The Centre for Internet and Society
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April 2013 Bulletin
http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/april-2013-bulletin
<b>The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) welcomes you to the fourth issue of its newsletter for the year 2013. In this issue we bring you an overview of our research programs, updates of events organised by us, events we participated in, news and media coverage, and videos of some of our recent events.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/celebrating-5-years-of-cis"><b>Celebrating 5 Years of CIS</b></a><br />We at the Centre for Internet and Society celebrate 5 years of existence with an exhibition showcasing our work and accomplishments over this time. The exhibition will be held concurrently at both our Bangalore and Delhi offices from May 20 to 24, 2013, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.</p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/google-policy-fellowship-call-for-applications-2013">Google Policy Fellowship</a></b><br />CIS is inviting applications for the Google Policy Fellowship programme. Google is providing a USD 7,500 stipend to the India fellow who will be selected by July 1, 2013. Fellowship focus areas include Access to Knowledge, Openness in India, Freedom of Expression, Privacy, and Telecom Send in your applications for the position by June 15, 2013.</p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<p><b>Jobs</b><br /> CIS invites applications for the posts of <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/jobs/vacancy-for-developer">Developer</a> (NVDA Screen Reader Project), and <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/jobs/programme-officer-internet-governance">Programme Officer</a> (Internet Governance). To apply send your resume to <a href="mailto:sunil@cis-india.org">sunil@cis-india.org</a> and <a href="mailto:pranesh@cis-india.org">pranesh@cis-india.org</a>. CIS also invites applications for the post of <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/jobs/programme-officer-pilot-projects-access-to-knowledge">Programme Officer</a> (Access to Knowledge, Pilot Projects). To apply for this position send your resume to <a href="mailto:vishnu@cis-india.org">vishnu@cis-india.org</a>.</p>
<hr />
<h2><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility">Accessibility</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS is doing two projects in partnership with the <b>Hans Foundation</b>. One is to create a national resource kit of state-wise laws, policies and programmes on issues relating to persons with disabilities in India and another is for developing a screen reader and text-to- speech synthesizer for Indian languages. CIS is also working with the World Blind Union and many other organisations to develop a Treaty for the Visually Impaired helped by the WIPO:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>National Resource Kit for Persons with Disabilities</b><br />Anandhi Viswanathan from CIS and Manojna Yeluri from the Centre for Law and Policy Research are working in this project. Draft chapters have been published. Feedback and comments are invited from readers for the chapters on Himachal Pradesh, Goa, Jammu and Kashmir and Rajasthan:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/national-resource-kit-himachal-pradesh-call-for-comments">The Himachal Pradesh Chapter</a> (by Anandhi Viswanathan, April 30, 2013).</li>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/national-resource-kit-goa-call-for-comments">Goa Chapter</a> (by Anandhi Viswanathan, April 30, 2013).</li>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/national-resource-kit-jammu-kashmir-call-for-comments">The Jammu & Kashmir Chapter</a> (by Anandhi Viswanathan, April 30, 2013).</li>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/national-resource-kit-rajasthan-call-for-comments">The Rajasthan Chapter</a> (by Manojna Yeluri, April 30, 2013).</li>
</ul>
<p>Note: <i>All of these are early drafts and will be reviewed and updated</i>.</p>
<p><b>Events Organised</b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/girls-in-ict-day-mithra-jyothi">Girls in ICT Day</a> (April 25, 2013, Mitra Jyothi Auditorium, HSR Layout, Bangalore). Dr. U.B. Pavanaja gave a talk on Social Media and Kannada Language for Women with Disabilities. Sara Morais wrote an event report.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/events/global-accessibility-awareness-day-2013">Global Accessibility Awareness Day</a> (May 9, 2013, TERI, Southern Regional Centre, Domlur, Bangalore).</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Announcement</b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/cis-itu-d-sector-membership">CIS Gets ITU-D Sector Membership</a>: CIS has become a sector member of ITU-D.</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/about/a2k">Access to Knowledge</a> and <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/openness">Openness</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Wikimedia Foundation <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/access-to-knowledge-program-plan">awarded</a> CIS a two year grant of INR 26,000,000 to support and develop the growth of Indic language communities and projects by community collaborations and partnerships. This is being carried out by the Access to Knowledge team based in Delhi. CIS is also doing a project (Pervasive Technologies) on examining the relationship between production of pervasive technologies and intellectual property. CIS also promotes openness including open government data, open standards, open access, and free/libre/open source software through its Openness programme.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/access-to-knowledge-program-plan"><b>Wikipedia</b></a><br />Beginning from September 1, 2012, Wikimedia Foundation <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/access-to-knowledge-program-plan">awarded</a> CIS a two-year grant of INR 26,000,000 to support and develop free knowledge in India. The <a href="http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Access_To_Knowledge/Team" title="Access To Knowledge/Team">A2K team</a> consists of four members based in Delhi: <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/about/people/our-team">T. Vishnu Vardhan</a>, <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/people/our-team">Nitika Tandon</a> and <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/people/our-team">Subhashish Panigrahi</a>, and one team member <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/about/people/our-team">Dr. U.B. Pavanaja</a> who is working from Bangalore office. <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/people/our-team">Noopur Raval</a>, Programme Officer has left the organisation. April 24, 2013 was her last working day.</p>
<p><b>Indic Wikipedia Visualisation Project</b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog/indic-wikipedia-visualisation-project-visualising-page-views-and-project-pages">Indic Wikipedia Visualisation Project #2: Visualising Page Views and Project Pages</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Blog Entries</b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog/indian-wiki-women-history-month">Indian WikiWomen celebrate Women’s History Month</a> (by Netha Hussain, April 29, 2013).</li>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog/konkani-wikipedia-analysis">Analysis of Konkani Wikipedia: Facts & Challenges</a> (by Nitika Tandon, April 30, 2013).</li>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog/odia-wikipedia-needs-assessment">Odia Wikipedia: Needs Assessment</a> (by Subhashish Panigrahi, April 30, 2013).</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Event Organised</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<b> </b>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/events/kannada-wikipedia-workshop-udupi-april-29-2013">Kannada Wikipedia Workshop</a> (April 29, 2013, Govinda Pai Research Centre, MGM College Udupi). Dr. U.B. Pavanaja led the workshop and gave a talk on Kannada Wikipedia.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Events Co-organised</b><br />The following events were organised in the month of March but reports were written during the month of April. Vishnu Vardhan and Subhashish Panigrahi held meetings with wikipedians:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/wiki-meet-up-kolkata">Kolkata Wiki Community Meetup</a> (organised by CIS and Kolkata Wiki Community, March 14, 2013). </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog/odia-wikipedia-cuttack-community-meetup-march-16-2013">Odia Wikipedia - Cuttack Community Meetup</a> (organised by CIS and Odia Wiki Community, Cuttack, March 16, 2013).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog/odia-wikipedia-meet-up-bhubaneswar-march-17-2013">Odia Wikipedia – Bhubaneswar Community Meetup</a> (organised by CIS and Odia Wiki Community, Bhubaneswar, March 17, 2013). </li>
</ul>
<p>The following event was organised in the month of April. We will be publishing the report soon:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/events/telegu-wiki-mahotsavam-2013">Telugu Wiki Mahotsavam 2013</a> (organised by Telugu Wikipedia Community and CIS, Hyderabad, April 9 – 11, 2013). Vishnu Vardhan was one of the trainers at the Wikipedia Academy at Centre for Good Governance on April 9, 2013. Vishnu Vardhan spoke about the Access to Knowledge work in one of the sessions of Wikimedia Meeting with Media Heads on April 10, 2013. Vishnu Vardhan gave a talk on A2K’s plans for the growth of Telegu Wikipedia in 2013-14 at the Telegu Wikipedia general meeting on April 11, 2013. Vishnu Vardhan also gave a talk about Access to Knowledge in the digital era at the Wiki Chaitanya Vedika on April 11, 2013.</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Other </b><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k"><b>Access to Knowledge</b></a><b> Updates</b></p>
<p><b>WIPO</b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blog/cis-intervention-eu-blocking-wipo-treaty-for-blind">CIS Intervention on the Treaty for the Visually Impaired at SCCR/SS/GE/2/13</a> (Geneva, April 18 – 20, 2013). Pranesh Prakash participated in the session and spoke about the rights of the visually impaired.</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/about/internet-governance">Internet Governance</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Internet Governance programme conducts research around the various social, technical, and political underpinnings of global and national Internet governance, and includes online privacy, freedom of speech, and Internet governance mechanisms and processes. Currently, CIS is doing a project with <b>Privacy International</b>, London to facilitate research and events around surveillance, and freedom of speech and expression.</p>
<p><b>Information Technology</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<b> </b>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/it-amendment-act-69-a-rules-draft-and-final-version-comparison">IT (Amendment) Act, 2008, 69A Rules: Draft and Final Version Comparison</a> (by Jadine Lannon, April 27, 2013).</li>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/indian-telegraph-act-419-a-rules-and-it-amendment-act-69-rules">Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, 419A Rules and IT (Amendment) Act, 2008, 69 Rules</a> (by Jadine Lannon, April 28, 2013).</li>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/it-amendment-act-69-rules-draft-and-final-version-comparison">IT (Amendment) Act, 2008, 69 Rules: Draft and Final Version Comparison</a> (by Jadine Lannon, April 30, 2013).</li>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/it-amendment-act-69-b-draft-and-final-version-comparison">IT (Amendment) Act, 2008, 69B Rules: Draft and Final Version Comparison</a> (by Jadine Lannon, April 30, 2013).</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Resources</b><br />The below rules were published recently:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/resources/it-procedure-and-safeguards-for-interception-monitoring-and-decryption-of-information-rules-2009">Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Interception, Monitoring and Decryption of Information) Rules, 2009</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/resources/it-procedure-and-safeguard-for-monitoring-and-collecting-traffic-data-or-information-rules-2009">Information Technology (Procedure and safeguard for Monitoring and Collecting Traffic Data or Information) Rules, 2009</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/resources/indian-telegraph-act-section-419-a-rules">Rules Under Section 419A of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885</a></li>
</ul>
<p><b>Newspaper Column</b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/indian-express-april-6-2013-nishant-shah-off-the-record">Off the Record</a> (by Nishant Shah, Indian Express, April 6, 2013).</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Privacy</b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/indias-big-brother-the-central-monitoring-system">India´s ´Big Brother´: The Central Monitoring System</a> (CMS) (by Maria Xynou, April 8, 2013).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Events Organised</b><br />Maria Xynou gives an overview of the discussions and recommendations from the privacy round tables held in Delhi and Bangalore:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/report-on-the-first-privacy-round-table-meeting">A Privacy Round Table in Delhi</a> (organized by CIS and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, FICCI Federation House, Tansen Marg, New Delhi, April 3, 2013).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/report-on-the-2nd-privacy-round-table">A Privacy Round Table in Bangalore</a> (organized by CIS and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Jayamahal Palace, Jayamahal Road, Bangalore, April 20, 2013).</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Announcements</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<b> </b>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">2nd Expert Committee meeting on draft 'Human DNA Profiling Bill 2012': The Department of Biotechnology has constituted an Expert Committee to discuss various issues of this Bill in detail. Sunil Abraham has been nominated as one of the members of this Committee. A meeting of this Expert Committee has been scheduled for May 13, 2013 under the Chairmanship of Dr. T. S. Rao, Adviser, DBT.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Chinmayi Arun is one of the international experts supporting the Internet & Jurisdiction project, a global multi-stakeholder dialogue process.</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Upcoming Events</b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/privacy-round-table-chennai">A Privacy Round Table in Chennai</a> (co-organised with Data Security Council of India and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Residency Towers, Sir Thyagaraja Road, T Nagar, Chennai, May 18, 10.30 a.m. to 4.00 p.m.).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/consilience-2013-law-technology-committee-nls-bangalore">Consilience – 2013</a> (National Law School of India University, Bangalore, May 26 – 27, 2013).</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Other Event Hosted</b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/a-talk-by-marialaura-ghidni">Or-bits.com — A Talk by Marialaura Ghidini</a> (CIS, Bangalore, April 19, 2013). Marialaura Ghidini gave a talk abou the creation and activities of or-bits.com, a web-based curatorial platform that she founded in 2009.</li>
</ul>
<h3>News and Media</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/the-hindu-april-1-2013-prashant-jha-clarify-and-define-terms-in-it-rules-panel-tells-govt">Clarify and define terms in IT rules, panel tells govt</a>. (by Prashant Jha, Hindu, April 1, 2013).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/privacy-surgeon-simon-davies-april-9-2013-india-takes-its-first-serious-step-toward-privacy-regulation">India takes its first serious step toward privacy regulation – but it may be misguided</a> (Privacy Surgeon, April 9, 2013).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/ndtv-video-april-11-2013-the-social-network-regulating-social-media-unrealistic-impossible-necessary">Regulating Social Media: Unrealistic, Impossible, Necessary?</a> (NDTV, April 11, 2013). Pranesh Prakash participated in a discussion on social media aired on NDTV.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/hindustan-times-zia-haq-april-12-2013-social-media-may-influence-160-lok-sabha-seats-in-2014">Social media may influence 160 LS seats in 2014</a> (by Zia Haq, Hindustan Times, April 12, 2013).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/wall-street-journal-april-15-2013-r-jai-krishna-vote-will-social-media-impact-the-election">Vote: Will Social Media Impact the Election?</a> (by R. Jai Krishna, Wall Street Journal, April 15, 2013).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/d-w-april-15-2013-untangling-the-web-of-indias-ungovernable-net">Untangling the web of India's 'ungovernable' Net</a> (Deutsche Welle, April 15, 2013).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/gni-annual-report-mentions-cis">CIS in GNI Annual Report</a> (April 25, 2013). CIS gets mentioned in GNI Annual Report. Sunil Abraham is quoted in it. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/news/india-together-april-27-2013-satarupa-sen-bhattacharya-is-free-speech-an-indian-value">Is free speech an Indian value?</a> (by Satarupa Sen Bhattacharya, India Together, April 27, 2013).</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h3><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access">Knowledge Repository on Internet Access</a></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS in partnership with the Ford Foundation is executing a project on Internet Access. It covers the history of the internet, technologies involved, principle and values of internet access, broadband market and universal access and will touch upon various polices and regulations which has an impact on internet access and bodies and mechanism which are responsible for formulation policies related to internet access. The blog posts and modules will be published in a new website: <a href="http://www.internet-institute.in">www.internet-institute.in</a>.</p>
<p><b>Upcoming Event</b><br />We are hosting an “Institute on Internet and Society” with the support of Ford Foundation India, which is to be held from June 8, 2013 to June 14, 2013. Call for registration and relevant details have been <a href="http://www.internet-institute.in/">announced</a>.</p>
