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Buying into the Aakash Dream - A Tablet’s Tale of Mass Education
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/buying-into-the-aakash-dream
<b>The low-cost Aakash tablet and its previous iterations in India have gone through several phases of technological changes and ideological experiments. Did the government prioritise familiarity and literacy about personal technological devices over the promise of quality mass education generated by low-cost devices? This article by Sumandro Chattapadhyay and Jahnavi Phalkey (India Institute, King's College London) was published by EPW in the Web Exclusive section. Here is the unabridged version of the article.</b>
<p> </p>
<p>Originally published by <a href="http://www.epw.in/journal/2016/17/web-exclusives/buying-aakash-dream.html">Economic and Political Weekly</a> on April 23, 2016. Below is the unabridged version.</p>
<hr />
<em>This research note is based on a project conducted as part of the Max Weber Foundation’s Transnational Research Group on "Poverty and Education in India," and draws from a paper recently published by the authors in History and Technology.</em>
<h3>Introduction</h3>
<p>The Aakash tablet, hailed as the vanguard of India's “tablet revolution,” was unveiled at the United Nations. It was to showcase India's technological prowess but was quickly lamented as a failed “dream,” and as India's “object lesson” in how not to do technological innovation. The so-called failure of the device became a metonym for the government that backed it, and for the technology establishment of the country. While our longer paper <strong>[1]</strong> questions this notion of “failure,” in this note we wish to highlight the role played by the discourse and experiments in technologies of mass education in creating the practical context and the market conditions for low-cost tablets in India.</p>
<p>A 2011 report by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) claimed that although the initiation of the Aakash tablet project met with “skepticism and scorn,” over time it not only developed an affordable device aimed at students in India, but has produced an entirely new market niche of sub-100 USD tablets <strong>[2]</strong>. This ambitious statement appears to be vindicated by a recent report by IDC, an economic intelligence company, on the tablet market in India. The report notes that the market has grown in the previous year at an annual rate of 8.2%. More importantly, the two companies leading in market share are DataWind (20.7%) and Samsung (15.8%) <strong>[3]</strong>. Incidentally, after the first quarter of 2014, Samsung had the largest (22.5%) and DataWind the fourth largest (6.8%) share <strong>[4]</strong>. What is noteworthy here is not the rise of DataWind as the leading seller of tablets alone, but that it is MHRD that heralded this creation of a market niche in India for affordable tablets.</p>
<h3>Broadcasting Education: Satellite to Internet</h3>
<p>On May 30, 1974, American National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) launched an ATS-6 satellite that formed the central infrastructural component of the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE), one of the early initiatives to harness communication technology for primary and adult education. The SITE project involved broadcasting educational and informational audio-visual content, produced by All India Radio and Television, directly to televisions across 2400 selected villages located in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, and Rajasthan. Operating from August 01, 1975 to July 31, 1976, the Experiment was led by Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), and was supported by UNESCO, UNDP, UNCF, and International Telecommunication Union <strong>[5]</strong>.</p>
<p>The objective of the SITE project was inspired directly by the importance given to skill-development oriented higher education and adult education in the report of the first Education Commission (1964–1966). However, as Asif Siddiqi notes in a recent publication, the project performed a crucial task of establishing the Indian space research programme through a direct alliance with NASA, which held special geopolitical significance given the Chinese nuclear tests of 1964 <strong>[6]</strong>.</p>
<p>This experiment paved the way for development of INSAT, the first Indian satellite. The entanglement of the Indian space programme with the idea of national-level technological infrastructure for education has continued since. The EDUSAT, launched in 2004, was a collaborative project between ISRO and MHRD to drive satellite-based education across disadvantaged and remote regions of the country. In an audit report in 2013, however, the Department of Space declared that the project has failed, and highlighted three lacks in particular: network connectivity, content generation, and management structure <strong>[7]</strong>.</p>
