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Atmanirbhar Bharat Meets Digital India
https://cis-india.org/raw/files/atmanirbhar-bharat-meets-digital-india.pdf
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/files/atmanirbhar-bharat-meets-digital-india.pdf'>https://cis-india.org/raw/files/atmanirbhar-bharat-meets-digital-india.pdf</a>
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No publisherankanRAW ResearchRAW PublicationsResearchers at Work2021-06-03T12:32:47ZFileAsia in the Edges: A Narrative Account of the Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Summer School in Bangalore
https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/routledge-inter-asia-cultural-studies-volume-15-issue-2-nishant-shah-asia-in-the-edges
<b>The Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Summer School is a Biennial event that invites Masters and PhD students from around Asia to participate in conversations around developing and building an Inter-Asia Cultural Studies thought process. Hosted by the Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Society along with the Consortium of universities and research centres that constitute it, the Summer School is committed to bringing together a wide discourse that spans geography, disciplines, political affiliations and cultural practices for and from researchers who are interested in developing Inter-Asia as a mode of developing local, contextual and relevant knowledge practices. </b>
<p style="text-align: justify;">This is the narrative account of the experiments and ideas that shaped the second Summer School, “The Asian Edge” which was hosted in Bangalore, India, in 2012. The peer reviewed article was <a class="external-link" href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14649373.2014.911462">published in Inter-Asia Cultural Studies</a> Journal, Volume 15, Issue 2, on July 3, 2014. <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/asia-in-the-edges.pdf" class="external-link">Click to download the file</a>. (PDF, 95 Kb)</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;">At the heart of the Inter-Asia Cultural Studies (IACS) project has been a pedagogic impulse that seeks to train young students and scholars in critical ways of thinking about questions of the contemporary. The ambition of developing an “Asian way of thinking” is not merely a response to the hegemony of North-Western theory in thought and research, especially in Social Sciences and Humanities. It is also a way by which new knowledge is developed and shared between different locations in Asia, to get a more embedded sense of the social, the political and the cultural in the region. Apart from building a widespread network of researchers, activists, academics and artists who have generated the most comprehensive and critical insights into developing ontological and teleological relationships with Asia, there have always been attempts made to integrate students into the network’s activities. From student pre-conferences that invited students to build intellectual dialogues, to subsidies and fellowships offered to allow students to travel from their different institutions across Asia, various initiatives have inspired and facilitated the first encounter with Asia for a number of young researchers who might have lived in Asian countries but not been trained to understand the context of what it means to be in Asia. Over time, through different structures, such as the institutionalisation of the <em>Inter-Asia Cultural Studies</em> Journal and the growth of the eponymous conference, the IACS has already expanded the scope of its activities, involving new interlocutors and locations in which to grow the environment of critical academic and research discourse.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Building upon the expertise and networks of scholarship developed for over a decade, the IACS Society initiated the biennial Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Summer School, in order to engage younger scholars and students with some of the key questions that have been discussed and contested in the cultural studies discourse in Asia. The IACS Summer School that began in 2010 in Seoul, is a travelling school that moves to different countries, drawing upon local energies, resources and debates to acquaint students with the critical discourse as well as the experience of difference that marks Asia as a continent. The summer school in 2012 was hosted jointly by the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society and the Centre for Internet and Society in Bangalore, India, in collaboration with the Centre for Contemporary Studies at the Indian Institute of Sciences.<a name="fr1" href="#fn1">[1] </a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">For a snapshot of the Summer School, see Table 1 below:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Table 1. The 2012 Inter-Asia cultural studies summer school: a snapshot</strong></p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;">The Asian Edge</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;">Core course: Methodologies for Cultural Studies in Asia (2–11 August, 2012)<br />Optional courses<br />The Digital Subject / Technology, Culture and the Body (13–16 August, 2012)<br />Language of Instruction: EnglishHomepage: <a class="external-link" href="http://culturalstudies.asia/?page_id=86">http://culturalstudies.asia/?page_id=86</a><br />Organisers: Centre for the Study of Culture and Society, Bangalore; The Centre for Internet & Society, Bangalore<br />Host: Centre for Contemporary Studies, Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore<br />Co-organisers: Consortium of Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Consortium Institutions; Institute of East Asian Studies, Sungkonghoe University, Korea<br />Course Coordinators: Nitya Vasudevan & Nishant Shah<br />Number of Students: 35 students from 12 Asian countries<br />Number of Faculty: 17 from 5 Asian countries<a name="fr2" href="#fn2">[2] </a></p>
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<h3 style="text-align: justify;">Plotting Edges: The Rationale</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The second summer school, hosted in August 2012, with the support of the Inter Asia Cultural Studies Consortium and the Institute of East Asian Studies, was entitled “The Asian Edge.” We decided to stay with the metaphor of the Edge because it allowed us to experiment, both conceptually and in process, with new modes of engagement, interaction, knowledge production and pedagogy. The idea of an Asian Edge was interesting because it signalled a de-bordering of Asia. The Edge is also an inroad into that which might have remained invisible or inscrutable to those outside of it. The imagination of an Asian Edge brings in both the imaginations of geography as well as the notion of extensions, where Asia, especially in this hyper-real and geo-territorial age does not remain contained within the national boundaries. Within the Inter-Asia discourse, there has been a rich theorisation around what constitutes Asia and what are the ways in which we can reconstruct our Asianness that do not fall in the easy “Asian Studies” mode of being defined by the West as the ontological reference point. Chen Kuan-Hsing’s (2010) argument in <em>Asia as Method</em>, where he argues that Asia is a construct that emerged out of the Cold War and needs to be deconstructed and unpacked in order to understand the different instances and manifestations of India, have captured these dialogues quite comprehensively. Similarly, Ashish Rajadhyaksha’s (2009) landmark work <em>Indian Cinema in the time of Celluloid </em>marks how questions of nationalism, modernity, governance and technology have been peculiarly and particularly tied to cultural objects and industries such as cinema, not only in negotiations with the post-colonial encounters of India with its erstwhile colonial masters but also with the different locations and imaginations of India. Chua Beng-Huat (2000) in Consumption in Asia similarly points at the ways in which Asia works at different levels of materiality and symbolism, creating communities, connections and commerce in unprecedented ways, not only within Orientalist imagination but in Asia’s own imagination of itself. The Asian Edge was also a way of introducing new thematic interventions in the Inter-Asia Cultural Studies discourse. While the IACS project has invited and initiated some of the most diverse and rich conversations around cultural production—ranging from creative industries to cultural politics; from cultural objects to flows of consumption and distribution—we haven’t yet managed to shift the debates into the realm of the digital. The emergence of digital technologies has transformed a lot of our vocabulary and conceptual framework, but we haven’t been able to translate all our concerns into the fast-paced changes that the digital ICTs are ushering into Asia.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">With this summer school, we wanted to introduce the digital and the technological as a central trope of understanding our existing and emerging research within inter-Asia cultural studies. And the edge, borrowing from the Network theories that have their grounds in Computing, Actor-Network modelling and ICT4D discourse, gives us another way of thinking about Asia. As the computing theorist Duncan Watts (1999) points out in his model of our universe as a “small world”, the edge, within networks is not merely the containing limit. It is not the boundary or the end but actually the space of interaction, communication and exchange. An edge is the route that traffic takes as it moves from one node to another. Edges are hence tenuous, they emerge and, with repetition, become stronger, but they also die and extend, morph and mutate, thus constantly changing the contours of the network. The ambition was to refuse the separation of technology from the Cultural Studies discourse, introducing what Tejaswini Niranjana in her work on Indian Language education and pedagogy calls “Integration” (Niranjana et al. 2010) rather than “interdisciplinarity”. It was also to provide a different historical trajectory to technology studies, what science and technology historians Kavita Philip, Lily Irani, and P. Dourish (2010) call “Postcolonial Computing.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The Asian Edge then became a space where we could consolidate the knowledge and key insights from the Inter-Asia Cultural Studies discourse, but could also open it up to new research, new modes of engagement, and new questions that need the historicity and also the points of departure. These ambitions had a direct impact on both the structure of the Summer School as well as the processes that were subsequently designed<br />to implement it.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">The core course: methodologies for cultural studies in Asia</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The Inter-Asia Summer School in Bangalore thus had some distinct ambitions, which were reflected in its structure. While it wanted to reflect the rich heritage of scholarship that has been produced through the decade-long interventions, and give the participating students a chance to engage with these intellectual stalwarts of Asia, it also wanted to reflect some of the more cuttingedge and future-looking work that is also a part of the movement’s younger scholars. Hence, instead of going with the traditional model where the pedagogues teach their own text, explaining the nuances and intricacies of their work, we decided to stage a dialogue between the existing scholarship and emerging work. The curriculum for the summer school was designed by Dr Tejaswini Niranjana, Dr Wang Xiaoming and Nitya Vasudevan, to form the first Inter- Asia Cultural studies reader, reflecting the various trends and debates around different themes that have occurred in the movement. The reader, which served as a basic textbook for the summer school, and has plans to be bilingual (English and Mandarin Chinese), introduced historical thought, critical interventions and conceptual frameworks drawn from different locations within Asia. The reader not only incorporated the scholars whose work has shaped the Inter-Asia cultural studies movement but also the formative modern thought that has been central to the social, cultural and political theorisation in Asia.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">However, instead of inviting the scholars whose work has been central to the Inter-Asia Cultural Studies thought, the instructors for the courses were younger critical scholars who are building upon, responding to and entering into a dialogue with the work prescribed in the curriculum. The pedagogy, hence, instead of becoming a “lecture” that synthesises earlier work, became a threeway dialogue, where the students and the instructors were responding to common texts, not only in trying to understand them but also in the context of their own work and interests. Moreover, each session was co-taught, by instructors from different disciplines, locations and geographies, to show how the same body of work can be approached through different entry points and pushed into different directions. The classroom hours, thus became a “workshop” space where the students and the faculty were engaging in a dialogue that sought to make the historical debates relevant to the discussions in the contemporary world. They also showed how the older questions persist across time and space, and that they need to be engaged with in order to make sense of the world around us.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Additionally, the Summer School classroom was designed as a space for collaborative pedagogy. The morning discussions around texts from the readers were followed by students presenting their work as a response to the texts prescribed for the day. Taking up a pecha-kucha format, it invited students to introduce themselves, their work, their context and their interventions and to open everything up for response and dialogue. The ambition was to build a community of intellectual support and interest, so that the students not only forge an affective bond but also a sense of collaboration and commonality in the work that they are already pushing in their existing research initiatives. The faculty for the day, along with some of the senior scholars also attended these presentations and helped tie in some of the earlier questions that might have emerged in the class, to the new material that was being introduced in the space.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">While this dialogue around new research was fruitful, we also were aware that there is a huge value in getting the students to interact with some of the more formative scholars whose work was prescribed in the curriculum. Hence, alongside the classrooms, we also hosted three salons that brought some of the significant scholars from the Inter-Asia movement into a dialogue with each other, as well as into a conversation with local intellectuals and activists. The first salon, organised at the artist collaborator 1 Shanthi Road, saw Chen Kuan-Hsing and Tejaswini Niranjana, discussing the impulse of the Inter-Asia movement. Charting the history, the different trajectories and the ways in which it has grown, both through friendships and networks, and intellectual interventions and collaborations, the conversation gave an entrypoint to younger scholars in understanding the politics and the motivation of this thought journey. The second salon, organised at the Alternative Law Forum, had Ding Naifei (Taiwan) and Firdaus Azim (Bangladesh) in conversation with legal sexuality and human rights activists Siddharth Narrain and Arvind Narrain (India) to unpack the politics of rights, sexuality, modernity and identity in different parts of Asia. The third salon, hosted at the Centre for Internet & Society, saw Ashish Rajadhyaksha (India) in conversation with Stephen Chan (Hong Kong) looking at questions of infrastructure, sustainability and the new role that research has to play in non-university and non-academic spaces and networks. The salons were designed to be informal settings for conversations and socialising, giving the summer school students access to the senior faculty outside of the classroom setting.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The summer school also wanted to ensure that the students were introduced to the materiality and the texture of the local, to understand the different layers of modernity and habitation that the IT City of Bangalore has to offer. Hence a local tour, charting the growth of Bangalore from a sleepy education centre to the burgeoning IT City that it has become, guided by curator and artist Suresh Jairam, was included as a part of the teaching. The four-hour walking tour laid bare the different contestations and layers of an IT city in India, showing the liminal markets, local cultures of production, and the ways in which they need to be factored into our images and imaginations of modernity and the IT City. Along with these, there were student parties arranged in different local clubs and institutions of Bangalore, to offer informal spaces of socialising for the students but also to give them a glimpse of what public spaces and cultures of being social might look like in a city such as Bangalore.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The summer school found a new richness because two of the days were twinned with a workshop on Culture Industries, supported by the Japan Foundation, which became a pedagogic space for the summer school participants. The students had a new focus introduced to their work and a chance to meet other scholars and activists in the field from Asia, who presented their work as part of the Summer School. The creative industries workshop also afforded a chance for students to form new connections and collaborations with projects and research initiatives that were being discussed in that forum.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">These different components were thus designed and put together as a part of the core course for the Inter-Asia Summer School in Bangalore. Each component had a specific vision and was designed to offer different spaces of learning, pedagogy and interaction for everybody included. The core course was an overview of the diversity and exchange that are parts of the Inter-Asia movement. The course ended with a “booksprint” model where the students, inspired by the conversations at the summer school, were given a day to submit written work that would capture their own learning and growth in the process. The submissions could take the form of an academic essay, a sketch towards a research essay, a blog entry summarising key events from a particular conversation, or a narrative summary of the key points in their own research and how it relates to the conversations at the Summer School. While the core course was compulsory for all the participants, the Summer School also offered two optional elective courses, which the students could opt for after the core course was concluded. The optional courses were designed to introduce students to work and debates that had not yet emerged centrally in the Inter-Asia debates, but were part of their current conversations.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">New nodes: Optional courses: the digital subject/technology, culture and the body</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The optional courses, which lasted for four days, were a way of introducing the students to some new core debates that are emerging in the Cultural Studies discourse. The courses were designed to specifically concentrate on how the older questions and frameworks are being reworked with the emergence of digital technologies, thus helping students to consolidate their own work and also engage with research initiatives across different parts of Asia.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The first optional course, entitled “The Digital Subject,” was coordinated by Nishant Shah and had lectures by Ashish Rajadhyaksha and Lawrence Liang. It proposed to account for the drastic changes in the relationships between the State, the Citizen and the Markets with the rise of digital technologies in the twenty-first century. The course proposed that as globalisation consolidates itself in Asia, we see changes in the patterns of governance, of state operation, of citizen engagement and civic action. We are in the midst of major revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa, powered by digital social change, some headed by cyber-utopians specialising in Web 2.0 and Social media. Phrases such as “Twitter Revolutions” and “Facebook Protests” have become very common.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Instead of concentrating only on the newness of technology-mediated change, there is a need to engage with the changing landscape of political subjectivity and engagement through a reintegration of science and technology studies with cultural studies and social sciences. The course thus posited certain questions that need to be addressed, within the domain of cultural studies, around the digital: what does a digital subject look like? What are the futures of existing socio-cultural rights based movements? How do digital technologies produce new interfaces for interaction and mobilisation? How do we develop integrated science-technologysociety approaches to understand our technology-mediated contemporary and futures?</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Through a series of seminars, workshops, film screening, lectures, and fieldtrips, the course challenged the students not only to look at new objects of the digital but also to ask new questions of the old, inspired by the new methods and frameworks that the digital technologies are opening up for us.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The second optional course entitled “Technology, Culture and the Body” was coordinated by Nita Vasudevan and had Audrey Yue, Ding Naifei, Tejaswini Niranjana, Wing-Kwong Wong, and Hsing-Wen Chang as instructors. The course began with a hypothesis that, at this moment in history, we seem to be embedded in what Heidegger calls “the frenziedness of technology.” Hence, now more than ever, it is important that we try to understand how the gendered body relates to technology, and what this means for the domain of the cultural. For instance, what are the freedoms that technology is said to offer this body? What are these freedoms posed in opposition to? How do we understand technological practice contextually, both historically and in the contemporary? Is it possible to have a notion of the body that is outside technology, and a notion of technology that is outside cultural practice?</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The course called for a move away from the idea of technology as a tool used by the human body, or the idea of technology as mere prosthesis or extension, to map the different ways of understanding the relationship<br />between culture, technology and the body, specifically in the Asian context. It will involve examining practices, cultural formations and understandings that have emerged within various locations in Asia. The course engaged the students in closereadings of key events and texts, hosted workshops to present and critique their own work, and think of collaborative pathways towards future distributed research and pedagogic initiatives that can emerge within the Inter-Asia space.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Both courses had additional assignments that included close-reading of texts, practical field work, critical reflection and collaborative projects completed during the span of the course.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">Tying things up: key learnings</h3>
<p>The Second Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Summer School was an ambitious structure, and while there were logistical hiccups in the implementation, there were some key learning aspects that need to be highlighted.</p>
