Centre for Internet and Society

MHRD Estimate Expenditure.pdf

praskrishna — 2016-05-26T16:36:07Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/MHRD%20Estimate%20Expenditure.pdf

Utilization

praskrishna — 2016-05-27T15:53:20Z

Utilization

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/home-images/copy36_of_Utilization.jpg

Utilization

praskrishna — 2016-05-27T16:03:00Z

Utilization

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/home-images/copy38_of_Utilization.jpg

Utilization

praskrishna — 2016-05-27T16:08:43Z

Utilization

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/home-images/copy41_of_Utilization.jpg

Train the Trainer 2016

praskrishna — 2016-05-28T07:29:23Z

The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS-A2K) team is organizing the Train the Trainer programme at its office in Bengaluru from June 15 to 17, 2016.

After two successful iterations of Train the Trainer in 2013 and 2015, CIS-A2K is planning to organize the third iteration of the program. The exact dates and venue of the event have not been decided still, but like our previous iterations, this year also be a 3-days' residential program.

What's new in TTT 2016

Extensive feedback gathering: The planning of TTT 2016 started in mid-April when we started contacting TTT 2015 participants for their ideas and suggestions to design this year's Train-the-Trainer program. We asked them a number of questions such as "what could be improved in the last TTT?, how can be improve this year's TTT etc." We'll reach mailing lists and village pumps for for further inputs. Based on all these suggestions and feedback, this year's TTT will be designed.
MWT session: Based on the feedback we have received, it seems the participants are interested to learn some topics which were previously discussed during MWT. So, MWT sessions many be included in this year's program.

Registration

Note: Participants will be selected based on their on wiki and off wiki activities and their responses to the questions asked in the Google form. In order to fulfil this objectives, preference will be given to Wikimedians who are applying for the first time.

Please fill this form to apply to join this year's Train-the-Trainer event. Please write your answers in details. We may contact you if we need further details.

Clarification

In the Google form above you'll find these terms

Pre-event works: The exact pre-event work has not been fixed yet, but it may something like preparing presentation or draft-plan to improve your Wikiprojects.
Post-event works: Post-TTT you'll work to execute your plans, and conduct outreach activities. You will be in touch with CIS-A2K and share your progress and activities.

Program schedule has not been prepared yet. We expect to announce the program schedule at least 7 days before the event.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/events/train-the-trainer-2016

How tech brings self-reliance to students with disabilities

praskrishna — 2016-05-29T07:47:30Z

Rakshit Malik, 18, has every reason to be pleased with himself. He just scored 96.4% in his Class 12 exam -the third-highest score in CBSE's disabled category.

The article was published by the Times of India on May 29, 2016. Nirmita Narasimhan gave inputs.

He treats his visual impairment matter-of-factly: "My ability is stronger than my disability". A humanities student who wants to specialize in history, Malik learns by listening. He hears the material, pauses, and assimilates it. "While we found audio versions of NCERT textbooks in Classes 9 and 10, they are not available for Classes 11 and 12," says Malik, who then used his own method. "Mama recorded herself reading out my textbooks".

This year, there was merely a 12-mark difference between the student who topped the disabled category and the highest scorer in the exam. In many cases, learning outcomes are aligning, and advances in assistive technology have something to do with the trend. While it is still essential to know Braille, the system of reading raised dots by touch is falling out of use in many parts of the world. In the US, fewer than 10% of the visually impaired read Braille. Now, digital screen readers and magnifiers, and text-tospeech apps make sure that a blind student and a sighted one are on the same page. "Tactile diagrams can be used to teach geography , science and other subjects that require visual aids," explains Nirmita Narasimhan, accessibility expert and policy director at the Centre for Internet and Society , Bangalore.

As more learning material is put online, students have it much easier than they did a generation ago. They also get study notes from peer-to-peer forums.

According to the 2011 census, 2.21% of the Indian population -around 26.8 million -have some form of disability . On paper, the state is committed to supporting these students, and to providing aids and appliances, access to material, scribes and readers; and easing exam processes.In practice, it is far from smooth, explains Diana Joseph of the Fourth Wave Foundation, a Karnataka NGO that bridges the gap between government and students with the Nanagu Shaale programme."Each integrated education resource trainer has to oversee 30 schools. So it's often perfunctory . For example, they may supply hearing tools, without explaining that the battery must be replaced."