<p>The earliest initiatives in India to put computers in schools, supplementing and supplanting the television screens, began in the 1980s. These efforts pre-dated extensive terrestrial communication fiber networks and relied almost completely upon the success of the Indian space programme. The UGC Countrywide Classroom, Computer Literacy and Studies in Schools, and Computer Literacy and Awareness Programme are the key examples from this time. The revised Programme of Action of the National Policy on Education (1986) reiterated the need for increased attention to upgrading education technology infrastructure, as well as the development of electronic content for the same. This led to the initiation of the ICT@Schools scheme beginning with the eighth Five Year Plan (1993-1998). Even after twenty years of the introduction of computers in schools across India, a 2006 report on education technology by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) noted that computer-based teaching and learning in an actual classroom setting remains more of a 'spectator sport' <strong>[8]</strong>.</p>
<p>With the advent of the internet, the MHRD started experimenting with internet-based delivery of distance education from 2003, beginning with the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL). It did so alongside satellite-based distribution of educational content. NPTEL involved five Indian Institutes of Technology (Bombay, Delhi, Kanpur, Kharagpur, and Madras) developing openly available course materials for more than one hundred undergraduate courses in five engineering subjects, as well as courses in basic science. These course materials were later made part of the online learning portal called 'Sakshat,' which eventually became one of the pillars of the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technologies (NMEICT), initiated during the 11th Five Year Plan (2007–2012). This portal marked the completion of a conceptual and technological shift from the satellite-based models of delivery of educational content, to an internet-based one.</p>
<h3>Making and Un-making of the Aakash Tablet</h3>
<p>With NMEICT, large-scale education technology initiatives of the Indian state moved away from the earlier emphasis on primary education and school-oriented computer literacy, to that on higher education and aids for self-learning. The plan for an affordable tablet computer was announced in mid-2010 as part of this Mission. This “low-cost access-cum-computing device” was aimed at bypassing the institutional, bureaucratic, and infrastructural barriers to access to quality higher education. It’s main audience were students in disadvantaged regions and non-elite institutions, as well as self-learners. The actualisation the device, however, were continuously delayed and blocked by conflicts between the governmental and non-governmental actors, strong skepticism from the media, and several changes in the state's approach to the project.</p>
<p>The first approach to the project was an international company that approached the MHRD in 2006, with a proposal to sell educational laptops for school students at 100 USD each. N.K. Sinha, then Mission Director of NMEICT, argued against the purchase. The MHRD saw this as an opportunity for developing an indigenous low-cost computer, and initiated a competition among the IITs to come up with a prototype for this device, which was won by the IIT Kanpur team led by Prof. Prem Kumar Kalra, then Professor and Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering. The first publicly exhibited (2010) prototype of the device was the one developed in IIT Kanpur, which was priced initially at 35 USD.</p>
<p>The MHRD, however, soon decided to buy the device from a commercial manufacturer. The responsibility of procurement and testing went to IIT Rajasthan, under the leadership of Prof. Kalra who joined the newly established institution as its first Director. After the contract with HCL Infosystems was called off in January 2011, DataWind, a Canada and UK based company specialising in internet-access devices, won the new tender to produce the first version of the device. On 5 October 2011, the first version of tablet was launched, priced at Rs 2,500, and co-branded as Aakash and Ubislate: respectively for those bought and redistributed at a subsidised rate by MHRD, and those sold commercially by DataWind <strong>[9]</strong>.</p>
