Centre for Internet and Society

An open data ecosystem can boost India's GDP by $22 B and double farmer income

Admin — 2018-05-23T14:37:55Z

MeiTY says increased data transparency will drive growth and improve governance across key industry sectors in the time to come.

This was published in Your Story on May 22, 2018.

YES Bank in association with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has released a study that says an ‘open data ecosystem’ can grow India’s GDP by $22 billion by 2020. It could impact critical sectors like agriculture and double farmer income by reducing wastage and system inefficiencies.

The report titled Open Government, Open Data – Re-imagining India observes that farmers’ income could be twice of what it is in less than five years from now. Universal Health coverage could be strengthened, and micro-loans could be disbursed to millions of MSMEs more effectively through a well-functioning open data ecosystem.

Empirical evidence shows that open data has aided agriculture world over. Combined with agricultural knowledge, remote sensing, and mapping, it helps create early warning systems for farmers. That enables them in “protecting crops from pests and extreme weather, increasing yields, monitoring water supplies, and anticipating changes brought on by climate change,” according to the World Bank.

While India was among the first countries in the world to set up an Open Government Data (OGD) platform that offered open and free access to data and information released by over 100 government departments, there have been loopholes in the project that has led to data being restricted in some cases. At present, OGD houses info-sets from 180,543 ministry resources and is presided over by a hundred-plus data officers.

YES Bank has recommended steps to eliminate the existing gaps and boost usage of OGD to improve governance across sectors. It has also said that emerging technologies like Blockchain, Machine Learning (ML) and the Internet of Things (IoT) would drive further efficiencies in the open data ecosystem, and lead to more tech-focused innovation.

One such innovation has been brought about by Silicon Valley agri startup, Harvesting, that recently launched its India operation. Harvesting uses remote sensing and geo-spatial imagery along with existing farmer data to monitor farmlands, assess them in real-time, and send out reports and analysis to all stakeholders, including farmers, agri lenders, rural banks, and so on.

Harvesting Founder-CEO Ruchit Garg told YourStory,

“There are over 500 million small farm-holders in emerging markets that feed 80 percent of the world. But there is a data asymmetry in the agricultural value chain. Most problems arise because of a massive data deficit. We started to look at how this could be solved by leveraging data and technology.”

Besides industries, the open data is available for citizen access too, and that is important.

Rana Kapoor, MD and CEO, Yes Bank, said,

“Data is collected from citizens for citizen welfare and should therefore be shared with them. Secondly, data like Government budget usage, welfare schemes and subsidies increases transparency, thereby building greater trust.”

YES Bank also recommends more public-private partnerships (PPP) for open data to be fully utilised. It proposes the formation of an Open Data Council comprising representatives from private and public sectors as well as technology service providers. The council would be chaired by MeitY and will work towards the identification of ‘priority sectors’ which require data digitisation.

But, merely having large amounts of open data sets is not enough. The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) sounds a word of caution.

In a separate report titled Open Government Data Study: India, the CIS states,

“To ensure the relevance of open government data, mechanisms have to be put in place to take its benefits to ordinary people and to marginalised communities. Simply putting up raw data will not suffice.”

The report notes that a richer open data ecosystem can be created by harnessing records and information from rural internet kiosks, community e-centres, e-healthcare, geographic information systems (GISs), dairy sector applications, teacher training programmes, online agricultural systems, wireless local loop solutions, databases of rural innovations, land property registrations, women and children’s services, and more.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/your-story-sohini-mitter-may-22-2-018-open-data-ecosystem-can-boost-indias-gdp-22-b-double-farmer-income

An Odia Wikipedia Workshop at Sambalpur

Gorvachove Pothal — 2013-08-27T12:09:56Z

A training workshop for Odia Wikipedians was held in Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology, Burla, Sambalpur on July 26 and 27, 2013. The workshop was organized by Odia Wikipedian Gorvachove Pothal, with financial support from CIS-A2K programme. It was a part of the Access To Knowledge - Outreach Programs.

Hosted by Gorvachove at the Golden Jubilee Seminar Hall of VSSUT, the Odia Wikipedia Workshop was attended by more than 100 students and Professors of the university. He explained the many possibilities of using Wikipedia as an open knowledge and information platform. The members that attended the Workshop have received awareness about Wikimedia projects. An introduction was given to Odia Wikipedia with practical examples. (Using searching, editing, creating new articles). The wiki model was explained by Gorvachove upon questions/doubts from students. He explained how writing articles in Wikipedia can help students think critically, improve their writing skills, strengthen their research skills, etc.

On July 27, 2013, a hands-on session was conducted by Gorvachove. He helped various participants in creating usernames and writing one article about their “Village/Town” (part of the Edit-a-thon started on April 1, 2013) in Odia Wikipedia. The Workshop's objectives that have been achieved, namely:

Spread awareness about Wikimedia projects.
Importance of free knowledge sharing.
A group of enthusiastic students received technical orientation to conduct further workshops.

