development.

The significant contributions to sustainable development include the Canadian Genetic Diseases Network, which has discovered two specific genes that cause early onset Alzheimer's disease. The Sustainable Forest Management Network has claimed that its research does have a considerable level of influence on the industrial approach to sustainability. The Canadian Bacterial Disease Network conducts research on bacterially caused diseases which are mostly prevalent in developing countries, with a view to produce antibiotics and vaccines that may be able to successfully combat these vaccines. TeleLearning, another such network is working on the creation of software environments which will form the basis of technology based education in the future. [57] The greatest advantage of these knowledge networks is that they have been able to surpass traditional disciplinary barriers and have emerged at the forefront of interdisciplinary articulation, which is emerging as the path to breakthroughs in the fields of applied sciences and technology in the future. The NCE's have also been able to provide diverse working environments for graduate students, where they have been able to work under scientists associated with different specializations and across different departments. They have also been able to interact with government and industry representatives, giving them a far greater exposure of the field and equipping them to avail of a wide range of employment opportunities.

The corporate style of management incorporated within the NCEs encourages a sense of discipline and an enthusiasm for innovation. The Board of Directors at NCE's take on a perfunctory role and function as a typical corporate board. Researchers are therefore required to provide regular reports and meet deadlines to achieve predetermined goals that have been agreed upon. The new paradigm of sustainable development and the fluid transfer of knowledge requires this structure of management, even within a previously strictly academically oriented environment. NCEs have been incorporated as non-profit corporation for largely legal reasons such as the ownership of intellectual property.

The participation to these networks is restricted and is open only through an invitation, in the form of a submission of project proposals under a particular theme, with the final selection being made subject to a rigorous process of evaluation. This encourages the participants of the network to embody a degree of discipline and carry out their activities in a constructive, time bound manner.

B. Perceived Challenges

These knowledge networks, although extremely beneficial in the long run, do have certain specific issues that need to be addressed. Firstly, most formal knowledge networks do not have a formalized communication strategy. While they do make use of various forms of telecommunication, this communication is is no way formally directed or specific. Although some networks have managed to set up a directed communications strategy, supplemented by the involvement of specifically communications based networks (such as CANARIE) , there is still a long way to go in this area.

As is evident with most academic endeavors in recent years, efficient and sustained development both in terms of economy as well as self-sustenance, requires a smooth transitioning to a close collaboration with the industry. Although the NCE's have made progress in this area, a lesson that can be learnt from this is that knowledge networks do require a collaborative arrangement between researchers, the industry and the financial sector. [58] The nature of this collaboration cannot be predicted before tangible research outputs are developed that reflect the relevance of academia in the industrial and financial sectors. A particular network, PENCE has mandated that the boards of directors include a representative of the financial sector. This is a step forward in opening the doors to greater collaboration and mutually assured growth and sustainable development in both academia as well as the industrial and financial sectors.

As with all knowledge networks there is a continuous need for expansion of the focus areas to cover more fields and instigate research in neglected areas. The largest number of networks has been in the fields of healthcare and health associated work. However there is an impending need for networks to be established in other fields as well, such as those related to environmental issues, social dynamics and the general quality of life. [59]

The Canadian experience has resulted in a nuanced understanding of specific actions that need to be taken to strengthen knowledge networks across the spectrum. Firstly, there is an impending need to build new knowledge networks, which would be required to strengthen institutions upon which the networks are based. These include universities and research institutions, which have been weakened both financially and academically over the past few years. The NCE Program, on the face of it, seems to be strengthening universities, by attracting funding for research endeavors that would otherwise not be available to them. While this may be true, it tends to obfuscate the true nature of a university as an intellectual community, by portraying it as a funding source for research and equipment.[60] The deteriorating role of the university in fostering research and laying the foundation of an intellectual community can be reversed by the competition posed by the NCEs which tend to threaten its stature in the fields of multi-disciplinary and graduate institution. Another aspect that needs to be considered is the role of knowledge networks in fostering sustainable development not only on a national or regional scale but on a global level. This can be effectuated by allowing the amalgamation of the academia and industry through ample representation, a model that has proven to be effective within the NCEs. This is all the more relevant today where multinational corporations hold considerable sway over the global economy, so much so that the role of governments in regulating this economy is gradually decreasing. Multilateral investment treaties and agreements are reflective of this.

The final issue is that of the long standing debate between public good and proprietary knowledge. Canadian knowledge networks are of the opinion that knowledge must be freely disseminated. However, certain networks including the NCEs grant the exclusive right of the development and application of this knowledge to specific industry affiliates. On one hand this facilitates further investment into the research, which creates better products, new jobs and further social development. This is predicated on a fine balance of allowing this development without widening the already disparate socio-economic gaps that exist between developed and developing countries. Thus the balance between public good and propriety knowledge must be effectively managed by the regulatory role discharged by the governments and the decision making faculties of these knowledge networks. [61]

Establishing international linkages across networks based within different regions across the world would also be an effective means of ensuring effective partnerships and the creation of a new, self-sustaining structure. This would bring new prospects of funding into sustainable development activities and engage industrial affiliates with international development activities.

C. Donor Perspectives

The International Development Research Centre, based in Canada has also been instrumental in the setting up of support structures for networks. The IDRC has remained consistent in its emphasis of networks as mechanisms of linking scientists engaged in similar problems across the globe instead of as mechanisms to fund research in countries. This has afforded the IDRC with a greater level of flexibility in responding to the needs of developing countries as well as responding to the financial pressures within Canada to deliver superior technical support with a reduction in overheads. The IDRC sees networking an indispensable aspect of scientific pursuit and technological adaptation in the most effective manner. It is currently supporting four specific types of networks; horizontal networks which link together institutions with similar areas of specialization, vertical networks which work on disparate aspects of the same problem of different but interrelated problems, information networks which provide a centralized form of information service to members, which enables them to exchange information in the manner necessary and finally training networks which provide supervisory services to independent participants within the network.[62]

(I) Internal Evaluations

There is an outstanding need to monitor visits that are undertaken by the coordinator or the specific representatives of the member or donor as applicable. This would expedite the process of identifying problems and aid in deriving tangible solutions in an efficient manner. The criteria for the assessment would vary depending on the goals of the organization. Donors may pose questions with respect to the cost effectiveness of a particular pattern of research and may seek a formal report regarding this aspect. A more extensive model of donor evaluations may even include assessments with respect to the monitoring and coordination of specific functions.

(II) External Evaluations

A system of external evaluation would be useful with assessing data with respect to the operations of programs and their objectives. This would engage newer participants by injecting newer ideas and insights into the management and scope of the network. The most extensive method of network evaluation was one that was postulated by Valverde [63] and reviewed by Faris [64]. It aimed to draw an analysis of particular constraints and specific elements that would influence the execution of network programs. This method identifies a list of threats, opportunities, strengths and weaknesses which would inform future recommendations. The Valverde method makes use of both formal as well as informal data which is varied depending on the type of network and the management structure it employs.[65]

(III) Financial Viability

A network almost always requires external resources to aid in the setting up and coordination of its activities. Donor agencies must recognize the long term commitment that is required in this respect. It is therefore essential that the period for which this funding will be made available be clarified at the outset, to leave agencies with ample time to plan for the possibility of cessation of external financial support. [66] As concluded from the findings of the research study, although most networks are offered external support, it is primarily technology transfer and information networks that have been able to generate the bulk of funding in this respect. They have been able to obtain this financial assistance from a variety of sources including participating organizations as well as governments. [67] The funding for purely research networks however are inconsistent and the networks would have to plan in advance for a possible cessation of financial support.[68]

(IV) Adaptability

From the perspective of donors, the degree of adaptability and level of responsiveness of a particular network is especially relevant in assessing the coordination, control and leadership of a particular network. A network that is plagued by ineffective leadership and the lack of coordination is unable to adapt to changing circumstances and meet the needs of its participants. A combination of collaborative effort, a localized approach and far-sighted leadership instills in the participants of the network a sense of comfort in its processes and in the donors a faith in its ability to address topical issues and remain relevant.

(V) The Exchange of Information

As noted by Akhtar, a network is created to respond to the growing need to improve channels of information exchange and communication. [69] Information needs to be tailored to suit its users and must be disseminated accordingly. The study conducted has concluded that information networks that are engaged in the transfer of technology are inefficient in disseminating internally derived information and recognizing the needs of their users.[70] Given that these networks are especially user oriented this systemic failure is extremely problematic. There is also a need to review the mechanism of transferring strategic research techniques and the approaches employed in dealing with developing countries. Special attention must be paid to the beneficiaries of a particular network so that the research conducted is directed towards that particular demographic. This is especially relevant for information networks, which from the evaluation; appear to be generating data but not considering who would be using these services.[71]

(VI) Capacity Building

Facilitating the training of individuals both on a formal and informal level has led to an enhance level of research and reporting, as well as the designing of projects. There is however a need to tailor this training to suit the needs of the participants of a particular network. Networks which have been able to provide inputs which are not ordinarily locally provided have instigated the establishment of national and regional institutions. [72]

(VII) Cost Effectiveness

It is important to note however that networks need to employ the most cost effective mechanism of delivering support services to national programs. A network must work in a manner that allows for enough individual enterprise but at the same time follows a collaborative model to generate more effective and relevant research within a short span of time and through the utilization of minimum resources. The Caribbean Technology Consultation Services (CTCS) for example was found to be far more cost effective and in fact 50% cheaper than the services of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization. [73] Similarly, the evaluators of the LAAN found that funding a network was significantly cheaper than finding individual research projects.[74]

[1] Castells, Manuel (2000) "Toward a Sociology of the Network Society" Contemporary Sociology, Vol

29 (5) p693-699

[2] Reinicke, Wolfgang H & Francis Deng, et al (2000) Critical Choices: The United Nations, Networks

and the Future of Global Governance IDRC, Ottawa

[3] Supra ., n.1, p.697

[4] Ibid

[5] Supra n.1, p.61

[6] Chambers, Robert (1997) Whose Reality Counts? Putting the First Last Intermediate Technology

Publications, London

[7] Ibid

[8] Chisholm, Rupert. F (1998) Developing Network Organizations: Learning from Practice and Theory

Addison Wesley

[9] Brown, L. David. 1993. "Development Bridging Organizations and Strategic

Management for Social Change." Advances in Strategic Management 9.

[10] Madeline Church et al, Participation, Relationships and Dynamic change: New Thinking On Evaluating The Work Of International Networks Development Planning Unit, University College London (2002), p. 16

[11] Ibid

[12] Ibid

[13] Reinicke, Wolfgang H & Francis Deng, et al (2000) Critical Choices: The United Nations, Networks

and the Future of Global Governance IDRC, Ottawa, p.61

[14] Ibid

[15] Ibid

[16] Supra n.13, p. 65

[17] Ibid

[18] Supra n. 13, p. 62

[19] Ibid

[20] Supra n. 13, p. 63

[21] Ibid

[22] Supra n. 13, p. 64

[23] Newell, Sue & Jacky Swan (2000) "Trust and Inter-organizational Networking" in Human Relations,

Vol 53 (10)

[24] Sheppard, Blair H & Marla Tuchinsky (1996) "Micro-OB and the Network Organisation" in Kramer, R.

And Tyler T. (eds) Trust in Organisations, Sage

[25] Powell, Walter W (1996) "Trust-based forms of governance" in Kramer, R. And Tyler T. (eds) Trust in

Organisations , Sage

[26] Stern, Elliot (2001) "Evaluating Partnerships: Developing a Theory Based Framework", Paper for

European Evaluation Society Conference 2001, Tavistock Institute

[27] Freedman, Lynn & Jan Reynders (1999) Developing New Criteria for Evaluating Networks in Karl, M.

(ed) Measuring the Immeasurable: Planning Monitoring and Evaluation of Networks, WFS

[28] Allen Nan, Susan (1999) "Effective Networking for Conflict Transformation" Draft Paper for

International Alert./UNHCR Working Group on Conflict Management and Prevention

[29] Supra n. 10, p. 20

[30] Ibid

[31] Taylor, James, (2000) "So Now They Are Going To Measure Empowerment!", paper for INTRAC 4th

International Workshop on the Evaluation of Social Development, Oxford, April

[32] Karl, Marilee (2000) Monitoring And Evaluating Stakeholder Participation In Agriculture And Rural

Development Projects: A Literature Review, FAO

[33] Supra n. 10, p.25

[34] Ibid

[35] Supra n. 10, p. 26

[36] Ibid

[37] Supra n. 10, p.27

[38] Ludema, James D, David L Cooperrider & Frank J Barrett (2001) "Appreciative Inquiry: the Power of

the Unconditional Positive Question" in Reason, P. & Bradbury, H. (eds) Handbook of Action

Research , Sage

[39] Ibid

[40] Supra n. 10, p. 29

[41] Ibid

[42] Ibid

[43] Sida (2000) Webs Women Weave, Sweden, 131-135

[44] Ibid

[45] Dutting, Gisela & Martha de la Fuente (1999) "Contextualising our Experiences: Monitoring and

Evaluation in the Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights" in Karl, M. (ed) Measuring the

Immeasurable: Planning Monitoring and Evaluation of Networks , WFS

[46] Supra n. 10, p. 30

[47] Supra n. 10, p. 32

[48] Allen Nan, Susan (1999) "Effective Networking for Conflict Transformation" Draft Paper for

International Alert./UNHCR Working Group on Conflict Management and Prevention

[49] Supra n. 13, p. 67

[50] Supra n. 13, 68

[51] Supra n 10, 36

[52] See Madeline Church et al, Participation, Relationships and Dynamic change: New Thinking On Evaluating The Work Of International Networks Development Planning Unit, University College London (2002), p. 36-37

[53] The three granting councils are: the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC),

the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), and the Medical Research Council

(MRC).

[54] Howard C. Clark, Formal Knowledge Networks: A Study of Canadian Experiences, International Institute for Sustainable Development 1998, p. 16

[55] Ibid, p. 18

[56] Ibid, p. 18

[57] Ibid, p. 19

[58] Ibid , p 21

[59] Ibid , p. 22

[60] Ibid, p. 31

[61] Ibid

[62] Terry Smutylo and Saidou Koala, Research Networks: Evolution and Evaluation from a Donor's Perspective, p. 232

[63] Valverde, C. 1988, Agricultural research networking : Development and evaluation, International Services for National Agricultural Research, The Hague, Netherlands. Staff Notes (18-26 November 1988)

[64] Faris, D.G 1991, Agricultural research networks as development tools: Views of a network coordinator, IDRC, Ottawa, Canada, and International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropic, Patancheru, Andhra Pradesh, India

[65] Supra n. 62

[66] Terry Smutylo and Saidou Koala, Research Networks: Evolution and Evaluation from a Donor's Perspective, p. 233

[67] ibid

[68] Ibid

[69] Akhtar, S. 1990. Regional Information Networks : Some Lessons from Latin America. Information Development 6 (1) : 35-42

[70] Ibid, p. 242

[71] Ibid, p. 242

[72] Ibid., p. 243

[73] Stanley, J.L and Elwela, S.S.B 1988, Evaluation report for the Caribbean Technology Consultancy Services (CTCS), CTCS Network Project (1985-1988) IDRC Ottawa, Canada

[74] Moreau,L. 1991, Evaluation of Latin American Aqualculture Network. IDRC, Ottawa, Canada

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-creation-of-a-network-for-the-global-south-a-literature-review

The Coming Telecom Monopoly

Shyam Ponappa — 2012-05-24T07:36:55Z

The 2G judgment and Trai spectrum pricing recommendations have led to a policy that makes sense for only one survivor.

Shyam Ponappa's column was published in the Business Standard on May 3, 2012

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, or Trai, has delivered a stunning blow to the telecom sector in the form of its spectrum pricing and refarming recommendations. The sector was already reeling from scandals and misgovernance, and staggered by a confused Supreme Court judgment based on inappropriate assumptions (for details, see “Time for a review”, March 1, 2012, and “Open access is the future,” March 4, 2012). This will cripple an erstwhile sunrise sector that drove (and still can) India’s prosperity through productivity, enabling many factors to converge positively — such as its economic momentum, enterprise, resilience and, most important, a demographic bulge that could become a blessing or a curse. This convergence was (and is) possible because of the enabling ability of telecom and broadband to provide access to education, vocational training and continuing education; health care and other public services; and commerce, including the delivery of individual output, within easy reach. All this is stalled, as we deliberately disembowel ourselves, as it were.

If Trai’s recommendations are implemented, they will ensure that a lone survivor dominates the sector, annihilating all significant competitors – Bharti, Vodafone, Idea, Tata, and newcomers like Telenor and Sistema – through their having to pay exorbitant fees just to keep their current business going, even without expansion. That is, provided the lawsuits that are likely to follow don’t obliterate everything for the next 10 years.

Are these setbacks happenstance, heaven-sent, or acts of man? Analysing the components shows that much is attributable to the machinations of men, although rendered by different individuals or groups under varying compulsions. The afflictions that began with cronyism and misgovernance have been aggravated by a judgment based on misapprehensions regarding: (a) spectrum technology; (b) the economics of auctions and; (c) competition in network economies.