<p>An early controversy about the tablet, apart from its technical capabilities, was around the claim that they were produced and assembled in China. DataWind rejected the allegations and claimed that all the devices were assembled by Quad Electronics in its factory in Secunderabad, (then Andhra Pradesh). Within a year, however, DataWind got involved in serious conflict with IIT Rajasthan on one hand, and Quad Electronics on the other. The MHRD intervened again to change the approach by bringing in IIT Bombay (March 2012) as the new procuring and testing agency, thus removing IIT Rajasthan from the project. DataWind also found a new partner in VMC Systems, who started assembling the “kits” imported from China in its establishments in Amritsar and Delhi.</p>
<p>With M. M. Pallam Raju becoming the Minister of Human Resource Development in late 2012 by succeeding Kapil Sibal, one might say, the Aakash project gradually moved to what we know as its final form. At first, it was suggested that the state should entirely move out of the business of providing low-cost tablets as there is already a vibrant market. Later on, and with thought leadership from Prof. Rajat Moona, Director General of the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, and others, it was decided that “Aakash” would become a brand name available for commercial manufacturers of affordable tablets that satisfy a minimum set of technical specifications <strong>[10]</strong>. The first draft of the specifications list was published in June 2013. The tendering process, however, got delayed, and eventually came to a near-permanent pause with the General Elections in 2014.</p>
<p>As of November 2015, the MHRD has again shown interest in the idea of a state-subsidised tablet computer for education. The tablet was now called Udaan, and aimed at girl students at the higher secondary level, priced at Rs. 10,000 (against Rs. 2,500 of Aakash), and distributed only to 1,000 students.</p>
<h3>Government Dream and Device Desire</h3>
<p>In an interview in late 2013, Kapil Sibal (then Union Minister of Communication and Information Technology, former Union Minister of Human Resource Development) shared that "[the] Aakash tablet was [his] dream but it was not fulfilled" <strong>[11]</strong>. Sibal, undoubtedly the key political driver of the project, in his admission to failure, raises deep concerns about the present state and the future of the technological infrastructure - and the imagination - for mass education in the country.</p>
<p>Tracing the transition of these technologies from SITE to Aakash, we continously find it difficult to delineate the state’s transforming and transformative agenda of mass education from that of building technological capability. At times, though, we wondered if the agenda for mass education did not become one that served the purpose of generating, for lack of a better phrase, a certain familiarity and literacy about personal technological devices among the population. The motivations and goals that informed these mammoth projects become more and more difficult to decipher when we look at the relatively poor attention given to the production of content. Careful monitoring and documentation of how such content is being received and utilised by the actual learners and their educators was not prioritised; and whenever undertaken, such exercises revealed the deep lack of pedagogic concerns at the heart of these education technology programmes.</p>
<p>Alongside the overwhelming narrative of <em>failure</em>, however, we cannot ignore the remarkable, but quiet, success of the project in normalising and framing the tablet computer as familiar, and almost essential, object for personal learning and development. Apart from presenting the tablet computer as an everyday media object, almost similar to the way television entered the households, the NMEICT and the Aakash project played a crucial role in normalising the notion of online self-learning, and thus that of the <em>online</em>, in the Indian public imagination. In an insightful comment, Suneet Singh Tuli, CEO of DataWind, remarked that the Aakash tablet was not an “iPad for the poor”, it was the “the computer and Internet of the masses” – it was not selling a demo version of the real thing, it was shaping the very imagination <strong>[12]</strong>.</p>
<p>These stories, together, conspire to make us wonder if all this eventually amounts to create desires for devices; and that the educational and developmental rhetoric helped frame electronic devices as everyday and household objects. The consequences, as we see, cannot exactly be called unintended.</p>
<h3>References</h3>