Important links:

Odia Wikipedia workshop page on Odia Wikipedia: http://or.wikipedia.org/s/gqw
Link to the pictures: http://bit.ly/13VNkzf

Media Coverage

Odia Wikipedia Workshop at VSSUT, Burla (Sambad, July 27, 2013)
ଓଡିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆର କର୍ମଶାଳା ଅନୁଷ୍ଠିତ ହୋଇଯାଇଛି ବୀର ସୁରେନ୍ଦ୍ର ସାଏ ବୈଷୟିକ ବିଶ୍ୱବିଦ୍ୟାଳୟ, ବୁର୍ଲାରେ (Odishan.com, July 27, 2013)

Seen below are participants doing the Wiki editing at the workshop

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/odia-wikipedia-workshop-sambalpur

An Odia Wikipedia Workshop at KMBB College, Bhubaneswar

subha — 2012-12-07T22:40:32Z

The Centre for Internet and Society along with Odia Wikipedians in Bhubaneswar organized an Odia Wikipedia workshop on November 18, 2012. It was held in KMBB College of Engineering. Odia Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia in Odia language which everyone can edit.

Odia Wikipedians gathered in the temple city of Bhubaneswar on November 18, 2012 to organize the third Odia Wikipedia workshop in KMBB College of Engineering. KMBB College of Engineering is a BPUT affiliated engineering college supported by Ama Odisha, an organization working for media, communication and development of Odia language. Dr. Dhanada Mishra, Director-Academics, KMBB and a veteran educationalist and open source source enthusiast supported this event. Forty-five students from KMBB attended this workshop. The agenda for the two-and-a-half hour session was to educate students about open source movement, journey of Wikipedia and how to contribute to Odia Wikipedia and how it would help them. Nine active Odia Wikipedians joined to support this event.

Dr. Mishra began the session by introducing Odia Wikipedians to the students. He spoke about Open source movement, how the community supports various open source projects, how Wikipedia was started and how it is essential for students to take part in such activities. Subhashish Panigrahi briefly spoke about the history of Odia wikipedia, how it grew up in the recent years to its present state. Odia Wikipedian Manoranjan Behera discussed about how everyone can contribute to the Wikipedia.

To explain the easiness of typing in Odia, some of the students were invited to write text on a board and test the typing tool on Odia Wikipedia. A new article about the college was created and one of the students wrote few sentences. Wikipedians explained the importance of creating user accounts and demonstrated how to search an article, how to create an article and the basics of editing an article. A Question and Answer session was held for students to put their queries. At the end of the session, contact details were shared with the students and the Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/OdiaWiki) of Odia Wikipedia was shown so that students could continue editing and remain in touch with fellow wikipedians.

Odia daily “The Sambad” covered this event.

Presentation: Copy of Introduction to Wikipedia! on Prezi
Video:

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/odia-wikipedia-workshop-organized-in-kmbb-college-bhubaneswar

An Odia Wikipedia Workshop at Academy of Media Learning

subha — 2013-07-17T07:06:59Z

Odia Wikipedians were invited to Academy of Media Learning (AML), Bhubaneswar for a guest lecture and a workshop on contributing to Odia Wikipedia. The event was organised by the Centre for Internet & Society on November 10, 2012. This is a report about the activities in AML.

Soon after Odia Wiki community got felicitated by OdishaDiary.co for Youth Achievement Award for their outstanding contribution for Odia language many institutions have started taking the work of the wikipedians with more seriousness. To empower the community with more activities active members took part in a discussion to start more long term projects like "education programs". In early November, a couple of meetups and workshops were organized in different institutions in Odisha. One of those institutions in Academy of Media Learning. It is a budding institution for journalism and digital media in the city of Bhubaneswar. The institute is led by the Founder-CEO of this institution Nilambar Rath, a veteran journalist and news producer and Saumya Parida, Executive Editor and journalist in the Odia media circle. Subhashish Panigrahi of CIS was invited to AML along with other fellow Wikipedians for a guest lecture and workshop about "Contibution to Wikipedia and its Benefits for Students".

Odia wikipedians like Ansuman Giri, Manoranjan Behera and Diptiman Panigrahi also came over for the event.

Meeting with Nilambar Rath and Saumya Parida

Prior to the lecture and workshop, wikipedians discussed about the education program with the faculty members on how it is essential to engage students in such a program. Subhashish explained the older education programs for other language and the recent Odia Wikipedia Education Program initiated at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Dhenkanal. During this meeting Mr. Rath also suggested to include more linguists and Odia language professors in the community who would guide on standards of language, writing style and grammar as Odia Wikipedia is being accessed more on a daily basis by the main stream media.

Workshop

There were a small set of enthusiast communication students gathered for the event. Subhashish took them through a presentation explaining about Wikipedia, how people like them contribute to Wikipedia and make it grow day by day and how Odia Wikipedia was started. The participants were surprised to see Odia Wikipedia for the first time! Even being communication students and working closely with Odia media they have never came through it. After the presentation he emphasized about the reason why we are focusing on long term support programs like "education program" and how it would be beneficial for students. Students were given a small break for asking queries before a training workshop on editing Odia Wikipedia. One of the students was invited to create his user account. Wikipedians explained how to type in Odia using the typing scheme. Few of the students were invited to edit and make small changes in various articles. Going forward, students were shown Chatasabha and the facebook group page to ask queries online.