In trying to get at the corrupt nexus of corporations, politicians, bureaucrats, and just plain crooked people, indiscriminate zealotry is destroying legitimate enterprise. The judgment lumps the guilty with the circumstantially proximate. Coupled with defining auctions as best for the public interest, this set the stage for what has followed. The furore over corruption and the Anna Hazare movement ensure that any objective recommendation would come under fire, with a mobocracy baying for revenge.

Is being deprived of ubiquitous, reasonably-priced broadband so devastating? Yes, because of broadband’s great potential in India’s vastness for enabling people at relatively low cost, compared with, say, fixing energy supply, or sanitation and water, or roads, or growing food. All these are necessary; but broadband is much easier to achieve, at lower cost, and would bring it all more easily within our grasp, especially in rural areas.

Performance

Some question the beneficial effect of revenue sharing from the National Telecom Policy, 1999, (NTP-99) suggesting the sector might have done as well or better without the change. Pakistan is cited as an example for growth with auctions. Consider the performance of the sector in both countries.

Chart 1 - Mobile Subscriptions (Millions) 2003-2010

(The third line shows India’s numbers reduced to 70 per cent, reflecting an estimate of live subscriptions.)

Chart 2 shows the percentage of population served. Pakistan’s coverage grew

Chart 2: Percent Population Covered

Sources: India – TRAI; PIB; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_Statistics_in_India
Pakistan - http://www.pta.gov.pk/index.php

rapidly until about 60 per cent, then tapered off. India started more gradually before accelerating to 60 per cent a couple of years later, and kept going. In March 2011, both were around 70 per cent. At the end of December 2011, India was at 76.86 per cent.

However, there are two major differences. One is the scale of India’s operations. Sheer magnitude makes for much greater complexity, and the achievement is therefore remarkable. The second is the significantly higher government levies in India. India’s telecom sector is perhaps the world’s most heavily burdened, with government collections higher than in Pakistan by 15 to 24 per cent of revenues.* (Compared with China,where government charges are only 3.5 per cent, India’s levies are even more grossly out of line.) Had Indian enterprises not had this burden, it’s conceivable they might have had the capacity and stomach to effectively address rural coverage, especially with the right incentives.

Achieving Ubiquitous Broadband

Now consider what needs doing for countrywide access to broadband, and what odds have to be overcome. First, there’s the addition necessary to rural and semi-urban networks, where almost three times the existing coverage is needed. Much of this needs wireless access. This is why spectrum pricing critically affects outcomes. Many people in India harp on a litany of sunk-costs-not-affecting-tariffs, oblivious to the vast deficiency in network coverage, ie, areas and people without access. It’s like arguing over pricing without any production plant or products. Without capital investments in network coverage, there can be no services, nor any tariffs, high or low. There is little doubt of the effects of high spectrum and licence fees: these needs remain unmet. Hence the low rural teledensity of under 39 per cent at the end of February 2012, with urban coverage at nearly 170 per cent, and overall teledensity at 78 per cent. Separately, there’s the issue of inadequate incentives for broadband delivery.

Statements from Trai and the Department of Telecommunications about the spectrum pricing recommendations being reasonable because of the revenue potential simply don’t add up. Their projections are based on a fantasy of booming growth (like the Budget projection of 7.6 per cent GDP growth, but even more exaggerated). Whereas the combined effect of the scam and its fallout, sentiment, momentum, and misguided efforts at tax-gouging will ensure that telecom revenue growth is no more than a stunted five to seven per cent, at best. No bank will lend seven-year funds in such uncertain circumstances to what was once a sunrise sector — but is now like heavy infrastructure, with a need for 20-year financing. Add the costs and difficulty of refarming the 900 MHz spectrum, and one has to wonder: who is going to bid, and why? It makes sense only for one survivor. All this is aside from the extension of subsidised non-performance at the PSUs, instead of transforming them into anchors of an open-access national network.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/telecom/coming-telecom-monopoly

The city of Bhubaneswar is going Open

sailesh — 2019-03-07T11:41:16Z

The Openness movement is a concept or philosophy that is characterized by an emphasis on transparency, free and unrestricted access to knowledge and information. The movement across the world is trying to build on the interest of like-minded people and an urgent need of bringing new resources of knowledge for the benefit of people with a method of collaborative or cooperative management. Many successful projects such as OpenStreetMap, Github, Wikimedia projects are free, open for everyone and evolve both by contributions and review efforts by participant volunteers. Open Knowledge Projects across the world are embarking upon a silent revolution to change the way information and knowledge are consumed by people.

Bhubaneswar supporting the concept of Openness movement has joined as one of the ambassadors of the movement in the world by giving citizens the right to access the content online produced by the government and make use of the work. As the city turned 70-year-old as the capital of Odisha in April 2018, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik launched two websites — Bhubaneswar.me and Smart City Bhubaneswar under a Creative Commons license. The websites were made to provide visitor or tourist information about the city and to showcase various projects being undertaken as a part of the Smart City mission.

A visual walk-through video was released for the visit.Bhubaneswar.me and Smart City website over social media sites for the public to understand the features of the websites which ended saying “Knowledge now made more accessible”, anyone can use the content and data of the website under the campaign for Transparency in Governance. These websites have adopted Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license also known as CC-BY-4.0, which allows the citizens of Bhubaneswar to use the work of the government. Creative Commons licenses are a set of open licenses that are used worldwide to enable widen use and reuse of creative work that is otherwise restricted by the strict copyright laws. Currently, the majority of government websites under the Bhubaneswar administration are under an Open license.

Transparency is considered the traditional hallmark of an open government, meaning that the public should have access to government-held information and be informed of government proceedings, says an article from Opensource.com. Transparency, accountability, and participation are one of the needed conditions for the government to ensure that public resources are used efficiently, public policies are designed in the best interest of the population.

Though most of the government websites can be accessed online, the content of those sites are not open by default, the government has to adopt a specific license to open their content. In September 2017, Odisha became the first state in India to release all of its social media contents under a free license such as Creative Commons license, initially eight social media accounts of the state government were part of the project and followed by few other departments under the state government releasing their content under the same license. Because of this initiative by the government, currently, ten or more websites and eight social media accounts are allowing people from all around the world to freely reuse the state government’s work.

As the content of the websites is under a free license it creates an impact on a project like Wikipedia-one of the most popular websites in the world and the largest online encyclopedia available on the internet, committed to free and open copyright licenses from its earliest days on the internet. Currently, a near about files from the websites and social media accounts of the Government of Odisha are added into Wikimedia Commons, Wikipedia’s sister site and an open multimedia repository, under a content donation program of which 70% of files are used in different Wikipedia articles, all of which together has received over 25 million page views in last 18 months.

Cities opening their data and content for the citizens encourages individuals for new innovation and to form new ideas that help to bridge the gap in the city. A report from Forbes in 2012 says Open city data can help app developers, urban planners, and others understand a city’s problems and manage city services in ways that improve the quality of life and business prospects for its residents. When Bhubaneswar led the way of promoting the Openness movement in India, there is a huge scope for the rest of the cities to adopt open licensing to make knowledge more accessible for the citizens and enhance public trust in government.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/the-city-of-bhubaneswar-is-going-open

The Centre for Internet and Society’s comments and recommendations to the: Report on AI Governance Guidelines Development

Shweta Mohandas, Amrita Sengupta and Anubha Sinha — 2025-03-06T06:32:45Z

The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) submitted its comments and recommendations on the Report on AI Governance Guidelines Development.

With research assistance by Anuj Singh

I. Background

On 6 January 2025, a Subcommittee on ‘AI Governance and Guidelines Development’ under the Advisory Group put out the Report on AI Governance Guidelines Development, which advocated for a whole-of-government approach to AI governance. This sub-committee was constituted by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) on November 9, 2023, to analyse gaps and offer recommendations for developing a comprehensive framework for governance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). As various AI governance conversations take centre stage, this is a welcome step, and we hope that there are more opportunities through public comments and consultations to improve on this important AI document.

CIS’ comments are inline with the submission guidelines, we have provided both comments and suggestions based on the headings and text provided in the report.

II. Governance of AI

The subcommittee report has explained its reasons for staying away from a definition. However, it would be helpful to set the scope of AI, at the outset of the report, given that different AI systems have different roles and functionalities. Having a clearer framework in the beginning can help readers better understand the scope of the conversation in the report. This section also states that AI can now “perform complex tasks without active human control or supervision”, while there are instances where AI is being used without an active human control, there is a need to emphasise on the need for humans in the loop. This has also been highlighted in the OECD AI principles which this report draws inspiration from.

A. AI Governance Principles

A proposed list of AI Governance principles (with their explanations) is given below.
While referring to the OECD AI principles is a good first step in understanding the global best practices, it is suggested that an exercise in mapping of all global AI principles documents published by international and multinationals organisations and civil society is undertaken, to determine principles that are most important for India. The OECD AI principles also come from regions that have a better internet penetration, and higher literacy rate than India, hence for them the principle of “Digital by design governance” would be possible to be achieved but in India, a digital first approach, especially in governance, could lead to large scale exclusions.

B. Considerations to operationalise the principles

1. Examining AI systems using a lifecycle approach

The sub committee has taken a novel approach to define the AI life cycle. The terms “Development, Deployment and Diffusion” have not been seen in any of the major publications about AI lifecycle. While academicians (e.g. Chen et al. (2023), De Silva and Alahakoon (2022)) have pointed out that the AI life cycle contains the following stages - design, development and deployment, others (Ng et al. (2022) have defined it as “data creation, data acquisition, model development, model evaluation and model deployment. Even NASSCOM’s Responsible AI Playbook follows the “conception, designing, development and deployment, as some of the key stages in the AI life cycle. Similarly the OECD also recognised “i) ‘design, data and models’ ii) ‘verification and validation’; iii) ‘deployment’; and iv) ‘operation and monitoring’.” as the phases of the AI life cycle. The subcommittee hence could provide citation as well as a justification of using this novel approach to the AI lifecycle, and state the reason for moving away from the recognised stages. Steering away from an understood approach could cause some confusion amongst different stakeholders who may not be as well versed with AI terminologies and the AI lifecycle to begin with.

2. Taking an ecosystem-view of AI actors

While the report rightly states that multiple actors are involved across the AI lifecycle, it is also important to note that the same actor could also be involved in multiple stages of the AI lifecycle. For example if we take the case of an AI app used for disease diagnosis. The medical professional can be the data principal (using their own data), the data provider (using the app thereby providing the data), and the end user (someone who is using the app for diagnosis). Similarly if we look at the example of a government body, it can be the data provider, the developer (if it is made inhouse or outsourced through tenders), the deployer, as well as the end user. Hence for each AI application there might be multiple actors who play different roles and whose roles might not be static.

While looking at governance approaches, the approach must ideally not be limited to responsibilities and liabilities, especially when the “data principal” and individual end users are highlighted as actors; the approach should also include rights and means of redressal in order to be a rights based people centric approach to AI governance.

3. Leveraging technology for governance

While the use of techno-legal approach in governance is picking up speed there is a need to look at existing Central and State capacity to undertake this, and also look at what are the ways this could affect people who still do not have access to the internet. One example of a techno legal approach that has seen some success has been the Bhumi programme in Andhra Pradesh that used blockchain for land records, however this also led to the weakening of local institutions, and also led to exclusion of marginalised people Kshetri (2021). It was also stated that there was a need to strengthen existing institutions before using a technological measure.

Secondly, while the sub committee has emphasized on the improvements in quality of generative AI tools, there is a need to assess how these tools work for Indian use cases. It was reported last year that ChatGPT could not answer all the questions relating to the Indian civil services exam, and failed to correctly answer questions on geography, however it was able to crack tough exams in the USA. In addition to this, a month ago the Finance Ministry has advised government officials to refrain from using generative AI tools on official devices for fear of leakage of confidential information.

Thirdly, the subcommittee needs to assess India’s data preparedness for this scale of techno legal approach. In our study which was specific to healthcare and AI in India, where we surveyed medical professionals, hospitals and technology companies, a common understanding was that data quality in Indian datasets was an issue, and that there was somewhere reliance on data from the global north. This could be similar in other sectors as well, hence when this data is used to train the system it could lead to harms and biases.

III. GAP ANALYSIS

A. The need to enable effective compliance and enforcement of existing laws.

The sub-committee has highlighted the importance of ensuring that the growth of AI does not lead to unfair trade practices and market dominance. It is hence important to analyse whether the existing laws on antitrust and competition, and the regulatory capacity of Competition Commission of India are robust enough to deal with AI, and the change in technology and technology developers.

There is also an urgent need to assess the issues that might come under the ambit of competition throughout the lifecycle of AI, including in areas of chip manufacturing, compute, data, models and IP. While the players could keep changing in this evolving area of technology there is a need to strengthen the existing regulatory system, before looking at techno legal measures.

We suggest that before a techno legal approach is sought in all forms of governance, there is an urgent need to map the existing regulations both central and state and assess how they apply to regulating AI, and assess the capacity of existing regulatory bodies to regulate issues of AI. In the case of healthcare for example there are multiple laws, policies and guidelines, as well as regulatory bodies that apply to various stages of healthcare and various actors and at times these regulations do not refer to each other or cause duplications that could lead to lack of clarity.

Below we are adding our comments and suggestions certain subsections in this section on The need to enable effective compliance and enforcement of existing laws

1. Intellectual property rights

a. Training models on copyrighted data and liability in case of infringement

While Section. 14 of the Indian Copyright Act, 1957 provides copyright holders with exclusive rights to copy and store works, considering the fact that training AI models involves making non-expressive uses of work, a straightforward conclusion may not be drawn easily. Hence, the presumption that training models on copyrighted data constitutes infringement is premature and unfounded.

This report states “The Indian law permits a very closed list of activities in using copyrighted data without permission that do not constitute an infringement. Accordingly, it is clear that the scope of the exception under Section 52(1)(a)(i) of the Copyright Act, 1957 is extremely narrow. Commercial research is not exempted; not-for-profit ¹⁰ institutional research is not exempted. Not-for-profit research for personal or private use, not with the intention of gaining profit and which does not compete with the existing copyrighted work is exempted. “

Indian copyright law follows a ‘hybrid’ model of limitations and exceptions under s.52(1). S. 52(1)(a), which is the ‘fair dealing’ provision, is more open-ended than the rest of the clauses in the section. Specifically, the Indian fair dealing provision permits fair dealing with any work (not being a computer programme) for the purposes of private or personal use, including research.

If India is keen on indigenous AI development, specifically as it relates to foundation models, it should work towards developing frameworks for suitable exceptions ,as may be appropriate. Lawmakers could distinguish between the different types of copyrighted works and public-interest purposes while considering the issue of infringement and liability

b. Copyrightability of work generated by using foundation models

We suggest that a public consultation would certainly be a useful exercise in ensuring opinions and issues of all stakeholders including copyright holders, authors, and users are taken into account.

C. The need for a whole-of-government approach.

While the information existing in silos is a significant issue and roadblock, if the many guidelines and existing principles have taught us anything, it is that without specificity and direct applicability it is difficult for implementers to extrapolate principles into their development, deployment and governance mechanisms. The committee assumes a sectoral understanding from the government on various players in highly regulated sectors such as healthcare or financial services. However, as our recent study on AI in healthcare indicates, there are significant information gaps when it comes to shared understanding of what data is being used for AI development, where the AI models are being developed and what kind of partnerships are being entered into, for development and deployment of AI systems. While the report also highlights the concerns about the siloed regulatory framework, it is also important to consider how the sector specific challenges lend themselves to the cross-sectoral discussion. Consider that an AI credit scoring system in financial services is leading to exclusion errors.

Additionally, consider an AI system being deployed for disease diagnosis. While both use predictive AI, the nature of risk and harm are different. While there can be common and broad frameworks to potentially test efficacy of both AI models, the exact parameters for testing them would have to be unique. Therefore, it will be important to consider where bringing together cross-sectoral stakeholders will be useful and where it may need more deep work at the sector level.

IV. Recommendations

1. To implement a whole-of-government approach to AI Governance, MeitY and the Principal Scientific Adviser should establish an empowered mechanism to coordinate AI Governance.

We would like to reiterate the earlier section and highlight the importance of considering how the sector specific challenges lend themselves to the cross-sectoral discussion. While the whole of government approach is good as it will help building a common understanding between different government institutions, this approach might not be sufficient when it comes to AI governance. It is because this is based on the implicit assumption that internal coordination among various government bodies is enough to manage AI related risks.

2.To develop a systems-level understanding of India’s AI ecosystem, MeitY should establish, and administratively house, a Technical Secretariat to serve as a technical advisory body and coordination focal point for the Committee/ Group.

The Subcommittee report states at this stage, it is not recommended to establish a Committee/ Group or its Secretariat as statutory authorities, as making such a decision requires significant analysis of gaps, requirements, and possible unintended outcomes. While these are valid considerations, it is necessary that there are adequate checks and balances in place. If the secretariat is placed within MeitY then safeguards must be in place to ensure that officials have autonomy in decision making. The subcommittee suggests that MeitY can bring officials on deputation from other departments. Similarly the committee proposes bringing experts from the industry, while it is important for informed policy making, there is also risk of regulatory capture. Setting a cap on the percentage of industry representatives and full disclosure of affiliations of experts involved are some of the safeguards which can be considered. We also suggest that members of civil society are also considered for this Secretariat.