<ol>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><em>Working with tensions</em>. Asia is not a homogeneous unified entity. There are several geo-political tensions that mark the relationships between different countries in Asia. While the academic protocol and individual interest in learning more can help negotiate these tensions, these tensions do play out in different linguistic, cultural and emotional unintelligibility, which becomes part of the pedagogic moment in the Inter-Asia classroom. Orienting the instructors to these tensions, and trying to build a collaborative environment where the students appreciate these tensions and learn to communicate with each other and engage with the different contexts is extremely valuable. In the summer school, we had students helping each other with translation, providing new contexts and critiques for each other’s work, and learning how to engage with the palpable difference of somebody from a different country. These tensions can sometimes slow the content and discussions in the classrooms, but taking it up as a collective challenge (rather than just thinking of it as a logistical problem where students not fluent in English need to be given tools of translation) made for a productive and rich learning environment.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><em>Ownership of community structures</em>. When young scholars from different parts of the world are thrown together for such an intense period of time, it is inevitable that there will be bonds of friendship and belonging that grow. We had debated about whether we should invest in doing online community building by creating platforms, discussion boards and other structures that accompany digital outreach and coordination. However, apart from the initial centralization for applications and programming, we eventually decided to make the participants owners of these activities.’ to give a better sense of the ‘digital structures of community building’. And it was fascinating to see how they formed social networks, blogs, Tumblrs and other spaces of conversation among themselves, making these spaces more vibrant and diverse, thus leading to conversations beyond the summer school.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><em>Infrastructure of participation</em>. The Summer School was an extremely subsidised event thanks to the generous support of the Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Consortium, the Institute of East Asian Studies and the Indian Institute of Sciences, who helped in significantly reducing the costs of registration. The availability of travel fellowships, subsidies, scholarships, and an infrastructure of access cannot be emphasised enough in our experience. Owing to the subsidised costs, the living conditions and the logistics were not optimal. And while the students were extremely cooperative and accommodating with the glitches, we realised that better living conditions and amenities, especially for young students who are travelling to a different country for the first time, are as important as the classroom and the intellectual thought and design. Finding more resources to ease the conditions of travel and living will help build richer conversations inside and outside the classrooms. Sustained efforts to find more funding for a space for the IACS summer school need to be continued.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><em>Selection processes</em>. It was wanted to promote the Inter-Asia movement and hence a first preference was given to students who applied for the summer school through an open call for application. The students were asked to have references from people who have been a part of the movement, and also to send in a brief essay describing their expectations from the summer school. We were scouting for students—given that the numbers we could accept were limited—who were involved in not only learning but also in contributing to the social and political thought of the Inter-Asia movement. We also encouraged students who might not have been a part of a formal education system but are considering further education. Instead of building a homogeneous student base, there was an attempt made to find different kinds of students, from different locations, at different places in their own research work, and with different disciplines and modes of engagement. Scholarships and travel aid were offered to students who we thought deserved to be a part of the summer school but did not have access to university resources for participation. The diversity helped bring a more comprehensive compendium of skills and methods to the table.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Integration and relevance. Younger students often find it difficult to deal with historically formative texts from other contexts because they do not see how this responds to their context or is relevant to their work in contemporary times. Efforts at integrating the different cultures, showing the different trajectories of thought and research within Asia, and at locating the older texts in the context of modern-day research were hugely rewarding and more attempts need to be made to continue this process of making the historical archive of the Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Movement relevant and critical in new research.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Planning the futures. The participants had all indicated that post the Summer School, they would be excited to see what future avenues for participation there could be. With this summer school, we hadn’t looked at modes of sustained engagement with the participants. While they did take the initiative to communicate with each other, the momentum that was generated because of these discussions could not be captured in its entirety because we did not have any formal structures and processes to continue the engagement. Especially if the IACS summer schools are some sort of an orientation into the IACS movement, then there should be more systemic thought given to how those interested in engaging with the questions can do so, through their own academic and institutional locations, but also through different kinds of support structures that continue the conversations and exchange that begin at the Summer School.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><em>Synergy with the local</em>. For us, as well as for the students, the synergy with the local movements, activists, artists and research was fruitful and productive. One of the values of a travelling summer school is that every summer school can take up a particular theme that is locally relevant and weave it into the summer school. For Bangalore, it made logical sense for us to bring questions of Digital Technologies and Identity/Bodies into the course. Even within the core course, there was an effort to integrate these as key questions that open up new terrains of thought and research within Inter-Asia cultural studies. The optional courses, which were introduced for the first time, were exciting and generated a lot of interest and engagement from the participants. Attempts at creating these kinds of synergies need to be supported along with new and experimental modes of pedagogy and learning.</li></ol>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The Second Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Summer School was a great opportunity to harness the potentials of the incredibly rich and diverse network that the IACS movement has built up over more than a decade. For us, it also became a playground where, inspired by the hacker culture and DIY movements that dot the landscape of Bangalore, we experimented with different forms of learning and knowledge production. Involving the students as stakeholders in the process, engaging with them as peers, making them responsible for collaborative learning, and creating spaces of participation and socialisation helped us circumvent many of the problems of language and cultural diversity that might have otherwise crippled the entire process. Pushing these modes of interaction and integration, while also creating an environment of trust, reciprocity and goodwill, is probably even more important than the curriculum and teaching, because these interactions create new nodes and connections, with each student and his/her interaction creating new edges that will hopefully shape and contribute to the contours of critical thought and intervention in Asia.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">References</h3>
<ol>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Chen, Kuan-Hsing. 2010. <em>Asia as Method: Toward Deimperialization</em>. Durham and London: Duke University Press.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Chua, Beng-Huat, ed. 2000. <em>Consumption in Asia: Lifestyle and Identities</em>. London: Routledge.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Philip, Kavita, Lily Irani, and P. Dourish. 2010. “Postcolonial Computing: A Tactical Survey.” <em>Science Technology Human Values</em> 37 (1): 3–29.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Rajadhyaksha, Ashish. 2009. <em>Indian Cinema in the time of Celluloid: From Bollywood to the Emergency</em>. New Delhi: Combined Academic Publications.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Niranjana, Tejaswini, et al. 2010. <em>Strengthening Community Engagement of Higher Education Institutions</em>. Bangalore: Centre for the Study of Culture and Society.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Watts, Duncan. 1999. “Networks, Dynamics, and the Small-World Phenomenon.” <em>AJS</em> 105 (2): 493–527.</li></ol>
<h3>Author's Biography</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Nishant Shah is the Director of Research at the Bangalore-based Centre for Internet & Society, an International Tandem Partner at the Hybrid Publishing Lab, Leuphana University, and a Knowledge Partner with Hivos, in The Hague. He is the editor of the four-volume anthology Digital AlterNatives with a Cause? and writes regularly for the Indian newspaper The Indian Express and for the Digital Media and Learning Hub at dmlcentral.net. His current areas of interest are Digital Humanities, Digital Activism and Digital Subjectivity.</p>
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<p align="JUSTIFY">[<a name="fn1" href="#fr1">1</a>]. <span class="discreet">A mammoth project such as the Inter-Asia Summer School requires resources, support and generosity from family, friends, and colleagues that can never be measured or cited in a note. However, there are a few people who need to be mentioned for their incredible spirits and the resources that they extended to us. Dr Raghavendra Gaddakar at the Centre for Contemporary Studies, Indian Institute of Sciences and his entire staff were patient and hospitable hosts, housing the entire summer school for over a fortnight. The faculty, students and staff at the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society (CSCS) Bangalore helped in designing courses, finding venues and organising events that added to the richness of the summer school. Raghu Tankayala and Radhika P, both at CSCS were our rocks through this process, taking up a lion’s share of logistical arrangements. The help of the entire staff at the Centre for Internet and Society, who were there every step, helping with every last detail, and the Executive Director Sunil Abraham who lent us infrastructure and financial support to organise various events and salons, is unparalleled and I know I would have found it impossible to work without the knowledge that they would always be there to watch my back. All the instructors who agreed to join the teaching crew made this summer school what it became (a full list can be found at <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/iacs-summer-school-2012" class="external-link">http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/iacs-summer-school-2012</a>). Both Nitya Vausdevan and I owe a huge amount of gratitude to the IACS society and the Consortium, as well as the stalwarts of the IACS movement who put faith in our vision, and pushed us, supported us, inspired us and helped us to carry out the different things we had planned. The local partners who make our life worth living—friends and colleagues at 1 Shanthi Road and The Alternative Law Forum—have been our rocks and we cannot thank them enough for their support and encouragement. A special thanks to Daniel Goh, who apart from being a faculty member, also helped us put together the website to manage the workflow for the entire project.</span></p>
<p>[<a name="fn2" href="#fr2">2</a>]. <span class="discreet">A full list of instructors and the prescribed curriculum can be found at <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-overnance/iacs-summer-school-2012" class="external-link">http://cis-india.org/internet-overnance/iacs-summer-school-2012</a>.</span></p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/routledge-inter-asia-cultural-studies-volume-15-issue-2-nishant-shah-asia-in-the-edges'>https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/routledge-inter-asia-cultural-studies-volume-15-issue-2-nishant-shah-asia-in-the-edges</a>
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No publishernishantDigital KnowledgeInter-Asia Cultural StudiesPeer Reviewed ArticlePublicationsResearchers at Work2015-04-14T12:47:38ZBlog EntryAs Equals: Frequently Asked Questions
https://cis-india.org/raw/as-equals-frequently-asked-questions
<b>Chiara Furtado was a panellist on the ‘As Equals’ series hosted by CNN since 2018 which aims to reveal what systemic gender inequality looks like. Chiara participated in a roundtable on digital harms and gender equality. </b>
<p>For more information, <a class="external-link" href="https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/06/world/as-equals-frequently-asked-questions-intl/index.html">click here</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/as-equals-frequently-asked-questions'>https://cis-india.org/raw/as-equals-frequently-asked-questions</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminLabour FuturesResearchers at Work2023-07-04T06:54:59ZNews ItemAre India’s much-lauded startups failing their women workers?
https://cis-india.org/raw/are-indias-much-lauded-startups-failing-their-women-workers
<b>Recent protests outside Urban Company’s head office highlight the gendered nature of work in the country’s digital economy.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">On October 8, more than 100 women beauty workers gathered outside the head office of <a class="link-external" href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/startups/urban-company-hit-by-protests-promises-to-enhance-partners-earnings/articleshow/86925941.cms" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Urban Company in Gurgaon</a> to protest against their work conditions. The firm, an on-demand platform for home-based services, initially responded by clamping down on protesters, threatening to block their IDs and inviting police action on them.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">After continued pressure from workers and media, the company reaffirmed its commitment to “giving a voice to the voiceless” and eventually announced some measures to partly meet workers’ demands.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This was arguably the first widely-reported instance of women working with digital platforms publicly organising to take collective action. A deeper look at their demands sheds light on the gendered nature of work under India’s much-lauded tech startups.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Women’s labour market decisions are structured around trade-offs between paid work and unpaid care work at home. They also face constraints around physical mobility, security and negative familial attitudes towards their work. Digital platforms have been touted as game-changers that will increase women’s workforce participation and earnings, because of the flexibility their model offers to workers to control their work.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/F.png" alt="Tweet" class="image-inline" title="Tweet" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">However, far from increasing workers’ agency, platform models continue to reinforce gender norms and fail to account for factors that shape women’s work. The recent protests are a reminder that there is much to be corrected if work on platforms is to enhance women’s economic outcomes.</p>
<h3 class="cms-block-heading cms-block">Flexibility for whom?</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The term “flexibility” can be understood in various ways. From the workers’ perspective, it is usually understood as the ability to choose when and how much to work. Most platforms, including Urban Company, advertise this as one of their goals.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">However, from the firms’ perspective, it could mean minimising input costs while achieving high labour turnover and service quality. Platforms deploy a range of strategies to manage workforce flexibility and match concurrent demand. Key among these is the system of ratings that determine the number of leads offered to workers and may also be used to coerce them into working longer hours and performing unpaid tasks to satiate customer demands.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In Urban Company’s case, workers’ ratings are determined not just on the basis of customer feedback, but also the rates at which workers accept or cancel tasks. This becomes antithetical to increasing flexibility – workers find themselves compelled to work longer hours to meet incentives and avoid penalties. Women who find work through the app have significant childcare responsibilities, and in many cases are sole earners in female-headed households.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Suman, a single mother working as a prime service partner asked us, “When my child has an accident, will I care about the ratings or penalties? I have to stay at home and take care of him. How will I take orders then if they keep giving me leads?” Workers often face penalties such as non-negotiable deductions from wages and permanent account blockages upon low response and high cancellation rates.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As Suman’s account illustrates, these penalties make it very difficult for women to take leaves for even short intervals. The list of demands put forth by workers also includes the ability to log out from the platform for longer periods on account of maternity or other personal obligations, without rejoining fees being deducted.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Another way in which Urban Company manages workforce flexibility is through the use of artificial and arbitrarily determined service categories. During the pandemic, amidst intense fluctuations in consumer demands and spending habits, the firm introduced five sub-categories under their beauty service vertical – classic, prime, silver plus, gold plus and lux. Classification of workers into these categories was primarily based on ratings, without taking into consideration prior experience or quality of work.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">For workers in the classic category, such arbitrary classifications without considering prior experience in the beauty sector or quality of work could amount to deskilling and undervaluation of their work. Workers who have been promoted to higher categories have shared several negative implications including higher costs for uniforms and equipment, increased distance between customer locations and reduced leads with higher commission rates. In effect, these categorisations further obfuscate the rationale for lead generation and upskilling for workers.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The authors asked Urban Company about these and other matters. This article will be updated if the firm responds.</p>
<h3 class="cms-block-heading cms-block">Absence of support</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A key concern highlighted by workers is regarding the complete absence of infrastructural support necessary for dignified work. Women spend long hours commuting between their homes and multiple service locations where they receive orders. Many find it difficult to access critical amenities such as drinking water and toilets while on the commute and are denied these even within customers’ homes due to entrenched caste prejudices and discriminatory practices.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Companies also fail to support workers in case of emergencies, which has emerged as a key cause for concern among women who often work in private spaces such as customers’ homes. Workers emphasise the need for a human to respond to their calls in case of an emergency, rejecting technological solutions such as automated helplines and SOS buttons that leave workers to fend for themselves in case they are harassed by customers or in transit.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/copy_of_F.png" alt="Abhiraj" class="image-inline" title="Abhiraj" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Beyond considerations of platform design and infrastructure, workers highlight the structural precarity that stems from the business model of platform companies. The “entrepreneurship” model put forth by companies does not allow workers to access the income security that comes with regular-wage employment, nor the control and agency that is necessary for self-employment.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Media reports after the protests have lauded Urban Company for being nimble and transforming work relations in ways that are responsive to workers’ demands. What is missed in public discourse are the efforts taken by hitherto unorganised workers to bring the firm to the negotiating table with little external support, while also balancing paid work and care responsibilities.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">These movements are gaining ground across sectors to hold bigger companies accountable for extracting labour from workers while claiming to empower them. Exploitative practices across lesser-known platforms remain invisible and unchecked, with most continuing with business as usual. If workers’ collective voices are to transform industry-wide conditions, it becomes imperative to listen, amplify and act on their recommendations.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; "><em>Ambika Tandon and Abhishek Sekharan are researchers at the Centre for Internet and Society, where they study the impact of digital platforms on labour cultures in India. </em><em>Read the original published in Scroll <a class="external-link" href="https://scroll.in/article/1010724/are-indias-much-lauded-startups-failing-their-women-workers">here</a></em></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/are-indias-much-lauded-startups-failing-their-women-workers'>https://cis-india.org/raw/are-indias-much-lauded-startups-failing-their-women-workers</a>
</p>
No publisherAbhishek Sekharan and Ambika TandonCISRAWResearchers at WorkRAW BlogFuture of Work2021-12-06T16:24:36ZBlog EntryArchives and Access: Introduction
https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/the-cyborgs/archives-and-access-introduction
<b>The members of this research project team are Aparna Balachandran and Rochelle Pinto from the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society, Bangalore and Abhijit Bhattacharya from the Centre for the Study of Social Sciences, Calcutta. This intial post tries to outline the concerns underlining this project which will attempt to critically examine archiving practices and policies in India in order to conceptualize ideas about ownership and use towards the goal of the greatest public good; reflect on issues of digitization and access; and facilitate public conversations and the articulation of a collective voice by historians and other users on possible interventions in these institutions. </b>
<p> </p>
<p>This project argues that there is a pressing need to apply the questions and concerns that have arisen around the contemporary archives – of ownership, access and use – to the historical archive. The ‘conventional’ approach sees manuscript and paper archives solely as a source for researchers, or as a pedagogic appendage, or as a national legacy, held permanently in safekeeping either by privately held collections or particularly in tightly controlled state archives. In contrast, contemporary archives (often in a digitized format) allow users to catalogue, edit, comment and add their own data and thus poses some challenging questions to a conventional approach to the archives. Again, the potential access it offers to non-specialist users interrogates the idea of archival collections meant for academic consumption alone. </p>
<p><br />This project will consider the ways to conceptualize a move away from a relationship from both the state or knowledge economy driven models of archiving. Instead it will explore the possibilities that technology holds out to enhance control, centralization and exclusivity, or to dissipate it. It will also focus on questions of access; on who potential users are; on mutually recognized open access policies between institutions, and on finding interest groups and archive-related projects and other contexts for use of the archives. </p>
<p><br />Importantly, it will also discuss the embedding of the archive within the construct of a cultural legacy. It will attempt to compare the significance of the archive to that of the painting, or sculpture or architecture and the similarities and differences that can be cited inclusive of things that are not manuscripts and texts. <br />Towards this end, this project will focus on three sites: it will examine the National Archives of India; as well as consider Goa and Tamil Nadu as incidental territories which enable a view of distinct issues that emerge in the interface between technology and society in the context of archiving. <br /><br /><br /></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/the-cyborgs/archives-and-access-introduction'>https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/the-cyborgs/archives-and-access-introduction</a>
</p>
No publisheraparnaHistories of InternetResearchers at WorkArchives2015-04-24T12:05:44ZBlog EntryArchives and Access
https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/archives-and-access/archives-and-access
<b>The monograph by Aparna Balachandran and Rochelle Pinto, is a material history of the Internet archives. It examines the role of the archivist and the changing relationship between the state and private archives for looking at the politics of subversion, preservation and value of archiving. By examining the Tamil Nadu and Goa state archives, along with the larger public and state archives in the country, the monograph looks at the materiality of archiving, the ambitions and aspirations of an archive, and why it is necessary to preserve archives, not as historical artefacts but as living interactive spaces of memory and remembrance. The findings have direct implications on various government and market impulses to digitise archives and show a clear link between opening up archives and other knowledge sources for breathing life into local and alternative histories.