A picture of the participants at the Odia Wikipedia workshop at Academy of Media Learning

Picture credit: Manoranjan Behera

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/odia-wiki-workshop-at-aml

An Interview of Vera Franz

praskrishna — 2013-07-15T09:49:16Z

This interview was conducted at the Diplomatic Conference to Conclude a Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works by Visually Impaired Persons and Persons with Print Disabilities on June 26, 2013.

Vera Franz praises Rahul Cherian of Inclusive Planet while talking about her work. Watch the video below:

Video

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/interview-of-vera-franz

An International Conclave of Odia Language

praskrishna — 2015-03-08T05:06:14Z

Subhashish Panigrahi is participating in this event.

See the invitation letter and the concept letter.

The Odia language traces its roots back to 4th Century BC. Odisha was the first state to be carved out as a separate state on the basis of the language. The dawn of 20th February 2014 was a proud moment for all Odias as Odia language was accorded the ‘Classical language’ status of our country and occupied the 6th position. This achievement was due to the relentless effort of many scholars and activists. Now it becomes the responsibility of all the Odias to preserve, propagate and carry forward the legacy of the Odia language which is spoken by around 40 million people in India and around 45 million people globally. We will see that a day will come when it will be used as the first language in all government offices for official communications.

THE INTELLECTS, a forum of progressive individuals and intellectuals in Delhi, believes it as an utmost duty and responsibility to promote Odia identity in India and abroad. In its bid to impart our language to Pravasi Odias living in and around Delhi, THE INTELLECTS is on a missionary zeal. It has started its mission called “ASA SIKHIBA AMARI BHASHA” in National Capital region.

And now, the forum in association with SHRI JAGANNATH MANDIR, TYAGRAJNAGAR is organizing a two days conclave, on 20th & 21st February 2015, to celebrate the 1st anniversary of Classical status to Odia language & the World Mother tongue Day with a special focus on our mother tongue Odia.

The Event

International Conclave of Odia Language:
The event will be a two days festival showcasing the Odia identity in the national Capital and bringing some best minds of the country to discuss on various issues of immense need on language and culture of Odisha. Around 200 eminent people from across the world including many renowned experts from various walks of life are the invited speakers.

It will be our proud privilege to have you with us for the occasion.
With Kind Regards

Debendra Rout
Convener of the conclave & Chairman of The Intellects
Email: cm.intellects@gmail.com
Mob: +91-9350127370

Programme

Celebration of 1st Anniversary of Classical status of Odia language
Date: 20th February, Friday, Time: 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Venue: Constitution Club, Rafi Marg, New Delhi

Welcome
Inauguration of Conclave
Inauguration of Special Report on the Conclave
Felicitation of prominent personalities for their contribution to
Odia language
Addresses
Vote of Thanks
Cultural Programme
Dinner

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/international-conclave-odia-language

An Article on Kannada Wikipedian H R Lakshmivenkatesh

praskrishna — 2014-07-03T08:28:04Z

Karnataka Sangha Mumbai published an article on Kannada Wikipedian H.R.Lakshmivenkatesh in its March 2014 edition.

Dr. U.B. Pavanaja was instrumental in highlighting this fact and making people of Mumbai come to know about this. The article can be downloaded here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/an-article-on-kannada-wikipedian-hr-lakshmivenkatesh

An Article on Kannada Wikipedia

pavanaja — 2014-12-05T01:22:53Z

I wrote an article on Kannada Wikipedia which was published in the Yojana magazine on November 2014 issue.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/yojana-november-2014-pavanaja-article-on-kannada-wikipedia

An Analysis of the Comments by World Blind Union and the International Publishers Association

Rahul Cherian — 2012-03-30T07:34:07Z

Rahul Cherian provides an analysis of the comments by the World Blind Union and the International Publishers Association after the 23rd session of the Standing Committee of Copyright and Related Rights.

Before the WIPO intersessionals held on March 23 and 24 at Geneva between some member states to discuss the pending issues related to the Treaty for the Visually Impaired, the World Blind Union and the International Publishers Association came out with their comments/versions on the Chair’s text dated December 16, 2011. The Chair's text with comments of Member States is available here. [PDF, 364 Kb]

The World Blind Union document, available here [PDF, 314 Kb], attempts to build consensus in the text based on suggestions given by various Member States to the Chair’s text dated December 16, 2011. The inputs of Member States that would be beneficial to the intended beneficiaries of the Treaty, namely persons with visual impairment, print disabilities, etc. were incorporated into the World Blind Union document while suggestions of Member States that were detrimental to the intended beneficiaries were not added. As can be seen by the WBU document, several changes suggested by many Member States, including the United States, the European Union, the African Group, Pakistan, India, etc were incorporated into the WBU document. As far as possible the WBU document has tried not to add new wording which were not suggested by Member States to the Chair's text. The WBU document is, in my opinion, a genuine attempt at building consensus between Member States on the Treaty for the Visually Impaired.