Over the last five years, there has been progress in both technology and policy. Copyright restrictions have been lifted for the use of the disabled. Textbooks have been proactively digitized. But ultimately , success depends on the mundane but critical matter of the right standards, explains Dipendra Manocha, who leads the DAISY for All project in India. DAISY, or Digital Accessible Information System, is an international standard for printed material that can be read in Braille, large print, audio, etc on a computer or mobile phone. By contrast, something scanned as an image file can't be read.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/news/the-times-of-india-may-29-2016-how-tech-brings-self-reliance-to-students-with-disabilities

Infographic

praskrishna — 2016-05-29T07:56:25Z

Infographic

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/home-images/Infographic.jpg

India's Proposed Map Law Prompts Outcry

praskrishna — 2016-05-29T09:30:31Z

In India, proposed legislation to ban use of maps or satellite images of the country without approval from the government has led to an outcry and triggered an online campaign called “Save The Map.”

The article by Anjana Pasricha was published in Voice of America on May 17, 2016. Pranesh Prakash was quoted.

The controversy is not just over stiff penalties of up to $15 million for a wrong depiction of India’s borders, but that in a digital era, the law would potentially disrupt a host of businesses and start-ups such as taxi-hailing services.

Reasons

The draft Geospatial Information Regulation Bill seeks to regulate the use of mapping and satellite data for two reasons: secure the country’s strategic installations from enemies and terrorists and ensure that its political boundaries are correctly depicted. The government says it will not create barriers to business.

But Internet experts say the sweeping proposed law will affect ordinary people using mobiles and laptops, all new-age companies such as food-delivery and e-commerce, apps, as well as Apple and Google map products.

Nikhil Pahwa, founder of the website MediaNama, calls location data the core fabric of all digital services.

“What the government has ended up doing is making pretty much every single app illegal because they all use geospatial data and they wont have a license. If you take a photograph, it has location data. If you use Uber to hail a cab, it uses maps and it shows taxi cabs on the map. If I WhatsApp my location to a friend to pick me from a particular location, I am generating geospatial information,” he said.

Nikhil Pahwa, founder of the website MediaNama, calls location data the core fabric of all digital services.

Complications for ordinary citizens

The draft law requires anyone wanting to use, publish or own maps or geospatial data to apply for a license, which will be considered by a security vetting committee.

The Bangalore-based Center for Internet and Society (CIS) has also slammed the new bill, saying it takes India back more than three decades when businesses were governed by a maze of bureaucratic licenses and permits.

“What it does, it puts in place a license raj for all use of mapping technologies. That just does not make sense. No other country in the world has this regressive mapping law,” said Pranesh Prakash at CIS.

Internet opposition

A volunteer-led internet campaign called “Save The Map” led by Bangalore-based tech experts, is steadily gathering momentum. It is calling on people to petition the government against the bill in its present form. It seeks to replicate an extremely successful campaign called “SavetheInternet” which built public opinion and put pressure on the government to ensure equal access to the internet.

The government has sought to calm the growing concerns, saying the bill is only in a preliminary stage and it has invited feedback and suggestions from the public until June 4.

Officials point to India’s growing security concerns, specially since an armed attack at a strategic air base in Pathankot in northern India earlier this year, allegedly mounted by Pakistan-based terrorists. Speaking to an Indian newspaper, Junior Home Minister Kiren Rijiju said the bill is necessary because “India as a responsible country must have provisions to secure its boundary and territory.

However Prakash of CIS points out that the new bill will not necessarily prevent terror groups from getting hold of geospatial data to target Indian installations because they don’t need maps generated inside India to access such information.

“They need satellite imagery and they need maps, period. Now this law does not actually prevent such maps from being created, it does not prevent satellite images of India being captured. What it does is prevent Indians from doing so. So it won't prevent foreign-based terrorists, especially state-backed terrorists, from attacking India,” he said.