</b>
<p><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/archives-and-access/archives-and-access.pdf" class="internal-link" title="Archives and Access">Download the Monograph</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/archives-and-access/archives-and-access'>https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/archives-and-access/archives-and-access</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaRAW PublicationsPublicationsHistories of InternetResearchers at WorkInternet HistoriesArchives2015-04-17T11:06:20ZBlog EntryApril 2019 Newsletter
https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/april-2019-newsletter
<b>The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) newsletter for April 2019.</b>
<h3><span>Highlights for March 2019</span></h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">The unprecedented growth of the fintech space in India has concomitantly come with regulatory challenges around inter alia privacy and security concerns. Aayush Rathi and Shweta Mohandas <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/aayush-rathi-and-shweta-mohandas-april-30-2019-fintech-in-india-a-study-of-privacy-and-security-commitments">have co-authored a report</a> which has analysed the privacy policies of 48 fintech companies operating in India to better understand some of these concerns.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">In today’s increasingly digitized world where an increasing volume of information is being stored in the digital format, access to data generated by digital technologies and on digital platforms is important in solving crimes online and offline. One such mechanism for international cooperation is the Convention on Cybercrime adopted in Budapest (“Budapest Convention”). Vipul Kharbanda <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/vipul-kharbanda-april-29-2019-international-cooperation-in-cybercrime-the-budapest-convention">has provided a deeper analysis</a> on this in his research paper.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">CIS has responded to ICANN's proposed renewal of .org Registry. CIS has found severe issues with the proposed agreement. These centre around the removal of price caps and imposing obligations being currently deliberated in an ongoing Policy Development Process. Akriti Bopanna <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/akriti-bopanna-april-28-2019-cis-response-to-icanns-proposed-renewal-of-org-registry">drafted the response</a>.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion released a draft e-commerce policy in February for which stakeholder comments were sought. CIS <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cis-response-to-call-for-stakeholder-comments-draft-e-commerce-policy">responded to the request for comments</a>.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">CIS Access to Knowledge team (CIS-A2K) <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/ananth-subray-april-15-2019-cis-a2k-proposal-to-wikimedia-foundation-for-2019-2020">has submitted its proposal form for the year 2019 - 2020</a> to the Wikimedia Foundation. CIS thanks all community members who gave valuable suggestions and inputs for drafting this proposal.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><span style="text-align: justify; ">In 2017–2018, the </span><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation" style="text-align: justify; " title="Wikimedia Foundation">Wikimedia Foundation</a><span style="text-align: justify; "> (WMF) and Google collaborated to start a pilot project in India, working closely with the </span><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K" style="text-align: justify; " title="CIS-A2K">Centre for Internet and Society</a><span style="text-align: justify; "> (CIS) and the </span><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_India" style="text-align: justify; " title="Wikimedia India">Wikimedia India</a><span style="text-align: justify; ">chapter (WMIN). <span style="text-align: justify; ">This project, titled Project Tiger was aimed at encouraging Wikipedia communities to create locally relevant and high-quality content in Indian languages. </span>CIS-A2K team submitted Project Tiger final report.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><span style="text-align: justify; ">The <a href="https://medium.com/rawblog">r@w blog </a>features works by researchers and practitioners working in India and elsewhere at the intersections of internet, digital media and society, and highlights and materials from ongoing research and events at the researchers@work programme at CIS. On the r@w blog we featured an essay titled <a href="https://medium.com/rawblog/the-internet-in-the-indian-judicial-imagination-4b7434bd2353">'The Internet in the Indian Judicial Imagination'</a> by Divij Joshi, as part of a series on <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/call-for-essays-studying-internet-in-india">Studying Internet in India (2015)</a>; and audio recording of a session titled <a href="https://medium.com/rawblog/objectsofdigitalgovernance-ec4194a24bb">#ObjectsofDigitalGovernance </a>by Khetrimayum Monish Singh, Rajiv K. Mishra, and Vidya Subramanian which was part of the <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc17">Internet Researchers Conference, 2017.</a><br /></span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<h3>Jobs</h3>
<p>CIS is hiring:</p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/cis-a2k-finance-officer-call-for-application">CIS-A2K Finance Officer: Call for application</a> (Only women candidates).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/jobs/internship">Internship</a><span> - applications accepted throughout the year.</span></li>
</ul>
<h3></h3>
<h3><br />CIS and the News</h3>
<p>The following news pieces were authored by CIS and published on its website in January:</p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/business-standard-april-3-2019-shyam-ponappa-delayed-cash-flows-and-npas">Delayed Cash Flows and NPAs</a> (Shyam Ponappa; Business Standard; April 3, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/hindustan-times-april-16-2019-gurshabad-grover-to-preserve-freedoms-online-amend-it-act">To preserve freedoms online, amend the IT Act</a> (Gurshabad Grover; April 16, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/indian-express-april-21-2019-nishant-shah-getting-through-an-election-made-for-social-media-gaze">Digital Native: Getting through an election made for the social media gaze</a> (Nishant Shah; Indian Express; April 21, 2019).</li>
</ul>
<div></div>
<ul>
</ul>
<h3><br />CIS in the News</h3>
<p>CIS was quoted in these news articles published elsewhere:</p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/business-standard-sai-sachin-ravikumar-april-3-2019-reddit-telegram-among-websites-blocked-in-india">Reddit, Telegram among websites blocked in India, say internet groups</a> (Sai Sachin Ravikumar; Business Standard; April 3, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/quartz-india-aria-thaker-april-4-2019-data-leaks-and-cybersecurity-should-be-an-election-issue-in-india">Data leaks could wreak havoc in India, so why aren’t they an issue this election?</a> (Aria Thaker; Quartz India; April 4, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-hindu-sweta-akundi-april-8-2019-microchips-cookies-and-the-internet-privacy-authentication">Cookies, not the monster you may think</a> (Sweta Akundi; Hindu; April 8, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/india-today-april-17-2019-gulam-jeelani-tik-tok-craze-a-ticking-time-bomb-for-city">TikTok craze a ticking time bomb for city</a> (Gulam Jeelani with inputs from Priyanka Sharma and Ajay Kumar; India Today; April 17, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/ananya-bhattacharya-quartz-india-april-19-2019-india-bans-tiktok-over-porn-but-not-facebook-twitter-instagram">Almost every social network has a porn problem—so why is India banning only TikTok?</a> (Ananya Bhattacharya; Quartz India; April 19, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/leon-kaiser-netzpolitik-april-24-2019-jugendschutz-und-cyber-grooming-indisches-gericht-hebt-eigenen-tiktok-bann-wieder-auf">Child protection and cyber-grooming: Indian court rescinds its own Tiktok ban</a> (Leon Kaiser; Netzpolitik.org; April 24, 2019).</li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<div></div>
<ul>
</ul>
<div></div>
<h2><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k">Access to Knowledge</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">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.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Wikipdedia</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As part of the <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/access-to-knowledge-program-plan">project grant from the Wikimedia Foundation</a> 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).</p>
<p><strong>Project Proposal / Reports</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/supporting-indian-language-wikipedias-program-report">Supporting Indian Language Wikipedias Program/Report </a><span>(Gopala Krishna A; April 5, 2019).</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/ananth-subray-april-15-2019-cis-a2k-proposal-to-wikimedia-foundation-for-2019-2020">CIS-A2K proposal to Wikimedia Foundation for 2019-2020</a> (Ananth Subray; April 15, 2019).</li>
</ul>
<p><span><br /><strong>Blog Entries</strong></span></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/subodh-kulkarni-april-9-2019-wikimedia-projects-session-at-tata-trust-vikas-anvesh-foundation">Wikimedia projects orientation session at Tata Trust's Vikas Anvesh Foundation</a> (Subodh Kulkarni; April 9, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/indic-wikisource-speak-sushant-savla">Indic Wikisource Speak: Sushant Savla</a> (Jayanta Nath; April 10, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/subodh-kulkarni-april-10-2019-svg-translation-workshop-at-kbc-north-maharashtra-university">SVG Translation Workshop at KBC North Maharashtra University </a>(Subodh Kulkarni; April 10, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/content-donation-sessions-with-authors">Content Donation Sessions with Authors</a> (Subodh Kulkarni; April 10, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/indic-wikisource-speak-ajit-kumar-tiwari">Indic Wikisource speak : Ajit Kumar Tiwari</a> (Jayanta Nath; April 11, 2019).</li>
</ul>
<h3><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance"><br />Internet Governance</a></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">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.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Cyber Security</h3>
<p><strong>Research Paper</strong></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/vipul-kharbanda-april-29-2019-international-cooperation-in-cybercrime-the-budapest-convention">International Cooperation in Cybercrime: The Budapest Convention</a> (Vipul Kharbanda; April 29, 2019).</li>
</ul>
<div>
<ul>
</ul>
<h3>Privacy</h3>
<p><strong>Research Paper</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/aayush-rathi-and-shweta-mohandas-april-30-2019-fintech-in-india-a-study-of-privacy-and-security-commitments">FinTech in India: A Study of Privacy and Security Commitments</a> (Aayush Rathi and Shweta Mohandas; April 30, 2019).</li>
</ul>
<div><strong>Submission</strong></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cis-response-to-call-for-stakeholder-comments-draft-e-commerce-policy">CIS Response to Call for Stakeholder Comments: Draft E-Commerce Policy</a> (Arindrajit Basu, Vipul Kharbanda, Elonnai Hickok and Amber Sinha; April 10, 2019).</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div></div>
<div><strong>Participation in Events</strong></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://http//cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/ietf-104-prague">IETF 104 Prague</a> (Organized by IETF; Prague; March 23 - 29, 2019). Karan Saini and Gurshabad Grover participated in the event.</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-phantom-public-the-role-of-social-media-in-democracy">The Phantom Public: The Role of Social Media in Democracy</a> (Organized by Ambedkar University; New Delhi; April 3, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/crea-reconference">(re) conference</a> (Organized by CREA; New Delhi; April 10 - 12, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/data-for-development-mapping-key-considerations-for-policy-and-practice-in-india">Data for Development: Mapping key considerations for policy and practice in India</a><span> (Organized by Azim Premchand University; April 24, 2019). Arindrajit Basu delivered a talk. </span></li>
</ul>
</div>
<h3>Artificial Intelligence</h3>
<p>Participation in Event</p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/news/policy-lab-on-artificial-intelligence-democracy">Policy Lab on Artificial Intelligence & Democracy</a> (Organized by Tandem Research, in partnership with Microsoft Research and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung; Bangalore; April 2-3, 2019). Shweta Mohandas participated in the event. </li>
</ul>
<h3>Free Speech and Expression</h3>
<p><strong>Submission</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/akriti-bopanna-april-28-2019-cis-response-to-icanns-proposed-renewal-of-org-registry">CIS Response to ICANN's proposed renewal of .org Registry</a> (Akriti Bopanna; April 28, 2019).</li>
</ul>
<br />
<ul>
</ul>
</div>
<p><strong>Event Organized</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/internet-speech-perspectives-on-regulation-and-policy">Internet Speech: Perspectives on Regulation and Policy</a> ( Organized by CIS; India Habitat Centre, New Delhi; April 5, 2019).</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Blog Entry</strong></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/akriti-bopanna-april-4-2019-didp-33-on-icann-s-2012-gtld-round-auction-fund">DIDP #33 On ICANN's 2012 gTLD round auction fund</a> (Akriti Bopanna; April 4, 2019).</li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<div></div>
<h2><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw">Researchers at Work (RAW)</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">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:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><strong>Announcement</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/call-for-essays-studying-internet-in-india">Call for Essays: Studying Internet in India</a> (Sumandro Chattapadhyay; April 6, 2019).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><strong>Blog Entries</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://medium.com/rawblog/the-internet-in-the-indian-judicial-imagination-4b7434bd2353">The Internet in the Indian Judicial Imagination</a> (Divij Joshi; April 21, 2019).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://medium.com/rawblog/objectsofdigitalgovernance-ec4194a24bb">#ObjectsOfDigitalGovernance</a> (Khetrimayum Monish Singh, Rajiv K. Mishra, and Vidya Subramanian; April 21, 2019).</li>
</ul>
<p><span>Telecom</span></p>
<p><strong>Article</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/business-standard-april-3-2019-shyam-ponappa-delayed-cash-flows-and-npas">Delayed Cash Flows and NPAs </a>(Shyam Ponappa; Business Standard; April 3, 2019 and Organizing India Blogspot; April 4, 2019).</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Participation in Event</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/news/bif-conference-on-201csubstitutability-of-ott-services-with-telecom-services-regulation-of-ott-services">BIF conference on “Substitutability of OTT Services with Telecom Services & Regulation of OTT Services</a> (Organized by Broadband India Forum; Taj Mahal Hotel, Mansingh Road, New Delhi; April 5, 2019). Anubha Sinha was a panellist at a BIF conference on “Substitutability of OTT Services with Telecom Services & Regulation of OTT Services”.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/">About CIS</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) is a non-profit organisation that undertakes interdisciplinary research on internet and digital technologies from policy and academic perspectives. The areas of focus include digital accessibility for persons with disabilities, access to knowledge, intellectual property rights, openness (including open data, free and open source software, open standards, open access, open educational resources, and open video), internet governance, telecommunication reform, digital privacy, and cyber-security. The academic research at CIS seeks to understand the reconfigurations of social and cultural processes and structures as mediated through the internet and digital media technologies.</p>
<p>► Follow us elsewhere</p>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Twitter:<a href="http://twitter.com/cis_india"> http://twitter.com/cis_india</a></li>
<li>Twitter - Access to Knowledge: <a href="https://twitter.com/CISA2K">https://twitter.com/CISA2K</a></li>
<li>Twitter - Information Policy: <a href="https://twitter.com/CIS_InfoPolicy">https://twitter.com/CIS_InfoPolicy</a></li>
<li>Facebook - Access to Knowledge:<a href="https://www.facebook.com/cisa2k"> https://www.facebook.com/cisa2k</a></li>
<li>E-Mail - Access to Knowledge: <a>a2k@cis-india.org</a></li>
<li>E-Mail - Researchers at Work: <a>raw@cis-india.org</a></li>
<li>List - Researchers at Work: <a href="https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/researchers">https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/researchers</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<p>► Support Us</p>
<div>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.</div>
<p>► Request for Collaboration</p>
<div>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">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 <a>tanveer@cis-india.org</a>.</p>
<div style="text-align: justify; "><i>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</i>.</div>
</div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/april-2019-newsletter'>https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/april-2019-newsletter</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaTelecomResearchers at WorkInternet GovernanceAccess to Knowledge2019-09-04T14:36:41ZPageApril 2017 Newsletter
https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/april-2017-newsletter
<b>Welcome to the CIS newsletter for April 2017. </b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Dear readers,</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Previous issues of the newsletters can be <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/about/newsletters">accessed here</a>.</p>
<hr style="text-align: justify; " />
<table class="grid listing" style="text-align: justify; ">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>Highlights</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">In a <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/information-security-practices-of-aadhaar-or-lack-thereof-a-documentation-of-public-availability-of-aadhaar-numbers-with-sensitive-personal-financial-information-1">report on the information security practices of Aadhaar</a>, Amber Sinha and Srinivas Kodali documented numerous instances of publicly available Aadhaar numbers along with other personally identifiable information of individuals on government websites. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">CIS along with like minded organizations <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/mobile-accessibility-practices">made a submission to the Government of India</a> to frame a feasible accessibility guidelines for mobile apps since there is no single standard in existence at the moment.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">A <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/sambad-100-women-edit-a-thon">two-day 100 Women Edit-a-thon</a> was held in March 2017 by CIS-A2K team along with Odisha's biggest newspaper Sambad. The event was inspired by BBC’s 100 Women series and edit-a-thons with the same name in December 2016. More than 20 female journalists participated and registered as new Odia Wikipedians.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">On March 31, 2017, the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Department of Personnel and Training released a Circular framing rules under the Right to Information Act, 2005 (“RTI Rules”). The Ministry invited comments on on the RTI Rules. <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/comments-on-the-right-to-information-rules-2017">CIS submitted its comments</a>.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">In an article originally published in <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-hindu-businessline-march-31-2017-sunil-abraham-its-the-technology-stupid">Hindu Businessline</a> on March 31, Sunil Abraham lists out 11 reasons why Aadhaar is not just non-smart but also insecure.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Shuttleworth Foundation has announced <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/shuttleworth-foundation-april-19-2017-sunil-abraham-honorary-steward-september-2017">Sunil Abraham as Honorary Steward</a> for its September 2017 fellowship round. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">CIS worked on a three part case study. The first case study on digital protection of traditional knowledge was published by GIS Watch in December 2016. The other two case studies along with the synthesis overview <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/openness/apc-april-23-2017-sunil-abraham-and-vidushi-marda-economic-social-and-cultural-rights-in-india">has also been published</a>. </li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>CIS in the news:</b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/times-of-india-april-4-2017-ngos-individuals-urge-state-cms-to-curb-internet-shutdown">NGOs, individuals urge state CMs to curb Internet shutdown</a> (The Times of India; April 4, 2017).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/buzzfeednews-pranav-dixit-april-4-2017-indias-national-id-program-may-be-turning-the-country-into-a-surveillance-state">India’s National ID Program May Be Turning The Country Into A Surveillance State</a> (Pranav Dixit; BuzzFeed News; April 4, 2017).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/india-today-neha-vashishth-april-6-2017-privacy-what-bengaluru-police-leaks-phone-numbers-on-twitter">Privacy, what? Bengaluru police leaks 46,000 phone numbers on Twitter</a> (Neha Vashishth; India Today; April 6, 2017).</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-times-of-india-april-6-2017-umesh-yadav-bengaluru-cops-twitter-handle-in-ethical-storm">Bengaluru cops' twitter handle in ethical storm</a> (Umesh Yadav; The Times of India; April 6, 2017).</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/livemint-april-12-2017-komal-gupta-opposition-questions-govt-move-to-make-aadhaar-must">Opposition questions govt move to make Aadhaar must</a> (Komal Gupta; Livemint; April 12, 2017).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/livemint-april-21-2017-komal-gupta-apurva-vishwanath-suranjana-roy-aadhaar-a-widening-net">Aadhaar: A widening net</a> (Komal Gupta, Apurva Vishwanath and Suranjana Roy; Livemint; April 21, 2017).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/openness/news/ians-april-24-2017-chemistry-research-in-india-still-not-in-big-league">Chemistry research in India 'still not in big league'</a> (IANS and India Online News Portal; April 24, 2017).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/business-world-regina-mihindukulasuriya-april-26-2017-stop-the-haphazard-internet-shutdown-says-mp-jay-panda">Stop the Haphazard Internet Shutdown Says MP Jay Panda</a> (Regina Mihindukulasuriya; Businessworld; April 26, 2017).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/national-herald-sebastian-pt-april-26-2017-now-aadhaar-details-displayed-in-mizoram-too">Now, Aadhaar details displayed in Mizoram too</a> (Sebastian P.T.; National Herald; April 26, 2017).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/the-news-minute-priyanka-thirumurthy-april-26-2017-after-spb-ilaiyaraaja-sony-music-and-sun-network-lock-horns-over-copyrights">After SPB-Ilaiyaraaja, Sony Music and Sun Network lock horns over copyrights</a> (Priyanka Thirumurthy; Newsminute; April 26, 2017).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/inforisk-today-april-26-2017-suparna-goswami-varun-haran-analysis-data-protection-in-india-getting-it-right">Analysis: Data Protection in India - Getting It Right</a> (Suparna Goswami and Varun Haran; Info Risk Today; April 26, 2017).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-telegraph-april-27-2017-india-bans-social-media-in-kashmir-for-one-month">India bans social media in Kashmir for one month</a> (Telegraph; April 27, 2017).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/indian-express-april-28-2017-shruti-dhapola-j-k-social-media-ban">J&K social media ban: Use of 132-year-old Act can’t stand judicial scrutiny, say experts</a> (Shruti Dhapola; Indian Express; April 28, 2017).</li>
</ul>