<p>The following units have been published:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/internet-infrastructure">Internet Infrastructure</a> (by Srividya Vaidyanathan, April 30, 2013).</li>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/knowledge-repository-on-internet-access/isp-introduction">Internet Service Provider – Introduction</a> (by Srividya Vaidyanathan, April 30, 2013).</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h3><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/about/telecom">Telecom</a></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS is involved in promoting access and accessibility of 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><b>Newspaper Column</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<b> </b>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/blog/organizing-india-blogspot-shyam-ponappa-april-4-2013-prioritizing-communications-energy">Prioritizing Communications & Energy</a> (by Shyam Ponappa, Business Standard and Organizing India Blogspot, April 4, 2013).</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Blog Entry</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<b> </b>
<li><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/open-citizen-radio-networks-to-race-for-.radio-gtld">From Open Citizen Radio Networks to the Race for .RADIO gTLD</a> (by Sharath Chandra Ram, April 30, 2013).</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Event Participated</b></p>
<ul>
<li>Broadband Policy Course (organised by Lirne Asia, Bangalore, April 5 – 6, 2013). Nirmita Narasimhan and Snehashish Ghosh attended the course.</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2 style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/">About CIS</a></h2>
<p>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.<br /> <b>Follow us elsewhere</b></p>
<ul>
<li>Get short, timely messages from us on <a href="https://twitter.com/cis_india">Twitter</a></li>
<li>Join the CIS group on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/groups/28535315687/">Facebook</a></li>
<li>Visit us at <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/">http://cis-india.org</a></li>
</ul>
<p><b>Support Us</b><br />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; "><b>Request for Collaboration</b><br />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 <a href="mailto:sunil@cis-india.org">sunil@cis-india.org</a> or Nishant Shah, Director – Research, at <a href="mailto:nishant@cis-india.org">nishant@cis-india.org</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>CIS is grateful to its donors, Wikimedia Foundation, Ford Foundation, Privacy International, UK, Hans Foundation and the Kusuma Trust which was founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin, for its core funding and support for most of its projects.</i></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/april-2013-bulletin'>http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/april-2013-bulletin</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeDigital NativesTelecomAccessibilityInternet GovernanceDigital HumanitiesCISRAWOpenness2013-05-31T08:07:38ZPageA Treat for the Blind
http://editors.cis-india.org/news/business-world-june-26-2013-chitra-narayanan-a-treat-for-the-blind
<b>The WIPO treaty will provide copyright exceptions on books making them available to blind people in formats they can use.</b>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article by Chitra Narayanan was <a class="external-link" href="http://www.businessworld.in/en/storypage/-/bw/a-treat-for-the-blind/r959485.0/page/0">published in Business World</a> on June 26, 2013. Pranesh Prakash is quoted.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">For millions of visually impaired people around the globe, it’s a landmark treaty that could open up the kingdom of books for them. After days of intense deliberations at Marrakesh in Morrocco, about 600 World Intellectual Property Organisation (Wipo) negotiators, including delegates from India, reached a consensus on a treaty that will provide copyright exceptions on books making them available to blind people in formats they can use.</p>
<div id="stcpDiv" style="text-align: justify; ">
<div>Wipo, a United Nations agency, is dedicated to the use of intellectual property as a means of stimulating innovation and creativity. The agency has 186 member states.</div>
<div><br />Sure, content is king. But for the visually impaired, the right platform for accessing content is what makes the difference. Thanks to audio books, a host of apps, and digital platforms such as Bookshare, which provides content in accessible formats, the technology is already there to bring the rich world of 'hardcovers' and 'paperbacks' alive for those who cannot see. What’s more, these books are compatible with all kinds of devices from mobile phones to tablets to PCs.<br /> <br />Now, at last, there is legal sanction as well to content that was not being made available in accessible formats by the copyrights holders. For the 15 million people who are blind in India, the treaty is expected to open education doors as well as provide entertainment needs. India has the world’s largest number of blind people.<br /> <br />Bangalore-based Centre for Internet Society, a policy research organisation, has been at the forefront of negotiations at WIPO to get the treaty through. Minutes after the session concluded, Pranesh Prakash, policy Director at CIS and his colleague Sunil Abraham were tweeting ecstatically about the “win”.<br /><br />For five long years, this Wipo treaty has witnessed contentious discussions on issues such as including exports of copyrighted works, translations of copyrighted works and so on. According to Prakash, who responded over twitter, “On Exports we won, but re-exports which was earlier permitted has become much more difficult.”<br /> <br />There are also other grainy areas such as commercial availability of the books. According to a post on the Intellectual Property Watch website, soon after the agreement was reached, commercial availability still stands under Article 4 (National Law Limitations and Exceptions on Accessible Format Copies) but has disappeared from Article 5 (cross border exchange of accessible format copies).<br /> <br />Although blind music legend Stevie Wonder, one of the most ardent supporters of the treaty, must be crooning Signed, Sealed, Delivered... it’s early days yet. The draft of the treaty has to be ratified by governments before being adopted.<br /> <br />But for five long years, it has been a long hard battle between copyright owners and those fighting for human rights of the visually impaired. Finally, as one observer, put it: 'a rare victory is in sight for human rights'.</div>
</div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/news/business-world-june-26-2013-chitra-narayanan-a-treat-for-the-blind'>http://editors.cis-india.org/news/business-world-june-26-2013-chitra-narayanan-a-treat-for-the-blind</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaCopyrightAccessibilityAccess to Knowledge2013-07-11T06:02:27ZNews ItemNational Resource Kit: The Jammu & Kashmir Chapter (Revised)
http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/national-resource-kit-jammu-kashmir-call-for-comments
<b>The National Resource Kit team is pleased to bring you its research on the state of laws, policies and programmes for persons with disabilities in the state of Jammu and Kashmir</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Department of Social Welfare is responsible for the welfare of persons with disabilities in Jammu & Kashmir. The state has an estimated population of <a class="external-link" href="http://www.socialjustice.nic.in/statewisedisabled.php">3,02,670</a> persons with disabilities in a total population of <a class="external-link" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jammu_and_Kashmir">12,548,926</a> people.</p>
<hr />
<p>Click to <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/jammu-kashmir-chapter.pdf" class="external-link">download the full chapter</a> (PDF, 179 Kb)</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/national-resource-kit-jammu-kashmir-call-for-comments'>http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/national-resource-kit-jammu-kashmir-call-for-comments</a>
</p>
No publisheranandiAccessibility2014-02-20T09:46:00ZBlog EntryCIS anniversary
http://editors.cis-india.org/news/the-hindu-business-line-may-5-2013-cis-anniversary
<b>The Centre for Internet and Society will celebrate five years of its existence with an exhibition showcasing its works and accomplishments. </b>
<hr />
<p class="body" style="text-align: justify; ">This was published in <a class="external-link" href="http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/cis-anniversary/article4686344.ece">Hindu Business Line</a> on May 5, 2013</p>
<hr />
<p class="body" style="text-align: justify; ">The exhibition will be held concurrently at both Bangalore and Delhi offices from May 20 to 24, 2013, said a press release.</p>
<p class="body" style="text-align: justify; ">“To promote transparency, we're getting the general public to be our auditors by throwing open our account books and contracts which show how we have spent the Rs 8.3 crore received from our donors.”</p>
<p class="body" style="text-align: justify; ">The exhibition will also see artists like Kiran Subbaiah, Tara Kelton, Navin Thomas, Abhishek Hazra, among others exhibiting their works, as well as lectures.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/news/the-hindu-business-line-may-5-2013-cis-anniversary'>http://editors.cis-india.org/news/the-hindu-business-line-may-5-2013-cis-anniversary</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeDigital NativesTelecomAccessibilityInternet GovernanceOpennessResearchers at Work2013-05-06T07:28:07ZNews ItemStakeholders Meeting of the USOF on Facilitating ICT Access to Persons with Disabilities in Rural Areas
http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/usof-meeting
<b>The Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF), a fund set up to provide universal access to telegraph services to rural and remote areas in India organized a stakeholders meeting on 7th September in New Delhi to launch a new scheme for supporting pilot projects for facilitating access to persons with disabilities in rural areas. Nirmita Narasimhan participated in this meeting and made a presentation.</b>
<p>The meeting was attended by representatives of the associations of service providers and manufacturers like Telecom Equipment Manufacturers Association of India (TEMA) and Sasken Communication Technologies, civil society organizations working for the disabled like Accenture on "ICT Initiatives for Connecting Persons with Disabilities" (AICB), Saksham, Equal Opportunities Cell from Delhi University, technology companies like Intel, educational institutions like NIOS and representatives from other ministries and departments such as MHRD.</p>
<p>The meeting began with a key note from the Administrator, USOF and a presentation from the Joint Administrator (Finance), USOF, introducing the scheme. This was followed by presentations from various stakeholders. It was agreed that the first step towards inviting projects would be the identification of problems by disability organizations to ensure that project ideas would be in line with the needs of persons with disabilities. Importantly, the Joint Administrator stressed that although projects could only be submitted by service providers, it would be important for each project to have a strong partnership of service providers, content developers and disability organizations to ensure that the solutions sought to be achieved through the projects would be a holistic one. The USOF has not yet settled on any upper ceiling for the projects: this will be determined once the projects start coming in. Projects will be evaluated by a select committee on a qualitative basis. The size of the pilot projects is to be small, possibly at a district level. Based on the success of the projects, these would then be considered for scaling up.</p>
<p><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/uso.jpg/image_preview" alt="USOF Meet in New Delhi" class="image-inline image-inline" title="USOF Meet in New Delhi" /></p>
<ul><li>Download <strong>Nirmita's presentation</strong> <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/usof-stakeholders-meeting.ppt" class="internal-link" title="Stakeholders' Meeting of USOF - Presentation by Nirmita Narasimhan">here</a> [Powerpoint file, 227 kb]</li><li>For agenda, click <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/usof-meeting-agenda.doc/view" class="external-link">here</a></li><li>For more info about the event, see the <a class="external-link" href="http://usof.gov.in/usof-cms/disabled.htm">USOF website</a></li></ul>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/usof-meeting'>http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/usof-meeting</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaMeetingAccessibility2011-11-08T05:55:39ZBlog EntryCIS-TWN Analysis of WIPO Treaty for the Print Disabled (SCCR/22/15)
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/cis-analysis-july2011-treaty-print-disabilities
<b>CIS and the Third World Network (TWN) conducted a quick analysis of the "Consensus document on an international instrument on limitations and exceptions for persons with print disabilities presented by Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, and the United States of America" presented as WIPO document numbered SCCR/22/15.</b>
<h1>SCCR/22/15</h1>
<p>ORIGINAL: English</p>
<p>DATE: June 20, 2011</p>
<p>Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights</p>
<p>Twenty-Second Session Geneva, June 15 to 24, 2011</p>
<p>Consensus document on an international instrument on limitations and exceptions for persons with print disabilities <i>presented by Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, and the United States of America</i></p>
<h2 id="preamble">PREAMBLE</h2>
<p>Recalling the principles of non-discrimination, equal opportunity and access, proclaimed in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities,</p>
<p>Mindful of the obstacles that are prejudicial to human development and the fulfillment of disabled persons with regard to education, research, access to information and communication,</p>
<p>Emphasizing the importance of copyright protection as an incentive for literary and artistic creation and enhancing opportunities for everyone to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits,</p>
<p>Recognizing the importance of both accessibility to the achievement of equal opportunities in all spheres of society and of the protection of the rights of authors in their literary and artistic works in a manner as effective and uniform as possible,</p>
<p>Aware of the many barriers to access to information and communication experienced by persons who are blind or have limited vision, or have other disabilities regarding access to published works,</p>
<p>Aware that the majority of visually impaired persons/persons with a print disability live in countries of low or moderate incomes,</p>
<p>Desiring to provide full and equal access to information, culture and communication for the visually impaired persons/persons with a print disability and, towards that end, considering the need both to expand the number of works in accessible formats and to improve access to those works,</p>
<p>Recognizing the opportunities and challenges for the visually impaired/persons with a print disability presented by the development of new information and communication technologies, including technological publishing and communication platforms that are transnational in nature,</p>
<p>Recognizing the need to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers,</p>
<p>Aware that national copyright legislation is territorial in nature, and where activity is undertaken across jurisdictions, uncertainty regarding the legality of activity undermines the development and use of new technologies and services that can potentially improve the lives of the visually impaired/persons with print disabilities,</p>
<p>Recognizing the large number of Members who, to that end, have established exceptions and limitations in their national copyright laws for visually impaired persons/persons with a print disability, yet the continuing shortage of works in <s>special</s><span style="text-decoration: underline;">accessible</span> formats for such persons,</p>
<p>Recognizing that the preference is for works to be made accessible by rightholders to people with disabilities at publication and that, to the extent that the market is unable to provide appropriate access to works for visually impaired persons/persons with a print disability, it is recognized that alternative measures are needed to improve such access,</p>
<p>Recognizing the need to maintain a balance between the rights of authors and the larger public interest, particularly education, research and access to information, and that such a balance must facilitate effective and timely access to works for the benefit of visually impaired persons/persons with a print disability,</p>
<p>Emphasizing the importance and flexibility of the three-step test for limitations and exceptions established in Article 9(2) of the Berne Convention and other international instruments,</p>
<p>Considering the discussions within the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights on the issue of exceptions and limitations for the benefit of visually impaired persons/persons with a print disability and the various proposals tabled by Member States,</p>
<p>Prompted by a desire to contribute to the implementation of the relevant recommendations of the Development Agenda of the World Intellectual Property Organization,</p>
<p>Taking into account the importance of an international legal instrument/joint recommendation/treaty both to increase the number and range of accessible format works available to visually impaired persons/persons with a print disability in the world and to provide the necessary minimum flexibilities in copyright laws that are needed to ensure full and equal access to information and communication for persons who are visually impaired/have a print disability in order to support their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others and to ensure the opportunity to develop and utilize their creative, artistic and intellectual potential, for their own benefit and for the enrichment of society,</p>
<p>Have agreed as follows:</p>
<h2 id="article-a">ARTICLE A</h2>
<h2 id="definitions">DEFINITIONS</h2>
<p>For purposes of these provisions</p>
<p>"work" means a work in which copyright subsists, whether published or otherwise made publicly available in any media.</p>
<p>"accessible format copy" means a copy of a work in an alternative manner or form which gives a beneficiary person access to the work, including to permit the person to have access as feasibly and comfortably as a person without a print disability. The accessible format copy must respect the integrity of the original work and be used exclusively by <span style="text-decoration: underline;">beneficiary persons</span><s>persons with print disabilities</s>.<sup><a class="footnoteRef" href="#fn1" id="fnref1">1</a></sup></p>
<p>[Possible enumeration of different formats.]<sup><a class="footnoteRef" href="#fn2" id="fnref2">2</a></sup></p>
<p>"authorized entity" means a governmental agency, a non-profit entity or <span style="text-decoration: underline;">an</span><s>non-profit</s> organization<sup><a class="footnoteRef" href="#fn3" id="fnref3">3</a></sup> that has as one of its <s>primary missions</s><span style="text-decoration: underline;">activities</span> to assist persons with print disabilities by providing them with services relating to education, training, adaptive reading, or information access.</p>