3.To build evidence on actual risks and to inform harm mitigation, the Technical Secretariat should establish, house, and operate an AI incident database as a repository of problems experienced in the real world that should guide responses to mitigate or avoid repeated bad outcomes.

The report suggests that the technical secretariat will develop an actual incidence of AI-related risks in India. In most instances, an AI incident database will assume that an AI related unfavorable incident has already taken place, which then implies that it's no longer a potential risk but an actual harm. This recommendation takes a post-facto approach to assessing AI systems, as opposed to conducting risk assessments prior to the actual deployment of an AI system. Further, it also lays emphasis on receiving reports from public sector organizations deploying AI systems. Given that public sector organizations, in many cases, would be the deployers of AI systems as opposed to the developers, they may have limited know-how on functionality of tools and therefore the risks and harms.

It is important to clarify and define what will be considered as an AI risk as this could also depend on stakeholders, for example losing clients due to an AI system for a company is a risk, and so is an individual being denied health insurance because of AI bias. With this understanding, while there is a need to keep an active assessment of risks and the emergence of new risks, the Technical Secretariat could also undergo a mapping of the existing risks which have been highlighted by academia and civil society and international organisations and begin the risk database with that. In addition, the “AI incident database” should also be open to research institutions and civil society organisations similar to The OECD AI Incidents Monitor.

4. To enhance transparency and governance across the AI ecosystem, the Technical Secretariat should engage the industry to drive voluntary commitments on transparency across the overall AI ecosystem and on baseline commitments for high capability/widely deployed systems.

It is commendable that the sub committee in this report extends the transparency requirement to the government, with the example of law enforcement. This would create more trust in the systems and also add the responsibility on the companies providing these services to be compliant with existing laws and regulations.

While the transparency measures listed will ensure better understanding of processes of AI developers and deployers, there is also a need to bring in responsibility along with transparency. While this report also mentions ‘peer review by third parties’, we would also like to suggest auditing as a mechanism to undertake transparency and responsibility. In our study on AI data supply chain & auditability and healthcare in India, (which surveyed 150 medical professionals, 175 respondents from healthcare institutions and 175 respondents from technology companies); revealed that 77 percent of healthcare institutions and 64 percent of the technology companies surveyed for this study, conducted audits or evaluations of the privacy and security measures for data.

Source: CIS survey of professionals in AI and healthcare, January- April 2024. Medical professionals (n = 133); healthcare institutions (n = 162); technology companies (n = 171)

5. Form a sub-group to work with MEITY to suggest specific measures that may be considered under the proposed legislation like Digital India Act (DIA) to strengthen and harmonise the legal framework, regulatory and technical capacity and the adjudicatory set-up for the digital industries to ensure effective grievance redressal and ease of doing business.

It would be necessary to provide some clarity on where the process to the Digital India Act is currently. While there were public consultations in 2023, we have not heard about the progress in the development of the Act. The most recent discussion on the Act was in January 2025, where S Krishnan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), stated that they were in no hurry to carry forward the draft Digital India Act and regulatory framework around AI. He also stated that the existing legal frameworks were currently sufficient to handle AI intermediaries.

We would also like to highlight that during the consultations on the DIA it was proposed to replace the Information Technology Act 2000. It is necessary that the subcommittee give clarity on this, since if the DIA is enacted, this reports section III on GAP analysis especially around the IT Act, and Cyber Security will need to be revisited.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cis-comments-and-recommendations-to-report-on-ai-governance-guidelines-development

The Centre for Internet and Society’s Comments and Recommendations to the: Indian Privacy Code, 2018

Shweta Mohandas, Elonnai Hickok, Amber Sinha and Shruti Trikanand — 2018-07-20T13:55:46Z

The debate surrounding privacy has in recent times gained momentum due to the Aadhaar judgement and the growing concerns around the use of personal data by corporations and governments.

Click to download the file here

As India moves towards greater digitization, and technology becomes even more pervasive, there is a need to ensure the privacy of the individual as well as hold the private and public sector accountable for the use of personal data. Towards enabling public discourse and furthering the development a privacy framework for India, a group of lawyers and policy analysts backed by the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) have put together a draft a citizen's bill encompassing a citizen centric privacy code that is based on seven guiding principles.^{^[1]} This draft builds on the Citizens Privacy Bill, 2013 that had been drafted by CIS on the basis of a series of roundtables conducted in India.^{^[2]} Privacy is one of the key areas of research at CIS and we welcome this initiative and hope that our comments make the Act a stronger embodiment of the right to privacy.

Section by Section Recommendations

Preamble

Comment: The Preamble specifies that the need for privacy has increased in the digital age, with the emergence of big data analytics.

Recommendation: It could instead be worded as ‘with the emergence of technologies such as big data analytics’, so as to recognize the impact of multiple technologies and processes including big data analytics.

Comment: The Preamble states that it is necessary for good governance that all interceptions of communication and surveillance be conducted in a systematic and transparent manner subservient to the rule of law.

Recommendation: The word ‘systematic’ is out of place, and can be interpreted incorrectly. It could instead be replaced with words such as ‘necessary’, ‘proportionate’, ‘specific’, and ‘narrow’, which would be more appropriate in this context.

Chapter 1 Preliminary

Section 2: This Section defines the terms used in the Act.

Comment: Some of the terms are incomplete and a few of the terms used in the Act have not been included in the list of definitions.

Recommendations:

The term “effective consent” needs to be defined. The term is first used in the Proviso to Section 7(2), which states “Provided that effective consent can only be said to have been obtained where...:”It is crucial that the Act defines effective consent especially when it is with respect to sensitive data.
The term “open data” needs to be defined. The term is first used in Section 5 that states the exemptions to the right to privacy. Subsection 1 clause ii states as follows “the collection, storage, processing or dissemination by a natural person of personal data for a strictly non-commercial purposes which may be classified as open data by the Privacy Commission”. Hence the term open data needs to be defined in order to ensure that there is no ambiguity in terms of what open data means.
The Act does not define “erasure”, although the term erasure does come under the definition of destroy (Section 2(1)(p)). There are some provisions that use the word erasure , hence if erasure and destruction mean different acts then the term erasure needs to be defined, otherwise in order to maintain uniformity the sections where erasure is used could be substituted with the term “destroy” as defined under this Act.
The definition of “sensitive personal data” does not include location data and identification numbers. The definition of sensitive data must include location data as the Act also deals in depth with surveillance. With respect to identification numbers, the Act needs to consider identification numbers (eg. the Aadhaar number, PAN number etc.) as sensitive information as this number is linked to a person's identity and can reveal sensitive personal data such as name, age, location, biometrics etc. Example can be taken from Section 4(1) of the GDPR^{^[3]} which identifies location data as well as identification numbers as sensitive personal data along with other identifies such as biometric data, gender race etc.
The Act defines consent as the “unambiguous indication of a data subject’s agreement” however, the definition does not indicate that there needs to be an informed consent. Hence the revised definition could read as follows “the informed and unambiguous indication of a data subject’s agreement”. It is also unclear how this definition of consent relates to ‘effective consent’. This relationship needs to be clarified.
The Act defines ‘data controller’ in Section 2(1)(l) as “ any person including appropriate government..”. In order to remove any ambiguity over the definition of the term person, the definition could specify that the term person means any natural or legal person.
The Act defines ‘data processor’ in Section (2(1)(m) as “means any person including appropriate government”. In order to remove any ambiguity over the definition of the term ‘any person’, the definition could specify that the term person means any natural or legal person.

CHAPTER II

Right to Privacy

Section 5: This section provides exemption to the rights to privacy.

Comment: Section 5(1)(ii) states that the collection, storage, processing or dissemination by a natural person of personal data for a strictly non-commercial purposes are exempted from the provisions of the right to privacy. This clause also states that this data may be classified as open data by the Privacy Commission. This section hence provides individuals the immunity from collection, storage, processing and dissemination of data of another person. However this provision fails to state what specific activities qualify as non commercial use.

Recommendation: This provision could potentially be strengthened by specifying that the use must be in the public interest. The other issue with this subsection is that it fails to define open data. If open data was to be examined using its common definition i.e “data that can be freely used, modified, and shared by anyone for any purpose”^{^[4]} then this section becomes highly problematic. As a simple interpretation would mean that any personal data that is collected, stored, processed or disseminated by a natural person can possibly become available to anyone. Beyond this, India has an existing framework governing open data. Ideally the privacy commissioner could work closely with government departments to ensure that open data practices in India are in compliance with the privacy law.

CHAPTER III

Protection of Personal Data

PART A

Notice by data controller

Section 6: This section specifies the obligations to be followed by data controllers in their communication, to maintain transparency and lays down provisions that all communications by Data Controllers need to be complied with.

Comment: There seems to be a error in the Proviso to this section. The proviso states “Provided that all communications by the Data Controllers including but not limited to the rights of Data Subjects under this part shall may be refused when the Data Controller is, unable to identify or has a well founded basis for reasonable doubts as to the identity of the Data Subject or are manifestly unfounded, excessive and repetitive, with respect to the information sought by the Data Subject ”.

Recommendation: The proviso could read as follows “The proviso states “Provided that all communications by the Data Controllers including but not limited to the rights of Data Subjects under this part may be refused when the Data Controller is…”. We suggest the use of the ‘may’ as this makes the provision less limiting to the rights of the data controller.

Additionally, it is not completely clear what ‘included but not limited to...’ would entail. This could be clarified further.

PART B

CONSENT OF DATA SUBJECTS

Section 10: This section talks about the collection of personal data.

Comment: Section 10(3) lays down the information that a person must provide before collecting the personal data of an individual.

Comment: Section 10(3)(xi) states as follows “the time and manner in which it will be destroyed, or the criteria used to Personal data collected in pursuance of a grant of consent by the data subject to whom it pertains shall, if that consent is subsequently withdrawn for any reason, be destroyed forthwith: determine that time period;”. There seems to be a problem with the sentence construction and the rather complex sentence is difficult to understand.

Recommendation: This section could be reworked in such as way that two conditions are clear, one - the time and manner in which the data will be destroyed and two the status of the data once consent is withdrawn.

Comment: Section 10(3)(xiii) states that the identity and contact details of the data controller and data processor must be provided. However it fails to state that the data controller should provide more details with regard to the process for grievance redressal. It does not provide guidance on what type of information needs to go into this notice and the process of redressal. This could lead to very broad disclosures about the existence of redress mechanisms without providing individuals an effective avenue to pursue.

Recommendation: As part of the requirement for providing the procedure for redress, data controllers could specifically be required to provide the details of the Privacy Officers, privacy commissioner, as well as provide more information on the redressal mechanisms and the process necessary to follow.

Section 11:This section lays out the provisions where collection of personal data without prior consent is possible.

Comment: Section 11 states “Personal data may be collected or received from a third party by a Data Controller the prior consent of the data subject only if it is:..”. However as the title of the section suggests the sentence could indicate the situations where it is permissible to collect personal data without prior consent from the data subject”. Hence the word “without” is missing from the sentence. Additionally the sentence could state that the personal data may be collected or received directly from an individual or from a third party as it is possible to directly collect personal data from an individual without consent.

Recommendation:The sentence could read as “Personal data may be collected or received from an individual or a third party by a Data Controller without the prior consent of the data subject only if it is:..”.

Comment: Section 11(1)(i) states that the collection of personal data without prior consent when it is “necessary for the provision of an emergency medical service or essential services”. However it does not specify the kind or severity of the medical emergency.

Recommendation: In addition to medical emergency another exception could be made for imminent threats to life.

Section 12: This section details the Special provisions in respect of data collected prior to the commencement of this Act.

Comment: This section states that all data collected, processed and stored by data controllers and data processors prior to the date on which this Act comes into force shall be destroyed within a period of two years from the date on which this Act comes into force. Unless consent is obtained afresh within two years or that the personal data has been anonymised in such a manner to make re-identification of the data subject absolutely impossible. However this process can be highly difficult and impractical in terms of it being time consuming, expensive particularly, in cases of analog collections of data. This is especially problematic in cases where the controller cannot seek consent of the data subject due to change in address or inavailability or death. This will also be problematic in cases of digitized government records.

Recommendation: We suggest three ways in which the issue of data collected prior to the Act can be handled. One way is to make a distinction on the data based on whether the data controller has specified the purpose of the collection before collecting the data. If the purpose was not defined then the data can be deleted or anonymised. Hence there is no need to collect the data afresh for all the cases. The purpose of the data can also be intimated to the data subject at a later stage and the data subject can choose if they would like the controller to store or process the data.The second way is by seeking consent afresh only for the sensitive data. Lastly, the data controller could be permitted to retain records of data, but must necessarily obtain fresh consent before using them. By not having a blanket provision of retrospective data deletion the Act can address situations where deletion is complicated or might have a potential negative impact by allowing storage, deletion, or anonymisation of data based on its purpose and kind.

Comment: Section (2)(1)(i) of the Act states that the data will not be destroyed provided that effective consent is obtained afresh within two years. However as stated earlier the Act does not define effective consent.

Recommendation: The term effective consent needs to be defined in order to bring clarity to this provision.

PART C

FURTHER LIMITATIONS ON DATA CONTROLLERS

Section 16: This section deals with the security of personal data and duty of confidentiality.

Comment: Section 16(2) states “ Any person who collects, receives, stores, processes or otherwise handles any personal data shall be subject to a duty of confidentiality and secrecy in respect of it.” Similarly Section 16(3) states “data controllers and data processors shall be subject to a duty of confidentiality and secrecy in respect of personal data in their possession or control. However apart from the duty of confidentiality and secrecy the data collectors and processors could also have a duty to maintain the security of the data.” Though it is important for confidentiality and secrecy to be maintained, ensuring security requires adequate and effective technical controls to be in place.

Recommendation: This section could also emphasise on the duty of the data controllers to ensure the security of the data. The breach notification could include details about data that is impacted by a breach or attach as well as the technical details of the infrastructure compromised.

Section 17: This section details the conditions for the transfer of personal data outside the territory of India.

Comment: Section 17 allows a transfer of personal data outside the territory of India in 3 situations- If the Central Government issues a notification deciding that the country/international organization in question can ensure an adequate level of protection, compatible with privacy principles contained in this Act; if the transfer is pursuant to an agreement which binds the recipient of the data to similar or stronger conditions in relation to handling the data; or if there are appropriate legal instruments and safeguards in place, to the satisfaction of the data controller. However, there is no clarification for what would constitute ‘adequate’ or ‘appropriate’ protection, and it does not account for situations in which the Government has not yet notified a country/organisation as ensuring adequate protection. In comparison, the GDPR, in Chapter V^{^[5]}, contains factors that must be considered when determining adequacy of protection, including relevant legislation and data protection rules, the existence of independent supervisory authorities, and international commitments or obligations of the country/organization. Additionally, the GDPR allows data transfer even in the absence of the determination of such protection in certain instances, including the use of standard data protection clauses, that have been adopted or approved by the Commission; legally binding instruments between public authorities; approved code of conduct, etc. Additionally, it allows derogations from these measures in certain situations: when the data subject expressly agrees, despite being informed of the risks; or if the transfer is necessary for conclusion of contract between data subject and controller, or controller and third party in the interest of data subject; or if the transfer is necessary for reasons of public interest, etc. No such circumstances are accounted for in Section 17.

Recommendation: Additionally, data controllers and processors could be provided with a period to allow them to align their policies towards the new legislation. Making these provisions operational as soon as the Act is commenced might put the controllers or processors guilty of involuntary breaching the provisions of the Act.

Section 19: This section states the special provisions for sensitive personal data.

Comment: Section 19(2) states that in addition to the requirements set out under sub-clause (1), the Privacy Commission shall set out additional protections in respect of:i.sensitive personal data relating to data subjects who are minors; ii.biometric and deoxyribonucleic acid data; and iii.financial and credit data.This however creates additional categories of sensitive data apart from the ones that have already been created.^{^[6]} These additional categories can result in confusion and errors.

Recommendation: Sensitive data must not be further categorised as this can lead to confusion and errors. Hence all sensitive data could be subject to the same level of protection.

Section 20: This section states the special provisions for data impact assessment.

Comment: This section states that all data impact assessment reports will be submitted periodically to the State Privacy commission. This section does not make provisions for instances of circumstances in which such records may be made public. Additionally the data impact assessment could also include a human rights impact assessment.

Recommendation: The section could also have provisions for making the records of the impact assessment or relevant parts of the assessment public. This will ensure that the data controllers / processors are subjected to a standard of accountability and transparency. Additionally as privacy is linked to human rights the data impact assessment could also include a human rights impact assessment. The Act could further clarify the process for submission to State Privacy Commissions and potential access by the Central Privacy Commission to provide clarity in process.