<p><b><br />CIS members wrote the following articles:</b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/hindu-op-ed-sunil-abraham-march-31-2017-how-aadhaar-compromises-privacy-and-how-to-fix-it">How Aadhaar compromises privacy? And how to fix it?</a> (Sunil Abraham; Hindu; April 1, 2017).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/raw/indian-express-nishant-shah-april-2-2017-digital-native-you-can-check-out-you-can-never-leave">Digital native: You can check out, you can never leave</a> (Nishant Shah; Indian Express; April 2, 2017).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/hindustan-times-pranesh-prakash-april-3-2017-aadhaar-marks-a-fundamental-shift-in-citizen-state-relations">Aadhaar marks a fundamental shift in citizen-state relations: From ‘We the People’ to ‘We the Government’</a> (Pranesh Prakash; Hindustan Times; April 3, 2017).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-hindu-businessline-march-31-2017-sunil-abraham-its-the-technology-stupid">It’s the technology, stupid</a> (Sunil Abraham; Hindu Businessline; April 7, 2017). </li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/asian-age-amber-sinha-april-10-2017-privacy-in-the-age-of-big-data">Privacy in the Age of Big Data</a> (Amber Sinha; Asian Age; April 10, 2017).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/raw/indian-express-nishant-shah-april-17-2017-digital-native-are-you-still-having-fun">Digital native: Are You Still Having Fun?</a> (Nishant Shah; Indian Express; April 17, 2017).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/raw/indian-express-nishant-shah-april-30-2017-digital-native-snap-out-of-outrage-mode">Digital native: Snap out of outrage mode</a> (Nishant Shah; Indian Express; April 30, 2017).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">-------------------------------------<br /><a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility">Accessibility & Inclusion</a> <br /> ------------------------------------- <br /> 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 <a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/resources/nvda-text-to-speech-synthesizer">here</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Submission</b></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/mobile-accessibility-practices">Mobile Accessibility Practices</a> (Nirmita Narasimhan; April 12, 2017).</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Event</b></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/events/global-accessibility-awareness-day-2017">Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2017</a> (Organized by Prakat Solutions, Mithra Jyothi and CIS; Bengaluru; May 18, 2017).</li>
</ul>
<p><b>----------------------------------- </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k">Access to Knowledge</a> <br /><b> ----------------------------------- </b><br />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.</p>
<p>►Wikipedia</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As part of the <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/access-to-knowledge-program-plan">project grant from the Wikimedia Foundation</a> 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).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entries</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Note: All the following events were held earlier but the reports were published in the month of April:</p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/womens-day-edit-a-thon-in-pune">Women's Day Edit-a-thon at Jeewan Jyoti Women's Empowerment Centre, Pune</a> (Subodh Kulkarni; April 10, 2017).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-edit-a-thon-at-savitribai-phule-mahila-ekatma-samaj-mandal-aurangabad">Marathi Wikipedia Edit-a-thon at Savitribai Phule Mahila Ekatma Samaj Mandal, Aurangabad</a> (Subodh Kulkarni; April 13, 2017).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/google-translated-telugu-articles-prioritisation-exercise-january-iteration">Google-translated Telugu articles prioritisation exercise: January iteration</a> (Pavan Santhosh; April 15, 2017).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/telugu-wikipedia-stall-at-vijayawada-book-festival">Telugu Wikipedia stall at Vijayawada Book Festival</a> (Pavan Santhosh; April 15, 2017).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/womens-day-edit-a-thon-at-jnana-prabodhini">Women's Day Edit-a-thon at Jnana Prabodhini</a> (Subodh Kulkarni; April 15, 2017).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/bargarh-manuscript-digitisation-project">Bargarh Manuscript Digitisation Project</a> (Sailesh Patnaik; April 16, 2017).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/imperial-college-orientation-program-bargarh">Imperial College Orientation Program, Bargarh</a> (Sailesh Patnaik; April 16, 2017).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/orientation-training-session-for-environmental-activists-in-satara-on-13th-february-2017">Orientation & Training session for Environmental Activists in Satara</a> (Subodh Kulkarni; April 16, 2017).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-edit-a-thon-at-rajarshi-chhatrapati-shahu-college-kolhapur">Marathi Wikipedia Edit-a-thon at Rajarshi Chhatrapati Shahu College, Kolhapur</a> (Subodh Kulkarni; April 16, 2017).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-edit-a-thon-at-shivaji-university-kolhapur">Marathi Wikipedia Edit-a-thon at Shivaji University, Kolhapur</a> (Subodh Kulkarni; April 16, 2017).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/marathi-wikipedia-edit-a-thon-at-sangli-maharashtra">Marathi Wikipedia Edit-a-thon at Sangli, Maharashtra</a> (Subodh Kulkarni; April 16, 2017).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/orientation-training-session-of-jalbiradari-activists">Orientation & Training session of Jalbiradari Activists</a> (Subodh Kulkarni; April 16, 2017).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/free-license-wings-to-your-books-in-guntur">"Free-license Wings To Your Books" in Guntur</a> (Pavan Santhosh; April 16, 2017).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/free-license-wings-to-your-books-in-vijayawada">"Free-license Wings To Your Books" in Vijayawada</a> (Pavan Santhosh; April 16, 2017).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/adikavi-nannaya-university-telugu-wikipedia-workshop-1">Adikavi Nannaya University Telugu Wikipedia Workshop</a> (Pavan Santhosh; April 16, 2017).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/odia-wikipedia-workshop-in-iimc-dhenkanal">Odia Wikipedia Workshop in IIMC, Dhenkanal</a> (Sailesh Patnaik; April 17, 2017).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/sambad-100-women-edit-a-thon">Sambad 100 Women Edit-a-thon</a> (Ting Yi Chang and Sailesh Patnaik; April 18, 2017).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/google-translated-telugu-articles-prioritisation-exercise-february-iteration">Google-translated Telugu articles prioritisation exercise: February iteration</a> (Pavan Santhosh; April 18, 2017).</li>
</ul>
<p> </p>
<ul>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">►Copyright and Patent</p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/national-conference-on-intellectual-property-rights-and-public-interest">National Conference on Intellectual Property Rights and Public Interest</a> (Organized by Indian Law Institute; New Delhi; April 7 - 8, 2017). Maggie Huang took part in the event.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><br />►Openness</p>
<div style="text-align: justify; ">Our work in the Openness programme focuses on open data, especially open government data, open access, open education resources, open knowledge in Indic languages, open media, and open technologies and standards - hardware and software. We approach openness as a cross-cutting principle for knowledge production and distribution, and not as a thing-in-itself.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify; "></div>
<div style="text-align: justify; "><b>Publication<br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify; ">
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/openness/apc-april-23-2017-sunil-abraham-and-vidushi-marda-economic-social-and-cultural-rights-in-india">Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in India: Opportunities for Advocacy in Intellectual Property</a> (Sunil Abraham and Vidushi Marda; GIS Watch and Association for Progressive Communications; April 23, 2017). Total 4 reports: <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/openness/files/economic-social-and-cultural-rights-in-india">Synthesis Overview</a>, <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/openness/files/economic-social-and-cultural-rights-in-india-opportunities-for-advocacy-in-intellectual-property-rights-access-to-mobile-technology">Access to Mobile Technology</a>, <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/openness/files/economic-social-and-cultural-rights-in-india-opportunities-for-advocacy-in-intellectual-property-rights-the-traditional-knowledge-digital-library">Traditional Knowledge Digital Library</a>, and <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/openness/files/economic-social-and-cultural-rights-in-india-foss/">FOSS and Open Standards</a>. </li>
</ul>
<br />
<ul>
</ul>
<p><b>Submission</b></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/comments-on-the-right-to-information-rules-2017">Comments on the Right to Information Rules, 2017</a> (Amber Sinha; April 27, 2017).</li>
</ul>
<br />
<ul>
</ul>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify; "><b>Event Organized <br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify; ">
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/openness/events/nasa-space-apps-challenge-2017">NASA Space Apps Challenge 2017</a> (CIS, Bengaluru, April 22, 2017).</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify; "><b>----------------------------------- </b>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance">Internet Governance</a> <br /><b> -----------------------------------</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">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.</p>
<p>►Privacy</p>
<div style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entries</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify; "><b><br /></b></div>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/analysis-of-key-provisions-of-aadhaar-act-regulations">Analysis of Key Provisions of the Aadhaar Act Regulations</a> (Amber Sinha; April 3, 2017).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/right-to-be-forgotten-a-tale-of-two-judgments">Right to be Forgotten: A Tale of Two Judgements</a> (Amber Sinha; April 7, 2017).</li>
</ul>
<br />
<ul>
</ul>
►Free Speech and Expression</div>
<div style="text-align: justify; ">
<p><b>Blog Entries</b></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/yameen-rasheed-human-rights-maldives">Killing of Yameen Rasheed Reveals Worsening Human Rights Situation in the Maldives</a> (Pranesh Prakash; April 25, 2017).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/internet-shutdowns-in-2016">Internet Shutdowns in 2016</a> (Japreet Grewal; April 27, 2016).<br /><br /></li>
</ul>
<p>►Miscellaneous</p>
<p><b>Blog Entry</b></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/regulating-bitcoin-in-india">Regulating Bitcoin in India</a> (Vipul Kharbanda; April 20, 2017).</li>
</ul>
<br />
<ul>
</ul>
<p><b>Event</b></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/firstfridayatcis-amutha-arunachalam-stand-shielded-of-digital-rights-may-05">Amutha Arunachalam - Stand Shielded of Digital Rights</a> (CIS; New Delhi; May 5, 2017).</li>
</ul>
<p><br />Participation in Event</p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/iso-iec-jtc1-sc-27-meetings">ISO/IEC JTC1/SC 27 Meetings</a> (Organized by Bureau of Indian Standards; University of Waikato and Novotel; New Zealand; April 18 - 25, 2017). Udbhav Tiwari attended the meetings.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<br />
<p>►Cyber Security</p>
<p><b>Event Organized</b></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/firstfridayatcisindia-dr-madan-oberoi-digital-forensics-april-07">Dr. Madan M. Oberoi - Digital Forensics and Cyber Investigations</a> (CIS; New Delhi; April 7, 2017).</li>
</ul>
<br />
<p><b>Participation in Event</b></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/brainstorming-session-on-the-global-conference-on-cyberspace-gccs-2017">Brainstorming Session on the Global Conference on Cyberspace</a> (GCCS 2017) (Organized by the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology; New Delhi; April 12, 2017). Japreet Grewal attended the session.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<b>----------------------------------- </b>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://cis-india.org/">About CIS</a> <br /><b> ----------------------------------- </b><br /> The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) is a non-profit organisation that undertakes interdisciplinary research on internet and digital technologies from policy and academic perspectives. The areas of focus include digital accessibility for persons with disabilities, access to knowledge, intellectual property rights, openness (including open data, free and open source software, open standards, open access, open educational resources, and open video), internet governance, telecommunication reform, digital privacy, and cyber-security. The academic research at CIS seeks to understand the reconfigurations of social and cultural processes and structures as mediated through the internet and digital media technologies.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">► Follow us elsewhere</p>
<div style="text-align: justify; ">
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li> Twitter:<a href="http://twitter.com/cis_india"> http://twitter.com/cis_india</a> </li>
<li> Twitter - Access to Knowledge: <a href="https://twitter.com/CISA2K">https://twitter.com/CISA2K</a> </li>
<li> Twitter - Information Policy: <a href="https://twitter.com/CIS_InfoPolicy">https://twitter.com/CIS_InfoPolicy</a></li>
<li> Facebook - Access to Knowledge:<a href="https://www.facebook.com/cisa2k"> https://www.facebook.com/cisa2k</a> </li>
<li> E-Mail - Access to Knowledge: <a>a2k@cis-india.org</a> </li>
<li> E-Mail - Researchers at Work: <a>raw@cis-india.org</a> </li>
<li> List - Researchers at Work: <a href="https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/researchers">https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/researchers</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">► Support Us</p>
<div style="text-align: justify; ">
<div style="text-align: justify; ">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.</div>
</div>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">► Request for Collaboration</p>
<div style="text-align: justify; ">
<p style="text-align: justify; ">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 <a>tanveer@cis-india.org</a>.</p>
<div style="text-align: justify; "><i>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</i>.</div>
</div>
</div>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
</ul>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/april-2017-newsletter'>https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/april-2017-newsletter</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeTelecomAccessibilityInternet GovernanceResearchers at Work2017-05-20T12:59:17ZPageApril 2016 Newsletter
https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/april-2016-newsletter
<b>Welcome to the CIS newsletter for April 2016. The key issues we worked on this month included the Aadhaar Act 2016, Standard Essential Patents, cyber security of smart grids, and involvement of international agencies in the smart cities project in India.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify;">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! This could be because many of you may be under a false impression that CIS is very wealthy and does not need more support. Unfortunately, this is no longer true. 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? <strong>Click <a href="http://imojo.in/CISDonations">here</a> to donate.</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Previous issues of the newsletters can be accessed here: <a href="http://cis-india.org/about/newsletters">http://cis-india.org/about/newsletters</a>.</p>
<hr style="text-align: justify;" />
<table style="text-align: justify;" class="grid listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>Highlights</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">CIS prepared an <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/aadhaar-project-and-bill-faq">FAQ on the Aadhaar / UIDAI project</a> and the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill, 2016. Further, two infographics were produced to highlight on the questions of "<a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/can-the-aadhaar-act-2016-be-classified-as-a-money-bill">Can the Aadhaar Act 2016 be Classified as a Money Bill?</a>" and "<a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/can-matters-dealt-with-in-aadhaar-act-be-objects-of-money-bill">Can the Matters Dealt with in the Aadhaar Act be the Objects of a Money Bill?</a>".</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">NVDA team <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/april-2016-report/view">prepared a report</a> on the progress of the project for the month of April 2016.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">CIS submitted its <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/comments-on-department-of-industrial-policy-and-promotion-discussion-paper-on-standard-essential-patents-and-their-availability-on-frand-terms">comments to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion's Discussion Paper</a> on Standard Essential Patents and their Availability on FRAND Terms. CIS has offered its assistance on other matters aimed at developing a suitable policy framework for SEPs and FRAND in India, and, working towards the sustained innovation, manufacture and availability of mobile technologies in India. A summary of the comments can be <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/summary-of-cis-comments-to-dipp2019s-discussion-paper-on-seps-and-their-availability-on-frand-terms">accessed here</a>. Responses to the Discussion Paper is <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/responses-to-the-dipps-discussion-paper-on-seps-and-their-availability-on-frand-terms">available here</a>.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Rohini Lakshané's paper titled <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/patents-and-mobile-devices-in-india-an-empirical-survey">Patents and Mobile Devices in India: An Empirical Survey</a> has been accepted for publication by the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Kiran A.B. in a <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/openness/monitoring-sustainable-development-goals-in-india-availability-and-openness-02">blog post has documented the availability and openness of data sets in India</a> that are relevant for monitoring the targets under the SDGs.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Low-cost Aakash tablet and its previous iterations in India have gone through several phases of technological changes and ideological experiments wrote Sumandro Chattapadhyay and Jahnavi Phalkey <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/raw/buying-into-the-aakash-dream">in an article published in the Economic and Political Weekly</a>.</li></ul>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>----------------------------------- </strong><br /><a href="http://cis-india.org/news">CIS in the News</a><br /><strong>-----------------------------------</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">CIS gave inputs to the following media coverage:</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;"><li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/daily-mail-april-4-2016-afp-india-biometric-database-crosses-billion-member-mark">India's biometric database crosses billion-member mark</a> (AFP and Daily Mail, UK; April 4, 2016).</li><li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/big-news-network-april-6-2016-claire-lauterbach-panama-papers-and-question-of-privacy">The Panama Papers and the question of privacy</a> (Big News Network; April 6, 2016). This was originally published by Privacyinternational.org.</li><li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/economic-times-april-8-2016-neha-alawadhi-daunting-task-ahead-for-investigative-agencies-with-whatsapp-end-to-end-encryption">Daunting task ahead for investigative agencies with WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption</a> (Neha Alawadhi; Economic Times; April 8, 2016).</li><li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-hindu-april-10-2016-somesh-jha-pmo-no-to-smart-cards-insists-aadhaar">PMO’s no to smart cards, insists on Aadhaar</a> (Somesh Jha; Hindu; April 10, 2016).</li><li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-telegraph-april-10-2016-2014-showed-the-power-of-twitter">2014 showed the power of Twitter, now every Indian politician wants a handle</a> (T.V. Jayan, Smitha Verma,Sonia Sarkar and V. Kumara Swamy; Telegraph; April 10, 2016).</li><li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/business-standard-alnoor-peermohamed-april-13-2016-why-is-uidai-cracking-down-on-individuals-that-hoard-aadhaar-data">Why is the UIDAI cracking down on individuals that hoard Aadhaar data?</a> (Alnoor Peermohamed; Business Standard; April 13, 2016).</li><li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/governance-now-april-19-2016-you-will-need-a-license-to-create-whatsapp-group-in-kashmir">You will need a license to create a WhatsApp group in Kashmir</a> (Governance Now; April 19, 2016).</li><li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/governance-now-april-23-2016-taru-bhatia-will-facebook-twitter-relocate-servers-to-india">Will Facebook, Twitter relocate servers to India?</a> (Taru Bhatia; Governance Now; April 23, 2016).</li><li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/dna-amrita-madhukalya-april-23-2016-government-keeps-experts-out-of-cyber-security-discussions">Government keeps experts out of cyber security discussions</a> (Amrita Madhukalya; DNA; April 23, 2016).</li><li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-times-of-india-raj-shekhar-arun-dev-v-narayan-a-selvaraj-cctv-plays-sherlock">CCTV plays Sherlock</a> (Raj Shekhar, Arun Dev, V Narayan & A Selvaraj with inputs from Sindhu Kannan and Somreet Bhattacharya; The Times of India; April 24, 2016).</li></ul>
<div> </div>
<p>CIS members wrote the following pieces:</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Sunil Abraham wrote an <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/frontline-april-15-2016-sunil-abraham-surveillance-project">article in the July 15 edition of Frontline</a> arguing that the Aadhaar project’s technological design and architecture is an unmitigated disaster and no amount of legal fixes in the Act will make it any better. </li><li style="text-align: justify;">Amber Sinha wrote an article in The Wire arguing that <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-aadhaar-act-is-not-a-money-bill">the Aaddhaar Act is not a money bill</a>, and the Supreme Court may very well question the decision by the Lok Sabha speaker to classify it as such. </li><li style="text-align: justify;">Sumandro Chattapadhyay also wrote on The Wire arguing that "<a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-last-chance-for-a-welfare-state-doesnt-rest-in-the-aadhaar-system">the last chance for a welfare state doesn’t rest in the Aadhaar system</a>."</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Subhashish Panigrahi's article on the <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/global-voices-april-27-2016-subhashish-panigrahi-eight-challenges-indian-language-wikipedias-need-to-overcome">8 challenges that Indian language Wikipedias have to overcome was published by Global Voices</a>. The article had earlier been published in the Wire.</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Elonnai Hickok and Vanya Rakesh co-authored an article on <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/dataquest-april-25-2016-vanya-rakesh-and-elonnai-hickok-cyber-security-of-smart-grids-in-india">Cyber Security of Smart Grids in India</a> that was published by Dataquest.</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Shyam Ponappa <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/business-standard-april-6-2016-shyam-ponappa-breakthroughs-needed-for-digital-india">in his monthly column</a> published in the Business Standard tell us that it's time the government accepts that current policies are not enough to bring about Digital India.</li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;">-------------------------------------<br /><a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility">Accessibility & Inclusion</a> <br /> ------------------------------------- <br /> 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 <a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/resources/nvda-text-to-speech-synthesizer">here</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">►NVDA and eSpeak</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/march-2016-report.pdf/view">March 2016 Report</a></li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/april-2016-report" class="internal-link">April 2016 Report</a></li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>----------------------------------- </strong><br /><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k">Access to Knowledge</a> <br /><strong> ----------------------------------- </strong><br />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.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">►Pervasive Technologies</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Comments</strong></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/comments-on-department-of-industrial-policy-and-promotion-discussion-paper-on-standard-essential-patents-and-their-availability-on-frand-terms">Comments on Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion Discussion Paper on Standard Essential Patents and their Availability on Frand Terms</a> (Anubha Sinha, Nehaa Chaudhari and Rohini Lakshané; April 23, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/responses-to-the-dipps-discussion-paper-on-seps-and-their-availability-on-frand-terms">Responses to the DIPP's Discussion Paper on SEPs and their Availability on FRAND Terms</a> (Anubha Sinha, Nehaa Chaudhari and Rohini Lakshané; April 23, 2016).</li>