<p>An authorized entity maintains policies and procedures to establish the bona fide nature of persons with print disabilities that they serve.</p>
<p><s>An authorized entity has the trust of both persons with print disabilities and copyright rights holders. It is understood that to obtain the trust of rightholders and beneficiary persons, it is not necessary to require the prior permission of said rightholders or beneficiary persons.</s><sup><a class="footnoteRef" href="#fn4" id="fnref4">4</a></sup></p>
<p><s>If an authorized entity is a nation-wide network of organizations, then all organizations, institutions, and entities that participate in the network must adhere to these characteristics.</s></p>
<p>"reasonable price for developed countries" means that the accessible format copy of the work is available at a similar or lower price than the price of the work available to persons without print disabilities in that market.</p>
<p>"reasonable price for developing countries" means that the accessible format copy of the work is available at prices that are affordable in that market, taking into account the humanitarian needs of persons with print disabilities.</p>
<p>References to 'copyright' include copyright and any relevant rights related to copyright that are provided by a Contracting Party in compliance with <s>the Rome Convention, the TRIPS Agreement, the WPPT or otherwise</s>any applicable international treaties or otherwise.<sup><a class="footnoteRef" href="#fn5" id="fnref5">5</a></sup></p>
<h2 id="article-b">ARTICLE B</h2>
<h2 id="beneficiary-persons">BENEFICIARY PERSONS</h2>
<p>A beneficiary person is a person who</p>
<ol style="list-style-type: lower-alpha; ">
<li>is blind;</li>
<li>has a visual impairment or a perceptual or reading disability, such as dyslexia, which cannot be improved by the use of corrective lenses to give visual function substantially equivalent to that of a person who has no such impairment or disability and so is unable to read printed works to substantially the same degree as a person without an impairment or disability; or</li>
<li>is unable, through physical disability, to hold or manipulate a book or to focus or move the eyes to the extent that would be normally acceptable for reading.</li>
</ol>
<h2 id="article-c">ARTICLE C</h2>
<h2 id="national-law-exceptions-on-accessible-format-copies">NATIONAL LAW EXCEPTIONS ON ACCESSIBLE FORMAT COPIES</h2>
<ol style="list-style-type: decimal; ">
<li>
<p>Member State/Contracting Party should/shall provide in their national copyright law for an exception or limitation to the right of reproduction, the right of distribution and the right of making available to the public, as defined in article 8 of the WCT, for beneficiary persons as defined herein.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>A Member State/Contracting Party may fulfill Article C (1) by providing an exception or limitation in its national copyright law such that</p>
<ol style="list-style-type: upper-alpha; ">
<li>
<p>Authorized entities shall be permitted without the authorization of the owner of copyright to make an accessible format copy of a work, supply that accessible format copy or an accessible format copy obtained from another authorized entity to a beneficiary person by any means, including by non-commercial lending or by electronic communication by wire or wireless means, and undertake any intermediate steps to achieve these objectives, when all of the following conditions are met:</p>
<ol style="list-style-type: decimal; ">
<li>the authorized entity wishing to undertake said activity has lawful access to that work or a copy of that work;</li>
<li>the work is converted to an accessible format copy, which may include any means needed to navigate information in the accessible format, but does not introduce changes other than those needed to make the work accessible to the beneficiary person;</li>
<li>copies of the work in the accessible format are supplied exclusively to be used by beneficiary persons; and </li>
<li><s>4. the activity is undertaken on a non-profit basis. </s><sup><a class="footnoteRef" href="#fn6" id="fnref6">6</a></sup></li>
<li>
<p>A beneficiary person or someone acting on his or her behalf may make an accessible format copy of a work for the personal use of the beneficiary person where the beneficiary person has lawful access to that work or a copy of that work.</p>
</li>
</ol> </li>
<li>
<p>A Member State/Contracting Party may fulfill Article C (1) by providing any other exception or limitation in its national copyright law that is limited to certain special cases which do not conflict with a normal exploitation of the work and do not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the right holder.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The Member State/Contracting Party may limit said exceptions or limitations to published works which, in the applicable <s>special</s><span style="text-decoration: underline;">accessible</span> format, cannot be otherwise obtained within a reasonable time and at a reasonable price.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>It shall be a matter for national law to determine whether exceptions or limitations referred to in this Article are subject to remuneration.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<h2 id="article-d">ARTICLE D</h2>
<h2 id="cross-border-exchange-of-accessible-format-copies">CROSS-BORDER EXCHANGE OF ACCESSIBLE FORMAT COPIES</h2>
<ol style="list-style-type: decimal; ">
<li>
<p>Member States/Contracting Parties should/shall provide that if an accessible format copy of a work is made under an exception or limitation or export license in their national law, that accessible format copy may be distributed or made available to a beneficiary person in another Member State/Contracting Party by an authorized entity<s> where that other Member State/Contracting Party would permit that beneficiary person to make or import that accessible copy</s>.<sup><a class="footnoteRef" href="#fn7" id="fnref7">7</a></sup></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>A Member State/Contracting Party may fulfill Article D(1) by providing an exception or limitation in its national copyright law such that:</p>
<ol style="list-style-type: upper-alpha; ">
<li>
<p>Authorized entities shall be permitted without the authorization of the owner of copyright to distribute or make available accessible format copies to authorized entities in other Member States/Contracting Parties for the exclusive use of persons with print disabilities, where such activity is undertaken on a non-profit basis.<sup><a class="footnoteRef" href="#fn8" id="fnref8">8</a></sup></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Authorized entities shall be permitted without the authorization of the owner of copyright to distribute or make available accessible format copies to persons with print disabilities in other Member States/Contracting Parties where the authorized entity has verified the individual is properly entitled to receive such accessible format copies under that other Member State/Contracting Party's national law.<sup><a class="footnoteRef" href="#fn9" id="fnref9">9</a></sup></p>
</li>
</ol> </li>
</ol>
<p>The Member State/Contracting Party may limit said distribution or making available to published works which, in the applicable <s>special</s><span style="text-decoration: underline;">accessible</span> format, cannot be otherwise obtained within a reasonable time and at a reasonable price, in the country of importation.</p>
<ol style="list-style-type: decimal; ">
<li><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Without prejudice to other exceptions to the exclusive rights of authors that are otherwise permitted by the Berne Convention or the TRIPS Agreement,</span> a Member State/Contracting Party may fulfill Article D(1) by providing any other exception or limitation in its national copyright law that is limited to certain special cases which do not conflict with a normal exploitation of the work and do not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the right holder.</li>
</ol>
<h2 id="article-e">ARTICLE E</h2>
<h2 id="importation-of-accessible-format-copies">IMPORTATION OF ACCESSIBLE FORMAT COPIES</h2>
<p>To the extent that national law would permit a beneficiary person or an authorized entity acting on the beneficiary person’s behalf to make an accessible format copy of a work, the national law should/shall permit a beneficiary person or an authorized entity acting on that person's behalf to import an accessible format copy.<sup><a class="footnoteRef" href="#fn10" id="fnref10">10</a></sup></p>
<h2 id="article-f">ARTICLE F</h2>
<h2 id="circumvention-of-technological-protection-measures"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">CIRCUMVENTION OF </span>TECHNOLOGICAL PROTECTION MEASURES</h2>
<p>Member States/Contracting Parties should/shall ensure that beneficiaries of the exception provided by Article C have the means to enjoy the exception where technological protection measures have been applied to a work.</p>
<p><s>In the absence of voluntary measures by rightholders and to the extent that copies of the work in the accessible format are not available commercially at a reasonable price or via authorized entities, Member States/Contracting Parties should/shall take appropriate measures to ensure that beneficiaries of the exception provided by Article C have the means of benefiting from that exception when technical protection measures have been applied to a work, to the extent necessary to benefit from that exception.</s><sup><a class="footnoteRef" href="#fn11" id="fnref11">11</a></sup></p>
<h2 id="article-g"><s>ARTICLE G</s></h2>
<h2 id="relationship-with-contracts"><s>RELATIONSHIP WITH CONTRACTS</s></h2>
<p><s>Nothing herein shall prevent Member States/Contracting Parties from addressing the relationship of contract law and statutory exceptions and limitations for beneficiary persons.</s></p>
<h2 id="article-h">ARTICLE H</h2>
<h2 id="respect-for-privacy">RESPECT FOR PRIVACY</h2>
<p>In the implementation of these exceptions and limitations, Member States/Contracting Parties should/shall endeavour to protect the privacy of beneficiary persons on an equal basis with others.</p>
<p>[End of document]</p>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr />
<ol>
<li id="fn1">
<p>This change must be replicated everywhere where appropriate. <a class="footnoteBackLink" href="#fnref1" title="Jump back to footnote 1">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn2">
<p>Formats should not be enumerated, since even the disabilities are not enumerated. <a class="footnoteBackLink" href="#fnref2" title="Jump back to footnote 2">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn3">
<p>Non-profit organizations alone cannot cope with the needs of visually impaired people in the developing world. Thus, while it may sound like the ideal, it is impractical given the realities of the situation in the developing world. <a class="footnoteBackLink" href="#fnref3" title="Jump back to footnote 3">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn4">
<p>A "trust" system would make it impossible for developing countries to actualize these provisions. If despite this, copyright infringement happens, then national remedies exist for such infringement. <a class="footnoteBackLink" href="#fnref4" title="Jump back to footnote 4">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn5">
<p>To clarify: what is the purpose of these and not mentioning WCT, Berne, etc.? <a class="footnoteBackLink" href="#fnref5" title="Jump back to footnote 5">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn6">
<p>To be deleted for the same reasons as above. Non-profit basis, if insisted upon, can be retained in Article D(2)(A), but not here. <a class="footnoteBackLink" href="#fnref6" title="Jump back to footnote 6">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn7">
<p>Import law provisions are already there in Article E, and should remain there. In Art. E, it states, “shall permit” import, and here, “would permit”. <a class="footnoteBackLink" href="#fnref7" title="Jump back to footnote 7">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn8">
<p>This instance of "non-profit basis" may be retained if necessary. <a class="footnoteBackLink" href="#fnref8" title="Jump back to footnote 8">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn9">
<p>To clarify: what would such verification require? Would self-certification suffice? <a class="footnoteBackLink" href="#fnref9" title="Jump back to footnote 9">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn10">
<p>It should be clarified, possibly through an agreed statement, that nothing in this article shall derogate from the flexibility provided in Art. 6 of the TRIPS Agreement, which allows for countries to provide international exhaustion.</p>
<p>Thus, if the principle of international exhaustion is in place (i.e., parallel importation is allowed), then importation can be carried out by anyone, and not just by a beneficiary person or an authorized entity. <a class="footnoteBackLink" href="#fnref10" title="Jump back to footnote 10">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn11">
<p>This second paragraph weakens the principle established in the first by adding more conditions. They are almost phrased as alternatives, and the first alternative (paragraph) is the better one. <a class="footnoteBackLink" href="#fnref11" title="Jump back to footnote 11">↩</a></p>
</li>
</ol></div>
</li>
</ol>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/cis-analysis-july2011-treaty-print-disabilities'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/cis-analysis-july2011-treaty-print-disabilities</a>
</p>
No publisherpraneshIntellectual Property RightsAccessibilityAccess to KnowledgeWIPO2011-10-12T08:29:01ZBlog EntryCIS's Statement at SCCR 24 on the Treaty for the Visually Impaired
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/cis-statement-sccr24-treaty-visually-impaired
<b>This was the statement read out by Pranesh Prakash at the 24th meeting of the WIPO Standing Committee for Copyright and Related Rights in Geneva, on Friday, July 20, 2012.</b>
<p>Thank you, Mr. Chairman.<br />
</p>
<p>I would like to associate CIS with the statements made by the WBU, eIFL, IFLA, KEI, ISOC, and CLA.</p>
<p>We NGOs been making statements at SCCR on this the topic of a treaty for the reading-disabled since 2009 now.</p>
<p>In this room there are a number of organizations that work with and for persons with disabilities which come here to Geneva, SCCR after SCCR. They do not come here to watch the enactment of an elaborate ritual, but to seek solutions for the very real knowledge drought that is being faced by the reading-disabled everywhere, and particularly in developing countries.</p>
<p>The way work on this treaty — or rather this binding-or-non-binding international instrument — has been stalled by some member states is a matter of shame. In India our Parliament recently passed an amendment to our copyright law that grants persons with disabilities, and those who are working for them, a strong yet simply-worded right to have equal access to copyrighted works as sighted persons.</p>
<p>An instrument that lays down detailed guidelines on rules and procedures to be followed by authorized entities will not work. An instrument that subjects the enjoyment of fundamental freedoms by persons with visual impairments to market forces and bureaucratic practices will not work.<br />
</p>
<p>Importantly, an instrument that ignores realities of the world: that the vast majority of persons with visual impairment live in developing countries just will not work.</p>
<p>I implore the delegations here to keep up the constructive spirit I have seen most of them display in the past two days, and ensure that the 2012 General Assembly convenes a Diplomatic Conference on this topic.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/cis-statement-sccr24-treaty-visually-impaired'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/cis-statement-sccr24-treaty-visually-impaired</a>
</p>
No publisherpraneshCopyrightIntellectual Property RightsAccessibilityAccess to Knowledge2012-07-22T12:01:28ZBlog EntryGST - A Barrier to Human Rights for Persons with Disabilities
http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/gst-a-barrier-to-human-rights-for-persons-with-disabilities
<b>The Centre of Internet & Society made a submission on the Goods and Services Tax (GST) which will be coming into play from July 2017 onwards. In this blog post Nirmita Narasimhan assesses the impact of GST on persons with disabilities. </b>
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<th><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/ShuttleworthFoundation.jpg" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="Shuttleworth Foundation" /></th>
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<td>Logo of Shuttleworth Foundation above</td>
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<p style="text-align: justify;">The GST Acts - Central Goods and Services Tax Act, Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act and the Union Territory Goods and Services Tax Act passed on 12 April 2017 and the subsequent notification of the Revised GST Rate for Certain Goods on 11th June 2017 have serious and severe implications on basic rights and freedoms for persons with disabilities, hindering them from living independently and pursuing education, and employment. This note outlines the impact of the GST measures as well as recommendations to ensure that the rights of persons with disabilities are not compromised.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">Problem Statement</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">As per the 2011 census, India has over 21 million people with disabilities which is around 2.17% of the population. Persons with disabilities face many hurdles in education and employment which is reflected in the low effective literacy rate of 59%, far below the national level of 74.04% as well as a low work participation rate at 36.3%.<a name="fr1" href="#fn1">[1]</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Lower levels of literacy and employment in turn imply lower income levels for this group. Thus, additional support through policy, financial and operational measures is required to help persons with disabilities participate fully in the economy. The new GST rules however, seek to impose tax on assistive technologies and goods and services which are essential for the advancement of persons with disabilities, hampering their mobility and ability to participate in education and employment thus further compounding the disadvantages already faced by this group.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">Main Concerns</h3>