<p><strong>[1]</strong> Phalkey, Jahnavi and Sumandro Chattapadhyay. "The Aakash Tablet and Technological Imaginaries of Mass Education in Contemporary India." <em>History and Technology</em>, Vol. 31, No. 4, 2015. <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07341512.2015.1136142">http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07341512.2015.1136142</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[2]</strong> Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. The History of Aakash
Low Cost Access cum Computing Device. Sakshat, October 05, 2011. <a href="http://archive.sakshat.ac.in/pdf/Final_Note_Aakash.pdf">http://archive.sakshat.ac.in/pdf/Final_Note_Aakash.pdf</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[3]</strong> International Data Corporation. "India Tablet Market Posts 8.2 percentage Annual Growth in 2015." March 21 (2016). <a href="http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prAP41123816">http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prAP41123816</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[4]</strong> Press Trust of India. "Tablet Market in India Shrank 32 Percent in Q1 2014 on YoY Basis: IDC." Gadgets 360, NDTV. May 28, 2014. <a href="http://gadgets.ndtv.com/tablets/news/tablet-market-in-india-shrank-32-percent-in-q1-2014-on-yoy-basis-idc-532253">http://gadgets.ndtv.com/tablets/news/tablet-market-in-india-shrank-32-percent-in-q1-2014-on-yoy-basis-idc-532253</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[5]</strong> Chander, Romesh, and Kiran Karnik. <em>Planning for Satellite Broadcasting: The Indian
Instructional Television Experiment</em>. Paris: The Unesco Press, 1976.</p>
<p><strong>[6]</strong> Siddiqi, Asif. "Making Space for the Nation: Satellite Television, Indian Scientific Elites, and the Cold War." <em>Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East</em>, Vol. 35, No. 1, 2015: 35–49./p></p>
<p><strong>[7]</strong> Department of Space. Comptroller and Auditor General of India, Government of India. Report
No. 22 of 2013 - Compliance Audit on Union Government (Scientific and Environmental Ministries/ Departments). New Delhi: Government of India, 2013: 23–53.</p>
<p><strong>[8]</strong> National Council of Educational Research and Training. <em>Position Paper of National Focus
Group on Educational Technology</em>. Government of India, New Delhi, 2006, 6.</p>
<p><strong>[9]</strong> Press Information Bureau, Government of India. 2011. “Shri Kapil Sibal Launches ‘Aakash’,
Low Cost Access Device.” Press Information Bureau, October 05. <a href="http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=76476">http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=76476</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[10]</strong> Agarwal, Surabhi. 2013. “Govt Plans to License ‘Brand Aakash.’” Business Standard, June 19.
<a href="http://www.businessstandard.com/article/technology/govtplanstolicensebrandaakash
113061800902_1.html">http://www.businessstandard.com/article/technology/govtplanstolicensebrandaakash
113061800902_1.html</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[11]</strong> Press Trust of India. "Kapil Sibal: Aakash Tablet is My Unfulfilled Dream." Financial Express, December 24, 2013. <a href="http://www.financialexpress.com/news/kapilsibalaakashtabletismyunfulfilleddream/1211284/0">http://www.financialexpress.com/news/kapilsibalaakashtabletismyunfulfilleddream/1211284/0</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[12]</strong> Kurup, Saira. 2011. “We Want to Target the Billion Indians who are Cut off.” Times of India, October 09. <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/stoi/deepfocus/WewanttotargetthebillionIndianswhoarecutoff/articleshow/10284832.cms">http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/stoi/deepfocus/WewanttotargetthebillionIndianswhoarecutoff/articleshow/10284832.cms</a>.</p>
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No publishersumandroAakashResearchEducation TechnologyInternet HistoriesResearchers at Work2016-04-25T08:04:28ZBlog Entry"Will the Magic Number Deliver?" - Roundtable on Aadhaar at CSLG, JNU, April 26
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/will-the-magic-number-deliver-aadhaar-cslg-26042016
<b>The Centre for the Study of Law and Governance (CSLG), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), will organise a roundtable discussion on Tuesday, April 26, to discuss the Aadhaar project and Act. Along with Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Prasanna S, Apar Gupta, and Chirashree Dasgupta, Sumandro Chattapadhyay will be one of the discussants. It will take place in the CSLG Conference Room at 6 pm.</b>
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<h3>Discussion Note</h3>
<p>The Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016, was enacted by the Parliament on March 16. Thereafter it has been notified on March 26.</p>