<li>
<div id="_mcePaste"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/summary-of-cis-comments-to-dipp2019s-discussion-paper-on-seps-and-their-availability-on-frand-terms">Summary of CIS Comments to DIPP’s Discussion Paper on SEPs and their availability on FRAND terms</a> (Anubha Sinha; April 26, 2016).</div>
</li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Blog Entries</strong></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/global-congress-2015">Global Congress 2015 - A Collection of Resources</a> (Pervasive Technologies Team; April 1, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/compilation-of-mobile-phone-patent-litigation-cases-in-india">Compilation of Mobile Phone Patent Litigation Cases in India</a> (Rohini Lakshané; updated on April 15, 2016). </li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/joining-the-dots-in-indias-big-ticket-mobile-phone-patent-litigation">Joining the Dots in India's Big-Ticket Mobile Phone Patent Litigation</a> (Rohini Lakshané; updated on April 29, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mhrd-ipr-chair-series-information-received-from-tezpur-university">MHRD IPR Chair Series: Information Received from Tezpur University</a> (Karan Tripathi; April 26, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/sectoral-innovation-councils-on-intellectual-property-rights-2013-rti-requests-dipp-responses">National IPR Policy Series : Sectoral Innovation Councils on Intellectual Property Rights – RTI Requests + DIPP Responses</a> (Nehaa Chaudhari and Saahil Dama; April 30, 2016). Nisha S. Kumar assisted in compilation of the document.</li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Participation in Events</strong></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/fifth-annual-ip-teaching-workshop">Fifth Annual IP Teaching Workshop</a> (Organised by the Centre for Innovation, Intellectual Property and Competition at National Law University Delhi in association with National Academy of Law Teaching, NLU-D; Delhi; March 31 and April 1, 2016). Nehaa Chaudhari was a speaker.</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/first-round-table-on-innovation-ip-and-competition">First Round-table on Innovation, IP and Competition</a> (Organized by the Centre for Innovation, Intellectual Property & Competition (CIIPC) at the National Law University, Delhi; India Habitat Centre; New Delhi; April 1-2, 2016). Nehaa Chaudhari and Anubha Sinha attended the round-table.</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/brainstorming-workshop-on-pg-programme-on-media-studies-for-ugc-e-pathshala-programme">Brainstorming Workshop on PG Programme on Media Studies for UGC E-Pathshala Programme</a> (Organized by Jamia Milla Islamia; New Delhi; April 5, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/sensitization-seminar-on-ipr-for-electronics-ict-sectors">Sensitization Seminar on IPR for Electronics & ICT Sectors</a> (Organized by Andhra Pradesh Technology Development & Promotion Centre (APTDC) of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), in association with Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY); Vishakhapatnam; April 21, 2016).</li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;">►Wikipedia</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">As part of the <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/access-to-knowledge-program-plan">project grant from the Wikimedia Foundation</a> 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).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Work Plan</strong></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/cis-a2k-work-plan-july-2016-june-2017">CIS - A2K Work Plan: July 2016 - June 2017</a> (CIS-A2K Team; April 2, 2016): We have revised the work plan template taking into account the changed proposal plan sent out by WMF and in light of the feedback that we have received from FDC assessment during last proposal application. The FDC feedback is taken into account at the level of design, RoI and ensuring quality for all our activities.</li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Article</strong></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/global-voices-april-27-2016-subhashish-panigrahi-eight-challenges-indian-language-wikipedias-need-to-overcome">Eight Challenges Indian-Language Wikipedias Need to Overcome</a> (Subhashish Panigrahi; Global Voices; April 21, 2016). <strong> </strong><strong><a href="http://thewire.in/2016/03/17/eight-challenges-that-indian-language-wikipedias-need-to-overcome-25062/" target="_blank"><strong>A version of this post</strong></a></strong><strong> was previously published on </strong><strong><a href="http://thewire.in/" target="_blank"><strong>The Wire</strong></a></strong><strong>.</strong></li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Media Coverage</strong></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/the-telegraph-april-7-2016-anwesha-ambaly-odia-gets-more-space-in-e-world">Odia gets more space in e-world</a> (Anwesha Ambaly; The Telegraph; April 7, 2016).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/exercise-to-correct-articles-in-tulu-wikipedia-begins">Exercise to Correct articles in Tulu Wikipedia begins</a> (Raviprasad Kamila; The Hindu; April 28, 2016).</li></ul>
<p><strong>Event Organized</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/events/tulu-wikipedia-editathon-to-improve-quality-of-articles-in-tulu-wikipedia">Tulu Wikipedia Editathon to Improve Quality of Articles in Tulu Wikipedia</a> (Shri Ramakrishna PU College; Mangaluru; April 26 - 30, 2016).</li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><strong>-----------------------------------</strong><br /></span><a style="text-align: justify;" href="http://cis-india.org/openness">Openness<br /></a><span style="text-align: justify;"><strong>-----------------------------------</strong></span></p>
<div style="text-align: justify;">Our work in the Openness programme focuses on open data, especially open government data, open access, open education resources, open knowledge in Indic languages, open media, and open technologies and standards - hardware and software. We approach openness as a cross-cutting principle for knowledge production and distribution, and not as a thing-in-itself.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/openness/monitoring-sustainable-development-goals-in-india-availability-and-openness-02">Monitoring Sustainable Development Goals in India: Availability and Openness of Data</a> (Part II) (Kiran A.B.; April 12, 2016).</li></ul>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>----------------------------------- </strong><br /> <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance">Internet Governance</a> <br /><strong> -----------------------------------</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">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.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
</div>
<p style="text-align: justify;">►Cyber Security</p>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/dataquest-april-25-2016-vanya-rakesh-and-elonnai-hickok-cyber-security-of-smart-grids-in-india">Cyber Security of Smart Grids in India</a> (Elonnai Hickok and Vanya Rakesh; April 25, 2016).</li></ul>
</div>
</div>
<p style="text-align: justify;">►Big Data</p>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">Blog Entry</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/rti-on-smart-cities-mission-in-india">RTI regarding Smart Cities Mission in India</a> (Paul Thottan; April 21, 2016).</li></ul>
<br /></div>
</div>
<p style="text-align: justify;">►Privacy</p>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div><strong>Blog Entries</strong></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/aadhaar-project-and-bill-faq">FAQ on the Aadhaar Project and the Bill</a> (Elonnai Hickok, Vanya Rakesh, and Vipul Kharbanda; April 13, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/aadhaar-act-and-its-non-compliance-with-data-protection-law-in-india">Aadhaar Act and its Non-compliance with Data Protection Law in India</a> (Vanya Rakesh; April 14, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/can-matters-dealt-with-in-aadhaar-act-be-objects-of-money-bill">Can the Matters Dealt with in the Aadhaar Act be the Objects of a Money Bill?</a> (Pooja Saxena; April 24, 2016).</li></ul>
</div>
<div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Articles</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-quint-march-31-2016-nehaa-chaudhari-will-aadhaar-act-address-indias-dire-need-for-a-privacy-law">Will Aadhaar Act Address India’s Dire Need For a Privacy Law?</a> (Nehaa Chaudhari; Quint; March 31, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-last-chance-for-a-welfare-state-doesnt-rest-in-the-aadhaar-system">The Last Chance for a Welfare State Doesn’t Rest in the Aadhaar System</a> (Sumandro Chattapadhyay; April 19, 2016).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-aadhaar-act-is-not-a-money-bill">The Aadhaar Act is Not a Money Bill</a> (Amber Sinha; April 25, 2016).</li></ul>
</div>
<p><strong>Participation in Events</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/rightscon-silicon-valley-2016">RightsCon Silicon Valley 2016</a> (Organized by RightsCon; March 31 and April 1, 2016). Elonnai Hickok attended the event.</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/panel-discussion-on-uid-aadhar-act-2016-and-its-impact-on-social-security">Panel Discussion on UID/ Aadhar act 2016 and its impact on Social, Security</a> (Organized by Students Christian Movement of India at SCM House; Bangalore; April 25, 2016). Sunil Abraham was a panelist.</li>
<li>The Centre for the Study of Law and Governance (CSLG), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), organised a <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/will-the-magic-number-deliver-aadhaar-cslg-26042016">roundtable discussion on Tuesday, April 26</a>, to discuss the Aadhaar project and Act. Along with Prasanna S, Apar Gupta, and Dr. Chirashree Dasgupta, Sumandro Chattapadhyay was one of the discussants.</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/aadhaar-by-numbers">Aadhaar by Numbers</a> (Organized by National Institute of Public Finance and Policy; New Delhi; April 29, 2016). Sunil Abraham was a speaker.</li></ul>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>----------------------------------- <br /></strong><a href="http://cis-india.org/telecom">Telecom</a> <br /><strong> ----------------------------------- </strong><br /> CIS is involved in promoting access and accessibility to telecommunications services and resources, and has provided inputs to ongoing policy discussions and consultation papers published by TRAI. It has prepared reports on unlicensed spectrum and accessibility of mobile phones for persons with disabilities and also works with the USOF to include funding projects for persons with disabilities in its mandate:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">Article</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/business-standard-april-6-2016-shyam-ponappa-breakthroughs-needed-for-digital-india">Breakthroughs Needed For Digital India</a> (Shyam Ponappa; Business Standard; April 6, 2016 and Organizing India BlogSpot; April 7, 2016).</li></ul>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>----------------------------------- <br /></strong><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw">Researchers at Work</a> <br /><strong> ----------------------------------- </strong><br /> 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:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Article</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/raw/buying-into-the-aakash-dream">Buying into the Aakash Dream - A Tablet’s Tale of Mass Education</a> (Sumandro Chattapadhyay and Jahnavi Phalkey; Economic & Political Weekly; April 23, 2016). </li></ul>
</div>
<p>Announcement</p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/jobs/call-for-proposal-big-data-for-development-field-studies">Call for Proposal: Big Data for Development – Initial Field Studies</a> (Sumandro Chattapadhyay; April 29, 2016).</li></ul>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<ul></ul>
</div>
<p><strong>----------------------------------- </strong><br /><a href="http://cis-india.org/">About CIS</a> <br /><strong> ----------------------------------- </strong><br /> 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.</p>
</div>
<p style="text-align: justify;">► Follow us elsewhere</p>
<div>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li> Twitter:<a href="http://twitter.com/cis_india"> http://twitter.com/cis_india</a> </li>
<li> Twitter - Access to Knowledge: <a href="https://twitter.com/CISA2K">https://twitter.com/CISA2K</a> </li>
<li> Twitter - Information Policy: <a href="https://twitter.com/CIS_InfoPolicy">https://twitter.com/CIS_InfoPolicy</a></li>
<li> Facebook - Access to Knowledge:<a href="https://www.facebook.com/cisa2k"> https://www.facebook.com/cisa2k</a> </li>
<li> E-Mail - Access to Knowledge: <a>a2k@cis-india.org</a> </li>
<li> E-Mail - Researchers at Work: <a>raw@cis-india.org</a> </li>
<li> List - Researchers at Work: <a href="https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/researchers">https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/researchers</a></li></ul>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
</div>
<p style="text-align: justify;">► Support Us</p>
<div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">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.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
</div>
<p style="text-align: justify;">► Request for Collaboration</p>
<div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">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 <a>tanveer@cis-india.org</a>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><em>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</em>.</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/april-2016-newsletter'>https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/april-2016-newsletter</a>
</p>
No publishersunilAccess to KnowledgeTelecomAccessibilityInternet GovernanceResearchers at Work2016-05-10T06:26:09ZPageApril 2015 Bulletin
https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/april-2015-bulletin
<b>Newsletter for the month of April below.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">We are happy to share with you the fourth issue of the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) newsletter (April 2015). The past editions of the newsletter can be accessed at <a href="http://cis-india.org/about/newsletters">http://cis-india.org/about/newsletters</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">------------------------------- <br /> Highlights <br /> -------------------------------</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>CIS received 35 engaging abstracts in response to the call for essays on 'Studying Internet in India'. The final essays will be published from June onwards. The ten selected abstracts can be read at <a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/studying-internet-in-india-selected-abstracts/"> http://cis-india.org/raw/studying-internet-in-india-selected-abstracts/ </a> . </li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li> CIS submitted its <a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/comments-to-gigw">comments to the National Informatics Centre</a> on April 30, 2015 bringing to notice the negligible progress on the front for making Indian government websites conform to the notified standards, and gave recommendations to take the initiatives forward. </li>
<li> Nehaa Chaudhari has prepared a <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/national-ipr-policy-series-rti-requests-by-cis-to-dipp-dipp-responses">consolidated report</a> that tracks the development of India's National IPR Policy and the requests by CIS to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion under the RTI Act and responses elicited from the Department. </li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>Institute of Odia Studies and Research organised <a href="http://cis-india.org/openness/blog/second-national-language-conference-bhubaneswar">2nd National Language Conference</a> beginning on March 30, 2015 and ending on April 2, 2015 at the Institute of Physics, Bhubaneswar. This conference was organised in collaboration with the Department of Tourism and Culture. Subhashish Panigrahi presented a paper in Odia language in this conference as part of a panel discussion related to Odia language computing. </li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li> Sunil Abraham's article titled <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/economic-and-political-weekly-sunil-abraham-april-11-2015-shreya-singhal-and-66a"> "Shreya Singhal and 66A" </a> was published in Economic and Political Weekly Vol-L No.15. Vidushi Marda helped in doing the research. </li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>Sunil Abraham in an article in DNA titled " <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/dna-april-16-2015-sunil-abraham-multiple-aspects-need-to-be-addressed-as-the-clamour-grows-for-network-neutrality"> Multiple Aspects Need to be Addressed as the Clamour Grows for Network Neutrality </a> " tells readers that there are four violations of Network Neutrality that are considered particularly egregious. </li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li> Jyoti Panday prepared an <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/sc-judgment-in-shreya-singhal-what-it-means-for-intermediary-liability"> analysis of the Supreme Court judgement </a> in Shreya Singhal and what it does for intermediary liability in India.</li>
<li>In February 2015, CIS had requested DeitY under RTI Act to provide information clarifying the procedures for blocking in India. The <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/deity-says-143-urls-blocked-in-2015">response elicited from DeitY has been published</a>. </li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li> CIS sent a <a href="http://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/joint-response-to-trai-consultation-paper-on-regulatory-framework-for-over-the-top-services"> joint response to the TRAI Consultation Paper on Regulatory Framework for Over-the-top (OTT) services </a> with scholars from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. The response was sent on March 27, 2015. </li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">► Vacancies at CIS</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS is seeking applications for:</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/jobs/internship-application">Internship</a> : CIS is providing opportunities for students enrolled in graduate programmes to undertake internship at its offices in Bangalore and Delhi. Eligible candidates are welcome to participate in our internship programme. </li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">---------------------------------------------- <a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility"> <br /> Accessibility and Inclusion </a> <br /> ---------------------------------------------- <br /> Under a grant from the Hans Foundation we are doing two projects. The first project is on creating a national resource kit of state-wise laws, policies and programmes on issues relating to persons with disabilities in India. CIS in partnership with CLPR (Centre for Law and Policy Research) compiled the National Compendium of Policies, Programmes and Schemes for Persons with Disabilities (29 states and 6 union territories). The publication has been finalised and is being printed. The draft chapters and the quarterly reports can be accessed on the <a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/resources/national-resource-kit-project">project page</a>. The second project is on developing text-to-speech software for 15 Indian languages. The progress made so far in the project can be accessed <a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/resources/nvda-text-to-speech-synthesizer">here</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">►NVDA and eSpeak</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "># Monthly Updates</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/nvda-e-speak-april-2015-report.pdf">April 2015 Report</a> (Suman Dogra; April 30, 2015). </li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "># Language Testing Reports</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-training-in-basic-computing-with-nvda-and-e-speak-in-hindi">Hindi Language</a> (Nirmita Narasimhan; April 10, 2015). </li>
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-training-in-basic-computing-with-use-of-nvda-e-speak-gujarati">Gujarati Language</a> (Nirmita Narasimhan; April 16, 2015). </li>
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-training-in-basic-computing-with-use-of-nvda-and-e-speak-in-oriya">Oriya Language</a> (Nirmita Narasimhan; April 30, 2015). </li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">►Other</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "># Submission</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/comments-to-gigw">Comments to the GIGW</a> (Nirmita Narasimhan; April 30, 2015). </li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">----------------------------------------------------------- <br /> <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k">Access to Knowledge</a> <br /> ----------------------------------------------------------- <br /> As part of the Access to Knowledge programme we are doing two projects. The first one (Pervasive Technologies) under a grant from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is for research on the complex interplay between pervasive technologies and intellectual property to support intellectual property norms that encourage the proliferation and development of such technologies as a social good. The second one (Wikipedia) 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.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "># Blog Entries</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/patent-landscaping-in-the-indian-mobile-device-market"> Methodology: Patent Landscaping in the Indian Mobile Device Market </a> (Rohini Lakshané; November 10, 2014). <i> The list of standards and specifications found in sub-USD-100 Internet-enabled mobile phones sold in India" (Annexure 2 in the post) has been updated </i> . </li>
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/conference-on-standards-settings-organizations-sso-and-frand-nlsiu"> Conference on Standards Settings Organizations (SSO) and FRAND, NLSIU </a> (Rohini Lakshané; April 5, 2015). </li>
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/national-ipr-policy-series-rti-requests-by-cis-to-dipp-dipp-responses"> National IPR Policy Series: RTI Requests by CIS to DIPP + DIPP Responses </a> (Nehaa Chaudhari; April 15, 2015). </li>
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/pervasive-technologies-project-working-document-series-literature-review-on-ipr-in-mobile-app-development"> Pervasive Technologies Project Working Document Series: Literature Review on IPR in Mobile app development </a> (Anubha Sinha; April 29, 2015). </li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Media Coverage</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS gave inputs for the following:</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/the-times-of-india-april-10-2015-evelyn-fok-and-varun-aggarwal-one-reason-startups-are-moving-out-of-india"> One reason startups are moving out of India </a> (Evelyn Fok and Varun Aggarwal; The Times of India; April 10, 2015). This was also mirrored in <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/economic-times-april-10-2015-evelyn-fok-varun-aggarwal-better-intellectual-property-values-luring-indian-startups-abroad"> Economic Times </a> . </li>
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/iam-media-jack-ellis-april-28-2015-indian-businesses-crave-ip-certainty-but-better-patent-values-are-tempting-them-overseas"> Indian businesses crave IP certainty, but better patent values are tempting them overseas </a> (IAM Magazine; April 28, 2015). </li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">►Wikipedia</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As part of the <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/access-to-knowledge-program-plan">project grant from the Wikimedia Foundation</a> 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).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "># Participation in Event</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/openness/blog/second-national-language-conference-bhubaneswar">2nd National Language Conference, Bhubaneswar</a> (Organized by Institute of Odia Studies and Research; Institute of Physics; Bhubaneswar; March 30 - April 2, 2015). This conference was organised in collaboration with the Department of Tourism and Culture. Subhashish Panigrahi presented a paper in Odia language in this conference as part of a panel discussion related to Odia language computing. </li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "># Blog Entries</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/openness/blog/hindustani-language-we-are-wikipedia">Hindustani Language: We Are Wikipedia</a> (Syed Muzamiluddin; April 10, 2015). </li>
<li> <a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/odia-language-paper-presented-at-second-national-language-seminar"> ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷା ପାଇଁ ଡିଜିଟାଲ ଅସୁବିଧା </a> (Subhashish Panigrahi; April 15, 2015). </li>