<p>The specific GST provisions that negatively impact persons with disabilities include:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">5% GST on Braille typewriters, Braille paper, Braille watches and Braillers (originally set to 18% for typewriters and 12% for Braille paper and watches and reduced after protests from organizations like the National Centre for Promotion of Employment of Disabled People (NCPEDP), the Disability Rights Organisations Forum (DROF), and various regional groups)<a name="fr2" href="#fn2">[2]</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">12% GST on Orthopaedic appliances, including crutches, surgical belts and trusses; splints and other fracture appliances; artificial parts of the body; hearing aids and other appliances which are worn or carried, or implanted in the body, to compensate for a defect or disability. Hearing aids have also been listed under the list of goods with nil taxes, which is contradictory.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">18% GST on motor vehicles for persons with disabilities.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Braille books are exempt from the tax while other Braille implements are not.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">IT software, consulting and support services, online text, audio and video, software downloads etc. have all been classified but no GST rate has been quoted, which implies that they are taxed at 18%. This means software like screen readers, assistive software for persons with cognitive disabilities, online text etc. which are essential aspects of communications and information access for persons with disabilities will also be taxed at 18%, which will severely hamper their ability to communicate and even carry out daily tasks.</li></ul>
<h3>GST – Hampering Accessibility and Inclusion</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Under the existing tax regime, many of these goods have traditionally been exempt from indirect taxes such as VAT, excise and customs. Even with the exemptions, assistive technologies have not been affordable. However, with the addition of GST, the situation becomes even more dire. For instance, according to India Today, the current market price for a Braille typewriter is about INR 34,000<a name="fr3" href="#fn3">[3]</a>, or over 20 times higher than the monthly income of an impoverished urban Indian. Even with the new 5 percent GST (a reduction from the previous 18 percent), this would work out to INR 35,700. Given that 29.5 percent of the total population of India remained below the poverty line in 2011-12 and had a monthly per capita consumption of less than INR 972 in rural areas and INR 1407 in urban areas, <a name="fr4" href="#fn4">[4]</a> assistive technology would be prohibitively expensive even for the average Indian, let alone persons with disabilities.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">GST – Discriminatory against Persons with Disabilities</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The proposed GST on assistive technology is not only detrimental to the use of assistive technology, it discriminates against the right to equality of persons with disabilities.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Tools necessary for people pursuing their livelihood, such as agricultural implements and hand tools such as spades, shovels, mattocks, etc. used in agriculture, horticulture and forestry are exempt from any tax. However, assistive technologies which are just as vital for the education and livelihood of persons with disabilities, have been included in the list of items taxed under GST. While the Government of India’s move to protect the livelihood of agricultural workers is commendable, it needs to equally protect the right to livelihood of persons with disabilities who are working - 31% of whom are in the agricultural sector and will suffer from the imposition of GST.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">GST – Impacting Mobility</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The proposed GST on motor vehicles for persons with disabilities also impacts their right to mobility as per Article 41(2) of the Persons with Disabilities Act which calls for the government of India to “promote the personal mobility of persons with disabilities at affordable cost” through measures including incentives and concessions. The imposition of such a high tax on car purchases by persons with disabilities is in direct contravention of this.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">Legal Framework</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The proposed GST implementation and tax on products and services that are critical for persons with disabilities to pursue independence, literacy and employment with dignity runs counter to both national and international law to which India is a signatory.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Article 38 of the Constitution of India also requires the government to minimize inequalities in income, status, facilities and opportunities among individuals and groups of people.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016, enjoin the government to utilise the capacity of persons with disabilities by providing appropriate environment (Art 3(2) ) and take necessary steps to ensure reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities (Art 3(5)).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which India has signed and ratified, calls on nations to promote the development and adoption of assistive technologies and devices for persons with disabilities, again “giving priority to technologies at an affordable cost.” (Article 4 (g)). Additional provisions include:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Art 4 – General Obligations asks states parties to take into account the protection and promotion of the human rights of persons with disabilities in all policies and programmes; </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Art 5 (3) - asks States Parties to take all appropriate steps to ensure that reasonable accommodation is provided </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Article 20 also requires nations to facilitate access to mobility aids, assistive technologies and other intermediaries, and requires that they be made available at affordable cost. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Art 24 on Education enjoins States parties to ensure persons with disabilities have access to inclusive education, that reasonable accommodation is provided and use of Braille, alternative modes and formats is facilitated </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Art 27 on Work and employment required nations to protect the rights of persons with disabilities, on an equal basis with others, to just and favourable conditions of work </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Art 29 on participation in political and public life advocates the creation of an environment that enables persons with disabilities to participate fully and effectively in the conduct of public affairs </li></ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">International Practices</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">While developed countries do levy some tax on assistive technology and devices used by persons with disabilities, these are typically lower than the general rates. Countries in the EU levy lower VAT rates on medical equipment for persons with disabilities <a name="fr5" href="#fn5">[5]</a> for instance 6% in Belgium and 3% in Luxembourg. However, a point to be noted here is that the literacy and employment rates for persons with disabilities in these countries are much higher than in India, where the low literacy and work participation mean that even low levels of taxation on assistive technology make items prohibitively expensive.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">An alternative approach more suitable in the Indian context, is that followed by developing countries such as Brazil and the Philippines. In Brazil, which has around 16 million <a name="fr6" href="#fn6">[6] </a>persons with disabilities, the import and sale of assistive technologies such as wheelchairs, Braille machines, calculators with voice synthesizers and hearing aids are exempt from major federal taxes. In addition, persons with disabilities wishing to buy a car also enjoy exemptions from several federal and municipal taxes. <a name="fr7" href="#fn7">[7] </a>In the Philippines, where 1.57 % of the population <a name="fr8" href="#fn8">[8] </a>have some form of disability, the Republic Act 9442<a name="fr9" href="#fn9">[9]</a> guarantees a 20 per cent discount for persons with disabilities and also provides assistance for education. Discounted goods and services include:</p>
<ul>
<li>Restaurants, hotels and other recreation centers </li>
<li>Theaters, concert halls, carnivals, and other cultural and leisure centers </li>
<li>The purchase of medicines from drugstores </li>
<li>Medical, diagnostic and laboratory fees </li>
<li>Medical and dental service, including doctors’ fees </li>
<li>Domestic air and sea travel </li>
<li>Public railways, skyways, and bus fare </li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In addition to this, Republic Act 10754 <a name="fr10" href="#fn10">[10]</a> adds an exemption from the 12 percent VAT for persons with disabilities as well. Both of these represent a significant discount.</p>
<h3>Conclusion</h3>
<ol>
<li style="text-align: justify;">We fully concur with the representations made by different organisations working for persons with disabilities in India seeking a complete roll back of GST for persons with disabilities. India has in the past, refrained from taxing the disabled deliberately, keeping in mind their particular needs and circumstances and nothing has changed in the past few years to warrant this move. Persons with disabilities remain below the poverty line, without access to information, resources and the ability to enjoy even their basic human rights to live a life of freedom, independence, dignity, inclusion and participation. It is unconscionable to place such articles of basic need such as crutches and wheel chairs without which a person cannot even move on the same level as other goods. Certainly these are more basic than other items such as glass bangles or kajal which are not subject to GST or semi-precious stones which are taxed at a very minimum.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Rolling back GST would be in accordance with national and international legal commitment. India cannot place itself on the same level as countries in the EU for taxing the disabled; we do not have the same infrastructure and resources which these countries have made available for their disabled citizens, nor the social security measures which they offer. They are better placed in terms of development and progress of the disabled, with regard to education, employment and daily living. We cannot impose 18% tax on vehicles for the disabled while we are not providing them with a completely functional accessible transport network, accessible roads and a barrier-free environment. A very small percentage of persons with disabilities in India is actually living a full and complete life with access to resources and aids, an imposition of tax will further minimise chances of progress in the years to come of empowerment and emancipation of persons with disabilities. India has been a thought leader in the field of disability internationally in terms of its policies and served as an inspiration to countries around us. We were one of the earliest countries to sign and ratify the UNCRPD, as well as the first country to ratify the Marrakesh Treaty more recently in 2014. We do not lack in spirit, however do not always follow up with action. The roll back on GST would be an appropriate move in line with our commitment to enable human rights for persons with disabilities and empower them with the use of technology and other tools and resources. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Specified exemptions for use of assistive technologies- Technology has proven a source of tremendous empowerment to persons with disabilities. Given that most ICTs are to be taxed at 18%, we strongly urge the government to specifically exclude all ICTs and downloaded software and content which are intended for persons with disabilities from tax. By imposing tax on an enabling technology, it would be tantamount to imposing tax on a sensory organ, i.e., by imposing tax on a hearing aid or screen reader, which would enable a deaf person to hear/ a blind person to read, it would be like imposing tax on ears or eyes. We hence strongly urge the government to reconsider the present move and set right the error which has been committed by subjecting goods and services for persons with disabilities to tax. We recommend review, complete roll back and explicit exemption on all goods and services for persons with disabilities from the purview of GST. </li></ol>
<p>23 June, 2017</p>
<hr />
<p>[<a name="fn1" href="#fr1">1</a>]. <a class="external-link" href="http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/population_enumeration.html">http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/population_enumeration.html</a></p>
<p>[<a name="fn2" href="#fr2">2</a>]. <a class="external-link" href="http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-otherstates/drag-seeks-rollback-of-gst-ondisability-aids/article19123085.ece">http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-otherstates/drag-seeks-rollback-of-gst-ondisability-aids/article19123085.ece</a></p>
<p>[<a name="fn3" href="#fr3">3</a>]. <a class="external-link" href="http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/gst-goods-and-services-tax-arun-jaitley-narendra-modi-disabledbraille/1/967920.html">http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/gst-goods-and-services-tax-arun-jaitley-narendra-modi-disabledbraille/1/967920.html</a></p>
<p>[<a name="fn4" href="#fr4">4</a>]. <a class="external-link" href="http://planningcommission.nic.in/reports/genrep/pov_rep0707.pdf">http://planningcommission.nic.in/reports/genrep/pov_rep0707.pdf</a></p>
<p>[<a name="fn5" href="#fr5">5</a>]. <a class="external-link" href="http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/sites/taxation/files/resources/documents/taxation/vat/how_vat_ works/rates/vat_rates_en.pdf">http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/sites/taxation/files/resources/documents/taxation/vat/how_vat_ works/rates/vat_rates_en.pdf</a></p>
<p>[<a name="fn6" href="#fr6">6</a>]. <a class="external-link" href="https://www.disabled-world.com/news/south-america/">https://www.disabled-world.com/news/south-america/</a></p>
<p>[<a name="fn7" href="#fr7">7</a>]. <a class="external-link" href="http://thebrazilbusiness.com/article/tax-reduction-for-people-with-disabilities">http://thebrazilbusiness.com/article/tax-reduction-for-people-with-disabilities</a></p>
<p>[<a name="fn8" href="#fr8">8</a>]. <a class="external-link" href="https://psa.gov.ph/content/persons-disability-philippines-results-2010-census">https://psa.gov.ph/content/persons-disability-philippines-results-2010-census</a></p>
<p>[<a name="fn9" href="#fr9">9</a>]. <a class="external-link" href="http://www.ncda.gov.ph/disability-laws/republic-acts/republic-act-9442/">http://www.ncda.gov.ph/disability-laws/republic-acts/republic-act-9442/</a></p>
<p>[<a name="fn10" href="#fr10">10</a>]. <a class="external-link" href="http://www.ncda.gov.ph/disability-laws/implementing-rules-and-regulations-irr/irr-of-ra-10754-anact-expanding-the-benefits-and-privileges-of-persons-with-disability-pwd/">http://www.ncda.gov.ph/disability-laws/implementing-rules-and-regulations-irr/irr-of-ra-10754-anact-expanding-the-benefits-and-privileges-of-persons-with-disability-pwd/</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/gst-a-barrier-to-human-rights-for-persons-with-disabilities'>http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/gst-a-barrier-to-human-rights-for-persons-with-disabilities</a>
</p>
No publishernirmitaAccessibility2017-06-25T14:15:05ZBlog EntryWhy GST Is A Step Backward For The Disabled
http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/why-gst-is-a-step-backward-for-the-disabled
<b>Imposing taxes on assistive devices is unfair. The countdown has begun to the implementation of the GST in India. Over the past month, discussions about the GST have dominated the scene with several groups protesting in strong measure about the impact on their business.</b>
<p>The article by Nirmita Narasimhan was published by <b><a class="external-link" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.in/nirmita-narasimhan/why-gst-is-a-step-backward-for-the-disabled_a_23009350/">Huffington Post</a></b> on July 1, 2017.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This post is concerned with the impact of an underrepresented group—that of persons with disabilities, who are facing severe impediments to their rights to independent living, mobility and participation if the GST is implemented as proposed in the present notification.</p>
<p class="callout" style="text-align: justify; ">It is unconscionable that disability aids and assistive technology are considered a luxury and taxed at a higher rate than rough semi-precious stones or cashew nuts.</p>
<p>The new GST rules seek to impose tax on assistive technologies and goods and services which are essential for the advancement of persons with disabilities and will consequently, hamper their mobility as well as ability to participate in education and employment.</p>