On the other hand, the document proposed by the International Publishers Association [PDF, 215 Kb] is a different story. Rather than trying and building consensus, the IPA has taken a stand that is so extreme that the only aspect I could find in the entire document was that it was progressive. In the first paragraph of the introduction the IPA finally recognizes that persons with print disabilities must have access to works at the same time as others. Unfortunately it is all downhill from there. Given below are some of the suggested changes of the IPA and my comments on the IPA document from the perspective of its impact on India and other developing countries.

The IPA proposes the deletion of the following paragraph from the Preamble: “Needing to contribute to the implementation of the relevant recommendations of the Development Agenda of the World Intellectual Property Organization,”
From this proposed change, it appears that the IPA is opposed to the Development Agenda of the World Intellectual Property Organization. This change is completely unacceptable and unfortunately the further suggestions of the IPA seemed to reflect the anti-development mentality of the IPA.
The IPA proposes that the exceptions and limitations cover only those works that are release in print format and excludes those works that are “born digital”. This implies that for new books which are going to be released only in digital formats, there should be no exceptions and that the beneficiaries should be able to convert those inaccessible versions into accessible versions. This is also unacceptable since persons with print disabilities must have equal access to all books and not only printed books.
The IPA proposes that only those organizations that have the “primary” objective of assisting persons with print disabilities by providing them with services relating to education, training, adaptive reading, or information access needs shall be entitled to convert or distribute accessible format copies. This would mean those educational institutions and other organizations that make material accessible but not on a primary basis will be excluded. This is totally counterproductive if persons with disabilities are to have really equal access to reading material.
The IPA proposes that authorized entities must maintain compliance policies and procedures regarding access and IT security that follow internationally recognized standards. It records appropriate usage information and provides this to rights holders in a transparent and timely manner.
The compliance with this provision will prove extremely expensive and cumbersome for organizations, particularly those organizations in developing countries who are cash strapped. Moreover, it is unclear what these internationally recognized standards are. This addition is also unacceptable.
The IPA proposes that only organizations that actually create an accessible format copy can export that copy to organizations in other countries. This would mean that every organization that exports books would have to re-create the accessible format copy thereby leading to tremendous replication of effort and wastage of precious resources. This is extremely counterproductive.
The IPA proposes to add the following sentence to the text: Member States may choose other means for increasing the availability of accessible format copies, provided these means afford Beneficiaries with equally effective access to Works.
By adding this one sentence the Treaty, which is intended to create minimum exceptions in each Member State, permits countries to move away from the E&L regime into a licensing regime. The benefits of the whole treaty could be negated with this one sentence.

Apart from these changes mentioned above, there are several other changes proposed by the IPA which are completely against the spirit of the Treaty. It is sad to note that instead of trying to reach a consensus the IPA has proposed some preposterous changes and negative changes to the text. But given the stand that they have taken in this document, possibly as a last ditch attempt to thwart the growing momentum for the Treaty, it is likely that the IPA’s disguise as a sheep has been blown away to reveal the wolf.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/analysis-of-comments

An “Advocacy” Saga and the Inspiring Legacy of Rahul Cherian

praskrishna — 2013-12-31T04:51:50Z

For those interested in policy advocacy, the NUJS Law Review has an elaborate paper outlining the tireless advocacy efforts (spanning more than 10 full years) of a bunch of dedicated campaigners who strove valiantly to foster access for the disabled.

The blog post by Shamnad Basheer was published by Spicy IP on December 16, 2013.

Their efforts resulted in the culmination of a newly introduced section 52(1)(zb) to the copyright regime. As many of you know, this is one of the widest possible copyright “disability” exceptions anywhere in the world, providing effectively that any conversion of a copyrighted work to make it more accessible to a disabled person (on a non- profit basis) will not count as a copyright infringement.

One name that stands out and will continue to stand out for all time to come in this advocacy campaign is that of Rahul Cherian, a pioneering crusader for disability rights. Rahul not only led the advocacy campaign that led to this revolutionary copyright exception for India, but also played a stellar role with the WBU (World Blind Union) in helping shape an international treaty on similar lines (the Marrakesh treaty) and bring it to fruition.

Unfortunately, even before the Marrakesh treaty was adopted, Rahul was snatched away from us by a cruel twist of fate. However, his legacy lives on and will continue to guide us for a long time to come. As Lawrence Liang notes in this moving piece: “Rahul leaves behind an important legacy in terms of his work, but a far more important one on how we understand the very idea of a free spirit. His singularity, while irreplaceable, provides us with a vocabulary of thinking of human rights struggles as really a right to the maximum enjoyment of life and doing it with a sense of lightness.”

It may interest you to note that Rahul began his career as an IP attorney with Kurian and Kurian, a Chennai based IP boutique. He later found his true calling in working to improve the lot of the differently-abled. He founded Inclusive Planet, a technology/policy outfit to create technology solutions to redress the book famine (by encouraging sharing of accessible literature) and undertake policy advocacy on behalf of disabled communities.