Section 20 requires controllers who use new technology to assess the risks to the data protection rights that occur from processing. ‘New technology’ is defined to include pre-existing technology that is used anew. Additionally, the reports are required to be sent to the State Privacy Commission periodically. However, there is no clarification on the situations in which such an assessment becomes necessary, or whether all technology must undergo such an assessment before their use. Additionally, the differentiation between different data processing activities based on whether the data processing is incidental or a part of the functioning needs to be clarified. This differentiation is necessary as there are some data processors and controllers who need the data to function; for instance an ecommerce site would require your name and address to deliver the goods, although these sites do not process the data to make decisions. This can be compared to a credit rating agency that is using the data to make decisions as to who will be given a loan based on their creditworthiness. Example can taken from the GDPR, which in Article 35, specifies instances in which a data impact assessment is necessary: where a new technology, that is likely to result in a high risk to the rights of persons, is used; where personal aspects related to natural persons are processed automatically, including profiling; where processing of special categories of data (including data revealing ethnic/racial origin, sexual orientation etc), biometric/genetic data; where data relating to criminal convictions is processed; and with data concerning the monitoring of publicly accessible areas. Additionally, there is no requirement to publish the report, or send it to the supervising authority, but the controller is required to review the processor’s operations to ensure its compliance with the assessment report.

Recommendation: The reports could be sent to a central authority, which according to this Act is the Privacy Commission, along with the State Privacy Commission. Additionally there needs to be a differentiation between the incidental and express use of data. The data processors must be given at least a period of one year after the commencement of the Act to present their impact assessment report. This period is required for the processors to align themselves with the provisions of the Act as well as conduct capacity building initiatives.

PART C

RIGHTS OF A DATA SUBJECT

Section 21: This section explains the right of the data subject with regard to accessing her data. It states that the data subject has the right to obtain from the data controller information as to whether any personal data concerning her is collected or processed. The data controller also has to not only provide access to such information but also the personal data that has been collected or processed.

Comment: This section does not provide the data subject the right to seek information about security breaches.

Recommendation: This section could state that the data subject has the right to seek information about any security breaches that might have compromised her data (through theft, loss, leaks etc.). This could also include steps taken by the data controller to address the immediate breach as well as steps to minimise the occurrence of such breaches in the future.^{^[7]}

CHAPTER IV

INTERCEPTION AND SURVEILLANCE

Section 28: This section lists out the special provisions for competent organizations.

Comment: Section 28(1) states ”all provisions of Chapter III shall apply to personal data collected, processed, stored, transferred or disclosed by competent organizations unless when done as per the provisions under this chapter ”.This does not make provisions for other categories of data such as sensitive data.

Recommendation: This section needs to include not just personal data but also sensitive data, in order to ensure that all types of data are protected under this Act.

Section 30: This section states the provisions for prior authorisation by the appropriate Surveillance and Interception Review Tribunal.

Comment: Section 30(5) states “any interception involving the infringement of the privacy of individuals who are not the subject of the intended interception, or where communications relate to medical, journalistic, parliamentary or legally privileged material may be involved, shall satisfy additional conditions including the provision of specific prior justification in writing to the Office for Surveillance Reform of the Privacy Commission as to the necessity for the interception and the safeguards providing for minimizing the material intercepted to the greatest extent possible and the destruction of all such material that is not strictly necessary to the purpose of the interception.” This section needs to state why these categories of communication are more sensitive than others. Additionally, interceptions typically target people and not topics of communication - thus medical may be part of a conversation between two construction workers and a doctor will communicate about finances.

Recommendation: The section could instead of singling out “medical, journalistic, parliamentary or legally privileged material” state that “any interception involving the infringement of the privacy of individuals who are not the subject of the intended interception may be involved, shall satisfy additional conditions including the provision of specific prior justification in writing to the Office for Surveillance Reform of the Privacy Commission.

Section 37: This section details the bar against surveillance.

Comment: Section 37(1) states that “no person shall order or carry out, or cause or assist the ordering or carrying out of, any surveillance of another person”. The section also prohibits indiscriminate monitoring, or mass surveillance, unless it is necessary and proportionate to the stated purpose. However, it is unclear whether this prohibits surveillance by a resident of their own residential property, which is allowed in Section 5, as the same could also fall within ‘indiscriminate monitoring/mass surveillance’. For instance, in the case of a camera installed in a residential property, which is outward facing, and therefore captures footage of the road/public space.

Recommendation: The Act needs to bring more clarity with regard to surveillance especially with respect to CCTV cameras that are installed in private places, but record public spaces such as public roads. The Act could have provisions that clearly define the use of CCTV cameras in order to ensure that cameras installed in private spaces are not used for carrying out mass surveillance. Further, the Act could address the use of emerging techniques and technology such as facial recognition technologies, that often rely on publicly available data.

CHAPTER V

THE PRIVACY COMMISSION

Section 53: This section details the powers and functions of the Privacy Commission.

Comment: Section 53(2)(xiv) states that the Privacy Commission shall publish periodic reports “providing description of performance, findings, conclusions or recommendations of any or all of the functions assigned to the Privacy Commission”. However this Section does not make provisions for such reporting to happen annually and to make them publicly available, as well as contain details including financial aspects of matters contained within the Act.

Recommendation: The functions could include a duty to disclose the information regarding the functioning and financial aspects of matters contained within the Act. Categories that could be included in such reports include: the number of data controllers, number of data processors, number of breaches detected and mitigated etc.

CHAPTER IX

OFFENCES AND PENALTIES

Sections 73 to 80: These sections lay out the different punishments for controlling and processing data in contravention to the provisions of this Act.

Comment: These sections, while laying out different punishments for controlling and processing data in contravention to the provisions of this Act, mets out a fine extending upto Rs. 10 crore. This is problematic as it does not base these penalties on the finer aspects of proportionality, such as offences that are not as serious as the others.

Recommendation: There could be a graded approach to the penalties based on the degree of severity of the offence.This could be in the form of name and shame, warnings and penalties that can be graded based on the degree of the offence.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Additional thoughts: As India moves to a digital future there is a need for laws to be in place to ensure that individual's rights are not violated. By riding on the push to digitization, and emerging technologies such as AI, a strong all encompassing privacy legislation can allow India to leapfrog and use these emerging technologies for the benefit of the citizens without violating their privacy. A robust legislation can also ensure a level playing field for data driven enterprises within a framework of openness, fairness, accountability and transparency.

^{^[1]} These seven principles include: Right to Access, Right to Rectification, Right to Erasure And Destruction of Personal Data,Right to Restriction Of Processing, Right to Object, Right to Portability of Personal Data,Right to Seek Exemption from Automated Decision-Making.

^{^[2]}The Privacy (Protection) Bill 2013: A Citizen’s Draft, Bhairav Acharya, Centre for Internet & Society, https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/privacy-protection-bill-2013-citizens-draft

^{^[3]}General Data Protection Regulation, available at https://gdpr-info.eu/art-4-gdpr/.

^{^[4]} Antonio Vetro, Open Data Quality Measurement Framework: Definition and Application to Open Government Data, available at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0740624X16300132

^{^[5]} General Data Protection Regulation, available at https://gdpr-info.eu/chapter-5/.

^{^[6]} Sensitive personal data under Section 2(bb) includes, biometric data; deoxyribonucleic acid data;
sexual preferences and practices;medical history and health information;political affiliation;
membership of a political, cultural, social organisations including but not limited to a trade union as defined under Section 2(h) of the Trade Union Act, 1926;ethnicity, religion, race or caste; and
financial and credit information, including financial history and transactions.

^{^[7]} Submission to the Committee of Experts on a Data Protection Framework for India, Amber Sinha, Centre for Internet & Society, available at https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/files/data-protection-submission

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-centre-for-internet-and-society2019s-comments-and-recommendations-to-the-indian-privacy-code-2018

The Centre for Internet and Society - Bulletin - July '11

praskrishna — 2011-08-19T06:43:57Z

Greetings from the Centre for Internet and Society! In this issue we are pleased to present you the latest updates about our research, upcoming events, and news and media coverage. Subscribe to our newsletter and get monthly updates in your inbox and read it at your convenience. The newsletter issue of June 2011 can be accessed here! Click below to download previous issues.

Researchers@Work

RAW is a multidisciplinary research initiative. CIS believes that in order to understand the contemporary concerns in the field of Internet and society, it is necessary to produce local and contextual accounts of the interaction between the Internet and socio-cultural and geo-political structures. To build original research knowledge base, the RAW programme has been collaborating with different organisations and individuals to focus on its three year thematic of Histories of the Internets in India. Six monographs Rewiring Bodies, Archive and Access, Pornography and the Law, The Leap of Rhodes or, How India Dealt with the Last Mile Problem - An Inquiry into Technology and Governance, Transparency and Politics and Internet, Society and Space in Indian Cities are published online and will be launched later this year.

# New Blog Entry

CEPT to Set up Centre to Research Role of Internet in Social Development [Published in the Indian Express on June 18, 2011]

# Upcoming Event in CEPT, Ahmedabad

Locating Internets: Histories of the Internet(s) in India — Research Training and Curriculum Workshop: Call for Participation [Deadline for submission – 15 July 2011; Workshop from 19 to 22 August 2011]

* Digital Natives*

Digital Natives with a Cause? is a knowledge programme initiated by CIS and Hivos, Netherlands. It is a research inquiry that seeks to look at the changing landscape of social change and political participation and the role that young people play through digital and Internet technologies, in emerging information societies. Consolidating knowledge from Asia, Africa and Latin America, it builds a global network of knowledge partners who want to critically engage with the dominant discourse on youth, technology and social change, in order to look at the alternative practices and ideas in the Global South. It also aims at building new ecologies that amplify and augment the interventions and actions of the digitally young as they shape our futures.

# The Digital Natives Newsletter

The Digital Dinosaurs [Volume 5]

* Pathways*

HE Cell's initiative on social justice, in collaboration with CIS, has initiated the Pathways Project for Learning in Higher Education. It is supported by the Ford Foundation. Under this project, nine under-graduate colleges in different parts of India will be identified to provide special skills in livelihood, knowledge and technology to underprivileged students in those colleges.

# New Blog Entry

Pathways for Learning in Higher Education

Accessibility

Estimates of the percentage of the world's population that is disabled vary considerably. But what is certain is that if we count functional disability, then a large proportion of the world's population is disabled in one way or another. At CIS we work to ensure that the digital technologies, which empower disabled people and provide them with independence, are allowed to do so in practice and by the law. To this end, we support web accessibility guidelines, and change in copyright laws that currently disempower the persons with disabilities.

# New Blog Entries

Policy Spotlight: 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act [Written by Deepti Bharthur; contains an e-mail interview with Jenifer Simpson, Senior Director for Government Affairs and head of the Telecommunications & Technology Policy Initiative at the American Association of People with Disabilities ]
ICT Accessibility in Sri Lanka [Written by Nirmita Narasimhan]

Intellectual Property

CIS believes that access to knowledge and culture is essential as it promotes creativity and innovation and bridges the gaps between the developed and developing world positively. Hence, the campaigns for an international treaty on copyright exceptions for print-impaired, advocating against PUPFIP Bill, calls for the WIPO Broadcast Treaty to be restricted to broadcast, questioning the demonization of 'pirates', and supporting endeavours that explore and question the current copyright regime.

# Statement

Statement of CIS, India, on the WIPO Broadcast Treaty at the 22nd SCCR

# New Blog Entry

Putting a Lid on Royalty Outflows — How the RBI can Help Reduce your IP Costs [Written by Sanjana Govil]

Openness

CIS believes that innovation and creativity should be fostered through openness and collaboration and is committed towards promotion of open standards, open access, and free/libre/open source software.

# Submission

Comments on the draft National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy [submitted to the National Spatial Data Infrastructure]

# Comments

Comments on Draft National Policy on ICT in School Education

Internet Governance

Although there may not be one centralized authority that rules the Internet, the Internet does not just run by its own volition: for it to operate in a stable and reliable manner, there needs to be in place infrastructure, a functional domain name system, ways to curtail cyber crime across borders, etc. The Tunis Agenda of the second World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), paragraph 34 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 programmes that shape the evolution and use of the Internet."

# New Articles

The Present — and Future — Dangers of India's Draconian New Internet Regulations [By Anja Kovacs in the Caravan on June 1, 2011]
Big Brother is Watching You [By Sunil Abraham in Deccan Herald on June 1, 2011]
The Digital is Political [By Nishant Shah in Down to Earth, Issue of June 15, 2011]
Do You Want to be Watched? [By Sunil Abraham in Pragati on June 8, 2011]
Snooping Can Lead to Data Abuse [By Sunil Abraham in Mail Today on June 9, 2011]
Privacy and Security Can Co-exist [By Sunil Abraham in Mail Today on June 21, 2011]

Columns in Indian Express
Nishant Shah, Director-Research is writing a series of columns on Internet and Society issues:

Say 'Password' in Hindi [By Nishant Shah in the Indian Express, May 15, 2011]

# Upcoming Event

Socio-financial Online Networks: Globalizing Micro-Credit through Micro-transactional Networked Platforms – A Public Lecture by Radhika Gajalla [at the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, July 8, 2011]

CIS is doing a project, ‘Privacy in Asia’. It is funded by Privacy International (PI), UK and the International Development Research Centre, Canada and is being administered in collaboration with the Society and Action Group, Gurgaon. The two-year project commenced on 24 March 2010 and will be completed as agreed to by the stakeholders. It was set up with the objective of raising awareness, sparking civil action and promoting democratic dialogue around challenges and violations of privacy in India. In furtherance of these goals it aims to draft and promote over-arching privacy legislation in India by drawing upon legal and academic resources and consultations with the public.

# Featured Research

# New Articles

A Street View of Private and the Public [By Prashant Iyengar in Tehelka on June 4, 2011]
The new Right to Privacy Bill 2011 — A Blind Man's View of the Elephunt [By Prashant Iyengar in Privacy India website on June 8, 2011]

# New Blog Entry

Bloggers' Rights Subordinated to Rights of Expression: Cyber Law Expert

# Event Organised in Guwahati

Privacy matters [Donbosco Institute, Kharguli, Guwahati, June 23, 2011]
Privacy Matters - A Public Conference in Hyderabad [The English and Foreign Languages University (TBC), Hyderabad, June 18, 2011]

# Upcoming Events

Internet Surveillance Policy: “…the second time as farce?” – A Public Lecture by Caspar Bowden [TERI, Bangalore, June 27, 2011]
Privacy Matters - A Public Conference in Hyderabad [Osmania University Center for International Program, Hyderabad, July 9, 2011]

Telecom

The growth in telecommunications in India has been impressive. While the potential for growth and returns exist, a range of issues need to be addressed for this potential to be realized. One aspect is more extensive rural coverage and the second aspect is a countrywide access to broadband which is low at about eight million subscriptions. Both require effective and efficient use of networks and resources, including spectrum. It is imperative to resolve these issues in the common interest of users and service providers. CIS campaigns to facilitate this:

# Articles by Shyam Ponappa

Shyam Ponappa is a Distinguished Fellow at CIS. He writes regularly on Telecom issues in the Business Standard and these articles are mirrored on the CIS website as well.

NTP 2011 Objective: Broadband [published in the Business Standard on June 2, 2011]

* Miscellaneous *

# Technology, Transparency and Accountability: A Bar-Camp in Delhi [June 5, 2011, Delhi]

Communication Policy Advocacy, Technology, and Online Freedom of Expression: A Toolkit for Media Development [June 20 – July 1, 2011, Budapest, Hungary]

News & Media Coverage

Your cyber space is a hackers paradise [Mail Today, June 6, 2011]
Centaur website reveals guests' personal info [Times of India, June 20, 2011]
Mumbai Takes Note of Sexting, the Seamier Side of Texting [Times of India, June 19, 2011]
Look what the state just did to you [Mid Day, June 12, 2011]
Tough neighbourhood tests India's e-tolerance [Times of India, June 12, 2011]
India Weighing Looser Web Rules [Wall Street Journal, May 30, 2011]
Public data on the Web leaves much to be desired [Hindu, May 28, 2011]
What documents will you need, to get UID? [CitizenMatters.in, May 28, 2011]
Mobile education comes to villages [Mail Today, May 27, 2011]
Google now stalks your street [Hindu, May 27, 2011]
Women in love with Facebook [Deccan Herald, May 27, 2011]
Google Unveils Controversial Street View Mapping in B’lore [Economic Times, Mumbai, May 27, 2011]
NGOs say eG8 report must stress internet rights [TELECOMPAPER, May 26, 2011]

* Follow us Elsewhere*

Get short, timely messages from us on Twitter
Follow CIS on identi.ca
Join the CIS group on Facebook
Visit us at www.cis-india.org

CIS is grateful to Kusuma Trust which was founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin, for its core funding and support for most of its projects.

The Centre for Internet and Society - Bulletin - January 2011

praskrishna — 2011-03-11T07:30:57Z

pdf

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/publications-automated/news-bulletin-january

The Body in Cyberspace

nishant — 2014-05-13T10:13:22Z

Perhaps one of the most interesting histories of the cyberspace has been its relationship with the body. Beginning with the meatspace-cyberspace divide that Gibson introduces, the question of our bodies’ relationship with the internet has been hugely contested. There have been some very polarized debates around this question.

Where are we when we are online? Are we the person in the chair behind an interface? Are we the avatar in a social networking site interacting with somebody else? Are we a set of data running through the atmosphere? Are we us? Are we dogs? These are tantalising and teasing questions.

Early debates around the body-technology questions were polarized. There were people who offered that the cyberspace is a virtual space. What happens in that make-believe, performative space does not have any direct connections with who we are and how we live. They insisted that the cyberspace is essentially a performance space, and just like acting in a movie does not make us the character, all our interactions on the internet are also performances. The idea of a virtual body or a digital self were proposed, thinking of the digital as an extension of who we are – as a space that we occupy to perform different identities and then get on with our real lives.