<p>The Act empowers the UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) to collect biometric and demographic information of residents to provide them with a unique number. This unique number is to be used for enumeration, identification and targeting of beneficiaries of government subsidies and services.</p>
<p>Since the creation of the UIDAI as an executive authority in 2009, this process of enumeration has been ongoing. Recently, it was announced that more than 100 crore residents have been given their aadhaar cards. Alongside, however, legal challenges have continued in the Supreme Court.</p>
<p>Given this context, this Roundatable Discussion will focus on the following set of questions (among others):</p>
<ul><li>
<p>Can the Aadhaar Number enable better delivery of government subsidies and services?</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>How does the Act ensure data protection?</p>
</li>
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<p>Is there a right to privacy in India? What are the implications in the context of Aadhaar?</p>
</li>
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<p>Does the Act ensure public access to statutory remedies in case of violations?</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Did the Aadhaar Bill fulfil the requirements of a money bill?</p>
</li></ul>
<p> </p>
<h3>Discussion Format</h3>
<p>Setting the Theme - Short Introduction to the Topic by Natasha Goyal</p>
<p>Speakers' comments, 15 minutes each, consecutive, no power points</p>
<ul><li>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/rajeev_mp">Rajeev Chandrasekhar</a>, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/ajantriks">Sumandro Chattapadhyay</a>, the Centre for Internet and Society</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/prasanna_s">Prasanna S</a>, Lawyer</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/aparatbar">Apar Gupta</a>, Advocate, Delhi High Court</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href="http://www.jnu.ac.in/FacultyStaff/ShowProfile.asp?SendUserName=chirashree">Dr. Chirashree Dasgupta</a>, Centre for the Study of Law and Governance</p>
</li></ul>
<p>Open Session (Moderated Q and A)</p>
<p>Followed by Tea</p>
<h3>Directions to Venue</h3>
<p>From JNU main gate, proceed straight until you get to a T-junction. Turn left. Continue until you reach a second T-junction. Turn right. Follow the road for just 0.7 km until you see a bus stop labelled “Paschimmabad.” About 50 m past the bus stop turn right at a sign that reads: “Centre for the Study of Law and Governance”. The CSLG building is on the right. The conference room is on the first floor.</p>
<h3>Poster</h3>
<img src="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/will-the-magic-number-deliver-aadhaar-cslg-26042016/leadImage" alt="CSLG Roundtable Discussion - Will the Magic Number Deliver? - April 26, 6 pm" />
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No publishersumandroUIDPrivacyDigital IndiaAadhaarBiometrics2016-04-20T10:49:58ZEventThe Last Chance for a Welfare State Doesn’t Rest in the Aadhaar System
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-last-chance-for-a-welfare-state-doesnt-rest-in-the-aadhaar-system
<b>Boosting welfare is the message, which is how Aadhaar is being presented in India. The Aadhaar system as a medium, however, is one that enables tracking, surveillance, and data monetisation. This piece by Sumandro Chattapadhyay was published in The Wire on April 19, 2016.</b>
<p> </p>
<p><em>Originally published in and cross-posted from <a href="http://thewire.in/2016/04/19/the-last-chance-for-a-welfare-state-doesnt-rest-in-the-aadhaar-system-30256/">The Wire</a>.</em></p>
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<p>Once upon a time, a king desired that his parrot should be taught all the ancient knowledge of the kingdom. The priests started feeding the pages of the great books to the parrot with much enthusiasm. One day, the king asked the priests if the parrot’s education has completed. The priests poked the belly of the parrot but it made no sound. Only the rustle of undigested pages inside the belly could be heard. The priests declared that the parrot is indeed a learned one now.</p>
<p>The fate of the welfare system in our country is quite similar to this parrot from Tagore’s parable. It has been forcefully fed identification cards and other official documents (often four copies of the same) for years, and always with the same justification of making it more effective and fixing the leaks. These identification regimes are in effect killing off the welfare system. And some may say that that has been the actual plan in any case.</p>