Disability Advocacy and Indian Copyright Amendment

It was a chance call from Rahul that got me into disability advocacy as well; and in no time, his excitement and passion rubbed off on me. Along with other outstanding disability activists and scholars (prominent amongst them were Prof Sam Taraporewala, Dipendra Manocha, Nirmita Narasimhan, Lawrence Liang, Kanchan Pamnani, Ketan Kothari and Neha Trivedi), we campaigned for a meaningful copyright exception, made representations before the Parliamentary Standing Committee and succeeded in getting this historic amendment through the legislature. All this was possible owing to the stellar support of the government (and in particular the untiring work of GR Raghavender, the copyright registrar and Prof NSG, the governments’ key copyright advisor).

We’ve reflected on this advocacy effort in detail in this NUJS law review special issue dealing with the 2012 copyright amendments. To access other articles in this special issue (which resulted from a copyright conference at NUJS a year or so ago), see here (hold your cursor over the NUJS Volume 5 (Number 4) to get access to all the special issue articles).

Rahul is a co-author of this piece (along with Prof Taraporewala and me), but passed away just as we neared completion, making it his last work of writing/scholarship. We consider ourselves blessed to have been a part of his last writing endeavor. We’re also very grateful to the NUJS law review for dedicating the entire special issue to Rahul’s memory.

Our Paper

For those interested, the abstract of our paper states as below:

“In a momentous development, the Indian Copyright Act, 1957, was amended to introduce one of the most progressive provisions ever in the history of global copyright law. These amendments seek to foster access to copyrighted works for the disabled by providing for the conversion and distribution of copyrighted works without the risk of copyright infringement. It is important to appreciate that these amendments did not emerge overnight. Rather, they were the culmination of more than a decade of advocacy, by a group of dedicated campaigners drawn from a diverse set of stakeholders, including leaders of the disability community, civil society activists and the academia. This paper provides a ringside view of the evolution and progress of the campaign, with its final culmination in the amendment. It tracks the advocacy effort through the lens of ‘new social movements’, and focuses on the need to bring together different stakeholders with complementary skills to achieve shared goals of public interest. Additionally, this paper reflects upon the scope of the amendment, the current international efforts to secure a global treaty on this count and India’s role in shaping it.

The authors of this paper were an integral part of the advocacy campaign and worked extensively with several others to secure the introduction of this critical amendment. Unfortunately upon completion of this paper, we lost the most committed campaigner of all, Rahul Cherian. This paper is dedicated to his memory and the boundless passion and enthusiasm with which he brought so many of us together in his quest for creating a better world for the disabled. Over the last few years, Rahul worked tirelessly to champion the cause of the disabled in India and achieved commendable progress on several fronts. However, the copyright amendment will rate as his crowning glory, given the rather difficult political terrain that had to be traversed. Rahul is to be credited for providing a fresh fillip to the advocacy campaign and mediating differences between a diverse set of people with different skill sets, ideologies and expectations and ensuring that they worked together as ‘one’ team with a common goal.”

Rahul’s journey is far from over. Though we’ve lost him physically, his energy, spirit and infectious enthusiasm will continue to inspire many of us who struggle in our own little way to make this planet more inclusive, habitable and humane.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/spicy-ip-december-16-2013-shamnad-basheer-an-advocacy-saga-and-inspiring-legacy-rahul-cherian

Ambiguity in the App Store: Understanding India’s emerging IT sector in light of IP

samantha — 2014-04-15T08:24:28Z

Mobile applications hold immense potential for India but are not fully understood by even their own developers in the context of India’s intellectual property (IP) regime. This is the first in a series of blog posts introducing CIS's new access to knowledge research initiative that seeks to understand how stakeholders encounter India’s IP law and what this means for the mobile app ecosystem, and in turn, the Indian mobile user. This research also aims to address problematic policy areas for innovation and protection for developers, as well as to comment on India’s regime with respect to the emerging mobile app sector.

India is at a pivotal point within its IT industry as mobile technologies take off like never before. Smartphone usage appears to be replacing PC use altogether for many,[1] and today’s generation is even said to belong to India’s "mobile only generation" as 41% of Indians access the internet through mobile phones.[2] The potential for mobile technologies for India can be better envisioned as various reports compare prior growth rates with astonishing projections for the next few years, and in doing so, demonstrate India’s exponential growth in terms of smart phone and internet penetration.