Sherry Turkle, in her book Life on the Screen, was the first one to question this binary between the body and the digital self. Working closely with the first users of the online virtual reality worlds called Multiple User Dungeons, Turkle notes how being online started producing a different way of thinking about who we are and how we relate to the world around us. She indicates three different ways in which this re-thinking happens. The first, is at the level of language. She noticed how the users were beginning to think of their lives and their social relationships through the metaphors that they were using in the online world. So, for instance, people often thought of life through the metaphor of windows – being able to open multiple windows, performing multiple tasks and identities and ‘recycling’ them in their everyday life. Similarly, people saying that they are ‘low on bandwidth’ when they don’t have enough time and attention to devote to something, or thinking about the need to ‘upgrade’ our senses. We also are quite used to the idea that memory is something that resides on a chip and that computing is what machines do. These slippages in language, where we start attributing the machine characteristics to human beings are the first sign of understanding the human-technological relationship and history.

The second slippage is when the user start thinking of the avatars as human. We are quite used to, in our deep web lives, to think of machines as having agency. Our avatars act. Things that we do on the internet perform more actions than we have control of – a hashtag that we start on twitter gets used and responded to by others and takes on a life of its own. We live with sapient technologies – machines that care, artificial intelligence algorithms that customise search results for us, scripts and bots that protect us from malware and viruses. We haven’t attributed these kinds of human agencies to machines and technologies in the past. However, within the digital world, there is a complex network of actors, where all the actors are not always human. Bruno Latour, a philosopher of science and technology, posits in his ‘Actor Network Theory’ that the emergence of these non-human actors has helped us understand that we are not only dependent on machines and technologies for our everyday survival, but that many tasks that we had thought of as ‘human’ are actually performed, and performed better by these technologies. Hence, we have come to care for our machines and we also think of them as companions and have intimate relationships with them. And the machines, even as they make themselves invisible, start becoming more personal.

The third slippage that Turkle points out is the way in which the boundaries between the interior and the exterior were dissolved in the accounts of the users’ narratives of their digital adventures. There is a very simplistic understanding that what is human is inside us, it is sacred and organic and emotional. Earlier representational technology products like cinema, books, TV etc. have emphasised this distinction between real life and reel life. No actor is punished for the crime they commit in the narrative of a film. It is not very often that an author claims to be the character in a book. We have always had a very strong sense of distinction between the real person and the fictional person. But within the virtual reality worlds, these distinctions seem to dematerialize. The users not only thought of their avatars as human but also experienced the emotions, frustrations, excitement and joy that their characters were simulating for them. And what is more important, they claimed these experiences for themselves.

Namita Malhotra, who is a legal scholar and a visual artist, in her monograph on Pleasure, Porn and the Law, looks at the way in which we are in a process of data-stripping – constant revelation of our deepest darkest secrets and desires, within the user generated content rubric. Looking at the low-res, grainy videos on sites like YouTube and Vimeo, which have almost no narrative content and are often empty of sexual content, produce all of us in a global orgiastic setting, where our bodies are being extended beyond ourselves. In the monograph, Malhotra argues that the Internet is not merely an extension but almost like a third skin that we wear around ourselves – it is a wrapper, but it is tied, through ligaments and tendons, to the flesh and bone of our being, and often things that we do online, even when they are not sexual in nature, can become pornographic. Conversely, the physical connections that we have are now being made photographically and visually available in byte sized morsels, turned into a twitpic, available to be shared virally, and disseminated using mobile applications, thus making our bodies escape the biological containers that we occupy but also simultaneously marks our bodies through all these adventures that we have on the digital infobahn.

Case Study: A Rape in Cyberspace
A contemporary of Sherry Turkle, Julian Dibbell, in his celebrated account of ‘A Rape in Cyberspace’[1] describes a case-study that corroborates many of the observations that Turkle posits. Dibbell analyses a particular incident that occurred one night in a special kind of MUD – LambdaMOO (MUD, Object-Oriented) – which was run by the Xerox Research Corporations. A MUD, is a text-based virtual reality space of fluid dimensions and purposes, where users could create avatars of themselves in textual representations. Actions and interactions within the MUD are also in long running scripts of texts. Of course, technically all this means that a specially designed database gives users the vivid impression of their own presence and the impression of moving through physical spaces that actually exists as descriptive data on some remotely located servers. When users log into LambdaMoo, the program presents them with a brief textual description of one of the rooms (the coat closet) in the fictional database mansion. If the user wants to navigate, s/he can enter a command to move in a particular direction and the database replaces the original description with new ones, corresponding to the room located in the direction s/he chose. When the new description scrolls across the user’s screen, it lists not only the fixed features of the room but all its contents at that moment – including things (tools, toys, weapons), as well as other avatars (each character over which s/he has sole control). For the database program that powers the MOO, all of these entities are simply subprograms or data structures which are allowed to interact according to rules very roughly mimicking the laws of the physical world. Characters may leave the rooms in particular directions. If a character says or does something (as directed by its user), then the other users who are located in the same ‘geographical’ region within the MOO, see the output describing the utterance or action. As the different players create their own fantasy worlds, interacting and socialising, a steady script of text scrolls up a computer screen and narratives are produced. The avatars, as in Second Life or even on Social Networking Sites like Orkut, have the full freedom to define themselves, often declining the usual referents of gender, sexuality, and context to produce fantastical apparitions. It is in such an environment of free-floating fantasy and role-playing, of gaming and social interaction mediated by digital text-based avatars, that a ‘crime’ happened. Dibell goes on to give an account of events that unfolded that night. In the social lounge of LambdaMoo, which is generally the most populated of all the different nooks, corners, dimensions and rooms that users might have created for themselves, there appeared an avatar called Dr. Bungle. Dr. Bungle had created a particular program called Vodoo Doll, which allowed the creator to control avatars which were not his own, attributing to them involuntary actions for all the other players to watch, while the targeted avatars themselves remained helpless and unable to resist any of these moves. This Dr. Bungle, through his evil Vodoo Doll, took hold of two avatars – legba and Starsinger and started controlling them. He further proceeded to forcefully engage them in sexually violent, abusive, perverted and reluctant actions upon these two avatars. As the users behind both the avatars sent a series of invective and a desperate plea for help, even as other users in the room (# 17) watched, the Vodoo Doll made them enter into sexually degrading and extremely violent set of activities without their consent. The peals of his laughter were silenced only when a player with higher powers came and evicted Dr. Bungle from the Room # 17. As an eye-witness of the crime and a further interpolator with the different users then present, Dibbell affirms that most of the users were convinced that a crime had happened in the Virtual World of the digital Mansion. That a ‘virtual rape’ happened and was traumatic to the two users was not questioned. However, what this particular incident brought back into focus was the question of space. Dibbell suggests that what we had was a set of conflicting approaches to understand the particular phenomenon: Where virtual reality and its conventions would have us believe that legba and Starsinger were brutally raped in their own living room, here was the victim legba scolding Mr. Bungle for a breach of civility … [R]eal life, on the other hand, insists the incident was only an episode in a free-form version of Dungeons and Dragons, confined to the realm of the symbolic and at no point threatening any players life, limb, or material well-being…’ The meaning and the understanding of this particular incident and the responses that it elicited, lie in the ‘buzzing, dissonant gap’ between the perceived and experienced notion of Technosocial Space. The discussions that were initiated within the community asked many questions: If a crime had happened, where had the crime happened? Was the crime recognised by law? Are we responsible for our actions performed through a digital character on the cyberspaces? Is it an assault if it is just role playing? The lack of ‘whereness’ of the crime, or rather the placelessness of the crime made it especially more difficult to pin it to a particular body. The users who termed the event as rape had necessarily inverted the expected notion of digital space as predicated upon and imitative of physical space; they had in fact done the exact opposite and exposed digital spaces as not only ‘bleeding into reality’ but also a constitutive part of the physical spaces. Their Technosocial Space was not the space of the LambdaMoo Room # 17 but the physical locations (and thus the bodies, rather than the avatars) of the players involved. However, this blurring was not to make an easy resolution of complex metaphysical questions. This blurring was to demonstrate, more than ever, that the actions and pseudonymous performances or narratives which are produced in the digital world are not as dissociated from the ‘Real’ as we had always imagined. More importantly, the notional simulation of place or a reference to the physical place is not just a symbolic gesture but has material ramifications and practices. As Dibell notes in his lyrical style. ‘Months later, the woman in Seattle would confide to me that as she wrote those words posttraumatic tears were streaming down her face — a real-life fact that should suffice to prove that the words’ emotional content was no mere playacting. The precise tenor of that content, however, its mingling of murderous rage and eyeball-rolling annoyance, was a curious amalgam that neither the RL nor the VL facts alone can quite account for.’ The eventual decision to ‘toad’ Dr. Bungle – to condemn him to a digital death (a death only as notional as his crime) and his reappearance as another character take up the rest of Dibbell’s argument. Dibbell is more interested in looking at how a civil society emerged, formed its own ways of governance and established the space of LamdaMOO as more than just an emotional experience or extension; as a legitimate place which is almost as much, if not more real, than the physical places that we occupy in our daily material practices. Dibbell’s moving account of the entire incident and the following events leading the final ‘death’ and ‘reincarnation’ has now been extrapolated to make some very significant and insightful theorisations of the notions of the body and its representations online. Exercise: Based on this case-study, break into small groups to determine whether a rape happened on cyberspace and how we can understand the relationship of our online personas with our bodies.

Cyberspace and the State

The history of body and technology is one way of approaching the history of the internet. However, as we realise, that more than the management of identity or the projection of our interiority, it is a narrative about governance. How does the body get regulated on the internet? How does it become the structure through which communities, networks, societies and collective can be imagined? The actions and transactions between the internet and the body can also help us to look at the larger questions of state, governance and technology which are such an integral part of our everyday experience of the internet. Questions of privacy, security, piracy, sharing, access etc. are all part of the way in which our practices of cultural production and social interaction are regulated, by the different intermediaries of the internet, of which the State is one.

Asha Achuthan, in her landmark work Re:Wiring Bodies[2] that looks at the history of science and technology in India, shows that these are not new concerns. In fact, as early as the 1930s and 1940s, when the architects of India’s Independence movements were thinking about shaping what the country is going to look like in the future, they were already discussing these questions. It is more popularly known that Jawaharlal Nehru was looking to build a ‘scientific temperament’ for the country and hoping to build it through scientific institutions as well as infrastructure – he is famously credited to having said that ‘dams are the temples of modern science.’ Apart from Nehru’s vision of a modern India, there was a particular conversation between M.K. Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore, that Achuthan analyses in great detail. Achuthan argues that the dialogue between Gandhi and Tagore is so couched in ideology, poetry and spirituality that we often forget that these were actually conversations about a technology – specifically, the charkha or the spinning wheel.

For both Gandhi and Tagore, the process of nation building was centred around this one particular charkha. The charkha was the mobile, portable, wearable device (much like our smart phones) that was supposed to provide spiritual salvation and modern resources to overcome the evils of both traditional and conservative values as well as unemployment and production. The difference in Gandhi and Tagore was not whether the charkha – as a metaphor of production and socio-economic organisation – should be at the centre of our discourse. The difference was that Gandhi thought that the usage of charka, complete immersion in the activity, and the devotion to it would help us weave a modern nation For Gandhi, the citizen was not somebody who used the charkha, but the citizen was somebody who becomes a citizen in the process of using the charkha. Tagore, meanwhile, was more concerned about whether we are building a people-centred nation or a technology-centred device. He was of the opinion that building a nation with the technology at its core, might lead to an apocalyptic future where the ‘danavayantra’ or demonic machine might take over and undermine the very human values and ideals that we are hoping to structure the nation through.

If you even cursorily look at this debate, you will realise that the way Gandhi was talking about the charkha is in resonance with how contemporary politicians talk about the powers of the internet and the way in which, through building IT Cities, through foreign investment, through building a new class of workers for the IT industry, and through different confluences of economic and global urbanisation, we are going to Imagine India[3] of the future. Similarly, the caution that Tagore had, of the charkha as superseding the human, finds its echoes in the sceptics who have been afraid that the human is being forgotten[4] in the e-governance systems that are being set up, which concentrate more on management of data and information rather than the rights and the welfare of people.

This historical continuity between technology and governance, also finds theorisation in Ashish Rajadhyaksha’s book The Cultural Last Mile[5] that looks at the critical turns in India’s governance and policy history and how the technological paradigm has been established. Rajadhyaksha opens up the State-technology-governance triad to more concrete examples and looks at how through the setting up of community science centres, the building of India’s space and nuclear programmes, and through on-the-ground inventions like radio and chicken-mesh wire-loops, we have tried to reinforce a broadcast based model of governance. Rajadhyaksha proposes that the earlier technologies of governance which were at our disposal, helped us think of the nation state through the metaphor of broadcast. So we had the State at the Centre, receiving and transmitting information, and in fact managing all our conversation and communication by being the central broadcasting agency. And hence, because the state was responsible for the message of the state reaching every single person, but also responsible that every single person can hypothetically communicate with every other single person, the last mile became important. The ability to reach that last person became important. And the history of technology and governance has been a history of innovations to breach that last mile and make the message reach without noise, without disturbance, and in as clean and effective a way as possible.

With the emergence of the digital governance set up, especially with the building of the Unique Identity Project,[6] we now have the first time when the government is not concerned about breaching the last mile. The p2p networks that are supposed to manage the different flows of information mean that the State is not a central addressee of our communication but one of the actors. It produces new managers – internet service providers, telecom infrastructure, individual hubs and connectors, traditional media agencies – that help us think of governance in a new way. Which is why, for instance, with the UID authorities, we are no longer concerned about the relay of state information from the centre to the subject. Hence, we have many anecdotal stories of people enrolling for the Aadhaar card without actually knowing what benefits it might accrue them. We also have stories coming in about how there are people with Aadhaar numbers which have flawed information but these are not concerns. Because for once, the last mile has to reach the Government. The State is a collector but there are also other registrars. And there is a new regime here, where the government is now going to become one of the actors in the field of governance and it is more interested in managing data and information rather than directly governing the people.

This historical turn is interesting, because it means that we are being subjected to different kinds of governance structures and institutions, without necessarily realising how to negotiate with them to protect us. One of the most obvious examples is the Terms of Services[7] that we almost blindly sign off when using online platforms and services and what happens when they violate rights that we think are constitutionally given. What happens when Facebook removes some content from your profile without your permission because it thinks that it is problematic? Who do you complain to? Are your rights as a user or a citizen? Which jurisdiction will it fall under? Conversely, what happens when you live in a country that does not grant you certain freedoms (of speech and expression, for instance) and you commit an infraction using a social media platform. What happens when your private utterances on your social networks make you vulnerable [8]. to persecution and prosecution in your country?

These are all questions of the human, the technological, and the governmental which have been discussed differently and severally historically, in India and also at the global level. Asking these questions, unpacking the historical concerns and how they have leap-frogged in the contemporary governmental debates is important because it helps us realise that the focus of what is at stake, what it means to be human, what we recognise as fair, just and equal are also changing in the process. Instead of thinking of e-governance as just a digitization of state resources, we have to realise that there is a certain primacy that the technologies have had in the state’s formation and manifestation, and that the digital is reshaping these formulations in new and exciting, and sometimes, precarious ways.

Cyberspace and Criminality

The history of the internet in India, but also around the world, is bookended between pornography and terrorism. While there has been an incredible promise of equity, equality, fairness, and representation of alternative voices on the internet, there is no doubt that what the internet has essentially done is turn us all into criminals – pornographers, pirates, terrorists, hackers, lurkers… If you have been online, let us just take for granted that you have broken some law or the other, no matter how safe you have been online, and where you live. The ways in which the internet has facilitated peer-2-peer connections and the one-one access means that almost everything that was governed in the public has suddenly exploded in one large grey zone of illegality.

Ravi Sundaram calls this grey zone of illegal or semi-legal practices the new ‘cyberpublics’. For Sundaram, the new public sphere created by the internet is not only in the gentrified, middle-class, educated people who have access to the cyberspaces and are using social media and user generated content sites to bring about active social and political change. More often than not, the real interesting users of the internet are hidden. They access the internet from cybercafés, in shared names. They have limited access to the web through apps and services on their pirated phones. They share music, watch porn, gamble, engage in illicit and surreptitious social and sexual engagements and they are able to do this by circumventing the authority and the gaze of the law.

On the other side are the more tech savvy individuals who create alternative currencies like Bitcoin, trade for weapons, drugs and sex on SilkRoute, form guerrilla resistance groups like Anonymous, and create viruses and malware that can take over the world. These cyberpublics are not just digital in nature. They erupt regularly in the form of pirate bazaars, data swaps, and the promiscuous USB drive that moves around the machines, capturing information and passing it on further. These criminalities are often the defining point of internet policy and politics – they serve as the subjects that need to be governed, as well as the danger that lurks in the digital ether, from which we need to be protected. For Sundaram, the real contours and borders of the digital world are to be tested in an examination of these figures. Because, as Lawrence Liang suggests, the normative has already been assimilated in the system. The normative or the good subject is no longer a threat and has developed an ethical compass of what is desirable and not. However, this ethical subject also engages in illicit activities, while still producing itself as a good person. This contradiction makes for interesting stories.