Internet and public policy experts agree that the government could impose restrictions on mapping and satellite images of strategic and sensitive locations in the country.

Huge fines

The eye-popping fines of up to $15 million and jail terms of up to seven years proposed for incorrect depiction of India’s borders have also caused surprise.

India has always insisted maps should show Kashmir in the north, which is claimed by both India and Pakistan and the state of Arunachal Pradesh in the northeast, which China claims, within Indian political boundaries.

Foreign magazines and newspapers which failed to do so were only allowed to circulate in the country after the words “Boundaries of India shown in this map are not correct” were stamped over maps that did not conform to India’s interpretations of its borders.

Google already offers slightly altered versions of its maps inside India, showing the disputed regions of Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh as part of India.

Independent political analyst Ajoy Bose said New Delhi has long been very sensitive over how these two territories are depicted. “It has always been a source of annoyance to successive governments, but this government being ultranationalist in nature is very particular about India’s geographical boundaries being correctly shown, and therefore it is taking much more drastic action,” he said.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/voice-of-america-may-17-2016-anjana-pasricha-india-proposed-map-law-prompts-outcry

National Conference on Competition & IPR in ICT, Telecom & Mobile Sets

praskrishna — 2016-05-30T01:50:19Z

Rohini Lakshané and Anubha Sinha attended this conference held at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi on May 18, 2016. The event was organized by CMAI.

This was a specific conference dedicated to Make in India especially Mobile, Telecom and role of Competition v/s IPR. The speakers were from CCI, Industry and Legal luminaries. There is a need to arrive at balance between Competition and IPR. The conference was aimed to address the issues of IPRs v/s competition, role of SSO in standard settings, SEP’s contentions, basis of FRAND negotiations and need to recommend to Government to form an appropriate policy that is suitable for Make in India.

The conference focused on the need to discuss these issues with all the stakeholders and come out with appropriate status on the date and its relevance on Make in India and appropriate recommendations to the government. Further details of the conference can be accessed here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/national-conference-on-competition-ipr-in-ict-telecom-mobile-sets

CPRsouth 2016 – Young Scholars Programme

praskrishna — 2016-05-30T02:01:21Z

Rohini Lakshané, Amber Sinha and Vidushi Marda have been selected to attend the two-day Young Scholars' Programme to be held in Zanzibar, Tanzania in early September this year. The programme is a part of the CPRSouth conference.

Read the original announcement published by CPRSouth here.

Following highly successful joint Afro-Asian CPR conferences in Mauritius in 2012, and India in 2013, CPRafrica and CPRsouth formally merged under the banner of CPRsouth in 2014. Since then, CPRsouth has hosted conferences in the Cradle of Humankind in South Africa (2014), and at the Innovation Center for Big Data and Digital Convergence at Yuan Ze University, Taiwan (2015).

This year’s conference is co-hosted by COSTECH and TCRA in Zanzibar, and will include sessions on cutting-edge developments on ICT policy and regulation in the South and discussion of the research-policy interface.

30 Young Scholars from Africa and the Asia-Pacific region will be selected to participate in a tutorial programme taught by recognised scholars and practitioners from Africa and Asia, and they will attend the main conference thereafter.

Tutorials are scheduled to be held on the 6^th and 7^th of September 2016, prior to the main CPRsouth conference.

Who will qualify?

Masters/PhD students in Economics, Public policy, Communications and Journalism
Officers of government/regulatory agencies undertaking ICT policy research, developing/gathering indicators (monitoring and evaluation)
Staff of private companies in the communication industries working in regulatory affairs
Officers in NGOs/INGOs working in policy and regulation
Researchers from think tanks, university research centres
Journalists covering communication public policy and regulation

Seminar

The seminar will cover a number of topics of the two days, such as:

policy analysis using supply-side or demand-side data;
ICT impact analysis;
convergence, net neutrality;
funding broadband network extension, open access networks, spectrum;
sector and competition regulation;
research to policy interventions;
Internet governance – privacy, surveillance, human rights online; and
introduction to big data, open data.