<p>Some noteworthy points are:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">5% GST on Braille typewriters, Braille paper, Braille watches and Braillers (originally set to 18% for typewriters and 12% for Braille paper and watches and reduced after protests from organisations like the National Centre for Promotion of Employment of Disabled People (NCPEDP), the Disability Rights Organisations Forum (DROF), and various regional groups. Only Braille books are exempt from the tax.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "> 12% GST on orthopaedic appliances, including crutches, surgical belts and trusses; splints and other fracture appliances; artificial parts of the body; hearing aids and other appliances which are worn or carried, or implanted in the body, to compensate for a defect or disability. Hearing aids have also been listed under the list of goods with nil taxes, which is contradictory.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li> 18% GST on motor vehicles for persons with disabilities.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "> IT software, consulting and support services, online text, audio and video, software downloads etc. have all been classified but no GST rate has been quoted, which implies that they are taxed at 18%. This means software like screen readers, assistive software for persons with cognitive disabilities, online text etc. which are essential aspects of communications and information access for persons with disabilities will also be taxed at 18%, which will severely hamper their ability to communicate and even carry out daily tasks.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">It is incomprehensible that the government should choose to impose a tax on the ability to walk, talk and deliberate using crutches, prosthetic limbs, hearing aids and communicating using assistive reading software for persons who have disabilities. It is unconscionable that disability aids and assistive technology are considered a luxury and taxed at a higher rate than rough semi-precious stones or cashew nuts. On the other hand, items such as kajal and glass bangles are not being taxed at all. Is ornamentation more important than the ability of persons with disabilities to lead their lives with dignity and independence? The current GST structure is discriminatory, making it even more difficult for persons with disabilities to participate in society, and contradicts the vision of an <a href="http://accessibleindia.gov.in/content/" rel="nofollow">Accessible India.</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Until we are able to assure the level of independence, accessibility and resources to the disabled to live a life of dignity like other countries do, we should not levy tax like them.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">India is measuring herself against other developed countries where a reduced percentage of tax is levied on goods and services for persons with disabilities. Unfortunately however, the comparison ends there and does not extend to providing world-class services and facilities for the disabled, such as accessible roads, transportation, information. It would be wiser to follow our own lead from the past decade when we had not levied any tax on such items. The progress of this group has been painfully slow thus far anyway, so what will happen if GST rates up to 18% are levied?</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As a country, we are not yet ready for this. We are still in a state where thousands of children with disabilities drop out of school even at the pre-primary level because they do not have the resources—technology, books, training and help—to pursue education. We still have a long way to go in terms of achieving basic rights for persons with disabilities, which is no longer the case in the developed countries that we seek to follow. The argument is hence not a blanket opposition to tax for persons with disabilities, just because they are disabled, but on the basis that until and unless we are able to assure the level of independence, accessibility and resources to the disabled to live a life of dignity and inclusion like other countries do, we should not consider levying tax like them. A person using a wheelchair in Germany can travel using public transport, but the same is impossible in India.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Once we are able to achieve the level of inclusion and accessibility of developed countries, we may consider taxing for certain items, although perhaps still not for all on the list. However, that time is not now. To build an inclusive society, we need to support persons with disabilities in all possible ways and imposing taxes on assistive devices will take us many steps backward.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/why-gst-is-a-step-backward-for-the-disabled'>http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/why-gst-is-a-step-backward-for-the-disabled</a>
</p>
No publishernirmitaAccessibility2017-07-03T02:39:18ZBlog EntryWSIS Forum 2017
http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/news/wsis-forum-2017
<b>WSIS Forum 2017 was held 12-16 June in Geneva, and included the participation of more than 85 high-level government and civil society representatives, as well as 500 remote interventions and thousands following the webcast. The forum was chaired by Mr Jean Philbert Nsengimana, Minister of Youth and ICT, Government of Rwanda, and co-organized by ITU, UNESCO, UNCTAD and UNDP, in close collaboration with all UN agencies. Nirmita Narasimhan participated in the forum.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The moderator, <b>Ms Andrea Saks</b> (Chair, Telecommunication Standardisation Sector (ITU-T) Joint Coordination Activity on Accessibility and Human Factors (JCA-AHF)), welcomed the audience and introduced the five panellists, two of whom were remote participants.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The first speaker, participating remotely from India, was <b>Ms Nirmita Narasimhan</b>, Policy Director, Centre of Internet and Society (CIS). Narasimhan heads the CIS accessibility inclusion programme and specialises in policy research and advocacy related to technology access for persons with disabilities. Narasimhan focused on a <a class="ext" href="https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Digital-Inclusion/Persons-with-Disabilities/Documents/Making%20Mobile-English.pdf">report<span class="ext"><span class="element-invisible"> (link is external)</span></span></a> jointly prepared by ITU and CIS, on how to leverage ICTs in an accessible manner to ensure that persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups are included in planning and responding to disasters and situations involving emergency situations. She raised four stages of <a class="ext" href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/emergency-services-report.pdf">preparedness<span class="ext"><span class="element-invisible"> (link is external)</span></span></a> for disaster management: (1) early warning planning including creating awareness, education, and training material as well as setting up technological infrastructure; (2) alerts as to when a disaster is happening and where to go for help; (3) recovery, what happens after the disaster; and (4) mitigation which leads back to planning and preparedness. Full report <a class="external-link" href="https://dig.watch/sessions/inclusive-icts-disaster-and-emergency-preparedness-persons-disabilities-and-those-specific">here</a>. More information on the event <a class="external-link" href="https://www.itu.int/net4/wsis/forum/2017/">here</a>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/news/wsis-forum-2017'>http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/news/wsis-forum-2017</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccessibility2017-07-18T02:00:44ZNews Item Google's Optical Character Recognition Software Now Works with All South Asian Languages
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/googles-optical-character-recognition-software-now-works-with-all-south-asian-languages
<b>The Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software by Google now works for more than 248 world languages, including all the major South Asian languages, and it's easy to use and works with over 90 percent accuracy for most languages.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This was published by <a class="external-link" href="https://globalvoices.org/2015/08/29/googles-optical-character-recognition-software-now-works-with-all-south-asian-languages/">Global Voices</a> on August 29, 2015.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The <a href="https://support.google.com/drive/answer/176692" target="_blank">Optical Character Recognition</a> (OCR) software by Google <a href="http://gadgets.ndtv.com/apps/news/google-drives-ocr-capabilities-expanded-to-over-200-languages-690194">now works</a> for more than 248 world languages, including all the major <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_South_Asia" target="_blank">South Asian languages</a>, and it's easy to use and works with over 90 percent accuracy for most languages.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_character_recognition" target="_blank">OCR</a> software has been extremely beneficial for the study of language, helping to extract text from images of virtually any printed text—and sometimes even handwriting, which opens the door to old texts, manuscripts, and more.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://gadgets.ndtv.com/apps/news/google-drives-ocr-capabilities-expanded-to-over-200-languages-690194">Ketan Pratap</a> at <i>NDTV Gadgets</i> writes:</p>
<blockquote style="text-align: justify; ">
<p>Users can start using the OCR capabilities in Drive by uploading scanned document in PDF or image form after which they can right-click on the document in Drive to open with Google Docs. After choosing the option, a document with the original image alongside extracted text opens, which can be edited. Google notes that users will not be required to specify the language of the document as the OCR in Drive will automatically determine it. The OCR capability in Google Drive is also available in Drive for Android.</p>
</blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">On Twitter, many users have welcomed and even celebrated this new feature from Google:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" style="text-align: justify; ">
<p dir="ltr">Optical Character Recognition <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OCR?src=hash">#OCR</a> in Google Drive recongnizes many indic languages including <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Kannada?src=hash">#Kannada</a> give it a try <a href="http://t.co/99UkCJQ6gb">http://t.co/99UkCJQ6gb</a></p>
<p>— Omshivaprakash (@omshivaprakash) <a href="https://twitter.com/omshivaprakash/status/637222750785011713">August 28, 2015</a></p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" style="text-align: justify; ">
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/shylobisnett">@shylobisnett</a> if you have access to a scanner, you can do OCR through google drive. works a bit faster.</p>
<p>— Whet Moser (@whet) <a href="https://twitter.com/whet/status/636922445971197952">August 27, 2015</a></p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" style="text-align: justify; ">
<p dir="ltr">Wow. Searching Google Drive for a keyword also returns results for images containing that keyword in the image. Didn't realise it did OCR.</p>
<p>— Mark Osborne (@mosborne01) <a href="https://twitter.com/mosborne01/status/636285805154078720">August 25, 2015</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Typically OCR software has difficulty reading the text on old documents or pages with blemishes and ink marks, spitting out gibberish instead of legible text.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Google's <a href="https://support.google.com/drive/answer/176692" target="_blank">support page</a> on this project shares additional details about character formatting, like its ability to preserve bold and italicized fonts in the output text:</p>
<blockquote style="text-align: justify; ">
<p>When processing your document, we attempt to preserve basic text formatting such as bold and italic text, font size and type, and line breaks. However, detecting these elements is difficult and we may not always succeed. Other text formatting and structuring elements such as bulleted and numbered lists, tables, text columns, and footnotes or endnotes are likely to get lost.</p>
</blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">For some of the languages, like Malayalam and Tamil, the OCR works with almost 100 percent accuracy, and includes support for formatting things like like auto-cropping, separating text by discarding images, and ignoring color backgrounds, explains Tamil user and Wikimedian Ravishankar Ayyakkannu on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ravidreams/posts/10154278945453569" target="_blank">Facebook</a>:</p>
<blockquote style="text-align: justify; ">
<p>[…] Google Tamil OCR works with 100% accuracy ! Keep testing with various samples and comment here. Performance has been the same for many other Indic languages too. […] A<span><span><span class="UFICommentBody"><span>uto crops, discards images and colored background. Recognizes different layouts. I could find only 1 mistake in whole page. Testing latest Vikatan – </span><a dir="ltr" href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OXre4-phQOayE0wyGTttQq-eD3Djt_alsuhkmS8BeRI/edit?usp=sharing" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://docs.google.com/…/1OXre4…/edit..</a> […]</span></span></span></p>
</blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(Bangla, Malayalam, Kannada, Odia, Tamil, and Telugu-language users have commented in the same post with feedback after testing the updated OCR software. For a few scripts, like Gurmukhi (used to write Punjabi), it turns out that the output after OCR is quite poor, resulting largely in gibberish, when testing a screenshot image from <a href="http://pa.wikipedia.org/" target="_blank">Punjabi Wikipedia</a>.)</p>
<table class="plain" style="text-align: justify; ">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th><img alt="Issues with Gurmukhi script after OCR using Google's OCR" class="size-medium wp-image-537788" height="285" src="https://globalvoicesonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Issues-with-Punjabi-400x285.jpg" width="400" /></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Issues with Gurmukhi script after OCR using Google's OCR. Screenshot from <a href="http://pa.wikipedia.org/" target="_blank">Punjabi Wikipedia</a>.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<div class="alignleft wp-caption" id="attachment_537788" style="text-align: justify; "></div>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This is quite a large leap for the languages with lots of old texts that are not yet digitized. Old and valuable texts in many languages could now be digitized and shared over the internet using platforms like <a href="https://wikisource.org" target="_blank">Wikisource</a> and could be preserved and made available for sharing knowledge.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Google's OCR partly uses <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesseract_%28software%29" target="_blank">Tesseract—</a>an OCR engine released as freeware. Developed as a community project between 1995 and 2006 (and later taken over by <a href="https://code.google.com/archive/p/tesseract-ocr/" target="_blank">Google</a>), Tesseract is considered to be one of the world's most accurate OCR engines and works for over 60 languages. The source code is now hosted at <a href="https://github.com/tesseract-ocr" target="_blank">https://github.com/tesseract-ocr</a>. Check <a href="https://goo.gl/3X75iR" target="_blank">this link</a> for the OCR outputs in various South Asian scripts.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/googles-optical-character-recognition-software-now-works-with-all-south-asian-languages'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/googles-optical-character-recognition-software-now-works-with-all-south-asian-languages</a>
</p>
No publishersubhaWikipediaAccessibilityAccess to Knowledge2015-09-26T14:31:15ZBlog EntryeSpeak Training in Hindi Language
http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/espeak-training-in-hindi-language-1
<b>National Association for the Blind, Kullu hosted a 2 day training in the use of eSpeak in Hindi language with NVDA for its special educators, in-service blind, and blind students. The programme was attended by 20 participants who came from all parts of Himachal Pradesh.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The event started with a round of introductions and expectations. Most of the participants expressed their desire to learn Hindi typing in order to either use it in their workplace or use it during their studies.<br /><br />This was followed by an introduction to NVDA. NVDA was new to most of the participants, and they were amazed to know the benefits of NVDA compared to other commercial screen readers.<br /><br />The next session was dedicated to installation of NVDA, introducing different menus and configurations options.<br /><br />This was followed by a comprehension of Hindi text. Barring just 2 candidates, all others were able to understand the text immediately.<br /><br />The day 2 started with Hindi keyboard. Participants were taught the use of Inscript keyboard. They were also taught configuring hindi keyboard in Windows.<br /><br />Writing words and short sentences was the next item in the training, in which most of the participants excelled beyond expectations. Most of them started writing sentences with ease.<br /><br />The post noon session was reserved for spreading awareness about different sources for obtaining accessible reading material, including Bookshare; android and its advantages, different sources for obtaining easy finance for purchase of computers and laptops, information about ADIP schemes.<br /><br />The workshop was covered by E-TV HP and they filmed the participants typing in Hindi.<br /><br />The event ended with a vote of thanks from the President NAB Kullu- Mrs. Shalini Vats.<br /><br /></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/espeak-training-in-hindi-language-1'>http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/espeak-training-in-hindi-language-1</a>
</p>
No publishernirmitaNVDAAccessibilityE-Speak2015-10-04T08:43:22ZBlog EntryReport on 5 day TOT for Training in Use of Espeak Kannada with NVDA
http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-5-day-tot-for-training-in-use-of-espeak-kannada-with-nvda
<b>A unique programme was organized in partnership with Mitra Jyothi – Bangalore, Enable India – Bangalore and NFB Karnataka. The aim of the programme was to empower the Computer Teacherrs for the blind in the use of Espeak Kannada and apprise them with Modern Teaching Techniques for the Blind. </b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The training programme was held from September 21 - 25, 2015 at Mithra Jyoti in Bangalore. Fourteen delegates attended the programme. Suresh, Sandesh and Moses from Enable India were the trainers. NFB Karnataka helped in sourcing the participants, Mitra Jyothi hosted the event and the female participants and the trainers were from Enable India.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The workshop started with a round of introductions and expectations from the participants. All the participants expressed various needs, which include the following:</p>
<ul>
<li>Need to learn to read and write in Kannada.</li>
<li>Need to learn new teaching Techniques.</li>
<li>Need to learn how to make accessible materials for teaching computers.</li>
<li>Need for learning EYE tool and /spelling tools.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><br />The participants were a blend of Sighted and Blind Trainers. The Sighted trainers were very keen in knowing all they could about the new Teaching Techniques and the Screen Readers. They were also excited to know more about Assistive Technology for partially sighted students.<br /><br />The Blind trainers showed special interest in NVDA and Assistive Technology.<br /><br />The Session began with an introduction to NVDA and its advantages followed by a detailed presentation by Suresh.<br /><br />The validation function was conducted by Major A. Singh – CEO Mitra Jyothi.<br /><br /></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-5-day-tot-for-training-in-use-of-espeak-kannada-with-nvda'>http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-5-day-tot-for-training-in-use-of-espeak-kannada-with-nvda</a>
</p>
No publishernirmitaAccessibilityE-Speak2015-10-04T10:34:33ZBlog EntrySeptember 2015 Bulletin
http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/september-2015-bulletin
<b></b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">We are happy to share with you the ninth issue of the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) newsletter (September 2015). It has been a significant month for public debates on the digital future of governance, citizenship, and economy in India, led by conversations around the draft National Encryption Policy, the Aadhaar number as a basis for provision of welfare services, the investigation of Google for potential abuse of market dominance by the Competition Commission of India, and the Guidelines for Examination of Computer Related Inventions released by the Indian Patents Office. We were busy engaging with these issues, and more.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">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; ">Sumandro Chattapadhyay, Research Director</p>