DPS MMS: Case Study
One of the most fascinating cases of criminality that captured both public and legal attention was the notoriously cases where the ideas of Access were complicated in the Indian context, was the legal and public furore over the distribution of an MMS (Multi-Media Message) video that captured two underage young adults in a sexual act. The clip, which was dubbed in popular media as ‘DPS Dhamaka’ became viral on the internet. The video clip was listed on an auction (peer-2-peer) website as an e-book and as ‘Item 27877408 – DPS Girl having fun!!! Full video + Bazee points’ for Rs. 125. This visibility of the clip on the auction site Bazee.com, brought it to the eyes of the State where its earlier circulation through private circuits and P2P networks had gone unnoticed. Indeed, the newspapers and TV channels had created frenzy around it, this video clip would have gone unnoticed. However, the attention that Bazee.com drew led to legal intervention. Following the visibility of the video clip, there was an attempt to find somebody responsible for the crime and be held liable for the ‘crime’ that had happened. Originally, Ravi Raj, a student at IIT Kharagpur, who had put up the clip on Bazee was arrested for possessing and selling pornography. He was arrested and kept in police custody for at least three days and so was the male student who made the clip. They were both made to go through proceedings in juvenile court (though he was the last to be arrested). Both the students in the video were suspended from school after the incident. Eventually, the most high profile arrest and follow up from the DPS MMS incident was the arrest of the CEO of Bazee.com – Avnish Bajaj. However, Bajaj was released soon because as the host of the platform and not its content, he had no liability. This is the beginning of a series of slippages where a punishable body in the face of public outcry had to be identified. We witnessed a witch-hunt that sought to hold the boy who made the video clip responsible, the student of IIT who attempted to circulate the clip and eventually the CEO of Bazee. The string of failed prosecutions seems to indicate that the pornographer-as-a-person was slipping through the cracks of the legal system. As NamitaMalhotra argues, it is not the pornographic object which is ‘eluding the grasp of the court’ but that it seems to be an inescapable condition of the age of the internet -that the all transactions are the same transactions, and all users are pornographers. We can see in the case that the earlier positions that were easily criminalised when it came to objects in mass media – producer, consumer, distributor of obscenity, were vacated rapidly in the DPS MMS case. We have a case where the bodies, when looked at through simplified ideas of Access, could not be regulated. The girl in the clip could not be punished because she was the victim in the case that could be read as statutory rape. In the case of the boy, a stranger argument was posed – ‘that in our fast urbanising societies where parents don’t have time for children, they buy off their love by giving them gadgets – which makes possible certain kinds of technological conditions...thus the blame if it is on the boy, is on the larger society’ (Malhotra, 2011). Eventually, the court held that the description of the object and the context of its presence indicates that the said obscene object is just a click away and such a ‘listing which informed the potential buyer that such a video clip that is pornographic can be procured for a price’. There is a suggestion that there was nobody in particular that could be fixed with the blame. What was at blame was access to technology and conditions of technology within which the different actors in this case were embedded. Malhotra points out that in earlier cases around pornography, judgements have held pornography responsible for itself. In the case of the DPS MMS, it seemed that technology – especially access to technology by unsupervised persons – has taken that role. The eventual directive that came out of this case was a blanket warning issued to the public that ‘anyone found in possession of the clip would be fined and prosecuted’. It is as if the attention of the court was on the ways in which the video clip was produced, circulated and disseminated, rather than the content. There was an anxiety around peoples’ unsupervised access to digital technologies, the networks that facilitated access to content without the permission of the state, and modes of circulation and dissemination that generated high access to audiences which cannot be controlled or regulated. The State’s interest in this case, is not in the sexual content of the material but in the way it sidesteps the State’s authorial positions and produces mutable, transmittable, and transferable products as well as conditions of access. Such a focus on practices and behaviours around the obscene object, rather than the content itself, seems not to disrupt the law’s neat sidestepping of the force of the image itself. These different tropes of access to technology informed the State’ attempt at control and containment of techno-social practices in the country, giving rise to imaginations of the User as being in conditions of technology which make him/her a potential criminal. This idea of access as transgression or overriding the legal regulatory framework does not get accounted for in the larger technology discourse. However, it does shape and inform the Information Technology regulations which are made manifest in the IT Act. The DPS MMS case complicated the notion of access and posited a potentially criminal techno-social subject who, because of access to the digital, will be able to consume information and images beyond the sanction of the law. The DPS MMS case shows how the ways in which public discourse can accuse, blame and literally hang technology seems to diverge from how the court attempts to pin down an offence or crime and prosecute by constructing a techno-social subject as the pervert, while also accusing pornography as a phenomenon. The court is unable to hold technology to blame but the accused is technology-at-large and modernity, which subsumes practices around technology and separates out the good and ethical ways in which a citizen should access and use technologies to rise from the potentially criminal conditions of technology within which their Techno-social identity is formed.

Summary

We started by making a distinction between Internet and Cyberspace to see how the two are separate objects of focus and have a relationship that needs to be examined in greater detail. It was argued that while the Internet – in material, infrastructural and technological forms – is important to understand the different policies and politics at the local, regional and global level, it has an account that is easier to follow. Cyberspace, on the other hand, because it deals with human interactions and experiences, allows for a more complex set of approaches into understanding our engagement with the digital domain. We began with the original definitions and imaginations of cyberspace and the ways in which it founded and resolved debates about the real-virtual, the physical-digital, and the brain-mind divides which have been historically part of the cybercultures discourse.

It was proposed, hence, that instead of looking at the history of the Internet, we will look at the history of cyberspace, and see if we can move away from a straight forward historical narrative of the Internet which focuses largely on the institutions, numbers, names and technological advances. The ambition was not to just produce a similar history of cyberspace but think of conceptual frameworks through which cyberspace can be studied. The proposition was that instead of just looking at history as a neutral and objective account of events and facts, we can examine how and why we need to create histories. Also, that it is fruitful to look at the aspirations and ambitions we have in creating historical narratives. It was then suggested that instead of trying to create a definitive history, or even a personal history of the internet, it might be more fruitful to look at the intersections that cyberspace has with different questions and concerns that have historically defined the relationship between technologies and society. 3 different conceptual frameworks were introduced as methods or modes by which this historical mode of inquiry can be initiated.

The first framework examined how we can understand the boundaries and contours of the internet and cyberspace by looking at its relationship with our bodies. The ways in which we understand our bodies, the mediation by technologies, and the extensions and simulations that we live with, help us to understand the human-technology relationship in more nuanced fashions. Looking at the case-study of a rape that happened in cyberspace, we mapped out the different ways in which we can think of a technosocial relationship.

The second framework drew from historical debates around technology and governance to see how the current concerns of e-governance and digital subjectivity are informed by older debates about technology and nation building. Looking at the dialogues between Gandhi and Tagore, and then the imagination of a nation through the broadcast technologies, we further saw how the new modes of networked governance are creating new actors, new conditions and new contexts within which to locate and operate technologies.

The third framework showed how the technological is not merely at the service of the human. In fact, the presence of the technological creates new identities and modes of governance that create potential criminals of all of us. Through the case-study of the DPS MMS, and in an attempt to look at the grey zone of illegal cyberpublics, we saw how at new technosocial identities are created at the intersection of law, technology, governance and everyday practices of the web. The fact that the very condition of technology access can create us as potential criminals, in need to be governed and regulated, reflects in the development of internet policy and governance.

It was the intention of this module to complicate three sets of presumptions and common knowledge that exist in the discourse around Internet and Cyberspace. The first was to move away from thinking of the Internet merely as infrastructure and networks. The second was to suggest that entering the debates around human-technology everyday relationships would offer more interesting ways of looking at accounts of the technological. The third was to propose that the history of the internet does not begin only with the digital, but it needs larger geographical and techno-science contexts in order to understand how the contemporary landscape of internet policy and governance is shaped.

The module was not designed to give a comprehensive history and account of the internet. Instead, it built a methodological and conceptual framework that would allow us to examine the ways in which we approach Internet and Society questions – in the process, it would also help us reflect on our own engagement, intentions and expectations from the Internet and how we create the different narratives and accounts for it.

Additional Readings

Johnny Ryan,“A History of the Internet and the Digital Future”, University of Chicago Press, http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/H/bo10546731.html
John Naughton,“A Brief History of the Future”, Overlook, https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/john-naughton/a-brief-history-of-the-future/
Christos J.P. Moschovitis et al.,“History of the Internet”, Barnes & Noble, http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/history-of-the-internet-christos-j-p-moschovitis/1100883985?ean=9781576071182
Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon, “Where Wizards Stay up Late”, Barnes & Noble, http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/where-wizards-stay-up-late-katie-hafner/1113244151?ean=9780684812014
Janet Abbate,“Inventing the Internet”, MIT Press, http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/inventing-internet
Tim Berners-Lee,“Weaving the Web: The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web”,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weaving_the_Web:_The_Original_Design_and_UltimateDestiny_of_the_World_Wide_Web_by_its_inventor
Peter Salus,“Casting the Net: From ARPANET to INTERNET and Beyond”, Pearson, http://www.pearson.ch/1471/9780201876741/Casting-the-Net-From-ARPANET-to-INTERNET.aspx

[1]. Julian Dibbell “A Rape in Cyberspace”, available at http://www.juliandibbell.com/articles/a-rape-in-cyberspace/, last accessed on January 24, 2014.

[2]. Asha Achuthan, “Re:Wiring Bodies”, Centre for Internet and Society, available at http://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/rewiring-bodies.pdf, last accessed on January 25, 2014.

[3]. Nandan Nilekani, “Imagining India: The Idea of a Renewed Nation”, Penguin, available at http://www.penguin.ca/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780670068449,00.html, last accessed on January 24, 2014.

[4]. Jahnavi Phalkey, “Focus: Science, History, and Modern India”, The University of Chicago Press, http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/670950, last accessed on January 24, 2014.

[5]. Ashish Rajadhyaksha, “The Last Cultural Mile”, The Centre for Internet and Society, available at http://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/last-cultural-mile.pdf, last accessed on January 24, 2014.

[6]. Ashish Rajadhyaksha, “In the Wake of Aadhar: The Digital Ecosystem of Governance in India”, Centre for Study of Culture and Society, available at http://eprints.cscsarchive.org/532/, last accessed on January 23, 2014.

[7]. Terms of Service, Didn’t Read, available at http://tosdr.org/, last accessed on January 26, 2014.

[8]. Siva Vaidyanathan, “The Googlization of Everything: (And Why Should We Worry)”, University of California Press, available at http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520258822

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/body-in-cyberspace

The Bilski Case - Impact on Software Patents

praskrishna — 2011-08-23T03:24:31Z

The Supreme Court of the United States gave its decision in Bilski v Kappos on 28 June, 2010. In this case the petitioners’ patent application sought protection for a claimed invention that explains how commodities buyers and sellers in the energy market can protect, or hedge, against the risk of price changes. The Court in affirming the rejection by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit also held that the machine- or-transformation test is not necessarily the sole test of patentability. The Court’s ruling of abstract ideas as unpatentable and its admission that patents do not necessarily promote innovation and may sometimes limit competition and stifle innovation have provided a ray of hope. In the light of the developments, the Bilski decision as far as patentability of software is concerned may not be totally insignificant, says Krithika Dutta Narayana.

The United States Supreme Court’s much awaited decision of last month in Bilski v. Kappos (2010) (Bilski), a case that was touted as a potential watershed in the debate surrounding patentability of software, was disappointing, even though it was not without any impact. While the Supreme Court affirmed the rejection by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) of a patent claim for a business method, it failed to define with clarity, any test for patentability which might have constituted a precedent for future cases involving patentability of software or business method. At the same time, it held that the “machine- or- transformation” test which was the test followed by the CAFC in rejecting the claim, was not the sole test to determine patentability, thus effectively providing no guideline to determine patentability of software or business methods in future cases.

The Supreme Court in Bilski, affirmed the rejection by the CAFC in In re Bilski (2008) of a patent claim involving a method of providing insurance against fluctuating energy prices due to changes in weather. The applicants, Bernard L. Bilski and Rand Warsaw filed a patent application for such a method of hedging risks – essentially a claim for a business method – under Section 101 of US Patent Act before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The examiner at the USPTO rejected the claim on the ground that the claim was not for patentable subject matter and that “the invention is not implemented on a specific apparatus and merely manipulates (an) abstract idea and solves a purely mathematical problem without any limitation to a practical application, therefore, the invention is not directed to the technological arts”. The Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences (BPAI) took a re-look at the examiner’s decision and held that the “machine or apparatus” test was in itself insufficient to determine patentability since a claim that included transformation of a physical object from one state to another would also be patent eligible subject matter. The BPAI also struck down the requirement of the invention to be a “technological art”. Thus, it rejected the Bilski claim on the ground that it did not cause transformation of a physical object from one state to another, since transformation of financial liabilities and risks does not constitute transformation of physical matter.

In its decision on October 30, 2008, the CAFC affirmed the ruling of the BPAI and laid down the machine or transformation test for patentability and held that Bilski’s claim was neither tied to any machine or apparatus to derive the result nor did it cause transformation of any physical object from one state to another and is hence, unpatentable subject matter. The Court reasoned that the “machine or transformation” test was crucial for determining patentability as it ensured that the claim based on a fundamental principle did not preempt all other uses of the principle. This test was the first test since the US Supreme Court’s decision in Diamond v. Diehr (1981) – which held that laws of nature, mathematical formulae and algorithms are not patentable – that had a huge potential for laying down definitive rules for patentability including declaring software and business methods to be outside the realm of patentable subject matter. If this test was upheld in the Supreme Court, that would effectively put an end to the rise of software patents since software, in most cases, did not cause transformation of physical object from one state to another. Thus, the decision of the Supreme Court had huge stakes for both sides of the software patent debate.

In light of the same, the Supreme Court’s ruling holding that the machine or transformation test is not the sole test for determining patentability and at the same time, failing to provide any other test on which to determine patentability, was a sore disappointment. Though, it affirmed the rejection of Bilski’s patent claim on the ground that the subject matter claimed was abstract and thus not a patentable “process” under section 101, its core decision was only limited to this particular claim and it did not lay down a concrete and definitive guideline for future claims. However, one must not be too quick to dismiss this decision as either going against the interests of open society and free software or as a completely inconsequential case that simply maintains status quo. There are important takeaways for the patentability of software in the Bilski decision – The Court did not totally reject the machine or transformation test relied on by the CAFC. It only held that the machine or transformation test is not the sole test on basis of which the patentability of a subject matter of a claim can be decided. The Court, in fact, held that the “machine or transformation test” was a “useful and important clue, an investigative tool for determining whether some claimed inventions are processes under section 101.” This leaves open the possibility of using the test to determine patentability in future cases and this is good news for opponents of software patents since software (an algorithm designed to be operated upon by a computer) is merely an abstract idea which, in most cases, does not involve transformation of a physical object from one state to another.

Bilski’s claim was essentially interpreted to be a patent for a business method. The Supreme Court was completely silent on the issue of patentability of software in its decision and stuck to only the narrow issue in hand – that of the patentability of a particular business method. This means that the “machine or transformation test”, whose applicability was ruled out in this particular case, may still be applicable for software patents. Nothing in this case precludes an opponent of a software patent from urging the courts to use the “machine or transformation test” to rule on patentability. Thus, the very fact that the Supreme Court only dealt with the narrow issue in hand ensures that the “machine or transformation test” is not altogether dismissed.

The main ground on which Bilski’s claim was rejected was that the patent claim was for an overly abstract idea which was not patent-eligible. The Court held that the basic concept on which the claim was based – the concept of hedging risks against risk is an unpatentable abstract idea. Further, some of the claims are constituted by equations and are purely mathematical in nature and are abstract and thus not patentable. This means that basic concepts and use of mathematical formulae constitute abstract ideas which are unpatentable. This test can strike down many software patents as these are simply algorithms executed by a computer and incorporate very fundamental and basic concepts which are abstract in nature and are thus, not patentable. This test for determining patentability on the basis of the claim being abstract as laid down in Bilski reaffirms the patentability test laid down in Diamond v. Deihr which kept laws of nature, mathematical formulae and algorithms outside the scope of patentable subject matter. This may serve as an important test to determine and especially, limit the patentability of software in coming years.

Notwithstanding the fact that Bilski’s claim has been interpreted to be one of a business method patent, when examined in detail, the claims indicate that the ‘method’ cannot be implemented without a computer. Certain claims for calculating probability (and risk), although mathematical or algorithmic in nature, have too many variables to be executed in any way other than by using a computer.1 Such algorithms which can be executed only by a computer fall under the category of software and the patent is thus, also, a software patent. That being said, the ruling of the Court that the claim is for an overly abstract idea and thus not patentable lends credence and indicates that software patents can be validly claimed to be abstract ideas not falling under the scope of patentable subject matter.