In the last 3-4 years, the number of users who access the internet through a 3G connection has long surpassed the number of fixed line broadband connections accumulatively over the last 17 years.[3] The funny part is that 3G has yet to be widely adopted, with only 4% of over 900 million mobile subscriptions using 3G.[4] This number is expected to grow from 36 million to 266 million by 2016—within a mere 3 years,[5] and smartphones, from 67 million this year to 382 million by 2016.[6] At that point, India will likely be within the world’s top 5 countries for smartphones, potentially representing almost 10% of the entire world’s supply—practically five times that of what it was only 5 years prior in 2011.[7] As the cost of data and price of smartphones come down, and as mobile internet and smartphone penetration rates surge tremendously, new pathways are paved for emerging sectors to evolve, such as that of the mobile application market,[8] a market which is expected to have a value of Rs 2,700-crore by 2016.[9]

Every month, 100 million apps are being downloaded in India, ranging from productivity to localized music and language apps, to health and spirituality apps, to banking and e-commerce apps; with ones relating to dating and gaming growing in popularity.[10]

India’s appetite for mobile apps is definitely here to stay. This booming app market is expected to increase demand for an additional three lakh developers in the next five years in India[11] and introduce many new players into market.

Although holding great potential, the mobile app ecosystem has yet to become robust, and is still a place of volatility and ambiguity for developers. As more and more build upon previously produced content within the pursuit of new idea for a mobile application, the lines become blurred as to what is legally acceptable and what is not. For emerging start-ups, these blurred lines are irrelevant, with the main focus on the product and with insufficient manpower and money flow to invest time elsewhere. But for the developers that are on their way up the enterprise ladder, protection is sought out. As developers gain more leverage within app stores, and therefore more exposure, their applications may be at risk for being copied by others, and may begin to seek support commonly in the form of copyright or not-so-often patent protection. As this system of who seeks protection and who does not repeatedly manifests within the Indian mobile app ecosystem, an uneven playing field is further tipped in favour of those for who are willing to pay for a lawyer. Many a time, developers are not aware themselves that they may be infringing upon others’ intellectual property, and as foreign players begin to enter India’s mobile app market — often with overwhelmingly large IP portfolios—Indian developers may unknowingly be at risk for litigation for their own mobile applications.

This blog post kick-starts a new research initiative from the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) as I attempt to understand the many factors at play at the intersection of the mobile app ecosystem and Indian intellectual property (IP) law. It is also the first in a series to attempt to paint a comprehensive picture of what the real implications are of intellectual property within the mobile app ecosystem for India. This initiative falls within CIS’s A2K Programme which ultimately aims to protect citizen, consumer and public interest via IP law reform and by offering alternatives to strictly proprietary-based intellectual property regimes, with those that incorporate principles of openness. These differentiating regimes will be looked at further with reference to mobile applications in the series of postings to come.

In performing this research I hope to attain the following achievements: 1) to understand the legal environment in which the mobile app ecosystem exists, 2) to evaluate India’s current IP regime with respect to its mobile application industry, and lastly, and 3) to work towards creating contextually appropriate conditions to harness the potential of mobile app technologies for India. Each of these objectives are looked at closer below, as I demonstrate how I intend to attain each goal, and for what reason:

To understand the mobile app ecosystem in light of India’s IP regime

As the mobile app market is still on its incline, there is little understanding of the implications of policy decisions on this ecosystem and the stakeholders implicated within it. Consequently, policy decisions are ill-informed and at risk of being determined by foreign players in pursuit of foreign interests. I hope to acquire a sufficient sense of understanding of these implications from the ground up: beginning with the developers themselves. In performing empirical research to survey how stakeholders within the ecosystem encounter Indian IP law, with a main focus on developers themselves, I hope to also be able to identify key determinants of IP-related disputes and areas of concern amongst mobile app developers and understand corresponding implications for the mobile app market, and in turn, the potential for this market’s impact in India.

To evaluate India’s IP regime with respect to the mobile app ecosystem

Through the carrying out of this initiative I hope to produce the research necessary that will get the debate started regarding the role of intellectual property in the mobile applications market in India. In order to do so, I hope to identify and address policy blindspots — if any — within the current IP regime, as well as to make evident the consequences of such. I also hope to be able to draw my own conclusions to assess the current IP regime with respect to the needs of various stakeholders and the market which they drive forward through investigating how policies related to IP law facilitate or hinder levels of innovation, creation, and protection for mobile applications and their developers, to the benefit or detriment of Indian mobile users.

To work towards creating conditions to harness the potential of mobile apps for India

It is evident that within the mobile app market, along with other mobile technologies, lies potential for the future of access to information and means of communication amongst mobile users from all corners of India. Relative trajectories for market trends and mobile and internet penetration should not be taken for granted, however, as the environment within which these trends take course may be considered to be volatile and may consequently enable or undermine what potential this market holds for current and future consumers. Through analyzing primary empirical evidence and research findings in conjunction with market reportings and projections, I hope to be able to identify key conditions for an enabling legal environment in which mobile applications are available and accessible for the fulfillment of their potential.

The IP debate is a highly contested one, with opposing viewpoints and varying manifestations across jurisdictions. In order to understand how India fits into this debate, with respect to the mobile app ecosystem, I intend to guide my research in asking the following questions:

Who are the stakeholders and key players in the mobile app ecosystem, and how does each encounter India’s IP law?
What are the determining and resulting factors at play at the intersection of the mobile app ecosystem within India and India’s IP law regime?
What conditions would create an enabling legal environment for mobile app developers in terms of innovation and protection for their works?