<li> <a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/wikipedia-campus-at-oxford-college">Wikipedia Campus at Oxford College</a> (Subhashish Panigrahi; April 28, 2015). </li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "># News and Media Coverage</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS-A2K team gave its inputs to the following media coverage:</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/openness/news/the-telepgrah-april-6-2015-anwesha-ambaly-odia-waits-for-google-translate-debut-nine-indian-languages-available"> Odia waits for Google Translate debut - Nine Indian languages available </a> (Anwesha Ambaly; Telegraph; April 6, 2015). </li>
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/openness/news/bangalore-mirror-apurva-venkat-april-18-2015-now-you-can-search-google-in-kannada-in-your-handwriting"> Now you can search Google in Kannada, in your handwriting </a> (Apurva Venkat; Bangalore Mirror; April 18, 2015). </li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">►Openness</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "># Event Co-organized</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/openness/events/nasa-international-open-data-challenge-2015">NASA International Open Data Challenge 2015</a> (Co-organized by CIS and Team Indus; Bangalore; April 11-12, 2015). </li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">----------------------------------------------- <br /> <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance">Internet Governance</a> <br /> ----------------------------------------------- <br /> 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 International Development Research Centre (IDRC)) is on surveillance and freedom of expression (SAFEGUARDS). The second one (under a grant from MacArthur Foundation) is on studying the restrictions placed on freedom of expression online by the Indian government.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">►Freedom of Expression</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">India's Apex Court in a landmark decision struck down section 66A of the IT Act. The judgment provided great relief for advocates of freedom of speech on the Internet. The development attracted lots of media coverage to which CIS gave its inputs:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "># Articles</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/economic-and-political-weekly-sunil-abraham-april-11-2015-shreya-singhal-and-66a"> Shreya Singhal and 66A </a> (Sunil Abraham; Economic and Political Weekly Vol-L No.15; April 11, 2015). Vidushi Marda helped in doing the research. </li>
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/ndtv-t-vishnu-vardhan-dont-do-nothing-take-a-stand-on-net-neutrality"> Don't Do Nothing. Take a Stand on Net Neutrality. </a> (T. Vishnu Vardhan; NDTV; April 13, 2015). </li>
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/dna-april-16-2015-sunil-abraham-multiple-aspects-need-to-be-addressed-as-the-clamour-grows-for-network-neutrality"> Multiple Aspects Need to be Addressed as the Clamour Grows for Network Neutrality </a> (Sunil Abraham; DNA; April 16, 2015). </li>
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-week-april-18-2015-geetha-hariharan-hazards-of-non-neutral-internet"> The Hazards of a Non-neutral Internet </a> (Geetha Hariharan; April 18, 2015). A modified version of the blog entry was published as an article titled " <a href="http://week.manoramaonline.com/cgi-bin/MMonline.dll/portal/ep/theWeekContent.do?programId=1073754899&contentId=18716696"> A must for free speech </a> " in the Week. </li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "># Blog Entries</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/sc-judgment-in-shreya-singhal-what-it-means-for-intermediary-liability"> The Supreme Court Judgment in Shreya Singhal and What It Does for Intermediary Liability in India? </a> (Jyoti Panday; April 11, 2015). </li>
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/deity-says-143-urls-blocked-in-2015"> DeitY says 143 URLs have been Blocked in 2015; Procedure for Blocking Content Remains Opaque and in Urgent Need of Transparency Measures </a> (Jyoti Panday; April 29, 2015). </li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "># Event</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/freedom-of-expression-in-digital-age"> Freedom of Expression in a Digital Age: Effective Research, Policy Formation & the Development of Regulatory Frameworks in South Asia </a> (Organized by Center for Global Communication Studies at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, Observer Research Foundation and CIS; Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi; April 21, 2015). </li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "># Participation in Event</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/financial-express-april-24-2015-net-neutrality-debate"> Financial Express hosts #NetNeutralityDebate: 'Price discrimination can be allowed, but not for the same packet of data' </a> (New Delhi; April 24, 2015). Pranesh Prakash participated in the discussion. </li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">►Privacy</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "># Participation in Event</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/privacy-international-network-meeting">Privacy International Network Meeting</a> (Organized by Privacy International, UK; April 22 - 23, 2015). Sunil Abraham attended the meeting. </li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">►Miscellaneous</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "># Announcement</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/iigf-recruitment">IIGF Recruitment</a> : The National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) conducted walk-in interviews on May 16, 2015 at NIXI Jasola office, Flat No. 6B, 6th Floor, Uppals M6 Plaza, New Delhi. NIXI sought candidates to fill the posts of Technology Analyst, Policy Analyst, Research Associate and Executive Assistants. </li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "># Participation in Events</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/global-conference-on-cyber-space-2015">Global Conference on Cyberspace 2015</a> (Co-organized by Dutch Government, City of the Hague and One Conference; The Hague, Netherlands; April 16 - 17, 2015). Sunil Abraham was a panelist. He also participated in an <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/reconciling-policy-priorities-of-the-global-north-and-south-implications-for-norms-of-responsible-state-behaviour-in-cyberspace"> expert roundtable conference </a> . </li>
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/cii-digital-india-summit">CII Digital India Summit</a> (Organized by Confederation of Indian Industries; Taj Mahal Hotel and Pragati Maidan, New Delhi; April 21 and 24, 2015). Pranesh Prakash attended the summit. </li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">------------------------------------ <br /> <a href="http://cis-india.org/news">News & Media Coverage</a> <br /> ------------------------------------ <br /> CIS gave its inputs to the following media coverage:</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-citizen-march-31-2015-marianne-de-nazareth-smack-the-trolls">'Smack' the Trolls!</a> (Marianne De Nazareth; The Citizen; March 31, 2015). </li>
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/hindu-businessline-april-3-2015-sibi-arasu-the-block-heads">The block heads</a> (Sibi Arasu; Hindu Businessline; April 3, 2015). </li>
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/dna-april-6-2015-amrita-madhukalya-smriti-irani-brings-back-focus-on-voyeurism-prevailing-in-the-country"> Smriti Irani brings back focus on voyeurism prevailing in our country </a> (Amrita Madhukalya; DNA; April 6, 2015). </li>
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/business-standard-namrata-acharya-april-12-2015-surveillance-rises-privacy-retreats"> Surveillance rises, privacy retreats </a> (Namrata Acharya; Business Standard; April 12, 2015). </li>
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/ibn-live-april-13-2015-people-voice-their-support-for-net-neutrality-say-internet-a-utility-not-a-luxury"> People voice their support for net neutrality, say Internet a utility not a luxury </a> (IBN Live; April 13, 2015). </li>
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-times-of-india-april-14-2015-sandhya-soman-and-jayanta-deka-net-neutrality-trai-receives-over-two-lakh-mails"> Net neutrality: Trai receives over 2 lakh mails </a> (Sandhya Soman and Jayanta Deka; April 14, 2015). </li>
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/business-standard-surabhi-aggarwal-april-11-2015-net-neutrality-debate-rages-on"> Net neutrality: Debate rages on </a> (Surabhi Aggarwal; Business Standard; April 11, 2015) </li>
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-hindu-lalatendu-mishra-pradeesh-chandran-april-15-2015-net-neutrality-debate-rages"> Net neutrality debate rages </a> (Lalatendu Mishra and Pradeesh Chandran; The Hindu; April 15, 2015). </li>
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-times-of-india-sandhya-soman-april-19-2015-net-neutrality-net-activism-packs-a-punch"> Net neutrality: Net activism packs a punch </a> (Sandhya Soman; The Times of India; April 19, 2015). </li>
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/indian-express-april-23-2015-net-neutrality-debate-in-india"> Net Neutrality debate in India: Here are all the arguments you need to know </a> (Indian Express; April 23, 2015). </li>
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-hindu-zara-khan-april-25-2015-freedom-struggle">Freedom struggle 2.0</a> (Zara Khan; Hindu; April 25, 2015). </li>
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-telegraph-april-26-2015-prasun-chaudhuri-cry-you-nasty-trolls">Cry, you nasty trolls</a> (Prasun Chaudhari; The Telegraph; April 26, 2015). <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/forbes-india-april-29-2015-deepak-ajwani-debojyoti-ghosh-net-neutrality-the-argument-continues"> Net Neutrality: The argument continues </a> (Deepak Ajwani and Debojyoti Ghosh; Forbes India Magazine; April 29, 2015). </li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">-------------------------------- <br /> <a href="http://cis-india.org/raw">Researchers at Work</a> <br /> -------------------------------- <br /> The Researchers at Work (RAW) programme is an interdisciplinary research initiative driven by contemporary concerns to understand the reconfigurations of social practices and structures through the Internet and digital media technologies, and vice versa. It is interested in producing local and contextual accounts of interactions, negotiations, and resolutions between the Internet, and socio-material and geo-political processes:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "># Blog Entries</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/studying-internet-in-india-selected-abstracts">Studying Internet in India: Selected Abstracts</a> - CIS received thirty five engaging abstracts in response to the call for essays on 'Studying Internet in India.' The final essays will be published from June onwards. These are the ten selected abstracts: Studying the Internet Discourse in India through the Prism of Human Rights (by Deva Prasad); Indic Scripts and the Internet (by Dibyajyoti Ghosh); The Internet in the Indian Judicial Imagination (by Divij Joshi); Dharmasala Networked (by Laird Brown); WhatsApp Economy (by Maitrayee Deka); Citizens and their Internet (by Purbasha Auddy); The Many Lives and Sites of Internet in Bhubaneswar (by Sailen Routray); Quantity over Quality: Social Media and the New Class System in India (by Sarah McKeever); Governing Speech on the Internet: Transforming the Public Sphere through Policymaking (by Smarika Kumar). </li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">-------------------------------- <br /> <a href="http://cis-india.org/telecom">Telecom</a> <br /> -------------------------------- <br /> CIS is involved in promoting access and accessibility to telecommunications services and resources and has provided inputs to ongoing policy discussions and consultation papers published by TRAI. It has prepared reports on unlicensed spectrum and accessibility of mobile phones for persons with disabilities and also works with the USOF to include funding projects for persons with disabilities in its mandate:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "># Submission</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/joint-response-to-trai-consultation-paper-on-regulatory-framework-for-over-the-top-services"> Response to TRAI Consultation Paper on Regulatory Framework for Over-the-Top (OTT) Services </a> (Pranesh Prakash; March 27, 2015). <i>The response was sent in March but mirrored on our website recently</i>. </li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">--------------------------------- <br /> <a href="http://cis-india.org/">About CIS</a> <br /> --------------------------------- <br /> The Centre for Internet and Society is a non-profit research organization that works on policy issues relating to freedom of expression, privacy, accessibility for persons with disabilities, access to knowledge and IPR reform, and openness (including open government, FOSS, open standards, etc.), and engages in academic research on digital natives and digital humanities.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">► Follow us elsewhere</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li> Twitter:<a href="https://twitter.com/CISA2K"> </a><a href="https://twitter.com/CISA2K">https://twitter.com/CISA2K</a> </li>
<li> Facebook group: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/cisa2k">https://www.facebook.com/cisa2k</a> </li>
<li> Visit us at:<a href="https://cis-india.org/"> </a> <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge">https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge</a> </li>
<li> E-mail: <a href="mailto:a2k@cis-india.org">a2k@cis-india.org</a> </li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">► Support Us</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Please help us defend consumer / 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.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">► Request for Collaboration:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">We invite researchers, practitioners, and theoreticians, both organisationally and as individuals, to collaboratively engage with Internet and society and improve our understanding of this new field. To discuss the research collaborations, write to Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, at sunil@cis-india.org. To discuss collaborations on Indic language Wikipedia, write to T. Vishnu Vardhan, Programme Director, A2K, at <a href="mailto:vishnu@cis-india.org">vishnu@cis-india.org</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i> 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. </i></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/april-2015-bulletin'>https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/april-2015-bulletin</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaInternet GovernanceResearchers at WorkAccessibilityAccess to Knowledge2015-05-31T04:29:24ZPageApril 2014 Bulletin
https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/april-2014-bulletin
<b>The newsletter for the month of April can be accessed below:</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">We at the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) welcome you to the fourth issue of the newsletter (April) for the year 2014. Archives of our newsletters can be accessed at: <a href="https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/">http://cis-india.org/about/newsletters</a></p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">Highlights</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">We have published a compilation of the various central government schemes in a blog post as part of our National Resource Kit project.</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>The 27<sup>th</sup> session of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (WIPO-SCCR) was held in Geneva from April 28 to May 2, 2014. Nehaa Chaudhari participated in the event. CIS made its statements on Technological Measures of Protection on Limitations and Exceptions for Libraries and Archives, Orphan Works, Retracted and Withdrawn Works, and Works out of Commerce on Limitations and Exceptions for Libraries and Archives, and on the WIPO Proposed Treaty for the Protection of Broadcasting Organizations. </li>
<li>CIS signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Mysore University for converting to Unicode and re-releasing their encyclopaedia under Creative Commons License. Dr. U.B. Pavanaja on behalf of the CIS-A2K team signed the MoU.</li>
<li>A two-day global stakeholder meeting on future of internet governance (NETmundial) was organized by the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee in partnership with /1Net at Sao Paulo in Brazil on April 23 and 24, 2014. Achal Prabhala participated in the event. As part of its research to enable productive discussions of the critical internet governance issues at the meeting and elsewhere CIS published a total of 16 blog entries. </li>
<li>We conducted an empirical study of five separate and diverse banks (State Bank of India, Central Bank of India, ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, and Standard Chartered Bank) to gain a practical perspective on the existing banking practices and policies in India, and published a Banking Policy Guide. </li>
<li>As part of the Making Change project Denisse Albornoz interviewed Tuhin Paul, an artist and storyteller behind Menstrupedia, an India-based social venture creating comics to shatter the myths and misunderstandings surrounding menstruation around the world. Denisse provides an analysis of ‘menstrual activism’ — a movement that despite its trajectory in feminism remains unnoticed in most accounts of traditional and digital activism.</li>
<li>Six research studies were commissioned by HEIRA-CSCS (over November 2013-March 2014) as part of the collaborative exercise with CIS to map the Digital Humanities within a broad rubric of exploring changes at the intersection of youth, technology and higher education in India. P.P.Sneha in her blog post presents a broad overview of some of the key learnings from these projects.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><br /><b><a href="https://cis-india.org/jobs">Jobs<br /></a></b>CIS is seeking applications for the post of <a href="https://cis-india.org/jobs/programme-officer-access-to-knowledge-and-openness">Programme Officer</a> (Access to Knowledge). There are two vacancies for this post one in Delhi and one in Bangalore. To apply, please send your resume to Sunil Abraham (<a href="mailto:sunil@cis-india.org">sunil@cis-india.org</a>), Nirmita Narasimhan (<a href="mailto:nirmita@cis-india.org">nirmita@cis-india.org</a>) and Pranesh Prakash (<a href="mailto:pranesh@cis-india.org">pranesh@cis-india.org</a>) with three writing samples of which at least one demonstrates your analytic skills, and one that shows your ability to simplify complex policy issues.</p>
<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility">Accessibility and Inclusion</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Under a grant from the Hans Foundation we are doing two projects. The first project is on creating a national resource kit of state-wise laws, policies and programmes on issues relating to persons with disabilities in India. We compiled the first draft of the kit (29 states and 6 union territories). The chapters along with the quarterly reports can be accessed on the <a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/resources/national-resource-kit-project">project page</a>. The second project is on developing text-to-speech software for 15 Indian languages. The progress made so far in the project can be accessed <a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/resources/nvda-text-to-speech-synthesizer">here</a>.</p>
<h3>NVDA</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Monthly Update</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/resources/nvda-text-to-speech-synthesizer">NVDA e-Speak Text-to-Speech Project Update</a> (by Suman Dogra, April 28, 2014). </li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">National Resource Kit</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entry</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/central-government-schemes">Central Government Schemes</a> (by Anandhi Viswanathan and CLPR, April 27, 2014). </li>
</ul>
<h3>Other</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entry</b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/polling-pains">Polling Pains</a> (by Amba Salelkar, April 30, 2014). </li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Media Coverage</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/new-indian-express-april-8-2014-papiya-bhattacharya-are-elections-fair-to-people-with-special-needs">Are Elections Fair to People With Special Needs?</a> (by Papiya Bhattacharya, New Indian Express, April 8, 2014). </li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/vijay-karnataka-april-9-2014-enabling-elections">Enabling Elections</a> (Vijay Karnataka, April 9, 2014). This was published in Kannada. </li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k">Access to Knowledge</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As part of the Access to Knowledge programme we are doing two projects. The first one (Pervasive Technologies) under a grant from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is for research on the complex interplay between pervasive technologies and intellectual property to support intellectual property norms that encourage the proliferation and development of such technologies as a social good. The second one (Wikipedia) 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.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">WIPO SCCR</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Participation in Events</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li>Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights: Twenty-Seventh Session (organized by WIPO, Geneva, April 28 – May 2, 2014). Nehaa Chaudhari participated in the event. France, Greece, India and the European Union <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/france-greece-india-eu-sign-marrakesh-treaty">signed the Marrakesh Treaty</a>. CIS delivered statements on <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/cis-statement-on-technological-measures-of-protection-27-sccr-on-limitations-exceptions-for-libraries-and-archives">Technological Measures of Protection on Limitations and Exceptions for Libraries and Archives</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/cis-statement-orphan-works-retracted-withdrawn-works-and-works-out-of-commerce-at-27-sccr-on-limitations-and-exceptions-for-libraries-and-archives">Orphan Works, Retracted and Withdrawn Works, and Works out of Commerce on Limitations and Exceptions for Libraries and Archives</a>, and on the <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/cis-statement-27-sccr-on-wipo-proposed-treaty-for-protection-of-broadcasting-organizations">WIPO Proposed Treaty for the Protection of Broadcasting Organizations</a>. Transcripts of the discussions can be <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/wipo-sccr-27-discussions-transcripts">accessed here</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entries</b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/report-on-cpdip-2">Report on CDIP-12</a> (by Puneeth Nagraj, April 22, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/signing-and-ratification-of-marrakesh-treaty-to-facilitate-access-to-published-works-for-persons-blind-visually-impaired-print-disabled">Signing and Ratification of the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons who are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled</a> (by Nehaa Chaudhari, April 25, 2014). </li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/report-on-wipo-director-general-meeting-with-ngos">Report on the WIPO Director General’s Meeting with NGO’s</a> (by Puneeth Nagraj, April 30, 2014). </li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Media Coverage</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/knowledge-ecology-international-manon-ress-april-29-2014-is-wipo-treaty-for-broadcasters-moving-forward-at-sccr-27">Is the WIPO Treaty for Broadcasters Moving Forward at SCCR 27?</a> (by Manon Ress, Knowledge Ecology International, April 29, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/ip-watch-catherine-saez-may-1-2014-wipo-authors-civil-society-watchful-of-rights-for-broadcasters">At WIPO, Authors, Civil Society Watchful of Rights for Broadcasters</a> (by Catherine Saez, IP Watch, May 1, 2014).</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Other</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Event Organized</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/events/nasa-international-space-apps-challenge-2014">NASA International Space Apps Challenge 2014</a> (CIS, Bangalore, April 12 – 13, 2014). </li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entries</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/online-survey-for-indian-mobile-app-developer-enterprise">Online Survey for Indian Mobile App Developer Startups & Enterprises</a> (by Samantha Cassar, April 9, 2014). </li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/app-developers-series-services-products-dichotomy-ip-2013-part-i">App Developers Series: Services, Products, Dichotomy & IP – Part I</a> (by Samantha Cassar, April 10, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/report-on-cpdip-2">Report on CDIP-12</a> (by Puneeth Nagraj, April 22, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/report-on-31-session-of-standing-committee-on-trademarks">Report on the 31st Session of the Standing Committee on Trademarks</a> (by Puneeth Nagraj, April 29, 2014).</li>