<p>The Aadhaar number has been recently offered as <a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/aadhaar-project-uidai-last-chance-for-a-welfare-state/">the ‘last chance’ for the ailing welfare system</a> – a last identification regime that it needs to gulp down to survive. This argument wilfully overlooks the acute problems with the Aadhaar project.</p>
<p>Firstly, the ‘last chance’ for a welfare state in India is not provided by implementing a new and improved identification regime (Aadhaar numbers or otherwise), but by enabling citizens to effectively track, monitor, and ensure delivery of welfare, services, and benefits. This ‘opening up’ of the welfare bureaucracy has been most effectively initiated by the Right to Information Act. Instead of a centralised biometrics-linked identity verification platform, which gives the privilege of tracking and monitoring welfare flows only to a few expert groups, an effective welfare state requires the devolution of such privilege and responsibility.</p>
<p>We should harness the tracking capabilities of electronic financial systems to disclose how money belonging to the Consolidated Fund of India travel around state agencies and departmental levels. Instead, the Aadhaar system effectively stacks up a range of entry barriers to accessing welfare – from malfunctioning biometric scanners, to connectivity problems, to the burden of keeping one’s fingerprint digitally legible under all labouring and algorithmic circumstances.</p>
<p>Secondly, authentication of welfare recipients by Aadhaar number neither make the welfare delivery process free of techno-bureaucratic hurdles, nor does it exorcise away corruption. Anumeha Yadav has recently documented the emerging <a href="http://scroll.in/article/805909/in-rajasthan-there-is-unrest-at-the-ration-shop-because-of-error-ridden-aadhaar">‘unrest at the ration shop’ across Rajasthan</a>, as authentication processes face technical and connectivity delays, people get ‘locked out’ of public services for not having or having Aadhaar number with incorrect demographic details, and no mechanisms exist to provide rapid and definitive recourse.</p>
<p>RTI activists at the <a href="http://www.snsindia.org/">Satark Nagrik Sangathan</a> have highlighted that the Delhi ration shops, using Aadhaar-based authentication, maintain only two columns of data to describe people who have come to the shop – those who received their ration, and those who did not (without any indication of the reason). This leads to erasure-by-design of evidence of the number of welfare-seekers who are excluded from welfare services when the Aadhaar-based authentication process fails (for valid reasons, or otherwise).</p>
<p>Reetika Khera has made it very clear that using Aadhaar Payments Bridge to directly transfer cash to a beneficiary’s account, in the best case scenario, <a href="http://www.epw.in/journal/2013/05/commentary/cost-benefit-analysis-uid.html">may only take care of one form of corruption</a>: deception (a different person claiming to be the beneficiary). But it does not address the other two common forms of public corruption: collusion (government officials approving undue benefits and creating false beneficiaries) and extortion (forceful rent seeking after the cash has been transferred to the beneficiary’s account). Evidently, going after only deception does not make much sense in an environment where collusion and extortion are commonplace.</p>
<p>Thirdly, the ‘relevant privacy question’ for Aadhaar is not limited to how UIDAI protects the data collected by it, but expands to usage of Aadhaar numbers across the public and private sectors. The privacy problem created by the Aadhaar numbers does begin but surely not end with internal data management procedures and responsibilities of the UIDAI.</p>
<p>On one hand, the Aadhaar Bill 2016 has reduced the personal data sharing restrictions of the NIAI Bill 2010, and <a href="http://scroll.in/article/806297/no-longer-a-black-box-why-does-the-revised-aadhar-bill-allow-sharing-of-identity-information">has allowed for sharing of all data except core biometrics (fingerprints and iris scan)</a> with all agencies involved in authentication of a person through her/his Aadhaar number. These agencies have been asked to seek consent from the person who is being authenticated, and to inform her/him of the ways in which the provided data (by the person, and by UIDAI) will be used by the agency. In careful wording, the Bill only asks the agencies to inform the person about “alternatives to submission of identity information to the requesting entity” (Section 8.3) but not to provide any such alternatives. This facilitates and legalises a much wider collection of personal demographic data for offering of services by public agencies “or any body corporate or person” (Section 57), which is way beyond the scope of data management practices of UIDAI.</p>