(2016 tutorial programme still to be confirmed)

Previous tutorial presentations can be accessed at http://www.cprsouth.org/

Application deadline: 22 April 2016

Application guidelines

Applications should be submitted via this link by 22 April 2016, and must contain the following:

one-page curriculum vitae; and
one-page write-up outlining why you wish to become an African or Asia-Pacific based expert capable of contributing to ICT related policy and regulatory reform in the region

Applicants’ write-ups and biographies should be in a single word document, and named: CPRsouth2016_YoungScholar_ApplicantLastName.

Kindly note: Late applications and applications that do not conform to the prescribed format above will automatically be disqualified.

Review Criteria

Applications will be reviewed according to the following criteria:

content of application;
evidence of interest in, and commitment to, policy-relevant research for Africa or the Asia-Pacific region;
quality of writing; and
gender and country representation

The selection committee may contact your supervisor or mentor before making the final selections.

Candidates selected to participate in the tutorial programme must:

provide a one-page research proposal upon acceptance onto the tutorial programme
participate in all tutorial sessions
participate in the entire CPRsouth 2016 conference

Funding

Selected young scholars who are passport holders of, and travelling from, low and middle income countries within the Asia Pacific and Africa (as classified by the World Bank http://data.worldbank.org/about/country-classifications/country-and-lending-groups#Low_income) will be provided with:

lowest-cost economy airfare to conference destination (less USD 150 registration fee);
ground transfers between the conference venue and airport; and
twin sharing accommodation on bed and breakfast basis, 5 lunches and 1 dinner for the duration of the conference and tutorials (6 – 10 September 2016). Not all meals are covered.

The registration fee for young scholars to attend the conference and tutorials is USD150, and airfares will be reimbursed less this registration fee. Participants will be required to cover:

transport to and from airports in their home countries;
visa fees (if any);
meals not provided; and
any other incidental costs

As the registration fee is so low and should be met personally even if there is no institutional support for attendance of the course and conference, please note that only under exceptional circumstances of extreme financial hardship may the organisers consider a waiver of the conference registration fee. Such waivers will be considered on a case-by-case basis and only where a scholar would otherwise be prevented from attending the YS programme and conference.

Visas

Letters of invitation will be provided for purposes of visa applications after participant selections have been made. Participants are responsible for securing their own visas to enter Tanzania, and are strongly advised to initiate visa approval procedures immediately on receipt of confirmation of their participation.

Kindly direct all enquiries to Ondine Bello: admin@researchictafrica.net orinfo@CPRsouth.org

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/cprsouth-2016-2013-young-scholars-programme

Internet L@w

praskrishna — 2016-05-30T02:07:00Z

Vanya Rakesh will attend the Internet law course organized by the University of Geneva from 20 June 2016 to 1 July 2016 as part of the Geneva Summer School.

Study Internet Law in Geneva, where the World Wide Web was born!

Topics that will be covered include cybersecurity, digital privacy and online surveillance, free speech, consumer protection, legal issues of social media, dangers of cloud computing, Internet and telecom infrastructure, intellectual property, antitrust, and much more...

This is a unique opportunity to gain hands-on experience in the framework of an Internet law clinic and to discuss cutting edge Internet law and policy issues with academics, practitioners, representatives of global policy makers, international organizations and leading institutions, including the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

For its first and second sessions (in June 2014 and 2015), the Internet l@w summer school welcomed participants from very diverse background and countries including Argentina, China, Egypt, Germany, India, Italy, Lithuania, Ukraine and the US.

Discover an international city in the heart of Europe. Participate in an exciting social programme, including excursions and social gatherings, and build a global network of new friends as well as of Internet law and policy experts.

A video testimony of participants to the 2014 edition is available here!

Equivalence of 6 ECTS credits.

Please note: Changes to the draft program may be made at any time prior to the start of the course.