This research will employ a multidisciplinary approach in incorporating theory and contextual aspects related to academic law, philosophy, political science, economics, history, and sociology in attempts to holistically understand the multifaceted picture in question and the different perspectives of such.

As preliminary research to this initiative, I have been in touch with mobile app developers of differing scales within the ecosystem. In speaking with each, I continue to observe a prevalent theme to be that of how each interprets Indian IP law. Regardless of whether they develop mobile apps for clients or their own enterprises, or are part of a small startup enterprise or an Indian success story, or even if they’re IP consultants themselves: in trying to understand the Indian IP landscape, one often encountered experience is confusion. As a result, the ambiguity of what may be protected under intellectual property and what may not be lingers on, to the advantage of some and the disadvantage of many. I intend to continue carrying out interviews with various stakeholders across India — with a special focus on Bangalore as India’s IT hub — including developers, incubators, lawyers, and even consumers, to better understand how each feels about Indian IP law, to what extent developers engage in protection for their IP, and if this theme of ambiguity is truly a consistent one throughout the mobile app ecosystem with regards to the Indian IP regime.

If you are interested in contributing to this initiative, I invite you to contact me by e-mail at samantha@cis-india.org. Any or all contributions may be kept anonymous and your explicit approval will be sought out before incorporating any of your responses into my research.

[1]. Bhine, A., Sharma, K., Rao, S., Mishra, K., Preetham, N., & Nemani, N. (2013). India’s mobile internet: The revolution has begun: An overview of how mobile internet is touching the lives of millions. Avendus . Retrieved from http://www.avendus.com/Files/Fund%20Performance%20PDF/Avendus_Report-India's_Mobile_Internet-2013.pdf

[2]. NextBigWhat.com (2012). Mobile Internet in India: All you need to know about it [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/nextbigwhat/mobile-internet-revolution-in-india-all-that-youd-like-to-know

[3]. Bhine, A. et al. (2013)

[4]. NextBigWhat.com (2012)

[5]. Mobile Marketing Association (2013). India Adspend Report. Retrieved from http://www.mmaglobal.com/whitepaper/india-adspend-report

[6]. Press Trust of India (2013, Sep 29). Mobile games, apps market in India to touch Rs 2,700 cr by 2016: Report. IBN Live. Retrieved from http://ibnlive.in.com/news/mobile-games-apps-market-in-india-to-touch-rs-2700-cr-by-2016-report/425284-11.html

[7]. Bhine, A. et al. (2013)

[8]. Pahwa, N. (2013, Apr 30). TiE India Internet Day: On Smartphones, Mobile App Monetization & Indic Languages. Medianama. Retrieved from http://www.medianama.com/2013/04/223-mobile-app-monetization-smartphones/

[9]. Press Trust of India (2013, Sep 29)

[10]. Kulkarni, V.A. (2013, Aug 22). India in line for the big app boom? Certainly, say developers. Know Your Mobile India. Retrieved from http://www.knowyourmobile.in/applications/8759/india-next-line-big-app-boom-certainly-say-developers

[11]. Nair, R. P. (2013, Aug 13). Booming app market is driving startups to offer mobile technology course. The Economic Times. Retrieved from http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-08-13/news/41375028_1_app-market-mobile-app-development-company-marketsandmarkets

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/ambiguity-in-the-app-store

ALC signs MoU for better net access

praskrishna — 2014-08-20T06:50:48Z

Andhra Loyola College (ALC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society – Access to Knowledge (CSI-A2K) here on Thursday.

The MoU will enable faculty and students to have more access on internet world, said the ALC management.

Read the original article published in the Hindu on August 15, 2014.

Institute principal Fr. G.A.P. Kishore, vice-principals Fr. P. Anil Kumar and Fr. Rex Angelo, correspondent Fr. Raju and CSI-A2K programme director T. Vishnu Vardhan signed the papers. Faculty of various departments participated in the programme. Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Kishore said for the first time in AP, ALC has made the MoU with CSI-A2K to work collaboratively to improve Telugu Wikipedia. Very soon the digital content in botany, physics, Telugu, chemistry, ethics, religion, music and other subjects of the institution would be produced in Telugu Wikipedia, said the principal.

“A ten-member core committee has been constituted to train the faculty in each department in the college on A2K, who will teach the students. CSI will train the trainers and upload the material from time to time,” said Mr. Rex Angelo. Mr. Vishnu Vardhan said that CSI is promoting institutional partnerships across the country to promote regional languages. The society has plans to team up with more colleges in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and take up more outreach programmes in the next few days.

“Wikipedia has access to over 287 languages and 3.5 crore essays in the world. It is very unfortunate, that it has very few items in Indian languages,” said the programme director.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/the-hindu-august-15-2014-alc-signs-mou-for-better-net-access

Aircel & Wikimedia Foundation announce Wikipedia Zero

pavanaja — 2014-07-07T05:58:08Z

Aircel and Wikimedia Foundation came together to announce Wikipedia Zero. As per this, users of Aircel need not pay for data for accessing Wikipedia. Dr. U.B.Pavanaja wrote a report on this in Prajavani.