<blockquote><b><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/irc16-call">Internet Researchers' Conference (IRC) 2016 - Studying Internet in India</a></b><br /> With great excitement, we are announcing the beginning of an annual conference series titled Internet Researchers' Conference (IRC), the first edition of which is to take place in Delhi during February 25-27, 2016 (yet to be confirmed). We invite you to propose sessions for the conference by Sunday, November 15, 2015.</blockquote>
<p> </p>
<hr />
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">Highlights</h2>
<table class="grid listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>CIS sent an <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/open-letter-on-intellectual-property-rights-issues-during-your-visit-to-the-united-states-of-america-in-september-2015">Open Letter</a> to Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his US visit, requesting him to urge USA to ratify the Marrakesh Treaty.</li>
<li>During the month, NVDA team organized training programmes for the visually impaired at <a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/espeak-training-in-hindi-language-1">Kullu</a>, <a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-5-day-tot-for-training-in-use-of-espeak-kannada-with-nvda">Bangalore</a> and <a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-the-training-in-the-use-of-espeak-hindi-with-nvda">Ranchi</a>.</li>
<li>Nehaa Chaudhari in a <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/pervasive-technologies-working-document-series-research-questions-and-a-literature-review-on-actor-network-theory">blog post</a> laid out a series of research questions, potentially seeking to apply actor-network theory as a research methodology.</li>
<li>Recently, the Indian Patents Office released the Guidelines for Examination of Computer Related Inventions (“2015 Guidelines/ Guidelines”) in an attempt to clarify examination of software related patents in India. Anubha Sinha <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/comments-on-the-guidelines-for-examination-of-computer-related-inventions-cris">analysed the 2015 Guidelines</a>. Read on to understand how the new guidelines will potentially lead to an increase in software patenting activity by expanding the scope of patentable subject matter – in negation of the legislative intent of section 3(k) of the Indian Patents Act, 1970.</li>
<li>As a part of its content donation initiative, <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/cis-brings-nadustunna-charithra-magazine-under-by-cc-by-sa-licence">CIS has brought Nadustunna Charithra magazine under CC BY SA licence</a>. CIS-A2K has received 74 issues as of now from the Telugu Jaati foundation.</li>
<li>Sunil Abraham’s article titled Hits and Misses with the Draft Encryption Policy was published in <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-wire-26-09-2015-sunil-abraham-hits-and-misses-with-draft-encryption-policy">The Wire</a> on September 26, 2015.</li>
<li>Vidushi Marda in a blog post titled <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/data-flow-in-unique-identification-scheme-of-india">Data Flow in the Unique Identification Scheme of India</a> analysed the data flow within the UID scheme and highlighted the vulnerabilities at each stage.</li>
<li>Vanya Rakesh in a blog post titled <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/human-dna-profiling-bill-2012-vs-2015">Human DNA Profiling Bill 2012 v/s 2015 Bill</a> has analysed the Human DNA Profiling Bill introduced in 2012 with the provisions of the 2015 Bill.</li>
<li>CIS sought information from ICANN on their revenue streams by sending them a second request under their Documentary Information Disclosure Policy. This request and their response have been <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/didp-request-12-revenues">described in a blog post</a> by Aditya Garg.</li>
<li>CIS has <a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/wheres-my-data-submission-for-knight-news-challenge-2015">submitted a joint proposal</a> with DataMeet and Oorvani for the Knight News Challenge 2015. We are proposing the development of "an application for users to search for locally-relevant data, discuss missing data, demand data, explore and respond to data demands by others, and start data crowd-sourcing exercises."</li>
<li>CIS made its submission on CCWG-Accountability 2nd Draft Proposal on Work Stream 1 Recommendations to ICANN's CCWG-Accountability.</li>
<li>Pranesh Prakash, on behalf of CIS, <a href="http://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/comments-on-dot-panel-report-via-mygov">submitted comments</a> to the Department of Telecom Panel’s report on net neutrality via MyGov. Prakash states that the report displays a far better understanding of the underlying issues than the TRAI consultation paper did, and is overall a good effort at balancing the different sides.</li>
<li>Shyam Ponappa’s monthly column titled More on Those Dropped Calls was <a href="http://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/business-standard-september-3-2015-shyam-ponappa-more-on-those-dropped-calls">published by Business Standard</a>.</li>
</ul>
</th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
</ul>
<hr />
<h2><a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility">Accessibility and Inclusion</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Under a grant from the Hans Foundation we are doing a project 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>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">NVDA and eSpeak</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Monthly Updates</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li>September 2015 Report (Suman Dogra; September 30, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Event Reports</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-the-training-in-the-use-of-espeak-hindi-with-nvda">Training in the use of eSpeak Hindi with NVDA</a> (Organized by CIS and Lakshay for the Differently Abled; September 29 – 30, 2015; Ranchi). The event was conducted online by Dr. Homiyar over skype, with local support from Mritunjay Kumar and Zainab.</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-5-day-tot-for-training-in-use-of-espeak-kannada-with-nvda">5 day TOT for Training in Use of eSpeak Kannada with NVDA</a> (Organized by CIS, Mithra Jyoti, Enable India and NFB, Bangalore; September 21 – 25, 2015; Bangalore).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/espeak-training-in-hindi-language-1">eSpeak Training in Hindi Language</a> (Organized by CIS and National Association for the Blind; Kullu; September 3 – 4, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/training-in-espeak-marathi">Training in eSpeak Marathi</a> (Organized by CIS; Atmadepam Society; August 22 – 23, 2015). <i>The report was published in the month of September.</i></li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="http://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; ">Pervasive Technologies</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entries</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/pervasive-technologies-working-document-series-research-questions-and-a-literature-review-on-actor-network-theory">Pervasive Technologies: Working Document Series - Research Questions and a Literature Review on the Actor-Network Theory</a> (Nehaa Chaudhari; September 5, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/faq-cis-proposal-for-compulsory-licensing-of-critical-mobile-technologies">FAQ: CIS Proposal for Compulsory Licensing of Critical Mobile Technologies</a> (Rohini Lakshané; September 25, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Other (Copyright and Patent)</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Submission</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/comments-on-the-guidelines-for-examination-of-computer-related-inventions-cris">Comments on the Guidelines for Examination of Computer Related Inventions</a> (CRIs) (Anubha Sinha; September 21, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entries</b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/open-letter-on-intellectual-property-rights-issues-during-your-visit-to-the-united-states-of-america-in-september-2015">Open Letter to PM Modi on Intellectual Property Rights issues on His Visit to the United States of America in September 2015</a> (Pranesh Prakash and Nehaa Chaudhari; September 23, 2015).</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>National Conference: WTO, FTAs and Investment Treaties: Implications for development policy space (Organized by Focus on the Global South, Institute for Studies in Industrial Development (ISID), Madhyam, MSF Access Campaign, National Working Group on Patent Laws and WTO (NWGPL), Public Services International (PSI) – South Asia, South Solidarity Initiative – ActionAid, Third Word Network (TWN), and Forum against FTAs; September 22 – 23, 2015; Institute for Studies in Industrial Development, New Delhi). Nehaa Chaudhari made a presentation on <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/copyright-access-to-knowledge-in-fta.pdf">Copyright: Access to Knowledge in Free Trade Agreements?</a></li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/ipex-2015">IPEX 2015</a> (Organized by Confederation of Indian Industry, APTDC and TDPC; September 25 - 26, 2015; Chennai). Rohini Lakshané attended the event. </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="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/live-law-apoorva-mandhani-september-23-2015-open-letter-from-cis-to-pm-modi-on-intellectual-property-rights-issues-on-his-visit-to-us">Open letter from CIS to PM Modi on Intellectual Property Rights issues on his Visit to US</a> (Apoorva Mandhani; LiveLaw; September 23, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Wikipedia</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 style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entries</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/cis-brings-nadustunna-charithra-magazine-under-by-cc-by-sa-licence">CIS brings Nadustunna Charithra magazine under CC BY SA licence</a> (Tanveer Hasan; September 2, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/education-okfn-subhashish-panigrahi-september-25-2015-ocr-and-oer-update">OCR and OER – update</a> (Subhashish Panigrahi; Open Education Working Group; September 25, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wikimedia-foundation-blog-as-odia-wikipedia-turns-13-what-happens-next">As Odia Wikipedia turns 13, what happens next?</a> (Subhashish Panigrahi; September 26, 2015). This was originally <a href="https://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/08/21/odia-wikipedia-celebrates-13/">published on the Wikimedia Blog</a> on August 21. The post was shared on Wikipedia's official <a href="https://www.facebook.com/wikipedia/posts/10153481749053346">Facebook page</a>, and on Twitter handles [<a href="https://twitter.com/Wikipedia/status/635838494187913216">1</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/Wikimedia/status/635838494200438784">2</a>].</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/googles-optical-character-recognition-software-now-works-with-all-south-asian-languages">Google's Optical Character Recognition Software Now Works with All South Asian Languages</a> (Subhashish Panigrahi; September 26, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/open-source-september-3-2015-subhashish-panigrahi-wikimedia-contributor-shares-his-linux-story">Wikimedia contributor shares his Linux story</a> (Subhashish Panigrahi; September 27, 2015). <i>This article is part of a series called </i><a href="https://opensource.com/tags/my-linux-story"><i>My Linux Story</i></a><i>. To participate and share your Linux story, contact us at: </i><a href="mailto:open@opensource.com"><i>open@opensource.com</i></a><i>. Read the original published by </i><a href="https://opensource.com/life/15/9/my-linux-story-subhashish-panigrahi"><i>Opensource.com</i></a><i> on September 3, 2015.</i></li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Events Co-organized</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/openness/events/rare-telugu-religious-and-historical-work-preserved-at-annamacharya-library-to-come-on-wikisource">Annamaya Library edit-a-thon</a> (Organized by CIS-A2K and Telugu Wikipedia Community; August 6, 2015; Andhra Loyola College; Vijaywada).</li>
<li><a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/International_workshop_on_digitization_and_archiving,_Jadavpur_University">International Workshop on Digitization and Archiving</a> (Organized by CIS-A2K and Wikipedia Community; August 19 – 21, 2015). Rahmanuddin Shaik was one of the trainers.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Media Coverage</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS gave its inputs to the following:</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/openness/news/odisha-sun-times-september-28-2015-ruby-nanda-unable-to-read-odia-on-your-android-device">Unable to read Odia on your android device? Don’t fret!</a> (Ruby Nanda; Odisha Sun Times; September 28, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="http://cis-india.org/openness">Openness</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The advent of the Internet has radically redefined what it means to be open and collaborative. The Internet itself is built upon open standards and free/libre/open source software. 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.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Open Data</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Submission</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li>As one of the general stewards of the process, CIS was invited to take part in the final drafting meeting of the International Open Data Charter held before Con Datos 2015 in Santiago, Chile, but we could not take part in it. Apart from organising two public consultations on the draft Charter in Bengaluru and Delhi, we also submitted our <a href="http://cis-india.org/openness/international-open-data-charter-comments-by-cis">detailed comments</a> on the document. The final version of the <a href="http://opendatacharter.net/" target="_blank">Charter document has been launched</a> at the United Nation General Assembly meeting, on September 27.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Free Software</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entry</b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/openness/software-freedom-pledge-2015">Software Freedom Pledge</a> (Pranesh Prakash; September 25, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="http://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; ">Privacy</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Article</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-wire-26-09-2015-sunil-abraham-hits-and-misses-with-draft-encryption-policy">Hits and Misses With the Draft Encryption Policy</a> (Sunil Abraham; The Wire; September 26, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entries</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><b> </b><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/data-flow-in-unique-identification-scheme-of-india">Data Flow in the Unique Identification Scheme of India</a> (Vidushi Marda; September 3, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/human-dna-profiling-bill-2012-vs-2015">Human DNA Profiling Bill 2012 v/s 2015 Bill</a> (Vanya Rakesh; September 6, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/open-governance-and-privacy-in-a-post-snowden-world-webinar">Open Governance and Privacy in a Post-Snowden World: Webinar</a> (Vanya Rakesh; September 26, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Participation in Event</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-changing-landscape-of-ict-governance-and-practice-convergence-and-big-data">The Changing Landscape of ICT Governance and Practice - Convergence and Big Data</a> (Co-organized by Innovation Center for Big Data and Digital Convergence, Yuan Ze University, Taiwan; August 24 – 25, 2015). Sharat Chandra Ram was granted the <a href="http://www.cprsouth.org/2015/02/call-for-applications-2015-young-scholar-awards/">Young Scholar Award 2015</a> to attend the <i>Young Scholar Workshop</i> followed by main <a href="http://www.cprsouth.org/"><i>CPRSouth2015 conference</i> (Communication Policy Research South) conference</a>.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Free Speech and Expression</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Submission</b></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cis-submission-on-ccwg-accountability-2nd-draft-proposal-on-work-stream-1-recommendations">CIS Submission on CCWG-Accountability 2nd Draft Proposal on Work Stream 1 Recommendations</a> (Pranesh Prakash; September 13, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entries</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><b> </b><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/didp-request-11-netmundial-principles">DIDP Request #11: NETmundial Principles</a> (Aditya Garg; September 14, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/didp-request-12-revenues">DIDP Request #12: Revenues</a> (Aditya Garg; September 14, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/peering-behind-the-veil-of-icann2019s-didp">Peering behind the veil of ICANN’s DIDP</a> (Padmini Baruah; September 21, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Participation in Event</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/asian-regional-consultation-on-the-wsis-10-review">Asian Regional Consultation on the WSIS+10 Review</a> (Organized by The Internet Democracy Project, Bytes for All, APNIC, the Association for Progressive Communications, ISOC, Global Partners Digital and ICT Watch; September 3 – 5, 2015). Jyoti Panday attended the event.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">IGF</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The tenth annual IGF meeting will be held in João Pessoa, Brazil, on November 10 - 13, 2015. IGF's MAG has decided to retain the title “Evolution of Internet Governance: Empowering Sustainable Development” as the overarching theme. Sunil Abraham will be a panelist for the following workshops:</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/understanding-and-mitigating-online-hate-speech-and-youth-radicalisation">Understanding and Mitigating Online Hate Speech and Youth Radicalisation</a> (Organized by Council of Europe, Oxford University, OHCHR, Google and ISOC; November 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/transnational-due-process-a-case-study-in-multi-stakeholder-cooperation">Transnational Due Process: A Case Study in Multi-stakeholder Cooperation</a> (Organized by the United Nations; November 2015).</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Cyber Security</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Event Organized</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><b> </b><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/bangalore-chapter-meet-of-dsci-september-26-2015">Bangalore Chapter Meet of DSCI</a> (Co-organized by DSCI and CIS; September 26, 2015). Melissa Hathaway, Commissioner, Global Commission for Internet Governance and Sunil Abraham gave a talk at this event.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Miscellaneous</h3>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/sustainable-smart-cities-india-conference-2015-bangalore">Sustainable Smart Cities India Conference 2015, Bangalore</a> (Vanya Rakesh; September 21, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="http://cis-india.org/telecom">Telecom</a></h2>