Another important outcome of the Supreme Court’s ruling was the invalidation of the 1998 CAFC decision in State Street Bank v. Signature Financial Group2 which opened the floodgates for software patents by holding that a practical application of an algorithm or formula to produce “useful, concrete and tangible result” was sufficient to constitute patentable subject matter. The State Street test was too broad and afforded an opportunity for many frivolous patent applications to be admitted. In fact, Justice Stevens, in his concurring opinion, has stated that it would be a “grave mistake” to follow the test. By clearly striking down and dismissing such a test to determine patentable subject matter, the Court in Bilski has precluded future software patent claims for taking recourse to this test and has effectively, to an extent, made it that much harder for a software to be granted patent. The test in State Street Bank which opened the floodgates for software patents was definitively dismissed.

The Court in the 1978 case of Parker v. Flook, had rejected patent for a mathematical algorithm on the ground that an algorithm was a law of nature although its use was limited to a specific field in this case (the “field of use” test) and added an insignificant post solution activity (“post solution activity” test). The test laid down in Flook had been subsequently questioned and thus, subtly dismissed by the Court in Diehr in 1991. The Court in Bilski emphasized on the test for patentability laid down in Flook and opined that the two tests may well come in handy in future challenges or oppositions to a patent claim while determining if the claim pertained to an idea that was abstract and hence, not patentable. Thus, this test can be used in future for invalidating software patents which are characterized by broad claims adding insignificant post solution activity.

It is heartening to note that the Court looked at the importance of patent law while recognizing that patents are not always necessary to encourage innovation. It noted that patents could also limit competition and stifle innovation. They can have ill effects such as increasing prices while slowing progress and could actually be deterrent to free flow of information within society. By recognizing and validating this, the ruling not only helped increase awareness about the debate surrounding software patents but also showed that the Courts are open to such an approach to patent law in future. This can only be good news for busting software patents.

For further reading

Claim 4 of Bliski's claims is as follows - “perform a Monte Carlo simulation across all deals at all locations ... over the last 20 years of weather patterns and establish the payoffs from each deal under each historical weather pattern “ Such a simulation would involve multiple parameters such as deals, locations, weather patterns, to establish a payoff.
149 F.3d. 1368.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/bilski-case

The All India Privacy Symposium: Conference Report

natasha — 2012-04-30T05:16:41Z

Privacy India, the Centre for Internet and Society and Society in Action Group, with support from the International Development Research Centre, Privacy International and Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative had organised the All India Privacy Symposium at the India International Centre in New Delhi, on February 4, 2012. Natasha Vaz reports about the event.

The symposium was organized around five thematic panel discussions:
Panel 1: Privacy and Transparency
Panel 2: Privacy and E-Governance Initiatives
Panel 3: Privacy and National Security
Panel 4: Privacy and Banking
Panel 5: Privacy and Health

Introduction

Elonnai Hickok (Policy Advocate, Privacy India) introduced the objectives of Privacy India. The primary objectives were to raise national awareness about privacy, do an in-depth study of privacy in India and provide feedback on the proposed ‘Right to Privacy’ Bill. Privacy India has reviewed case laws, legislations, including the upcoming policy and conducted state-level privacy workshops and consultations across India in Kolkata, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Chennai, and Mumbai. India like the rest of the world is answering some fundamental questions about the powers of the government and citizen’s rights and complications that arise from emerging technologies. Through our research we have come to understand that privacy varies across cultures and contexts, and there is no one concept of privacy but instead several distinct core notions that serve as complex duties, claims and obligations.

Privacy and Transparency

Panelists: Ponnurangam K, (Assistant Professor, IIIT New Delhi), ), Chitra Ahanthem (Journalist, Imphal), Nikhil Dey (Social & Political Activist), Deepak Maheshwari (Director, Corporate Affairs, Microsoft), Gus Hosein (Executive Director, Privacy International, UK), and Prashant Bhushan, (Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India).
Moderator: Sunil Abraham (Executive Director, Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore)
Poster: Srishti Goyal (Law Student, NUJS)

Srishti Goyal provided the general contours, privacy protections, limits to privacy and loopholes of policy relating to transparency and privacy, specifically analyzing the Right to Information Act, Public Interest Disclosures Act, and the Official Secrets Act.

Nikhil Dey commented on the interaction between the right to privacy and the right to information (RTI). He referred to Gopal Gandhi, the former Governor of West Bengal, “we must ensure that tools like the UID must help the citizen watch every move of government; not allow the government watch every move of the citizen.” Currently, the RTI and the UID stand on contrary sides of the information debate. A privacy law could allow for a backdoor to curb RTI. So, utmost care has to be taken while drafting legislation with respect to right to privacy.

Data and information has leaked furiously in India and it has leaked to the powerful. A person who is in a position of power can access private information irrespective of any laws in place to safeguard privacy. It is necessary to look at the power dynamics, which exists in the society before formulating legislation on right to privacy. According to Nikhil Dey, there should be different standards of privacy with respect to public servants. A citizen should be entitled to information related to funds, functions and functionaries. The main problem arises while defining the private space of a public servant or functionaries.

The RTI Act has failed to address the legal protection for the right to privacy. Perhaps, rules regarding privacy can be added to the Act. It can be defined by answering the questions: (i) what is ‘personal information’? (ii) what is it’s relation to public activity or public interest? (iii) what is the unwarranted invasion of the privacy of an individual? and (iv) what is the larger public good? Expanding on these four points can provide greater legal protection for the right to privacy.

Gus Hosein described the intersection and interaction of the right to information and the right to privacy. He referred to a petition filed by Privacy International requesting information on the expenses of members of parliament. Privacy and transparency of the government are compatible in the public interest. Gross abuse of the public funds by MPs was revealed by this particular petition such as pornography or cleaning of moats of MPs homes. Privacy advocates are supporters of RTI, however, it cannot be denied that there is no tension between transparency and privacy. In order chalk out the differences, there is a need of a legal framework. According to Gus Hosein, in many countries the government office that deals with right to information also deals with cases related to right to privacy.

Mumbai and New Delhi police have started using social media very aggressively, encouraging citizens to take photographs of traffic violations and upload them to Facebook or Twitter. In reference to this, Ponnurangam described the perceptions of privacy and if it agreed or conflicted with his research findings. Ponnurangam has empirically explored the awareness and perspective of privacy in India with respect to other countries. He conducted a privacy survey in Hyderabad, Chennai and Mumbai. People are very comfortable in posting pictures of others committing a traffic violation or running a red light. Ironically, many people have posted pictures of police officers committing a traffic violation such as not wearing a helmet or running a red light.

Chitra Ahanthem described the barriers and challenges of using RTI in Manipur. There are more than 40 armed militia groups, which are banned by the central and state government. The central government provides economic packages for the development of the north-east region. However, the state government officials and armed groups pocket the economic packages. These armed groups have imposed a ban on RTI. Furthermore, Manipur is a very small community. If people try and access information through RTI they risk getting threatened by the Panchayat members and being ostracized from the community or their clan.

People are apprehensive about filing RTI because they believe that these procedures are costly and the police and government may also get involved. Officials use the privacy plea to avoid giving out information. Since certain information are private and not in the public domain, government officials, use the defense of privacy to hide information. In addition, the police brutality prevalent in the area deters people to even have interactions with government officials.

According to Deepak Maheshwari, the open data initiative is a subset within the larger context of open information. There is an onus on the government to publish information, which is in the public domain. As a result, one does not necessarily have to go through the entire process of filing an RTI to get information, which is already there in the public domain. Moreover, if it is freely available in public domain, then one can anonymously access such information; this further strengthens the privacy aspects of requesting information and facilitating anonymity with respect to access to such information in the public domain. It has also to be noted that it is not sufficient to put data out in the public domain but it should also disclose the basis of the data for example, if there is representation of a data on a pie chart, the data which was used to arrive at the pie chart should also be available in the public domain. The main intention of releasing data to the public domain or having open data standards should not only be to provide access to such data but also should be in such a fashion so as to enable people to use the data for multiple purposes.

Prashant Bhushan noted that one of the grounds for withholding information in the RTI Act is privacy. An RTI officer can disclose personal information if he feels that larger public interest warrants the disclosure, even if it is personal information, which has no relationship to public activity or interest. This raises the important question, “what constitutes personal information?” He referred to the Radia Tapes controversy. Ratan Tata has filed a petition in the Supreme Court on the grounds that the Nira Radia tapes contained personal information and that the release of these tapes into the public domain violated his privacy. The Centre for Public Interest Litigation has filed a counter petition on the grounds that the nature of the conversations was not personal but in relation to public activity. They were between a lobbyist and bureaucrats, journalists and ministers. Prashant Bhushan stressed the importance of releasing these tapes into the public domain to show glimpses of all kinds of fixing, deal-making and show how the whole ruling establishment functions. It is absurd for Ratan Tata to claim that this is an invasion of privacy. Lastly, he felt when drafting a privacy law, clearly defining and distinguishing personal information and public is extremely important.

One of the interesting comments made during the panel was on the assumption that data is transparent. Transparency can be staged; questions have to be asked around whether the word is itself transparent.

Privacy and E-Governance Initiatives

Panelists: Anant Maringanti, (Independent Social Researcher), Usha Ramanathan, (Advocate & Social Activist), Gus Hosein, (Executive Director, Privacy International, UK), Apar Gupta, (Advocate, Supreme Court of India), and Elida Kristine Undrum Jacobsen (Doctoral Researcher, The Peace Research Institute Oslo).
Moderator: Sudhir Krishnaswamy (Centre for Law and Policy Research)
Poster: Adrija Das (Law Student, NUJS)

Adrija Das discussed the legal provision relating to identity projects and e-governance initiatives in India. The objective of any e-governance project is to increase efficiency and accessibility of public services. However, a major problem that arises is the linkage of the data results in the creation of a central database, accessible by every department of the government. Furthermore, implementing data protection and security standards are very expensive.

Sudhir Krishnaswamy highlighted the default assumptions surrounding e-governance initiatives: e-governance initiatives solve governance problems, increase efficiency, increase transparency and increase accountability. It is important to analyze the problems that arise from e-governance initiatives, such as privacy.

Usha Ramanathan described the increased number and vastness of e-governance initiatives such as UID, NPR, IT Rules and NATGRID. There are also many burdens on privacy that emanate from the introduction and existence of electronic data management systems. Electronic data management systems have allowed state to collect, store and use personal information of individual. Currently, the DNA Profiling Bill is pending before the Parliament. It is important to question the purpose and need for the government to collect such personal information. It is also to be noted that, there are certain laws such as Collection of Statistics Act, 2008 that penalize individuals if they do not comply with the information requests of the government.

Anant Maringanti discussed the limitations of data sharing that once existed. Currently, data can move across space in a very short time. He analyzed the state and market rationalities involved in e-governance initiatives, which raise the question “who can access data and at what price?”. Data may seem to be innocent or neutral, but data in the hands of wrong people becomes very crucial due to abuse and misuse. For example, Andhra Pradesh was praised as the model state for UID implementation. However, during the process of collecting data for UID a company bought personal information and sold the data to third parties.

Apar Gupta discussed the dilemmas of e-governance. Generally information in the form of an electronic record is presumed to be authentic. The data which government collects is most often inaccurate and wrong. So the digital identity of a person can be totally different from the real identity of that particular person. The process for correcting such information is also very inconvenient and sometimes impossible.
Under the evidence law any electronic evidence is presumed to be authentic and admissible as evidence. The Bombay High Court decided a case involving the authenticity of a telephone bill generated by a machine. The judgment said that since it is being generated by a machine, through and automated process, there is no need to challenge the authenticity of the document, it is presumed to true and authentic. The main danger in such case is that one does away with the process of law and attaches certain sanctity to the electronic record and evidence.

It should be also observed that how government maintains secrecy as to the ways in which it collects data. For example, the Election Commission has refused to disclose the functioning and design of electronic voting machines. The reason given for such secrecy is that if such information is put in the public domain then the electronic voting machines will be vulnerable and can be tampered with. But we, who use the voting machines, will never find out its vulnerabilities.

According to Gus Hosein, politicians generally have this wrong notion that technology can solve complex administrative problems. Furthermore, the industry is complicit; they indulge in anti-competitive market practice to sell these technologies as a solution to problems. However, such technology does not solve any problems rather it gives rise to problems.

Huge amount of government funds is associated with collection of personal data but such data is rendered useless or rather misused, because the government does not have clue as to how to use the data for development and security purposes. The UK National Health Records project estimated to cost around twelve to twenty billion pounds. However, a survey carried out by a professor in University College London showed that the hospital and other health institutions do not use the information collected by the National Health Records. Similarly, the UK Identity Card scheme was estimated to cost 1.3 billion pounds and finally it was estimated to cost five billion pounds. The identity cards are rendered obsolete, the sole department interested in the identity card was the Home Office Department, no other department intended on using it.

Technology should be built in such a manner that it empowers the individual. Technology should allow the individual to control his identity and as well as access all kinds of information available to the government and private bodies on that individual.

According to Elida Kristine Undrum Jacobsen, technology is regarded in this linear manner. It is increasingly being naturalized and as an all-encompassing solution. The use of biometric systems in the UID raises three areas of concern: power, value and social relationships.

With regards to power, there is a difference between providing documentation and information for identification. However, problems arise when the mode of identification becomes one’s body. It also leads to absolute reliance on technology, if the machine says that this is an individual’s identity then it is considered to be the absolute truth and it does not matter even if the individual is someone else. It becomes furthermore problematic with biometric system because it is generally used for forensic purposes.

The other component of UID or any national identification scheme is the question of consent and its relationship to privacy. In the case of UID project, people are totally unaware about how their information will be used and what purposes can it be used or misused for. Therefore, there is no informed consent when it comes to collection of biometric data under the UID project.

On the issue of social value it is to be noted that the value of efficiency becomes the most important value, which is valued. Many of the UIDAI documents state that the UID will provide a transactional identity. However, at the same time it takes away societal layers, which is inherently part of one’s identity. In addition, it makes it possible for the identity of a person to become a commodity to be sold. This also means that the personal information has economic value and players in the market such as insurance companies, banks can buy and sell the information.

When there is identification projects using biometrics it gives the State a lot of power; the power to determine and dictate one’s identity irrespective of the difference in real identity. Moreover, when such identifications projects are carried out at a national level it also gives rise to problem related to exclusion and inclusion of people or various purposes. The classification of the society based on various factors becomes easy and there is a huge risk involved with such classification.

The issues, which came out from the Q&A session, were:

The interplay between fairness and lawfulness in the context of privacy and data collection. There has to be a question asked as to why certain information is required by the State and how is it lawful.
In the neo-liberal era corporations are generally considered to be private. This has to be questioned and furthermore the difference between what is private and what is public. There are also concerns about corporations increasingly collaborating with the State. Can it be still considered as private?

Privacy and National Security

Panelists: PK Hormis Tharakan (Former Chief of Research and Analysis Wing, Government of India), Saikat Datta (Journalist), Menaka Guruswamy, (Advocate, Supreme Court, New Delhi), Prasanth Sugathan, (Legal Counsel, Software Freedom Law Center), and Oxblood Ruffin, (Cult of the Dead Cow Security and Publishing Collective).
Moderator: Danish Sheikh (Alternative Law Forum)
Poster: Suchitra Menon (Law Student, NUJS)

Suchitra Menon discussed the legal provisions for national security in relation to privacy. Specifically, she described the guidelines and procedural safeguards with respect to phone tapping and interception of communication decisional jurisprudence.

In the year 2000, the Information Technology Act (IT Act), 2000 was enacted, this Act had under section 69 allowed the State to monitor and intercept information through intermediaries. Prasanth Sugathan described how the government has been trying to bypass the procedural safeguard laid down by the Supreme Court in the PUCL case by using Section 28 of the IT Act, 2000. The provision deals with certifying authority for digital signatures. The certifying authority under the Act also has the authority to investigate offences under the Act. The provision mainly deals with digital signature but it is used by the government to intercept communication without implementing the procedural safeguards laid down for such interception. Furthermore, the IT Rules which was notified by the government in April, 2007 allows the government to intercept any communication with the help of the intermediaries. The 2008 amendment to the IT Act was an after effect of the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai. The legislation has become draconian since then and privacy has been sacrificed to meet the ends of national security.

Oxblood Ruffin read out his speech and the same is reproduced below.

“The online citizenry of any country is part of its national security infrastructure. And the extent to which individual privacy rights are protected will determine whether democracy continues to succeed, or inches towards tyranny. The challenge then is to balance the legitimate needs of the state to secure its sovereignty with protecting its most valuable asset: The citizen.

It has become trite to say that 9/11 changed everything. Yet it is as true for the West as it is for the global South. 9/11 kick started the downward spiral of individual privacy rights across the entire internet. It also ushered in a false dichotomy of choice, that in choosing between security and privacy, it was privacy that had adapted to the new realities, or so we’ve been told.

Let’s examine some of the fallacies of this argument.

The false equation which many argue is that we must give up privacy to ensure security. But no one argues the opposite. We needn’t balance the costs of surveillance over privacy, because rarely banning a security measure protects privacy. Rather, protecting privacy typically means that government surveillance must be subjected to judicial oversight and justification of the need to surveillance. In most cases privacy protection will not diminish the state’s effectiveness to secure itself.

The deference argument is that security advocates insist that the courts should defer to elected officials when evaluating security measures. But when the judiciary weighs privacy against surveillance, privacy almost always loses. Unless the security measures are explored for efficacy they will win every time, especially when the word terrorism is invoked. The courts must take on a more active role to balance the interests of the state and its citizens.