</ul>
<h3>Wikipedia</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The following has been done under <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/access-to-knowledge-program-plan">grant from the Wikimedia Foundation</a>:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Announcement</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/cis-signs-mou-with-mysore-university">CIS Signs MoU with Mysore University</a> (by Dr. U.B.Pavanaja, April 16, 2014): for converting to Unicode and re-releasing their encyclopaedia under Creative Commons License. Dr. U.B. Pavanaja on behalf of the CIS-A2K team signed the MoU. The signing event took place earlier on February 22, 2014. </li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Articles</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/openaccessweek-april-3-2014-subhashish-panigrahi-vachana-sanchaya">Vachana Sanchaya: Bringing Access to 11th century Kannada Literature</a> (by Subhashish Panigrahi, April 3, 2014)</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/subhashish-panigrahi-article-in-amalekha">୭୯ ବର୍ଷରେ ସ୍ୱତନ୍ତ୍ର ଓଡ଼ିଶା: ଶାସ୍ତ୍ରୀୟ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଓ କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟରରେ ଏହାର ବ୍ୟବହାର</a> (by Subhashish Panigrahi, Amalekha, April 4, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/kadambini-april-8-2014-subhashish-panigrahi-odia-language-and-development-in-digital-era">ଓଡ଼ିଅା ଭାଷାର ବିକାଶ ଓ କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟର</a> (by Subhashish Panigrahi, The Kadambini, April 8, 2014). </li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/creative-commons-subhashish-panigrahi-april-18-2014-report-from-india-relicensing-books-under-creative-commons">Report from India: Relicensing books under CC</a> (by Subhashish Panigrahi, Creative Commons Blog, April 19, 2014). </li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/dna-rohini-lakshane-april-26-2014-14-books-re-released-under-creative-commons-license">14 Odia books re-released under Creative Commons license</a> (by Subhashish Panigrahi, DNA, April 26, 2014). The article was edited by Rohini Lakshane.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Events Organized</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/events/tulu-wikipedia-workshop">Tulu Wikipedia Workshop</a> (organized by CIS-A2K, Balmatta Computer Centre, Mangalore, April 5, 2014). Dr. U.B.Pavanaja conducted the workshop. </li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/daijiworld-april-6-2014-mangalore-wikipedia-workshop-held-for-konkani-writers">Konkani Wikipedia Workshop</a> (co-organized by All India Konkani Writers Organization and CIS-A2K, Kalaangann Shaktinagar, April 6, 2014). Dr. U.B.Pavanaja conducted the workshop.</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/events/tulu-wikipedia-editathon">Tulu Wikipedia Editathon</a> (co-organized by Karnataka Theological College and CIS-A2K, Mangalore, April 19, 2014). Dr. U.B.Pavanaja conducted the workshop.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Participation in Events</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/wiki-session-for-prajavani-journalists">Wikipedia Session for Trainee Journos</a> (organized by Prajavani, Bangalore, April 28, 2014). Dr. U.B.Pavanaja took a session for the trainee journalists of Prajavani Kannada daily on Wikipedia. </li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/world-book-day">World Book Day</a> (organized by Karnataka Publishers’ Association, Indian Institute of World Culture, Basavanagudi, Bangalore, April 23, 2014). Dr. U.B.Pavanaja was a speaker.</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/relevance-of-bhagabat-tungi-in-evolution-of-odia-language?searchterm=Relevance+of+Bhagabat+Tungi+in+the+evolution+of+Odia+language+from+Buddha+era+to+digital+age">Relevance of Bhagabat Tungi in the evolution of Odia language from Buddha era to digital age</a> (organized by The Intellects, Shree Jagannath Mandir and Odisha Art and Cultural Center, New Delhi, April 24, 2014). Subhashish Panigrahi participated in the event.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Media Coverage<br /></b>CIS gave its inputs to the following media coverage:</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/daijiworld-april-6-2014-mangalore-wikipedia-workshop-held-for-konkani-writers">M'lore: Wikipedia Workshop held for Konkani writers</a> (Daijiworld, April 6, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="http://rising.globalvoicesonline.org/blog/2014/04/10/odia-loves-wikipedia/">Odia Loves Wikipedia</a> (Rising Voices, April 10, 2014). This was also published in <a href="http://es.globalvoicesonline.org/2014/04/12/el-idioma-oriya-ama-a-wikipedia/">Spanish</a> and in <a href="http://ru.globalvoicesonline.org/2014/04/13/28775/">Russian</a>.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/international-book-day/article5932673.ece">International Book Day</a> (The Hindu, April 21, 2014). </li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/deccan-herald-april-23-2014-books-are-a-bridge-between-generations">Books are a bridge between generations</a> (The Deccan Herald, April 23, 2014). </li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/vijayavani-april-23-2014-world-book-day">World Book Day Report</a> (Vijaywani, April 23, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/eodishasamacharseminar-on-odia-language-in-new-delhi-by-the-intellects">Seminar on Odia Language in New Delhi by the Intellects</a> (Odisha Samachar, April 24, 2014). </li>
<li><a href="http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/bhubaneswar/delhi-meet-focuses-on-bhagabat-tungi-revival.html">Delhi meet focuses on Bhagabat Tungi revival</a> (The Pioneer, April 26, 2014).</li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance">Internet Governance</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">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 International Development Research Centre (IDRC)) is on surveillance and freedom of expression (SAFEGUARDS). The second one (under a grant from MacArthur Foundation) is on studying the restrictions placed on freedom of expression online by the Indian government.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">NETmundial</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As part of its participation in the NETmundial event organized in Brazil by Brazilian Internet Steering Committee in partnership with /1Net at Sao Paulo on April 23 and 24, 2014 CIS produced a total of 16 outputs:</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>Sumandro Chattapadhyay produced these visual representations: <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/net-mundial-comparing-appearance-of-fifty-most-frequent-words">Comparing Appearance of Fifty Most Frequent Words</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/net-mundial-contributions-by-countries-of-origin">Contributions by Countries of Origin</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/net-mundial-contributions-by-types-of-organisation">Contributions by Types of Organisation</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/net-mundial-which-countries-have-not-contributed-to-net-mundial">Which Countries Have Not Submitted Contributions to NETmundial?</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/net-mundial-which-governments-have-not-contributed-to-net-mundial">Which Governments Have Not Submitted Contributions to NETmundial?</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/net-mundial-word-clouds-of-contributions-by-types-of-organisation">Word Clouds of Contributions by Types of Organisation</a> and <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/net-mundial-tracking-multi-stakeholder-across-contributions">Tracking *Multistakeholder* across Contributions</a>. Achal Prabhala participated in the event and wrote these: <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/net-mundial-day-0">Day 0</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/net-mundial-day-1">Day 1</a>, and <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/net-mundial-day-2">Day 2</a>. <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/netmundial-transcript-archive">Transcript of the NETmundial</a> for archival purposes was made available by Pranesh Prakash. Smarika Kumar produced two research outputs: <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/net-mundial-and-suggestions-for-iana-administration">NETmundial and Suggestions for IANA Administration</a> and <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/accountability-of-icann">Accountability of ICANN</a>. Geetha Hariharan wrote two blog posts: <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/marco-civil-da-internet">Marco Civil da Internet: Brazil’s ‘Internet Constitution’</a> and <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/brazil-passes-marco-civil-us-fcc-alters-stance-on-net-neutrality">Brazil passes Marco Civil; the US-FCC Alters its Stance on Net Neutrality</a>. Jyoti Panday wrote one blog post: <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/net-mundial-roadmap-defining-roles-of-stakeholders-in-multistakeholderism">NETmundial Roadmap: Defining the Roles of Stakeholders in Multistakeholderism</a>.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Privacy</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Analyses</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/report-of-group-of-experts-on-privacy-vs-leaked-2014-privacy-bill">Report of the Group of Experts on Privacy vs. The Leaked 2014 Privacy Bill</a> (by Elonnai Hickok, April 14, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/banking-policy-guide">Banking Policy Guide</a> (by Elonnai Hickok, April 22, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-embodiment-of-right-to-privacy-within-domestic-legislation">The Embodiment of the Right to Privacy within Domestic Legislation</a> (by Tanvi Mani, April 29, 2014).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Articles</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/yojana-april-2014-sunil-abraham-who-governs-the-internet-implications-for-freedom-and-national-security">Who Governs the Internet? Implications for Freedom and National Security</a> (by Sunil Abraham, Yojana, April 4, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-hoot-bhairav-acharya-april-15-2014-privacy-law-in-india-a-muddled-field-1">Privacy Law in India: A Muddled Field – I</a> (by Bhairav Acharya, The Hoot, April 15, 2014). </li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/council-for-responsible-genetics-april-2014-sunil-abraham-very-big-brother">Very Big Brother</a> (by Sunil Abraham, GeneWatch, January – April 2014 Issue).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entry</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/south-african-protection-personal-information-act-2013">South African Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013</a> (by Divij Joshi, April 16, 2014). </li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Participation in Events</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="http://cgcs.asc.upenn.edu/fileLibrary/PDFs/MW_Updated_Agenda_for_Website.pdf">Milton Wolf Seminar on Media and Diplomacy: The Third Man Theme Revisited: Foreign Policies of the Internet in a Time Of Surveillance and Disclosure</a> (jointly organized by the Center for Global Communication Studies (CGCS) at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication, the American Austrian Foundation (AAF), and the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna (DA), Vienna, March 30 – April 1, 2014). Nishant Shah participated in the event as a panelist.</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/gsma-partners-meeting">GSMA Partners Meeting</a> (organized by Privacy International, London, April 9, 2014). Elonnai Hickok participated in this meeting.</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/critical-life-of-information">The Critical Life of Information</a> (organized by Yale University, 100 Wall Street, April 11, 2014). Nishant Shah spoke in the panel on Big Data and Governance. Malavika Jayaram spoke in the panel on Big Data and the Arts.</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/round-table-on-user-safety-on-internet">Round-table on User Safety on the Internet</a> (organized by Consumer Voice and Google, Infantry Road, Bangalore, April 24, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/ssn-2014-sixth-biannual-surveillance-and-society-conference">6th Biannual Surveillance and Society Conference</a> (organized by Eticas Research and Consulting, University of Barcelona and CCCB, April 26 – 24, 2014). Malavika Jayaram gave a talk on “Biometrics in beta: experimenting on a nation (while normalising surveillance for 1.2 billion people)”.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Other</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Articles</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cgcs-nishant-shah-april-1-2014-between-the-local-and-the-global">Between the Local and the Global: Notes Towards Thinking the Nature of Internet Policy</a> (by Nishant Shah, cgcsblog, April 1, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/dml-central-april-17-2014-nishant-shah-networks-what-you-dont-see-is-what-you-for-get">Networks: What You Don’t See is What You (for)Get</a> (by Nishant Shah, April 17, 2014).</li>
</ul>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news">News & Media Coverage</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS gave its inputs to the following media coverage:</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/outlook-april-1-2014-two-indians-in-global-commission-on-web-governance">Two Indians in Global Commission on Web Governance</a> (April 1, 2014): Sunil Abraham was named as one of the experts. This was published in <a href="http://news.outlookindia.com/items.aspx?artid=835007">Outlook</a>, <a href="http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-04-01/news/48767578_1_internet-governance-two-indians-general-dynamics">Economic Times</a>, and in <a href="http://mattersindia.com/two-indians-among-25-selected-for-internet-governance-network/">Matters India</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/newslaundry-april-1-2014-somi-das-the-take-down-of-free-speech-online">The Take Down of Free Speech Online</a> (Newslaundry, April 1, 2014): CIS research on Intermediary Liabilities is quoted.</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/livemint-april-1-2014-shweta-taneja-the-politics-of-facebook">The politics of Facebook</a> (by Shweta Tiwari, April 1, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/business-standard-april-3-2014-surabhi-agarwal-new-privacy-bill-more-refined-has-wider-ambit-say-experts">New privacy Bill more refined & has wider ambit, say experts</a> (by Surabhi Agarwal, Business Standard, April 2, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/economic-times-april-3-2014-m-rajshekhar-should-nandan-nilekani-aadhar-project-for-identity-proof-and-welfare-delivery-exist">Should Nandan Nilekani's Aadhaar project, for identity proof and welfare delivery, exist at all?</a> (by M. Rajshekhar, April 3, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/economic-times-april-10-2014-varuni-khosla-lok-sabha-polls">Lok sabha polls: Social media companies launch special pages for polls</a> (by Varuni Khosla, Economic Times, April 10, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/governance-now-april-12-2014-pratap-vikram-singh-parties-give-short-shrift-to-privacy">Parties give short shrift to privacy</a> (by Pratap Vikram Singh, GovernanceNow.com, April 12, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/governance-now-april-13-2014-pratap-vikram-singh-no-party-has-got-clear-stand-aadhaar-fate-hangs-in-balance">No party's got a clear stand, Aadhaar's fate hangs in balance</a> (by Pratap Vikram Singh, GovernanceNow.com, April 13, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/the-times-of-india-april-24-2014-india-wants-core-internet-infrastructure">'India wants core internet infrastructure'</a> (by Indrani Bagchi, April 24, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/the-times-of-india-april-25-indrani-bagchi-india-for-inclusive-internet-governance">India for inclusive internet governance</a> (by Indrani Bagchi, April 25, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/dna-amrita-madhukalya-april-26-2014-facebook-launches-fb-newswire-for-journalists-loses-part-of-its-immunity-under-it-act-2000">Facebook launches FB Newswire for journalists; loses part of its immunity under IT Act 2000</a> (by Amrita Madhukalya, DNA, April 26, 2014).</li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities">Digital Humanities</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS is building research clusters in the field of Digital Humanities. The Digital will be used as a way of unpacking the debates in humanities and social sciences and look at the new frameworks, concepts and ideas that emerge in our engagement with the digital. The clusters aim to produce and document new conversations and debates that shape the contours of Digital Humanities in Asia:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entries</b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/confession-in-digital-age">Confession in the Digital Age</a> (by Rimi Nandy, April 14, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/animating-the-archive">Animating the Archive – A Survey of Printed Digitized Materials in Bengali and their Use in Higher Education</a> (by Saidul Haque, April 14, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/doing-digital-humanities">‘Doing’ Digital Humanities: Reflections on a project on Online Feminism in India</a> (by Sujatha Subramanian, April 14, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/the-machinistic-paradigm-collapse">The Machinistic Paradigm Collapse</a> (by Anirudh Sridhar, April 14, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/exploring-the-digital-landscape">Exploring the Digital Landscape: An Overview</a> (by P.P.Sneha, April 14, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-humanities/digital-humanities-problem-of-definition">Digital Humanities and the Problem of Definition</a> (by P.P.Sneha, April 25, 2014).</li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives">Digital Natives</a></h2>
<p>CIS is doing a research project titled “Making Change”. The project will explore new ways of defining, locating, and understanding change in network societies. Having the thought piece 'Whose Change is it Anyway' as an entry point for discussion and reflection, the project will feature profiles, interviews and responses of change-makers to questions around current mechanisms and practices of change in South Asia and South East Asia:</p>
<h3>Making Change Project<b> </b></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entry</b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/multimedia-storytellers">Multimedia Storytellers: Panel Discussion</a> (by Denisse Albornoz, April 16, 2014).</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/menstrupedia-taboo-beautiful">From Taboo to Beautiful – Menstrupedia</a> (by Denisse Albornoz, April 30, 2014).</li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom">Telecom</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS is involved in promoting access and accessibility to telecommunications services and resources and has provided inputs to ongoing policy discussions and consultation papers published by TRAI. It has prepared reports on unlicensed spectrum and accessibility of mobile phones for persons with disabilities and also works with the USOF to include funding projects for persons with disabilities in its mandate:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Event Organized</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/events/tech-talk-landscape-of-wireless-communications-and-electromagnetic-spectrum">Tech Talk: Landscape of Wireless Communications & Electromagnetic Spectrum</a> (CIS, Bangalore, April 28, 2014). A. Radha Krishna gave a talk on wireless communication technologies.</li>
</ul>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/">About CIS</a></h2>
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<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>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.</i></p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/april-2014-bulletin'>https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/april-2014-bulletin</a>
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No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeDigital NativesTelecomAccessibilityInternet GovernanceOpennessResearchers at Work2014-07-04T03:38:00ZPageAnushree Gupta - Ladies ‘Log’: Women’s Safety and Risk Transfer in Ridehailing
https://cis-india.org/raw/anushree-gupta-ladies-log-women-safety-risk-transfer-ridehailing
<b>Working in the gig-economy has been associated with economic vulnerabilities. However, there are also moral and affective vulnerabilities as workers find their worth measured everyday by their performance of—and at—work and in every interaction and movement. This essay by Anushree Gupta is the third among a series of writings by researchers associated with the 'Mapping Digital Labour in India' project at the CIS, supported by the Azim Premji University, that were published on the Platypus blog of the Committee on the Anthropology of Science, Technology, and Computing (CASTAC). The essay is edited by Noopur Raval, who co-led the project concerned.</b>
<p> </p>
<p><em>Originally published by the <a href="http://blog.castac.org/category/series/indias-gig-work-economy/" target="_blank">Platypus blog</a> of CASTAC on August, 1, 2019.</em></p>
<h4>Summary of the essay in Hindi: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ty0a_u9lzCE" target="_blank">Audio</a> (YouTube) and <a href="http://blog.castac.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/07/Blog-Post-Audio-Transcript-Devanigiri.docx" target="_blank">Transcript</a> (text)</h4>
<hr />
<p>Mumbai, India’s financial capital, is also often considered one of the safest cities for women in India, especially in contrast with New Delhi which is infamously dubbed as the “rape capital” within the country. Sensationalised incidents of harassment, molestation and rape serve as anecdotal references and warnings to other women who dare to venture out alone even during the daytime. The Delhi government recently proposed a policy for free transport for women in public buses and metro trains with the objective of increasing women’s affordability and access and to ensure safety in public transportation. [1] Despite such measures to increase women’s visibility and claims to public utilities and spaces, women who use public transport have historically suffered groping and stalking on buses and trains, which uphold self-policing and surveillance narratives. The issue of women’s safety in India remains a priority as well as a good rhetorical claim and goal to aspire to, for public and private initiatives. Ironically, the notion of women’s safety is also advanced to increase moral policing and censure women’s access to public spaces, which also perpetuates exclusion of other marginalised citizens (Phadke 2007). Further, and crucially, whose safety is being imagined, prioritized and designed for (which class of women are central to the imagination of the safety discourse) is often a point of contention.</p>
<p>In this context, ridehailing services offered by Uber and Ola have come to be frequently cited as safer and more reliable options for women to traverse the cityspace, compared to overcrowded buses and trains. Their mobile applications promise accountability and traceability, enforcing safety standards by way of qualified and well-groomed drivers, SOS buttons and location-sharing features. However, it has increasingly become common knowledge that these alternatives are prone to similar, if not worse, categories of crimes against women. While reports of violence against women in cabs have mostly been outside of Mumbai, due to “platform-effects,” such incidents have widespread ramifications for drivers across the country. Cab drivers who operate via cab aggregator platforms have come under heavy scrutiny not only by the corporate and legal infrastructures of aggregator companies but also in the public eye. On the other hand, platform companies independently, and in partnership with city and state administrations, continue to launch “social impact” initiatives aimed at women’s safety as well as employment (through taxi-driving training). [2] Incidents of violence against women present jarring narratives of risk not only for female passengers but also for the platform-workers, both of whom are responsible for abiding by the constructed notions of safety for women in urban spaces.</p>
<p>In this post, I explore women’s presence as workers as well as passengers/customers in the ridehailing platform economy, in the context of women’s safety, situating the analysis with a focus on Mumbai. The related discourses around risk for female commuters give rise to various interventions and women-centric services through female-only cab enterprises and training more women drivers to mitigate this risk. Through these, I will think through the figure of the woman in the ridehailing economy in Mumbai and by extension in India.</p>
<h3><strong>Platforms in Gendered Cityscapes</strong></h3>