More Info, click here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/internet-l-w

JNU - Receipt of RTI, request for payment - 26.3.15 (1).pdf

praskrishna — 2016-05-31T15:01:15Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/JNU%20-%20Receipt%20of%20RTI-%20request%20for%20payment%20-%2026.3.15%20-1.pdf

JNU - Replies to RTI - 24.2.15 (1).pdf

praskrishna — 2016-05-31T15:03:12Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/JNU%20-%20Replies%20to%20RTI%20-%2024.2.15%20-1.pdf

JNU - Reply and report - 10.3.15 (1).pdf

praskrishna — 2016-05-31T15:04:53Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/JNU%20-%20Reply%20and%20report%20-%2010.3.15%20-1.pdf

May 2016 Newsletter

praskrishna — 2016-06-10T19:34:10Z

Welcome to the May 2016 newsletter of the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS).

Early last year, thanks to the fund raising efforts of a friend of CIS - Suhail Kazi, we received Rs. 1.9 lakhs as donations from 19 individuals. In January this year, we set up an online giving feature on our website which would ease the donation process, but we haven’t got a single donation so far! Today, we are unable to find a single donor who is interested in our Accessibility, Telecom, or RAW programmes. In other words, we need your support. Would you to consider making a small donation to CIS? Click here to donate.

Previous issues of the newsletters can be accessed here.

Highlights
CIS along with 20 other organisations petitioned the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Information Technology to bring in accessibility considerations within the draft Procurement Bill. Pavishka Mittal wrote a blog post on the legality and implications of the Reserve Bank of India's proposed classification of Peer-to-Peer lending companies as non-banking financial institutions. The sixth section of our extended survey of digital initiatives in the practice of arts and humanities in India is now online. The final report will be published serially, and will comprise seven sections in total. CIS invites abstracts for essays that explore how we study the Internet in India today. Please send the abstracts (no more than 200 words) to raw@cis-india.org by Sunday, June 12, 2016. CIS will select up to 10 abstracts and announce them on Monday, June 20, 2016. CIS filed RTI applications seeking information from institutes such as IIM Bangalore; NLU Jodhpur; NLSIU; IIT Kanpur; IIT Kharagpur; NALSAR; NUJS; Delhi University; and IIM Ahmedabad. Sumandro Chattapadhyay and Adya Garg wrote an article for the Wire in which they analyzed the draft Geospatial Information Regulation Bill, 2016. They argue that the Bill seems to be undoing various economic and humanitarian efforts, and hindering other opportunities offered by maps. CIS sent its comments on the Draft New ICANN By-Laws in which it observed that the draft by-laws are overwrought and that rather than producing a broad constitutional document for ICANN the by-laws read like the worst of governmental regulations and create more problems than they solve.

CIS in the News

CIS gave inputs to the following media coverage:

Exercise to correct articles in Tulu Wikipedia begins (The Hindu; April 28, 2016). This was mirrored on CIS website on May 1, 2016.

T’puram to host Wikipedia workshop on May 4, 5 (Mathrubhumi; May 1, 2016).
Spread awareness through Malayalam Wikipedia: Gadgil (The Times of India; May 5, 2016).
Promoting Online Content Through 'Wiki Malayalam' (New Indian Express; May 6, 2016).

Why India’s attempt to police digital maps and satellite images is a ‘dumb’ idea (News Minute; May 6, 2016).
Google, Apple and Microsoft may need licence for satellite mapping in India (Aman Sharma and Neha Alawadhi; Economic Times; May 9, 2016).
Geospatial Info Regulation Bill will hurt start-ups, small firms (Varun Aggarwal; Hindu BusinessLine; May 10, 2016).
Why The New Government Policy Mandating Panic Buttons On Phones Isn’t Going To Protect Women (The Ladies Finger; May 14, 2016).
India's Proposed Map Law Prompts Outcry (Anjana Pasricha; Voice of America; May 17, 2016).
Suckfly Attacks National Stock Exchange Tech Vendor, Among Others (Rohit Pathak; The Quint; May 21, 2016).
India Seeks to Limit Use of Maps and Satellite Images (Anjana Pasricha; Voice of America; May 27, 2016).
How tech brings self-reliance to students with disabilities (The Times of India; May 29, 2016).