For the war time argument security proponents argue that the war on terror requires greater security and less privacy. But this argument is backwards. During times of crisis the temptation is to make unnecessary sacrifices in the name of security. In the United States, for example, we saw that Japanese-American internment and the McCarthy-era witch-hunt for communists was in vain. The greatest challenge for safeguarding privacy comes during times when we are least inclined to protect it. We must be willing to be coldly rational and not emotional during such times.

We are often told that if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear. This is the most pervasive argument the average person hears. But isn’t privacy a little like being naked? We might not be ashamed of our bodies but we don’t walk around naked. Being online isn’t so different. Our virtual selves should be as covered as our real selves. It’s a form of personal sovereignty. Being seen should require our consent, just as in the real world. The state has no business taking up the role of Peeping Tom.

I firmly believe that the state has a right and a duty to secure itself. And I equally believe that its citizens are entitled to those same rights. Citizens are part of the national security infrastructure. They conduct business; they share information; they are the benefactors of democratic values. Privacy rights are what, amongst others, separate us from the rule of tyrants. To protect them is to protect and preserve democracy. It is a fight worth dying for, as so many have done before us.

PK Hormis Tharakan discussed the importance of interception communication in intelligence gathering. In the western liberal democracies, restrictions of privacy were introduced for the anti-terrorism campaigns and these measures are far restrictive than what the Indian legislations contemplate. Preventive intelligence is a major component in maintenance of national security and this intelligence is generated and can be procured through interception.

We do need laws to make sure that the power of interception is not excessive or out of proportion. But the graver issue is that the equipment used for interception of communication is freely available in the market at a cheap price. This allows private citizens also to snoop into others conversation. So, interception by civilians should be the main concern.

Menaka Guruswamy discussed the lack of regulation of Indian intelligence agencies that creates burdens on privacy. When there is a conflict between individual privacy and national security, the court will always rule in favour of the national security. Public interest always takes precedence over individual interest.

When there is a claim right to privacy vis-à-vis national security, generally these claims are characterized by dissent, chilling effects on freedom of expression and government accountability. In India, privacy is fragile and relatively a less justifiable right. Another challenge to privacy is that, when communication is intercepted, which part of the conversation can be considered to be private and which part cannot be considered so.

Saikat Datta described his experience of being under illegal surveillance by an unauthorized intelligence agency. When a person is under surveillance, he or she is already considered to be suspect. If the State commits any mistake as to surveillance, carrying surveillance, who is not at all a person of interest in such case upon discovery, there is no penalty for such discrepancy.
He warned of the dangers of excessive wiretapping, a practice that currently generates such a “mountain” of information that anything with real intelligence value tends to be ignored until it is too late, as happened with the Mumbai bombings in 2008. It is clear that the Indian government’s surveillance and interception programmes far exceed what is necessary for legitimate law enforcement.

The issues, which came during the Q&A session was:

In case of national security vis-à-vis privacy in heavily militarized zone, legislations such as Armed Forces Special Powers Act actually give authority to the army to search and seizure on mere suspicion? This amounts gross violation of privacy.

Privacy and Banking

Panelists: M R Umarji, (Chief Legal Advisor, Indian Banks Associations), N A Vijayashankar, (Cyber Law Expert), Malavika Jayaram, (Advocate, Bangalore)
Moderator: Prashant Iyengar (Associate Professor, Jindal Law University)
Poster: Malavika Chandu (Law Student, NUJS)

Prashant Iyengar highlighted how privacy has been a central feature in banking and finance. Even before the notion of privacy came into existence, banks had developed an evolved notion of secrecy and confidentiality, which was fairly robust. Every legislation dealing with banking and finance generally have a clause related to privacy and confidentiality. It might seem that it would be easy to implement privacy in banking and finance given the long relationship between banking and secrecy and confidentiality. However, this is not the case in the contemporary times. Specifically, with the growth in issues related to national security, transparency and technology, the highly regarded notion of privacy seems to be slowly depleting.

Malavika Chandu described the data protection standards that govern the banking industry. As part of the know-you-customer guidelines, banks are required to provide the Reserve Bank with customer profiles and other identification information. Lastly, she described case laws in relation to privacy with respect to financial records.

N A Vijayashankar noted that the confidentiality and secrecy practices in the banking sector emanate from the banker-customer relationship. In the present context, secrecy and privacy maintained by the banks should be analyzed from the perspective of the right of the customer to safeguard his or her information from any third party. Generally, banks and other financial institutions protect personal information as a fraud control measure and not as duty to protect the privacy of a customer.

There has been a paradigm shift in banking practices from traditional banking practices to more efficient but less secure banking practice. Some of the terms and conditions of internet banking are illegal and do not stand the test of law. In contemporary times, banking institutions use confidentiality to cover up problems and data breach rather than protecting the customer. But the banks are not ready to disclose data breach as it apprehends that it will result in public losing faith in the system. The Reserve Bank of India, has recently notified that protection which is provided to the customers in banking services should also be extended to e-banking services. However, the banks have not properly implemented this.

M R Umarji highlighted fourteen laws related to banking which carries confidentiality clauses. In India, public sector banks dominate the market. These banks are created under a statute and such statute governs them. Therefore, they are duty bound to maintain secrecy and confidentiality. Private banks and cooperative banks are not bound by any statute. They do not have any obligations to maintain secrecy, but they do strictly observe confidentiality as a form of banking practice.

Banks are not allowed to reveal any personal information of an individual unless it is sought by some authority that has a legitimate right to claim such information. There has been a constant erosion of confidentiality due to various laws which empowers authorities to seek confidential information from the banks. Recently, in the light of the growing national security concerns, banks also have an obligation to report suspicious transactions. These have caused heavy burdens on right to privacy of an individual.

Under the Right to Information Act, 2005 public sector banks are considered to be public authorities. By the virtue of the Statute, any person can access information from banks. For example, in a recent case an information officer directed Reserve Bank of India, to disclose Inspection Reports. These reports generally contain information regarding doubtful accounts, non-performing account, etc. There is a need that banks should be exempted from the Right to Information Act, 2005. Since they are not dealing with public funds there is no need to apply transparency law to the banks.

Malavika Jayaram described the major conflicts and tensions with respect to privacy vis-à-vis banking and financial systems and financial data. Other privacy and transparency issues include: the publication of online tax information and income data.

Surveillance is built in the design of banking system, so it is capable of tracking personal information and activity. There is a need to implement more privacy friendly and privacy by design systems in the banking sector. Customers are generally ignorant about privacy policies and this influences informed consent and furthermore marketing institution may influence customers to behave in a particular manner. In this context privacy by design becomes very important.

Data minimization principles should be applied; since the more data collected the more there is a risk of data breach and misuse. In case of data retention it is necessary that person giving such data should know how much proportion of the data is being retained and for how long it is stored and also what is the scope of the data and for what purpose will it be used.

Personal information and data, which was previously collected by the government, are gradually being outsourced to private bodies. On one hand it is a good thing that private sector get their technology and security measures right as compared to the government agencies but it comes with the risk that it can be sold out by private bodies as commodities in the market. Private bodies that are harvesting the data can also be forced by the government to disclose it under a particular law or statute without taking into consideration the consent of the individual whose personal information is sought for.

There is multiplicity of documentation for identification, which makes transactions less efficient. This has attracted customers to more convenient systems such as one-access point systems, but people tend to forget the issues related to privacy, in using such a system. What is portrayed as efficient for the consumer is a tool for social control and who has access and authority to use such information.

Often the reason given for collecting information is that it will help the service provider to combat fraud. However, studies have shown people more often fake situation rather than identity. The other concerns are that of sharing of information and lack of choice with respect to such sharing. There should be check as to sharing of personal information as the data belongs to the individual and not the bank or any other institution which requires furnishing personal information in lieu of services. This gives rise to a binary choice to the user; either the individual has to provide information to avail the service or else one cannot avail the services.

There is supposed to be market for privacy. The notion of personal information is subjective and varies from person to person. For example, one might be comfortable to share certain information. However, others might not be.

The issues that came out of the Q&A sessions are:

The default settings are generally put at the low protection settings. Unless the user is aware of the privacy protection setting, he or she is prone to breach of privacy. Should the default privacy setting be set to maximum security and option can be given to the user to change it according to his or her preference?
Is there any system in the banks, which allows the customers of bank to know about which all third parties the bank has shared his or her personal information with?

Health Privacy

Panelists: K. K. Abraham, (President, Indian Network for People with HIV), Dr. B. S. Bedi, (Advisor, CDAC & Media Lab Asia), and Raman Chawla, (Senior Advocacy Officer, Lawyers Collective).
Moderator: Ashok Row Kavi (Journalist and LGBT Activist)
Poster: Danish Sheikh (Researcher, Alternative Law Forum)

Danish Sheikh outlined the possible health privacy violations. These included the disclosure of personal health information to third parties without consent, inadequate notification to a patient of a data breach, the purpose of collecting data is not specified and improper security standards, storage and disposal. The disclosure of personal health information has the potential to be embarrassing, stigmatizing or discriminatory.

Subsequently, Danish Sheikh examined the status of sexual minorities’ vis-à-vis the privacy framework. Culling out some real life examples based on various studies, media reports and judgments from the Supreme Court and the High Courts of Delhi and Allahabad, he also described privacy violations committed by both individuals as well as state authorities.

Ashok Row Kavi recounted how privacy was very contextual when debating section 377 in the LGBT community. The paradigm upon which they were going to fight the anti-sodomy law was that it was consenting sex between two adults in private space. However, this paradigm was not well received by women, as women did not see private space as safe space, due to domestic violence. Perceptions of privacy are very subjective and it differs from person to person.

Raman Chawla recounted the history of the Draft HIV/AIDS Bill. In 2002, the need for law related to HIV/AIDS was realized in order to protect right to consent, right against discrimination and right to confidentiality of HIV patients. The bill was finalized in the year 2006. Alarmingly, it is yet to be tabled before the Parliament.

The privacy provisions in the HIV bill clearly state that no person can be tested, treated or researched for HIV without the consent of the patient. It also casts that in a fiduciary relationship the health care provider must maintain confidentiality, however if the patient provides written consent then their status may be disclosed. The HIV condition of the patient can also revealed by the doctor if there is a court order demanding such disclosure. The doctor may disclose the status of the patient to his or her partner but he has to follow a particular protocol. The doctor should have sufficient belief that his or her partner is at risk of contracting HIV. The person who is infected will be asked for his/her views and counseled before his/her partner is informed. However, there are doubts as to the implementation and enforcement of this protocol.

Conclusion

Natasha Vaz (Policy Advocate, Privacy India) brought the symposium to a close by thanking the partners, the panelists, the moderators and the participants for their sincere efforts in making the All India Privacy Symposium a grand success. In India, a public discussion regarding privacy has been long over due. The symposium provided a platform for dialogue and building greater awareness around privacy issues in health, banking, national security, transparency and e-governance. Using our research, expert opinions, personal experiences, questions and comments various facets of privacy were explored.

Press Coverage

The event was featured in the media as well:

India needs an independent privacy law, says NGO Privacy India, Economic Times, February 2, 2012
New Bill to decide on individual’s right to privacy, Tehelka, February 6, 2012
Lack of strong privacy law in healthcare a big worry, Daily News & Analysis, February 13, 2012
Privacy concerns grow in India, Washington Post, February 3, 2012

Click to download the Agenda and Profile of Speakers (PDF, 1642 Kb)

Download the PDF (555 Kb)
Follow the webcast of the event

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/all-india-privacy-delhi-report

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

The 2013 EPT Award for Individuals in Developing Countries Working for Open Access

praskrishna — 2013-10-29T07:30:10Z

Below is the press release announcing the 3rd Annual Award for individuals in the developing world who have made a significant contribution to Open Access. The application form for nominations follows the announcement. The EPT hopes to receive a similarly large number of representations as were received for the award in its first two years.

Please send your proposal by 30/11/2013 to: EPT Chair, Derek Law, at d.law@strath.ac.uk

Open Access Week arrives again this October, and is a time to celebrate all that has been achieved in the previous twelve months. The Electronic Publishing Trust is a long standing advocate of OA and the difference it can make. As our contribution to this year’s OA Week, we are offering our third annual international award to recognise the impact that individuals can make. The huge interest in and success of the first two awards makes it clear that such international recognition acknowledges the very real efforts being made by many individuals throughout the world, and accelerates the development of models for achieving the open and free transfer of essential information for the progress of research.

Announcement

The Electronic Publishing Trust[*] is pleased to announce that it is offering its third annual award for individuals in developing and transition countries[**] who have made significant advances to the cause of open access and the free exchange of research findings. Information on previous winners can be found on our website at http://epublishingtrust.net/

Nominations are sought for the award. Individuals may be nominated by themselves or others or by organisations, sending a statement using the attached form to the chair of the EPT Board, (d.law@strath.ac.uk) outlining the achievements of the individual. Please find the nominations form below.

Nominations should be received by 30th November 2013. Selection of a winner will be made by a panel of EPT Board Members which will be chaired by Dr Patrick Corran, and will include Leslie Chan, Subbiah Arunachalam, Barbara Kirsop, co-founder of the charity, and Judy Ugonna.

The result will be announced in January 2014 and it is intended that a presentation will be made at a location convenient to the winner. The award recipient will be publicly recognised through the presentation of a certificate and an engraved award. It is also hoped to have a “side” event at future OA meetings to celebrate the work of the winner.

EPT Award submission form for nominations

The EPT Award is for individuals who have made an impact on the progress of open access to research findings.
Nominations may be made by individuals or organisations.
Please supply the following information:

Name of nominee:
Affiliation of nominee:
Position or role of nominee:
Contact address and email of nominee:
Contact address and email of proposer:

Please provide a brief statement to describe the ACTIVITIES of the nominee in support of Open Access (no more than 250 words).

Please describe the RESULTS AND SIGNIFICANCE of these activities (not more than 500 words).

[*]. The Electronic Publishing Trust for Development (EPT) was established in 1996 to facilitate open access to the world’s scholarly literature and to support the electronic publication of reviewed bioscience journals from countries experiencing difficulties with traditional publication.

[**]. As defined by the UN at http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/m49/m49regin.htm#transition

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/ept-award-for-individuals-in-developing-countries-working-for-open-access

Centre for Internet and Society

The Dangers Of Birdsong

The Curious Incidents on Matrimonial Websites in India

Identity Crash

Shaadi

Choices

Deception

Oversight

Future

Conclusion

Endnotes

Author's Profile

The Curious Incident of the People at the Mall

The Creation of a Network for the Global South - A Literature Review

I. Introduction

II. Evolution of the Network

III. Structure

III. Evaluation

V. Learning and Recommendations

The Coming Telecom Monopoly

Performance

Achieving Ubiquitous Broadband

The city of Bhubaneswar is going Open

The Centre for Internet and Society’s comments and recommendations to the: Report on AI Governance Guidelines Development

I. Background

II. Governance of AI

A. AI Governance Principles

B. Considerations to operationalise the principles

III. GAP ANALYSIS

A. The need to enable effective compliance and enforcement of existing laws.

1. Intellectual property rights

C. The need for a whole-of-government approach.

IV. Recommendations

1. To implement a whole-of-government approach to AI Governance, MeitY and the Principal Scientific Adviser should establish an empowered mechanism to coordinate AI Governance.

2.To develop a systems-level understanding of India’s AI ecosystem, MeitY should establish, and administratively house, a Technical Secretariat to serve as a technical advisory body and coordination focal point for the Committee/ Group.

3.To build evidence on actual risks and to inform harm mitigation, the Technical Secretariat should establish, house, and operate an AI incident database as a repository of problems experienced in the real world that should guide responses to mitigate or avoid repeated bad outcomes.

4. To enhance transparency and governance across the AI ecosystem, the Technical Secretariat should engage the industry to drive voluntary commitments on transparency across the overall AI ecosystem and on baseline commitments for high capability/widely deployed systems.

The Centre for Internet and Society’s Comments and Recommendations to the: Indian Privacy Code, 2018

Section by Section Recommendations

Preamble

Chapter 1

Preliminary

CHAPTER II

Right to Privacy

CHAPTER III

Protection of Personal Data

PART A

PART B

CONSENT OF DATA SUBJECTS

PART C

FURTHER LIMITATIONS ON DATA CONTROLLERS

PART C

RIGHTS OF A DATA SUBJECT

CHAPTER IV

INTERCEPTION AND SURVEILLANCE

CHAPTER V

THE PRIVACY COMMISSION

CHAPTER IX

OFFENCES AND PENALTIES

The Centre for Internet and Society - Bulletin - July '11

*Researchers@Work*

* Digital Natives*

* Pathways*

*Accessibility*

*Intellectual Property*

*Openness*

*Internet Governance*

*Telecom*

* Miscellaneous *

*News & Media Coverage*

* Follow us Elsewhere*

*Archives*

The Centre for Internet and Society - Bulletin - January 2011

The Body in Cyberspace

Case Study: A Rape in Cyberspace

Cyberspace and the State

Cyberspace and Criminality

DPS MMS: Case Study

Summary

Additional Readings

Researchers@Work

Accessibility

Intellectual Property

Openness

Internet Governance

Telecom

News & Media Coverage

Archives