<p>Mumbai’s public transport is comprised of the local train network, BEST buses and auto rickshaws, with the metro being the newest addition to the mix. Unlike in most of India, kaali-peelis (black-yellow cabs) have been a permanent feature of Mumbai’s landscape since the 1950s and, taking a cab is not necessarily a luxury. Against this backdrop, platform companies have sought to make the claims of democratizing public transport and providing safer travel options to women in the city.</p>
<p>Cab drivers on ridehailing platforms in Mumbai are usually domestic male migrants or Muslim drivers from within and outside the city, who are more often than not overworked and stressed due to the falling incomes and rising debts. It is important to recognise the ‘veiled masculinities’ (Chopra 2006) which labor to service the emergent platform economy and the hierarchies of caste and class which are sustained through their labor. The incongruence between the masculinity of a working class man and the demands of the service economy (Nixon 2009) exacerbates emotional pressures in customer-facing services, which can offer an explanation for angry outbursts and conflicts between drivers and customers.</p>
<p> </p>
<img src="https://cis-india.org/CIS_APU_DigitalLabour_PlatypusEssays_AG_01.jpg/image_preview" alt="CIS_APU_DigitalLabour_PlatypusEssays_AG_01" class="image-left image-inline" title="CIS_APU_DigitalLabour_PlatypusEssays_AG_01" />
<h5>Uber’s ad on a billboard in Mumbai promises earnings of more than Rs. 1 lakh per month. Using a woman’s image illustrates the extent of their potential for transforming lives and livelihoods. <em>Source: Drivers’ Union Telegram Group</em>.</h5>
<p> </p>
<p>While Uber and Ola claim that a large number of women drivers work on their platforms, actual experiences of passengers and the male drivers I spoke to, suggested otherwise. Ironically, mass driver-training programs are seen as a quick way to make low-skilled and migrant male workers employable in Indian cities while, despite public-private partnerships to train women, it has been impossible to retain women drivers due to stereotypical perceptions of gender and persistent social stigma. [3] This made the ridehailing passenger woman (upper middle class, affording professional) a stakeholder to design for, while female drivers (but all female workers) appeared as liability for platforms.</p>
<p>These narratives speak directly to the construction of insecurity and risk for women (Berrington and Jones 2002) on public transport systems as they highlight vulnerabilities due to public exposure of women’s bodies. Pandering to a moral panic standpoint and creating personalised or ‘inside’ safe spaces for women to manage risk (Green and Singleton 2006), these platforms can then be imagined as a boundary-setting exercise. Access to public spaces is encouraged but it is delimited by confining the woman’s body to a singular vehicle in the custody of the cab driver. Autonomy and access afforded by the platform manages to transform women—particularly upper class and upper caste women who can afford these services—into potential customers. Their agency is bounded though by tasking the driver to ferry her across the otherwise hostile cityscape filled with ‘unfriendly bodies’ (Phadke 2013). The production of the city’s gendered space goes hand in hand with the confinement/erasure of female bodies in the public space as they embody patriarchal norms even in a city as ‘progressive’ as Mumbai. As demonstrated by studies mapping the movement of women in the city (Ranade 2007), the spatio-temporal factors lend themselves to creating gendered bodies in order to keep patriarchal norms intact. These norms, as I argue in this post, are detrimental not just to women but also other marginalised sections of the urban population, in this case platform workers.</p>
<h3><strong>Terms of Safety</strong></h3>
<p>Male drivers’ social identities as lower class, lower caste individuals do not inspire confidence in the standards of safety boasted by these companies in the eyes of their predominantly upper caste and upper class customer base. Risk to female passengers is further exaggerated due to the closed space in which the service is provided, highlighting the proximity to a potential aggressor by way of these platforms. In specific situations wherein a female passenger is inebriated or is travelling alone at night, drivers report being extra cautious and helpful towards her. Many respondents proudly mention going out of their way to make sure women get home safely, for instance, prolonging waiting time or escorting them to the entrance of their residential buildings or involving the security guard at the gate.</p>
<p>However, there have also been cases wherein the driver has been under scrutiny either by an overly careful passenger or by the public. One driver reported being surrounded by a crowd at a traffic signal, only to realise that he was being suspected of foul play with the female passenger who had fallen asleep on the backseat of the car. In contrast to their western counterparts, the class differences between drivers and passengers in India exacerbate doubts, fears and insecurities in India which tend to take a caste-purity angle as well. The woman’s body undergoes an exchange of custody in these instances wherein she is deemed incapable of taking care of herself and requires external assistance. Imagining a deterrence effect of ridesharing services (Park et. al 2017) reinforces the logic of guardianship and protectionism for the woman. The risk of carrying her in the vehicle in these situations is borne by the cab driver, operating under a framework of overbearing protectiveness which holds him culpable for any misgivings, assumed or otherwise.</p>
<p> </p>
<img src="https://cis-india.org/CIS_APU_DigitalLabour_PlatypusEssays_AG_02.jpg/image_preview" alt="CIS_APU_DigitalLabour_PlatypusEssays_AG_02" class="image-left image-inline" title="CIS_APU_DigitalLabour_PlatypusEssays_AG_02" />
<h5>Cautionary listicles advise women to not take a cab alone at night, carrying pepper sprays/umbrellas as tools for self-defence, refrain from conversations with drivers or talk continuously on the phone, among other things. The onus of the woman’s safety is either on the individual herself or the driver who is ferrying her. Moreover, the driver is a likely assailant whom the woman should guard against as well. <em>Source: <a href="https://www.hellotravel.com/stories/10-ways-for-women-to-ensure-safety-when-boarding-cab" target="_blank">HelloTravel</a></em>.</h5>
<p> </p>
<p>Notions of safety and risk are embodied in everyday interactions in urban spaces and mediated by disparate infrastructures of knowledge across distinctions of caste, class and gender. These distinctions define constraints which govern social interactions between actors of these categories. Interactions between lower caste or Muslim men and upper caste/class women are circumscribed by what Tuan (1979) describes as ‘landscapes of fear’. Be it the apprehensions about sharing a ride with a passenger of the opposite sex (Sarriera et. al 2017) or reports of gang-rapes by cab drivers, the boundaries of social conduct are laid out clearly by constructing narratives of risk and safety. The protection of the female body and her sexual safety is not her responsibility alone but that of the society as a whole. The so called preventive measures for rape and violence against women produce the dichotomies of frailty and strength (Campbell 2005) in so far as they project the woman as always at risk with the shadow of a potential assault always looming large.</p>
<p>When asked about interactions with women as customers or fellow drivers, drivers performed exaggerated respectability for women. The catch in these narratives however was that drivers justified and extended respect only to ‘good’ customers, where a ‘good’ woman was a certain kind of a moral actor.</p>
<p>Given the prevailing discontent with redressal mechanisms for workers on the platforms, it was not surprising to witness a group of drivers at the Uber Seva Kendra (help centre) in Mumbai, debating whether they should be accepting requests from any female customers at all. Drivers also had to attend mandatory training sessions for ‘good conduct’ with customers wherein they underwent behavioral correction and gender sensitisation lessons. [4] The gendering of the platform economy is baked into these instructions and trainings that reproduce male drivers as figures of safety and constant positive affect.</p>
<h3><strong>Gender, Safety, and Enterprise</strong></h3>
<p>In my fieldwork, I also came across a slew of ventures run by fleet owners and others that sought to service women passengers and employ women drivers exclusively. Claiming to fill in the gaps of inadequate vetting mechanisms in existing platforms, these alternate ventures purportedly smoothened out some anxieties by eliminating the risk of interacting with a man from different socio-economic strata. The premium charged by these companies was telling of the value of safety and affordability of these services for a large section of their intended audience, namely women with higher disposable incomes residing in metropolitan cities.</p>
<p>On the flipside, these enterprises encouraged women to break stereotypical perceptions about women drivers, also giving a nod to increasing and diversifying opportunities of employment for women. However, these ideas remained attractive only in principle and fizzled out sooner or later as most of these ventures did not succeed. A severe capital crunch due to unsustainable business models, limited funding options and lack of substantial supportive ecosystems for training and upkeep are possible reasons for failure. [5] Even so, the idea of a women-centric service continues to remain valuable because of the promise of safety which is produced through considerations of class, caste, gender and religion (Phadke 2005). Any alternative to avoid interaction with men from a lower class or caste background or from another religion (especially Hindu/Muslim in Mumbai) is welcome in a society which is deeply stratified and entrenched in caste-class systems of religion and economy alike.</p>
<h3><strong>Conclusion</strong></h3>
<p>The pervasiveness of the discourses of safety and risk in the ride hailing space became apparent to me during field research. Respondents indicated a heightened awareness of my gender, referring to me as “madam” and taking measures to ensure my safety. They advised me to use a separate phone to interact with drivers and moderated my interactions with drivers on the Telegram group (run by one of the Unions in Mumbai). Union representatives were also diligent in moderating the group to filter out abusive language as a token of respect for women. My apprehensions in interacting with drivers, most of whom were older men from a lower class/caste community, were also indicative of my social conditioning as an upper class and upper caste woman. Self-policing and boundary setting in both physical and virtual interactions, while necessary to some extent, were often rendered useless as the shifting of risks became apparent to me in my interactions with the drivers.</p>
<p>In this piece, I have tried to show how gendered norms govern the construction of safety and risk which in turn regulate social interactions. Limiting exposure in a personal cab as opposed to a public bus/train also heightens considerations of intimacy and proximity to a potential aggressor (often from a marginalised sociocultural background). Women-centric cab services mitigate this by promoting the image of the female driver who breaks social norms. However, these services dwindle till they completely disappear due to a capital crunch or insufficient infrastructural support. Patriarchal contexts reaffirm the woman as a risky object by highlighting narratives of vulnerabilities and insecurities in the ridehailing space. Besides the woman, the cab drivers are held accountable for bearing this risk and ensuring her sexual and physical safety. These patriarchal hierarchies of protectionism are sustained by platform workers’ affective labour which lubricate the wheels of the platform economy.</p>
<h3><strong>Endnotes</strong></h3>
<p>[1] <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/free-rides-for-women-only-the-starting-point-say-activists/article28111938.ece" target="_blank">https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/free-rides-for-women-only-the-starting-point-say-activists/article28111938.ece</a></p>
<p>[2] <a href="https://www.olacabs.com/media/in/press/ola-foundation-launches-drive-to-enable-sustainable-livelihoods-for-500000-women-by-2025" target="_blank">https://www.olacabs.com/media/in/press/ola-foundation-launches-drive-to-enable-sustainable-livelihoods-for-500000-women-by-2025</a></p>
<p>[3] <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/soniathomas/girl-power" target="_blank">https://www.buzzfeed.com/soniathomas/girl-power</a></p>
<p>[4] <a href="https://yourstory.com/2018/11/uber-gender-awareness-sensitisation-driver" target="_blank">https://yourstory.com/2018/11/uber-gender-awareness-sensitisation-driver</a></p>
<p>[5] <a href="https://www.livemint.com/Companies/bo4534H8mOWo0oG6VQ0xbM/As-demand-for-womenonly-cab-services-grow-challenges-loom.html" target="_blank">https://www.livemint.com/Companies/bo4534H8mOWo0oG6VQ0xbM/As-demand-for-womenonly-cab-services-grow-challenges-loom.html</a></p>
<h3><strong>References</strong></h3>
<p>Berrington, E. and Jones, H., 2002. Reality vs. myth: Constructions of women’s insecurity. Feminist Media Studies, 2(3), pp.307-323.</p>
<p>Campbell, A., 2005. Keeping the ‘lady’ safe: The regulation of femininity through crime prevention literature. Critical Criminology, 13(2), pp.119-140.</p>
<p>Chopra, R., 2006. Invisible men: Masculinity, sexuality, and male domestic Labor. Men and Masculinities, 9(2), pp.152-167.</p>
<p>Green, E. and Singleton, C., 2006. Risky bodies at leisure: Young women negotiating space and place. Sociology, 40(5), pp.853-871.</p>
<p>Nixon, D., 2009. I Can’t Put a Smiley Face On’: Working‐Class Masculinity, Emotional Labour and Service Work in the ‘New Economy. Gender, Work & Organization, 16(3), pp.300-322.</p>
<p>Park, J., Kim, J., Pang, M.S. and Lee, B., 2017. Offender or guardian? An empirical analysis of ride-sharing and sexual assault. An Empirical Analysis of Ride-Sharing and Sexual Assault (April 10, 2017). KAIST College of Business Working Paper Series, (2017-006), pp.18-010.</p>
<p>Phadke, S., 2005. ‘You Can Be Lonely in a Crowd’ The Production of Safety in Mumbai. Indian Journal of Gender Studies, 12(1), pp.41-62.</p>
<p>Phadke, S., 2007. Dangerous liaisons: Women and men: Risk and reputation in Mumbai. Economic and Political Weekly, pp.1510-1518.</p>
<p>Phadke, S., 2013. Unfriendly bodies, hostile cities: Reflections on loitering and gendered public space. Economic and Political Weekly, pp.50-59.</p>
<p>Ranade, S., 2007. The way she moves: Mapping the everyday production of gender-space. Economic and Political Weekly, pp.1519-1526.</p>
<p>Raval, N. and Dourish, P., 2016, February. Standing out from the crowd: Emotional labor, body labor, and temporal labor in ridesharing. In Proceedings of the 19th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing (pp. 97-107). ACM.</p>
<p>Sarriera, J.M., Álvarez, G.E., Blynn, K., Alesbury, A., Scully, T. and Zhao, J., 2017. To share or not to share: Investigating the social aspects of dynamic ridesharing. Transportation Research Record, 2605(1), pp.109-117.</p>
<p>Tuan, Y.F., 2013. Landscapes of fear. U of Minnesota Press.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/anushree-gupta-ladies-log-women-safety-risk-transfer-ridehailing'>https://cis-india.org/raw/anushree-gupta-ladies-log-women-safety-risk-transfer-ridehailing</a>
</p>
No publisherAnushree GuptaDigital LabourResearchPlatform-WorkNetwork EconomiesPublicationsResearchers at WorkMapping Digital Labour in India2020-05-19T06:29:12ZBlog EntryAnnouncing Silicon Plateau #01
https://cis-india.org/raw/announcing-silicon-plateau-01
<b>We are very pleased to announce that the RAW programme is supporting a new collaborative publishing project led by T.A.J. Residency / SKE Projects and or-bits.com. The first volume of the series titled 'Silicon Plateau' will feature contributions by a group of artists, researchers, and writers, including IOCOSE, Tara Kelton, Anil Menon, Sunita Prasad, Achal Prabhala and Sreshta Rit Premnath, along with contextual writing and documentation material. Here is an excerpt from the editorial note written by Marialaura Ghidini, the co-editor of the volume.</b>
<p> </p>
<img src="https://cis-india.org/raw/announcing-silicon-plateau-01/image" alt="Sreshta Rit Premnath - New York Living in Bangalore" title="Announcing Silicon Plateau #01" />
<p> </p>
<p>The scope of the series is to explore the contemporary interaction between the arts and technology as informed by experiences of Bangalore (the ‘Silicon Valley’ of India). Such exploration will be guided by the
perspectives of contemporary artists, writers and thinkers, national and international, who have either spent a period of time in the city or crossed paths with its communities whose work and interests — from
the creative industry to law and historical research — lie at the intersection between the arts and technology. The approach we have adopted to explore how technology informs the arts and the socio-cultural environment, and how the latter affects usages and understandings of technological tools, is multidisciplinary and hybrid, and uses the city of Bangalore as the starting point for broader reflections and actions.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Advocating for the importance of thinking about digital and web technologies in their specificity rather than their universality, the series will propose across-disciplines narratives about the encounters — fortuitous, anticipated or even inconvenient — that artists, writers, technologists, lawyers, economists and more have had with the city. The nickname of Bangalore, <em>Silicon Plateau</em>, which derives from its geographical location on the Deccan Plateau in the state of Karnataka, has been used as the title of the series because we think it metaphorically highlights the contradictions inherent to our exploration. Adopting the term <em>plateau</em>, which indicates the reaching of a state of little change, to refer to a city that has transformed at rapid speed over the last few decades results in a linguistic combination that reflects the complexities inherent to discussing arts and technology in relation to local histories and occurrences rather than global narratives and popular beliefs.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>This fist edition of <em>Silicon Plateau #01</em> will focus on the way in which the city is represented in the public realm, from public spaces to those manufactured by the real estate industry. It will look at
representations of Bangalore as a set of phenomena triggered by the ways in which the IT industry is reflected in the city, such as its market-driven narratives, and how passers-by and short term residents
encounter them in the everyday. The contributors have been invited to reflect on how these modes of presenting and representing often lead to the creation of metaphors and cultural signs that might tell us
more about discussing the interaction between the arts and technology.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em>Silicon Plateau #01 </em>will be about that which lies behind first ‘impressions’ and constructed representations as determined by uses and understanding of technology, the tools and its infrastructures,
existing, imagined, or projected.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em>Silicon Plateau #01</em> will be released, in print and online, in May 2015 and launched soon after.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em>Image Credit: <a href="http://sreshtaritpremnath.com/" target="_blank">Sreshta Rit Premnath</a>, Projections (1964/2014), photocopies on corrugated plastic and chroma key paints.</em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/announcing-silicon-plateau-01'>https://cis-india.org/raw/announcing-silicon-plateau-01</a>
</p>
No publishersumandroSilicon PlateauPracticeResearchers at Work2015-10-05T15:00:59ZBlog EntryAnnouncing Selected Researchers: Welfare, Gender, and Surveillance
https://cis-india.org/raw/announcing-selected-researchers-welfare-gender-and-surveillance
<b>We published a Call for Researchers on January 10, 2020, to invite applications from researchers interested in writing a narrative essay that interrogates the modes of surveillance that people of LGBTHIAQ+ and gender non-conforming identities and sexual orientations are put under as they seek sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services in India. We received 29 applications from over 10 locations in India in response to the call, and are truly overwhelmed by and grateful for this interest and support. We eventually selected applications by 3 researchers that we felt aligned best with the specific objectives of the project. Please find below brief profile notes of the selected researchers.</b>
<p> </p>
<h4>Call for Researchers: <a href="https://cis-india.org/jobs/researchers-welfare-gender-surveillance-call" target="_blank">URL</a></h4>
<hr />
<h2>Kaushal Bodwal</h2>
<p>Kaushal is persuing his MPhil in Sociology at Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi. He completed his Master's in Sociology at Centre for the Study of Social Systems, Jawaharlal Nehru University after getting a BSc honors degree in Biomedical Sciences from Delhi University. He is one of the founding members of Hasratein: a queer collective, New Delhi. He has been an active spokesperson for Queer and Trans Rights in India and have been on a number of panel discussion on Trans Act 2019 in various campuses. He has also delivered a lecture series on Colonialism and Medicine in Ambedkar University, Kashmiri Gate, Delhi. His areas of interest are Sociology of medicine, gender and medicine, sexuality, religion and biomedical science, intersex studies.</p>
<p><a href="https://kafila.online/2019/08/27/queerness-as-disease-a-continuing-narrative-in-21st-century-india-kaushal-bodwal/" target="_blank">Queerness as disease – a continuing narrative in 21st century India</a>, Kafila, 27 August 2019</p>
<p><a href="https://www.firstpost.com/india/what-it-means-to-be-a-queer-and-live-under-regime-bent-on-remaking-india-on-terms-of-their-tradition-writes-queer-scholar-trolled-by-right-wing-7915391.html" target="_blank">What it means to be queer under a regime bent on remaking India on its own ideological terms</a>, Firstpost, 17 January 2020</p>
<h2>Rosamma Thomas</h2>
<p>Rosamma has worked both as a reporter and as an editor of news reports with newspapers. She currently writes reports for NGOs while also undertaking freelance reporting assignments. She is based in Pune.</p>
<p><a href="http://iced.cag.gov.in/wp-content/uploads/2016-17/NTP%2007/article.pdf " target="_blank">India's mining state steps up fight to rein in killer silicosis</a>, The Times of India, 29 June 2016</p>
<p><a href="https://www.newsclick.in/doctor-may-have-found-early-marker-silicosis-who-will-fund-him" target="_blank">Doctor may have found early marker for silicosis, but who will fund him?</a>, Newsclick, 18 July 2019</p>
<p><a href="https://www.newsclick.in/Asbestos-Poisoning-Raghunath-Manwar-Fight-Safer-Work-Conditions" target="_blank">Asbestos poisoning: Raghunath Manwar’s fight for safer work conditions</a>, Newsclick, 9 January 2020</p>
<h2>Shreya Ila Anasuya</h2>
<p>Shreya is a writer, editor, journalist and performance artist currently based in Calcutta. Her fiction explores the places where myth, memory, history and the performing arts meet. As a journalist, her work explores gender, sexuality, politics, culture and history. She has been published in <em>The Wire</em>, <em>Caravan</em>, <em>Scroll</em>, <em>Mint Lounge</em>, <em>Deep Dives</em>, <em>GenderIT</em>, <em>Helter Skelter</em>, and many more. She is the editor of the digital publication <a href="https://medium.com/skin-stories" target="_blank"><em>Skin Stories</em></a>, housed at the non-profit Point of View. She is the writer and narrator of ‘Gul - a story in text, song and dance’ which has been performed in several cities in India. She was a Felix Scholar at SOAS, University of London, from where she has an MA in Anthropology. For a full portfolio, please click <a href="http://porterfolio.net/dervishdancing" target="_blank">here</a> or visit her <a href="https://www.shreyailaanasuya.com/" target="_blank">website</a>.</p>
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<p>This project is led by Ambika Tandon, Aayush Rathi, and Sumandro Chattapadhyay at the Centre for Internet and Society, and is supported by a grant from Privacy International.</p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/announcing-selected-researchers-welfare-gender-and-surveillance'>https://cis-india.org/raw/announcing-selected-researchers-welfare-gender-and-surveillance</a>
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No publishersumandroWelfare GovernancePrivacyGenderResearchGender, Welfare, and PrivacyResearchers at Work2020-02-13T15:04:24ZBlog EntryAn Artist's Hunt for Lost Stepwells
https://cis-india.org/news/hunt-for-lost-stepwells
<b>As part of the Maps for Making Change project, Kakoli Sen has brought to light some facts which she stumbled upon while mapping the stepwells in Vadodara. She mapped these and also discovered 14 such architectural heritage structures. The news was covered in the Times of India.</b>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/news/hunt-for-lost-stepwells'>https://cis-india.org/news/hunt-for-lost-stepwells</a>
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No publisherpraskrishnaPracticeResearchers at WorkMaps for Making Change2015-10-05T15:05:26ZNews Item