CIS members wrote the following pieces:

Why It's Essential To Grow Indian-Language Wikipedias (Subhashish Panigrahi; Huffington Post; February 2016). The post was mirrored in Global Voices. The post was translated into Greek by Maria Souli. It was translated into Spanish by Daniela Diaz and into Russian by GV Russian.
A Large Byte of Your Life (Nishant Shah; Indian Express; April 3, 2016). This was mirrored on the website recently.

A four year, action-packed experience with Wikipedia (Sailesh Patnaik; Opensource.com; April 15, 2016). This was mirrored on CIS website recently.
Online Censorship on the Rise: Why I Prefer to Save Things Offline (Nishant Shah; Indian Express; April 17, 2016). This was mirrored on the website recently.
Facebook: A Platform with Little Less Sharing of Personal Information (Nishant Shah; Indian Express; May 8, 2016).

Wikipedia’s 15th birthday inspires Bangla translators; Odia-language Women’s History Month edit-a-thons (Nahid Sultan and Shailesh Patnaik; Wikimedia Blog; May 9, 2016).

Identity of the Aadhaar Act: Supreme Court and the Money Bill Question (Sumandro Chattapadhyay and Vanya Rakesh; The Wire; May 9, 2016).
Criminal Defamation and the Supreme Court’s Loss of Reputation (Bhairav Acharya; The Wire; May 14, 2016).
Before Geospatial Bill: A Long History of Killing the Map in Order to Protect the Territory (Sumandro Chattapadhyay and Adya Garg; The Wire; May 16, 2016).
Protecting the Territory, Killing the Map (Sumandro Chattapadhyay; The Wire; May 17, 2016).
Women's Safety? There is an App for That (Rohini Lakshané; Gender IT.org; May 19, 2016).

ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଏନସାଇକ୍ଲୋପିଡ଼ିଆ "ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ" ବିକାଶ ପାଇଁ ଏକାଠି ହେଲେ ପୁରୀର ଛାତ୍ରଛାତ୍ରୀ (Subhashish Panigrahi; YourStory Odia, May 20, 2016).

Celebrating 13 Years of the Kannada-language Wikipedia (Subhashish Panigrahi; DNA; May 22, 2016).
Modi’s New Intellectual Property Rights Policy Will Only Benefit Players with Deep Pockets (Anubha Sinha; May 28, 2016).

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Accessibility & Inclusion
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India has an estimated 70 million persons with disabilities who don't have access to read printed materials due to some form of physical, sensory, cognitive or other disability. As part of our endeavour to make available accessible content for persons with disabilities, we are developing a text-to-speech software in 15 languages with support from the Hans Foundation. The progress made so far in the project can be accessed here.

►NVDA and eSpeak

May 2016 Report

►Other

Accessible ICT Procurement (Pranesh Prakash; May 9, 2016).

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Access to Knowledge
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Our Access to Knowledge programme currently consists of two projects. The Pervasive Technologies project, conducted under a grant from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), aims to conduct research on the complex interplay between low-cost pervasive technologies and intellectual property, in order to encourage the proliferation and development of such technologies as a social good. The Wikipedia project, which is under a grant from the Wikimedia Foundation, is for the growth of Indic language communities and projects by designing community collaborations and partnerships that recruit and cultivate new editors and explore innovative approaches to building projects.

►Pervasive Technologies

Blog Entries

CIS gathered information from various educational institutions in response to several RTI applications. All of these have been published as different blog posts:

MHRD IPR Chair Series: Information Received from JNU (Nehaa Chaudhari; May 15, 2016).
MHRD IPR Chair Series: Information Received from IIT, Kharagpur (Nehaa Chaudhari; May 15, 2016).
MHRD IPR Chair Series: Information Received from NALSAR (Nehaa Chaudhari; May 15, 2016).
MHRD IPR Chair Series: Information Received from NUJS (Nehaa Chaudhari; May 15, 2016).
MHRD IPR Chair Series: Information Received from Delhi University (Nehaa Chaudhari; May 15, 2016).
MHRD IPR Chair Series: Information Received from IIM, Ahmedabad (Nehaa Chaudhari; May 17, 2016).
MHRD IPR Chair Series: Information Received from IIM, Bangalore (Nehaa Chaudhari; May 21, 2016).
MHRD IPR Chair Series: Information Received from NLU, Jodhpur (Nehaa Chaudhari; May 26, 2016).
MHRD IPR Chair Series: Information Received from NLSIU (Nehaa Chaudhari; May 27, 2016).
MHRD IPR Chair Series: Information Received from IIT, Kanpur (Nehaa Chaudhari; May 31, 2016).