<p>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>Submission</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/comments-on-dot-panel-report-via-mygov">Comments on the DoT Panel Report via MyGov</a> (Pranesh Prakash; September 26, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Op-ed</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/business-standard-september-3-2015-shyam-ponappa-more-on-those-dropped-calls">More on those Dropped Calls</a> (Shyam Ponappa; Business Standard; September 2, 2015 and Organizing India Blogspot; September 3, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw">Researchers at Work</a></h2>
<p>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; "><b>Submission</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<b> </b>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/wheres-my-data-submission-for-knight-news-challenge-2015">Where's My Data? Submission for Knight News Challenge 2015</a> (Sumandro Chattapadhyay; September 30, 2015). <i>The text of the proposal was prepared by Nisha Thompson of DataMeet, Meera K of Oorvani, and Sumandro Chattapadhyay.</i></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="http://cis-india.org/raw/blog_the-internet-in-the-indian-judicial-imagination">The Internet in the Indian Judicial Imagination</a> (Divij Joshi; September 9, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/blog_the-many-lives-and-sites-of-internet-in-bhubaneswar">The Many Lives and Sites of Internet in Bhubaneswar</a> (Sailen Routray; September 21, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="http://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="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-hindu-september-1-2015-parshathy-nath-does-this-click-with-you">Does this click with you?</a> (Parshathy J. Nath; The Hindu; September 1, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/economic-times-september-3-2015-surabhi-agarwal-govt-tie-up-with-global-police-interpol-to-fight-child-pornography">Government may tieup with global police, Interpol to fight child pornography</a> (Surabhi Agarwal; September 3, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/hindustan-times-september-3-2015-harjeet-inder-singh-sahi-hiding-behind-rules-on-naming-sites-it-banned-govt-reveals-fears">Hiding behind rules on naming sites it banned, govt reveals fears</a> (Harjeet Inder Singh Sahi; September 3, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/hindu-nikhil-varma-september-9-2015-outrage-before-sharing">Outrage before sharing</a> (Nikhil Verma; The Hindu; September 9, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-week-september-20-2015-shweta-t-nanda-faking-a-stand">Faking a stand</a> (Shweta T. Nanda; The Week; September 20, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/outlook-september-21-2015-arindam-mukherjee-some-key-words-are-missing">Some Key Words Are Missing</a> (Arindam Mukherjee; Outlook; September 21, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-hindu-september-22-2015-atul-kabra-open-sesame">Open sesame</a> (The Hindu; September 22, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/livemint-moulishree-srivastava-september-22-2015-india-encryption-policy-draft-faces-backlash">India encryption policy draft faces backlash</a> (Moulishree Srivastava; September 22, 2015)</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/first-post-naina-khedekar-september-23-2015-online-outcry-forces-government-to-withdraw-draft-encryption-policy">Online outcry forces government to withdraw draft encryption policy</a> (Naina Khedekar; First Post; September 23, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/dna-september-23-2015-amrita-madhukalya-encryption-policy-would-have-affected-emails-operating-systems-wifi">Encryption policy would have affected emails, operating systems, WiFi</a> (Amrita Madhukalya; DNA; September 23, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/business-standard-september-23-2015-govt-presses-undo-button-on-draft-encryption-policy">Govt presses 'undo' button on draft encryption policy</a> (Business Standard; September 23; 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/today-september-24-2015-huge-outcry-forces-india-backtrack-social-media-data-proposal">Huge outcry forces India to backtrack on social media data proposal</a> (Today; September 24, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/wsj-september-24-2015-newley-purnell-resty-woro-uniar-facebook-free-internet-access-program-in-developing-countries-provokes-backlash">Facebook’s Free Internet Access Program in Developing Countries Provokes Backlash</a> (Newley Purnell and Resty Woro Uniar; The Wall Street Journal; September 24, 2015).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/business-standard-september-26-2015-ahead-of-hosting-modi-facebook-rebrands-internet-dot-org-as-free-basics">Ahead of hosting Modi, Facebook rebrands internet.org as Free Basics</a> (Business Standard; September 26, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/asian-age-september-27-2015-s-raghotham-and-mayukh-mukherjee-by-weakening-our-security-govt-is-putting-us-at-risk-of-espionage">‘By weakening our security, govt is putting us at risk of espionage’</a> (S. Raghotham and Mayukh Mukherjee; Asian Age; September 27, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/9ad9be9b09a49c7-9aa9be98199a9b69b0993-9ac9c79b69bf-9b89cd99f9c79b69a89c7-9ab9cd9b09bf-9939af9bc9be987-9ab9be987-99a9be9b29c1-9b99ac9c7">ভারতে পাঁচশোরও বেশি স্টেশনে ফ্রি ওয়াই-ফাই চালু হবে</a> (BBC; September 28, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-register-september-29-2015-kieren-mccurthy-do-you-agree-with-our-fee-hike">Do you agree with our fee hike? Press 1 to answer Yes; or 2 for Yes</a> (Kieren McCarthy; The Register; September 29, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-australian-amanda-hodge-september-29-2015-indian-pm-narendra-modi-digital-dream-gets-bad-reception">Indian PM Narendra Modi’s digital dream gets bad reception</a> (Amanda Hodge; September 29, 2015).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/ndtv-maya-sharma-september-29-2015-what-bengaluru-thinks-of-big-tech-announcements-in-silicon-valley">What Bengaluru Thinks of the Big Tech Announcements in Silicon Valley</a> (Maya Sharma; NDTV; September 29, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2><a 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 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 mediation and reconfiguration of social and cultural processes and structures by the internet and digital media technologies.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">► Follow us elsewhere</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>CIS - Twitter:<a href="http://twitter.com/cis_india"> http://twitter.com/cis_india</a></li>
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<li>Access to Knowledge - E-Mail: <a href="mailto:a2k@cis-india.org">a2k@cis-india.org</a></li>
<li>Researchers at Work - E-Mail: <a href="mailto:raw@cis-india.org">raw@cis-india.org</a></li>
<li>Researchers at Work - Mailing List: <a href="https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/researchers">https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/researchers</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, 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, Access to Knowledge, at <a href="mailto:tanveer@cis-india.org">tanveer@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='http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/september-2015-bulletin'>http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/september-2015-bulletin</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeTelecomAccessibilityInternet GovernanceResearchers at Work2015-11-25T01:55:25ZPageAugust 2015 Bulletin
http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/august-2015-bulletin
<b></b>
<p style="text-align: justify;">We are happy to share with you the eighth issue of the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) newsletter (August 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>
<hr />
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">Highlights</h2>
<table class="grid listing">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Researchers at Work programme has published a book titled <a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/digital-activism-in-asia-reader"><em>Digital Activism in Asia Reader</em></a> exploring in detail digital activism in Asia. The Reader was edited by Nishant Shah, P.P. Sneha, and Sumandro Chattapadhyay with support from Anirudh Sridhar, Denisse Albornoz, and Verena Getahun.</li></ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li>The <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/raw/civil-society-organisations-and-internet-governance-in-india-open-review">pre-publication drafts of two sections</a> written by Sumandro Chattapadhyay for the third volume (2000-2010) of the <em>Asia Internet History</em> series edited by Prof. Kilnam Chon have been posted for open-review process.</li>
<li>As part of the 'Studying Internets in India' series, RAW published blog entries on <a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/blog_governing-speech-on-the-internet">Governing Speech on the Internet</a> and <a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/blog_mock-calling">Mock-Calling - Ironies of Outsourcing and the Aspirations of an Individual</a>. </li></ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li style="text-align: justify;">NVDA team <a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/training-in-e-speak-hindi">conducted a workshop</a> at Jeevan Jyoti School for the Blind, Varanasi from August 26 to 28, 2015. Eighty five students and 13 teachers took part in the training programme. NVDA team had conducted another <a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-training-in-espeak-marathi">workshop</a> earlier in Nashik. The workshop was conducted in June. A batch of 17 Special Educators and teachers of the blind attended the workshop.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Maggie Huang, Arpita Sengupta and Paavni Anand as part of the Pervasive Technologies project <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/comparative-transparency-review-of-collective-management-organisations-in-india-uk-usa"> co-authored a research paper </a> that seeks to compare the publicly available information on the websites of music collective management organizations ("CMOs") operating within India, the United States, and the United Kingdom.</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">
Amulya Purushothama, Nehaa Chaudhari and Varun Baliga in a blog entry have delved into the question of
what the mandate of the <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/national-ipr-policy-series-what-have-sectoral-innovation-councils-been-doing-on-ipr">Sectoral Innovation Council</a> is, what its activities are, and what vision for IPR development in India has it put forth. An RTI Application has been filed by CIS to attain information on these issues.</li></ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li style="text-align: justify;"> <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mhrd-ipr-chair-series-introduction">In a blog post</a>, Amulya Purushothama announced our new MHRD IPR Chair Series and has charted the sequence of events, starting from the establishment of MHRD IPR Chairs, to discussions surrounding their purpose and functioning, to concerns surrounding the lack of information about the IPR Chairs, the first round of RTIs that CIS had filed in regard to this and the responses it solicited. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"> Subhashish Panigrahi <a href="http://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/kisorachandrananachampu-on-odia-wikisource">interviewed Prateek Pattanaik</a>. Prateek has not just digitized as many as 54 Odia-language poetry dating early 18th century but has also annotated, both poetic and prosaic translation in his blogs "Sri Jagannatha" and "Utkal Sangeet". He has also published a complete book "Kisora chandranana champu" on Odia Wikisource. A recent entrant into the Odia Wikimedia community, Prateek is also the youngest Odia Wikimedian.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Rohan George and Elonnai Hickok in a blog post <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/are-we-throwing-our-data-protection-regimes-under-the-bus">analyzed consent, big data and data protection</a> that examines in detail why the principle of consent is providing us increasingly less of an aegis in protecting our data.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Elonnai Hickok, Vipul Kharbanda and Vanya Rakesh on behalf of CIS submitted a <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cis-comments-and-recommendations-to-human-dna-profiling-bill-2015">clause-by-clause comments</a> on the Human DNA Profiling Bill that was circulated by the Department of Biotechnology on June 9, 2015.</li>
<li>Sunil Abraham, Elonnai Hickok and Tarun Krishnakumar co-authored an article titled <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/security-privacy-transparency-and-technology">Security: Privacy, Transparency and Technology</a>. The article was published by Observer Research Foundation, Digital Debates 2015: CyFy Journal Volume 2.</li>
<li>Elonnai Hickok in a blog post titled <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/review-of-policy-debate-around-big-data-and-internet-of-things"> A Review of the Policy Debate around Big Data and Internet of Things </a>has done an analysis as to how regulators and experts across jurisdictions are reacting to Big Data and Internet of Things.</li>
<li>The Supreme Court of India has deemed it fit to refer the question of the very existence of a fundamental right to privacy to a Constitution Bench to finally decide the matter, and define the contours of such right if it does exist. Vipul Kharbanda analyses this in a <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/right-to-privacy-in-peril">blog entry</a>. </li>
<li>Experts and regulators across jurisdictions are examining the impact of Big Data practices on traditional data protection standards and principles. This will be a useful and pertinent exercise for India to undertake as the government and the private and public sectors begin to incorporate and rely on the use of Big Data in decision making processes and organizational operations. Elonnai Hickok has <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/big-data-and-information-technology-rules-2011">provided an initial evaluation of how Big Data could impact India's current data protection standards</a>. </li></ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li> Elonnai Hickok <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/comparison-of-the-human-dna-profiling-bill-2012-with-cis-recommendations-sub-committee-recommendations-expert-committee-recommendations-and-the-human-dna-profiling-bill-2015">has provided a comparison of Human DNA Profiling Bill 2012 vs. the Human DNA Profiling Bill 2015</a>, CIS's main recommendations vs. the 2015 Bill, Sub-Committee Recommendations vs. the 2015 Bill, and the Expert Committee Recommendations vs. the 2015 Bill. </li>
<li> CIS <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cis-submission-to-unga-wsis-review">submitted its comments</a> to the non-paper on the UNGA Overall Review of the Implementation of the WSIS outcomes, evaluating the progress made and challenges ahead.</li>
<li>In a policy brief, Vipul Kharbanda <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/policy-paper-on-surveillance-in-india">has analyzed the different laws regulating surveillance at the state and central level in India and calls out ways in which the provisions are unharmonized</a>. The brief then provides recommendations for the harmonization of surveillance law in India. </li>
<li>Hardnews interviewed Sunil Abraham about the future of the internet in India. The <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/hardnewsmedia-august-10-2015-abeer-kapoor-net-neutrality-india-is-a-keybattle-ground">article was published in their August edition</a>.</li></ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li> Shyam Ponappa in an <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/blog/organizing-india-blogspot-august-6-2015-shyam-ponappa-those-dropped-calls"> Op-ed published by Business Standard </a> has given an analysis on the reasons of the number of dropped calls on our mobile phones. </li></ul>
</th>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h2><a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility">Accessibility and Inclusion</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Under a grant from the Hans Foundation we are doing a project 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>. The project on creating a national resource kit of state-wise laws, policies and programmes on issues relating to persons with disabilities in India got over and the compilation has been printed.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">NVDA and eSpeak</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Monthly Updates</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<strong> </strong>
<li><strong> </strong><a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/august-2015-nvda-report.pdf">August 2015 Report</a> (Suman Dogra; July 31, 2015). </li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Event Reports</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<strong> </strong>
<li><strong> </strong><a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-training-in-espeak-marathi">Training in eSpeak Marathi</a> (Organized by NVDA team; National Association for the Blind; Nashik; June 22 - 23, 2015). <em>The workshop was held in the month of June but the report got published later in August.</em> </li>
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/training-in-e-speak-hindi">Training in eSpeak Hindi</a> (Organized by NVDA team; Jeevan Jyoti School for the Blind; Varanasi; August 26 - 28, 2015). </li></ul>
<h2><a href="http://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;">Pervasive Technologies</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Blog Entries</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<strong> </strong>
<li><strong> </strong><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/patent-landscaping-in-the-indian-mobile-device-market"><strong> </strong>Methodology: Patent Landscaping in the Indian Mobile Device Market </a> (Rohini Lakshané; November 10, 2014). <em>This blog post published last year has been recently updated</em>. </li>