<p>On the other hand, the Aadhaar number is being seeded to all government databases – from lists of HIV patients, of rural citizens being offered 100 days of work, of students getting scholarships meant for specific social groups, of people with a bank account. Now in some sectors, such as banking, inter-agency sharing of data about clients is strictly regulated. But we increasingly have non-financial agencies playing crucial roles in the financial sector – from mobile wallets to peer-to-peer transaction to innovative credit ratings. Seeding of Aadhaar into all government and private databases would allow for easy and direct joining up of these databases by anyone who has access to them, and not at all by security agencies only.</p>
<p>When it becomes publicly acceptable that <a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/aadhaar-project-uidai-last-chance-for-a-welfare-state/">the <em>money bill route</em> was a ‘remedial’ instrument to put the Rajya Sabha ‘back on track’</a>, one cannot not wonder about what was being remedied by avoiding a public debate about the draft bill before it was presented in Lok Sabha. The answer is simple: <em>welfare is the message, surveillance is the medium</em>.</p>
<p>Acceptance and adoption of all medium requires a message, a content. The users are interested in the message. The message, however, is not the business. Think of Free Basics. Facebook wants people with none or limited access to internet to enjoy parts of the internet at zero data cost. Facebook does not provide the content that the users consume on such internet. The content is created by the users themselves, and also provided by other companies. Facebook own and control the medium, and makes money out of all content, including interactions, passing through it.</p>
<p>The UIDAI has set up a biometric data bank and related infrastructure to offer authentication-as-a-service. As the Bill clarifies, almost all agencies (public or private, national or global) can use this service to verify the identity of Indian residents. Unlike Facebook, the content of these services do not flow through the Aadhaar system. Nonetheless, Aadhaar keeps track of all ‘authentication records’, that is records of whose identity was authenticated by whom, when, and where. This database is gold (data) mine for security agencies in India, and elsewhere. Further, as more agencies use authentication based on Aadhaar numbers, it becomes easier for them to combine and compare databases with other agencies doing the same, by linking each line of transaction across databases using Aadhaar numbers.</p>
<p>Welfare is the message that the Aadhaar system is riding on. The message is only useful for the medium as far as it ensures that the majority of the user population are subscribing to it. Once the users are enrolled, or on-boarded, the medium enables flow of all kinds of messages, and tracking and monetisation (perhaps not so much in the case of UIDAI) of all those flows. It does not matter if the Aadhaar system is being introduced to remedy the broken parliamentary process, or the broken welfare distribution system. What matters is that the UIDAI is establishing the infrastructure for a universal surveillance system in India, and without a formal acknowledgement and legal framework for the same.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-last-chance-for-a-welfare-state-doesnt-rest-in-the-aadhaar-system'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-last-chance-for-a-welfare-state-doesnt-rest-in-the-aadhaar-system</a>
</p>
No publishersumandroUIDData SystemsPrivacyInternet GovernanceDigital IndiaAadhaarBiometrics2016-04-19T13:18:42ZBlog EntryMonitoring Sustainable Development Goals in India: Availability and Openness of Data (Part II)
http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/monitoring-sustainable-development-goals-in-india-availability-and-openness-02
<b>The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are an internationally agreed upon set of developmental targets to be achieved by 2030. There are 17 SDGs with 169 targets, and each target is mapped to one or more indicators as a measure of evaluation. In this and the next blog post, Kiran AB is documenting the availability and openness of data sets in India that are relevant for monitoring the targets under the SDGs. This post offers the findings for the last 10 Goals. The first 7 has already been discussed in the earlier post.</b>
<p> </p>
<p><em>The first part of the post can be accessed <a href="http://cis-india.org/openness/monitoring-sustainable-development-goals-in-india-availability-and-openness-01/">here</a>.</em></p>