Nisha S. Kumar assisted in the preparation of all these documents.

Participation in Event

National Confererence on Competition & IPR in ICT, Telecom and Mobile Sets (Organized by CMAI; May 18, 2016; Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi). Rohini Lakshané and Anubha Sinha attended this conference.

Other Blog Entry

Sectoral Innovation Councils on Intellectual Property Rights – RTI Requests + DIPP Responses (Nehaa Chaudhari and Saahil Dama; May 21, 2016).

►Wikipedia

As part of the project grant from the Wikimedia Foundation we have reached out to more than 3500 people across India by organizing more than 100 outreach events and catalysed the release of encyclopaedic and other content under the Creative Commons (CC-BY-3.0) license in four Indian languages (21 books in Telugu, 13 in Odia, 4 volumes of encyclopaedia in Konkani and 6 volumes in Kannada, and 1 book on Odia language history in English).

Blog Entries

Images and Links Matter Quality (Rahmanuddin Shaik; May 4, 2016).
Indian English Wikipedian Nvvchar completes 1500 Did You Know articles (Tito Dutta; May 9, 2016).
Celebrating the 13th anniversary of Kannada Wikipedia (Subhashish Panigrahi; May 19, 2016). Ananth Subray contributed to this blog.

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Internet Governance
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As part of its research on privacy and free speech, CIS is engaged with two different projects. The first one (under a grant from Privacy International and IDRC) is on surveillance and freedom of expression (SAFEGUARDS). The second one (under a grant from MacArthur Foundation) is on restrictions that the Indian government has placed on freedom of expression online.

►Freedom of Expression

Submission and Comment

Comments on Draft Electronic Health Records Standards (Amber Sinha; May 28, 2016).
Submission by the Centre for Internet and Society on Draft New ICANN By-laws (Pranesh Prakash, Vidushi Marda, Udbhav Tiwari and Swati Muthukumar with inputs from Sunil Abraham; May 30, 2016).

Blog Entry

Criminal Defamation Remains and so does the Debate (Japreet Grewal; May 19, 2016).

►Privacy

Blog Entry

Privacy Issues with DRM (Jalaj Pandey; May 3, 2016).

Event Organized

Understanding Aadhaar and its New Challenges (Organized by Centre for Studies in Science Policy, JNU and CIS; May 26 - 27, 2016; New Delhi). The event was supported by the Centre for Communication Governance at NLU Delhi, Free Software Movement of India, Knowledge Commons, PEACE, and Center for Advancement of Public Understanding of Science & Technology.

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

Announcement

Call for Essays: Studying Internet in India (Sumandro Chattapadhyay; May 20, 2016).

Blog Entries

New Modes and Sites of Humanities Practice (P.P. Sneha; May 19, 2016).
RBI Consultation Paper on P2P Lending: Summary (Pavishka Mittal; May 18, 2016).
RBI Consultation Paper on P2P Lending: Legality and Implications (Pavishka Mittal; May 23, 2016).
RBI Consultation Paper on P2P Lending: Data Security and Privacy Concerns (Vipul Kharbanda; May 31, 2016).

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

► Follow us elsewhere

Twitter: http://twitter.com/cis_india
Twitter - Access to Knowledge: https://twitter.com/CISA2K
Twitter - Information Policy: https://twitter.com/CIS_InfoPolicy
Facebook - Access to Knowledge: https://www.facebook.com/cisa2k
E-Mail - Access to Knowledge: a2k@cis-india.org
E-Mail - Researchers at Work: raw@cis-india.org
List - Researchers at Work: https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/researchers

► Support Us

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

► Request for Collaboration

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

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

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/may-2016-newsletter