Click here to read the article published in Prajavani on July 3, 2014.

ಗ್ಯಾಜೆಟ್ ಸುದ್ದಿ

ಏರ್‌ಸೆಲ್ ಬಳಸುವವರಿಗೆ ಉಚಿತ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ

ಮೊಬೈಲ್ ಫೋನ್ ಸೇವೆ ನೀಡುವ ಏರ್‌ಸೆಲ್ ಕಂಪೆನಿ ಮತ್ತು ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯವನ್ನು ನಡೆಸುವ ವಿಕಿಮೀಡಿಯ ಫೌಂಡೇಶನ್ ಜೊತೆಗೂಡಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಏರ್‌ಸೆಲ್ ಗ್ರಾಹಕರು ತಮ್ಮ ಸ್ಮಾರ್ಟ್‌ಫೋನ್‌ಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯವನ್ನು ಬಳಸಿದರೆ ಅವರು ಅಂತರಜಾಲ ಬಳಕೆಗೆ ಹಣ ನೀಡಬೇಕಾಗಿರುವುದಿಲ್ಲ. ಇದು ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಬಳಸುವವರಿಗೆ ಒಳ್ಳೆಯ ಸುದ್ದಿ. ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಝೀರೊ ಎಂಬುದು ಆಫ್ರಿಕದಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಾರಂಭವಾದ ಯೋಜನೆ.

ಇದರ ಪ್ರಕಾರ ಮೊಬೈಲ್ ಸೇವೆ ನೀಡುವ ಕಂಪೆನಿ ತಮ್ಮ ಗ್ರಾಹಕರು ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ವೀಕ್ಷಿಸಿದರೆ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಪ್ರವಾಹಕ್ಕೆ (ಡಾಟಾ) ಹಣ ನೀಡಬೇಕಾಗಿರುವುದಿಲ್ಲ. ಭಾರತದಲ್ಲಿ ಈ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಝೀರೊ ಯೋಜನೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಸದ್ಯಕ್ಕೆ ಏರ್‌ಸೆಲ್ ಮಾತ್ರ ಭಾಗಿಯಾಗಿದೆ. ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಷ್ ಮಾತ್ರವಲ್ಲದೆ ಇತರೆ ಭಾರತೀಯ ಭಾಷೆಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯ ಬಳಸುವವರಿಗೆ ಇದು ಒಳ್ಳೆಯ ಸುದ್ದಿ.

See the portion about Wikipedia Zero below:

Click to download the PDF here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/prajavani-july-3-2014-article-on-wikipedia-zero

AIKWO to organize Wikipedia Workshop

praskrishna — 2014-05-05T03:49:36Z

All India Konkani Writers’ Organisation (AIKWO) in association with Wikipedia is organising a one-day Wikipedia Workshop for Konkani writers writing in the Kannada script on Sunday, April 6 at Kalaangann, Mangalore.

The report was published in Udayavani on April 3, 2014.

The workshop is organised to popularise Konkani literature in the Kannada script, on the internet (in Wikipedia) and to increase the presence of Konkani information on the internet.

The workshop will be conducted by Dr U. B. Pavanaja, Programme Officer, Indian Languages, Access to Knowledge Programme, The Centre for Internet and Society. He will be assisted by Harriet Vidyasagar, a Wikipedia volunteer.

Those interested, may call 0824-2232377 and register their names.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/udayavani-april-3-2014-aikwo-to-organize-wikipedia-workshop

AIKWO Holds Wikipedia Workshop for Konkani Writers

praskrishna — 2014-05-05T04:22:10Z

A Wikipedia Workshop for Konkani writers writing in the Kannada script, was organised by All India Konkani Writers’ Organisation (AIKWO) in association with Wikipedia at Kalaangann Shaktinagar here on April 6.

Read the original published in Mangalorean.com here

Dr U B Pavanaja (Programme Officer – Indian Languages, Access to Knowledge Program, The Centre for Internet and Society), conducted the workshop. Harriet Vidyasagar, Wikipedian volunteer, was also present.

The one-day hands-on workshop included presentations on Wikipedia in general, and Konkani Wikipedia in particular, and the participants were taught how to add and edit Konkani articles in the Kannada script in Wikipedia.

On behalf of Mandd Sobhann, Dr Pratap Naik SJ handed-over three research works published by Mandd Sobhann – 1. Konkani Songs Among Mangalorean Catholics, 2. Anthology Of Konkani Literature In The Kannada Script and 3. Mandd Sobhann And Its Impact On Konkani Language And Literature – the representatives of Wikipedia – Dr. U. B. Pavanaja and Ms. Harriet Vidyasagar, to be updated in the Konkani Wikipedia. Shri Eric Ozario, Gurkar – Mandd Sobhann, Ms. Irine Rebello, Secretary – Mandd Sobhann and Dr. Edward Nazareth, General Secretary – AIKWO, were also present.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/mangalorean-april-6-2014-aikwo-holds-wikipedia-workshop-for-konkani-writers