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/comparative-transparency-review-of-collective-management-organisations-in-india-uk-usa"> Comparative Transparency Review of Collective Management Organisations in India, United Kingdom and the United States </a> (Maggie Huang, Arpita Sengupta and Paavni Anand; August 1, 2015). </li></ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">Other (Copyright and Patent)</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Blog Entries</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<strong> </strong>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/cci-participation-at-the-upcoming-3rd-international-conference-on-ipr-and-competition" class="external-link">CCI Participation at the Upcoming 3rd International Conference on IPR and Competition</a> (Amulya Purushothama; August 5, 2015). CIS wrote to the Competition Commission of India Chairman on August 5, 2015 about participation at a conference organised by Ericsson and concerns regarding conflict of interest. We also had several other NGOs sign on to the letter. </li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mhrd-ipr-chair-series-introduction">MHRD IPR Chair Series: Introduction</a> (Amulya Purushothama; August 10, 2015). Aditya Garg assisted in research and writing. </li>
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/national-ipr-policy-series-what-have-sectoral-innovation-councils-been-doing-on-ipr"> National IPR Policy Series: What Have the Sectoral Innovation Councils Been Doing on IPR </a> (Nehaa Chaudhari and Varun Baliga; August 13, 2015). Amulya Purushothama assisted with research and writing. </li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Media Coverage</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<strong> </strong>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/times-of-india-rema-nagarajan-august-6-2015-competition-commission-of-india-chairman-participation-in-assocham-conference-raises-conflict-of-interests">Competition Commission of India chariman's participation in Assocham conference raises conflict of interests</a> (Rema Nagarajan; The Times of India; August 6, 2015).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/business-standard-august-6-2015-dilasha-seth-and-deepak-patel-assocham-event-sparks-row-over-conflict-of-interest-by-cci">Assocham event sparks row over conflict of interest by CCI</a> (Dilasha Seth and Deepak Patel; Business Standard; August 6, 2015).</li></ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">Wikipedia</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 style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Blog Entry</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<strong> </strong>
<li><strong> </strong><a href="http://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/kisorachandrananachampu-on-odia-wikisource"><strong> </strong>Odia Wikisource has a new Wikisourcer, and he is the youngest in the Odia Wikimedia community! </a> (Subhashish Panigrahi; August 21, 2015). </li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Events Co-organized</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<strong> </strong>
<li><strong> </strong><a href="http://cis-india.org/openness/events/rare-telugu-religious-and-historical-work-preserved-at-annamacharya-library-to-come-on-wikisource"><strong> </strong>Annamaya Library edit-a-thon </a> (Organized by CIS-A2K and Telugu Wikipedia Community; August 6, 2015; Andhra Loyola College; Vijaywada). </li>
<li> <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/International_workshop_on_digitization_and_archiving,_Jadavpur_University"> International Workshop on Digitization and Archiving </a> (Organized by CIS-A2K and Wikipedia Community; August 19 - 21, 2015). Rahmanuddin Shaik was one of the trainers. </li></ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">FOSS</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Participation in Events</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<strong> </strong>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/openness/events/workshop-on-digital-collaborations-in-tamil-language-tamil-virtual-university-chennai">Workshop on digital collaborations in Tamil-language, Tamil Virtual Chennai</a> (Organized by Tamil Virtual University, Anna University Campus, Chennai; August 8 - 9, 2015). Dr. U.B. Pavanaja atttended this event. </li>
<li><a href="http://pn.ispirt.in/event/open-innovation-entrepreneurship-and-our-digital-future/">Open Innovation, entrepreneurship, and our digital future </a> (Organized by iSpirit; Bangalore; August 13, 2015). Rohini Lakshané attended the event. Rohini wrote a <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/we-need-to-proactively-ensure-that-people-cant-file-representatives-of-the-creativity-of-a-foss-community"> report on this </a> . </li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Media Coverage</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">CIS gave its inputs to the following:</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/openness/news/telugu-wiki-edit-a-thon-at-alc">Telugu Wikipedia Edit-a-thon at ALC</a> (Eenadu; August 6, 2015)</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/openness/news/telugu-wiki-editathon-alc">Telugu Wiki Edit-a-thon in ALC</a> (Eenadu; August 6, 2015)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.thehansindia.com/posts/index/2015-08-07/Rare-Telugu-religious-and-historical-work-preserved-at-Annamacharya-library-to-come-on-Wikisource-168454">Rare Telugu religious and historical work preserved at Annamacharya library to come on Wikisource! </a> (The Hans India; August 7, 2015). </li>
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/openness/news/mangalorean-dotcom-august-13-2015"> ಗ್ರಾಮೀಣ ಪ್ರದೇಶದ ಆರ್ಥಿಕ ಪ್ರಗತಿಯಿಂದ ದೇಶದ ಆರ್ಥಿಕ ಪ್ರಗತಿ ಸಾಧ್ಯವಾಗುತ್ತದೆ. </a> (Mangalorean.com; August 13, 2015). </li>
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/openness/news/karavali-karnataka-august-14-2015"> ವಿಕಿಪಿಡಿಯ ಮುಕ್ತವಾಗಿ ಬಳಸಿ: ಡಾ.ಪವನಜ </a> (Karavali Karnataka; August 14, 2015). </li>
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/openness/news/sahil-online-august-14-2015"> ಬೆಳ್ತಂಗಡಿ:ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಕಾಲಕ್ಕೂ ಲಭ್ಯ ಇರುವ ಸ್ವತಂತ್ರ ಹಾಗೂ ಮುಕ್ತ ವಿಶ್ವಕೋಶ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯಾ-ಪವನಜ </a> (SahilOnline; August 14, 2015). </li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/openness/news/the-hindu-august-23-2015-talamaddale-on-august-23">Talamaddale on August 23</a> (Hindu; August 16, 2015).</li></ul>
<h2><a href="http://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;">Privacy</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Article</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<strong> </strong>
<li><strong> </strong><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/security-privacy-transparency-and-technology">Security: Privacy, Transparency and Technology</a> (Sunil Abraham, Elonnai Hickok and Tarun Krishnakumar; Observer Research Foundation, <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/security-privacy-transparency-technology.pdf">Digital Debates 2015: CyFy Journal Volume 2</a> ; August 19, 2015). </li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Submission</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<strong> </strong>
<li><strong> </strong><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cis-comments-and-recommendations-to-human-dna-profiling-bill-2015"><strong> </strong>CIS Comments and Recommendations to the Human DNA Profiling Bill, June 2015 </a> (Elonnai Hickok, Vipul Kharbanda and Vanya Rakesh; August 27, 2015). </li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Blog Entries</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<strong> </strong>
<li><strong> </strong><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/policy-paper-on-surveillance-in-india">Policy Paper on Surveillance in India</a> (Vipul Kharbanda; August 3, 2015). </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"> <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/comparison-of-the-human-dna-profiling-bill-2012-with-cis-recommendations-sub-committee-recommendations-expert-committee-recommendations-and-the-human-dna-profiling-bill-2015"> Comparison of the Human DNA Profiling Bill 2012 with: CIS recommendations, Sub-Committee Recommendations, Expert Committee Recommendations, and the Human DNA Profiling Bill 2015 </a> (Elonnai Hickok; August 10, 2015). </li>
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/right-to-privacy-in-peril">Right to Privacy in Peril</a> (Vipul Kharbanda; August 13, 2015). </li>
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/responsible-data-forum"> Responsible Data Forum: Discussion on the Risks and Mitigations of releasing Data </a> (Vanya Rakesh; August 26, 2015). </li>
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/are-we-throwing-our-data-protection-regimes-under-the-bus"> Are we Throwing our Data Protection Regimes under the Bus? </a> (Elonnai Hickok and Rohan George; August 29, 2015). </li>
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/supreme-court-order-is-a-good-start-but-is-seeding-necessary"> Supreme Court Order is a Good Start, but is Seeding Necessary? </a> (Elonnai Hickok and Rohan George; August 29, 2015). </li></ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">Big Data</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Blog Entries</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<strong> </strong>
<li><strong> </strong><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/big-data-and-information-technology-rules-2011"><strong> </strong>Big Data and the Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive Personal Data or Information) Rules 2011 </a> (Elonnai Hickok; August 11, 2015). </li>
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/review-of-policy-debate-around-big-data-and-internet-of-things"> A Review of the Policy Debate around Big Data and Internet of Things </a> (Elonnai Hickok; August 17, 2015). </li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Participation in Event</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<strong> </strong>
<li><strong> </strong><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-changing-landscape-of-ict-governance-and-practice-convergence-and-big-data"><strong> </strong>The Changing Landscape of ICT Governance and Practice - Convergence and Big Data </a> (Co-organized by Innovation Center for Big Data and Digital Convergence, Yuan Ze University, Taiwan; August 24 - 25, 2015). Sharat Chandra Ram was granted the <a href="http://www.cprsouth.org/2015/02/call-for-applications-2015-young-scholar-awards/">Young Scholar Award 2015</a> to attend the<em>Young Scholar Workshop</em> followed by main <a href="http://www.cprsouth.org/"><em>CPRSouth2015 conference</em> (Communication Policy Research South) conference</a>. </li></ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">Free Speech and Expression</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Submission</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<strong> </strong>
<li><strong> </strong><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cis-submission-to-unga-wsis-review">CIS submission to the UNGA WSIS+10 Review</a> (Jyoti Panday; August 9, 2015), </li></ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">Cyber Security</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Upcoming Event</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<strong> </strong>
<li><strong> </strong><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/bangalore-chapter-meet-of-dsci-september-26-2015">Bangalore Chapter Meet of DSCI</a> (Co-organized by DSCI and CIS; September 26, 2015). Melissa Hathaway, Commissioner, Global Commission for Internet Governance and Sunil Abraham will be speaking at this event. </li></ul>
<h2><a href="http://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;"><strong>Op-ed</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<strong> </strong>
<li><strong> </strong><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/blog/organizing-india-blogspot-august-6-2015-shyam-ponappa-those-dropped-calls">Those Dropped Calls</a> (Shyam Ponappa; Business Standard; August 5, 2015 and Organizing India Blogspot; August 6, 2015). </li></ul>
<h2><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw">Researchers at Work</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;">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;"><strong>Books</strong></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/digital-activism-in-asia-reader">Digital Activism in Asia Reader</a> (edited by Nishant Shah, P.P. Sneha, and Sumandro Chattapadhyay, with support from Anirudh Sridhar, Denisse Albornoz, and Verena Getahun; August 8, 2015).</li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Books Chapters</strong></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/civil-society-organisations-and-internet-governance-in-asia-open-review">Civil Society Organisations and Internet Governance in Asia - Open Review </a> (Sumandro Chattapadhyay; Asia Internet History Vol. 3, edited by Prof. Kilnam Chon). Comments are invited.</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/civil-society-organisations-and-internet-governance-in-india-open-review">Civil Society Organisations and Internet Governance in India - Open Review </a> (Sumandro Chattapadhyay; Asia Internet History Vol. 3, edited by Prof. Kilnam Chon). Comments are invited.</li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Accepted Paper Abstract</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<strong> </strong>
<li><strong> </strong><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/studying-the-emerging-database-state-in-india-accepted-abstract"><strong> </strong>Studying the Emerging Database State in India: Notes for Critical Data Studies </a> (Sumandro Chattapadhyay; August 2, 2015). <em>The paper has been provisionally accepted</em>. </li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Blog Entries</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<strong> </strong>
<li><strong> </strong><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/blog_mock-calling">Mock-Calling - Ironies of Outsourcing and the Aspirations of an Individual</a> (Sreedeep; August 6, 2015). </li>
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/blog_governing-speech-on-the-internet"> Governing Speech on the Internet: From the Free Marketplace Policy to a Controlled 'Public Sphere' </a> (Smarika Kumar; August 28, 2015). </li></ul>
<h2><a href="http://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 class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/business-standard-kanika-datta-august-1-2015-why-the-dna-bill-is-open-to-misuse-sunil-abraham">Why the DNA Bill is open to misuse: Sunil Abraham</a> (Kanika Datta; Business Standard; August 1, 2015) </li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-times-of-india-august-2-2015-karthikeyan-hemalatha-porn-ban">Porn ban: People will soon learn to circumvent ISPs and govt orders, expert says </a> (Karthikeyan Hemalatha; The Times of India; August 2, 2015). </li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/idg-news-service-august-2-2015-indian-govt-orders-isps-to-block-857-porn-websites">Indian government orders ISPs to block 857 porn websites</a> (John Ribeiro; IDG News and PC World; August 2, 2015)</li>
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/bbc-news-august-3-2015-india-blocks-access-to-857-porn-sites"> India blocks access to 857 porn sites </a> (BBC; August 3, 2015). </li>
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/financial-times-james-crabtree-august-3-2015-india-launches-crackdown-on-online-porn"> India launches crackdown on online porn </a> (James Crabtree; Financial Times; August 3, 2015). </li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/hindustan-times-august-3-2015-siladitya-ray-proxies-and-vpns">Proxies and VPNs: Why govt can't ban porn websites?</a> (Siladitya Ray; August 3, 2015; Hindustan Times)</li>
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-times-of-india-august-4-2015-anahita-mukherji-nanny-state-rules-porn-bad-for-you"> Nanny state rules porn bad for you </a> (Anahita Mukherji; The Times of India; August 4, 2015). </li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/business-standard-august-4-2015-ban-on-pornography-temporary-says-government">Ban on pornography temporary, says government</a> (Business Standard; August 4, 2015)</li>
<li> <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-australian-news-august-5-2015-amanda-hodge-porn-block-in-india-sparks-outrage"> Porn block in India sparks outrage </a> (Australian; August 5, 2015). </li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-wall-street-journal-august-5-2015-sean-mclain-indian-porn-ban-is-partially-lifted-but-sites-remain-blocked">Indian Porn Ban is Partially Lifted But Sites Remain Blocked</a> (Sean Mclain; Wall Street Journal; August 5, 2015)</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/open-magazine-august-7-2015-ullekh-np-genetic-profiling">Genetic Profiling: Is it all in the DNA?</a> (Ullekh N.P.; The Open Magazine; August 7, 2015)</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/desi-blitz-august-7-2015-nazhat-khan-india-partially-lifts-porn-ban">India partially lifts Porn Ban?</a> (Nazhat Khan; DESI blitz; August 7, 2015)</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/hardnewsmedia-august-10-2015-abeer-kapoor-net-neutrality-india-is-a-keybattle-ground">Net Neutrality: India is a Key Battleground</a> (Abeer Kapoor; Hardnews; August 10, 2015)</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/hindustan-times-august-20-2015-aloke-tikku-stats-from-2014-reveal-horror-of-scrapped-section-66-a-of-it-act">Stats from 2014 reveal horror of scrapped section 66A of IT Act</a> (Aloke Tikku; Hindustan Times; August 20, 2015).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-times-of-india-sandhya-soman-august-23-2015-the-seedy-underbelly-of-revenge-porn">The seedy underbelly of revenge porn</a> (Sandhya Soman; The Times of India; August 23, 2015).</li>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-hindu-businessline-august-28-p-anima-the-new-tattler-in-town">The new tattler in town</a> (P. Anima; Hindu Businessline; August 28, 2015).</li></ul>
<h2><a 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 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 mediation and reconfiguration of social and cultural processes and structures by the internet and digital media technologies.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">► Follow us elsewhere</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;"><br />► 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, 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 <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:sunil@cis-india.org">sunil@cis-india.org</a> (for policy research), or Sumandro Chattapadhyay, Research Director, at <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:sumandro@cis-india.org">sumandro@cis-india.org</a> (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, Access to Knowledge, at <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:tanveer@cis-india.org">tanveer@cis-india.org</a>.</p>
<p 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></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/august-2015-bulletin'>http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/august-2015-bulletin</a>
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