<hr />
<h3>Goal #08: <em>Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all</em></h3>
<p>There are fourteen indicators to monitor the goal 8 and the data is available for all the indicators mapped to their respective targets. For most of the indicators, the data availability is not what the indicator demands, but has to be derived from the available dataset.</p>
<p>The data can be accessed freely in the public domain for all the indicators. However, for the subparts in some of the indicators, the data is not accessible freely. There is a cross agency dependency over the data, to arrive at the required indicator.</p>
<p>Data is collected annually for most of the indicators, while the indicators, viz., Indicator 8.3.1.: Share of informal employment in non-agriculture employment by sex; Indicator 8.5.2: Unemployment rate by sex, age-group and persons with disabilities, which are measured by the Census or the planning commission the frequency of data collection becomes decennial or quinquennial. And the Indicator 8.8.2 : Number of ILO conventions ratified by type of convention, which lists the number of conventions the frequency cannot be determined as it's just a list updated whenever there is a ratification of any ILO conventions. Some of the available data are restricted to particular years and most of them are not till date.</p>
<p>Two indicators, i.e., Indicator 8.5.2 and Indicator 8.10.1: Number of commercial bank branches and ATMs per 100,000 adults, which are measured at the level of districts, whereas Indicator 8.7.1: Percentage and number of children aged 5-17 years engaged in child labour, per sex and age group; Indicator 8.8.1: Frequency rates of fatal and non-fatal occupational injuries by sex and migrant status, are measured at the state level. The remaining are measured only at the national level.</p>
<p>Most of the data are collected from the international organisations like ILO, UNEP, UNWTO, etc., from whose source the data are not updated regularly. There is also a need to disaggregate according to the indicator.</p>
<p> </p>
<h3>Goal #09: <em>Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation</em></h3>
<p>When development is through industrialization, sustainable and inclusiveness should be the necessary conditions to attain it. Having said this, the data is available for all the indicators, i.e., twelve indicators, corresponding to the targets as defined for the goal 9. For most of the indicators, the data have to be derived for the required measure to monitor the goal.</p>
<p>From among these indicators, the data is collected annually for most of the indicators, while for the two indicators, Indicator 9.3.1: Percentage share of small scale industries in total industry value added; Indicator 9.3.2: Percentage of small scale industries with a loan or line of credit, the frequency of data collection is once in five years.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Excluding two indicators, i.e., Indicator 9.2.2: Manufacturing employment as a percentage of total employment; Indicator 9.1.1: Share of the rural population who live within 2km of an all season road, for which the data is available at the state level and district level respectively, for the remaining indicators the data is available only at the national level.</p>
<p>The data pertaining to eleven indicators are freely accessible in the public domain, however, for the Indicator 9.b.1: Percentage share of medium and high-tech (MHT) industry value added in total value added, the data is not freely accessible. Most of the freely available data are obtained from the international organisations, along with the official data from the government in India.</p>
<p> </p>
<h3>Goal #10: <em>Reduce inequality within and among countries</em></h3>
<p>Bridging the gap between the global north-south divide through co-operation – social, economical, political, etc., would promote equality. There are twelve indicators for measuring this goal, of which the data is not available for one of the indicators and are available for the remaining indicators.</p>
<p>From the data available, for six of the indicators the data is accessible freely in the public domain, whereas for the five of the indicators – Indicator 10.2.1; Indicator 10.3.1; Indicator 10.4.1; Indicator 10.7.3; Indicator 10.a.1, the data is closed.</p>
<p>Most of the data available are of the national level and for the Indicator 10.7.3: Number of detected and non-detected victims of human trafficking per 100,000, the data includes from the states as well. However, since the goal refers to inequalities within the country as well, the granularity of the data should have been from the state/district level as well.</p>
<p>And, the frequency of data collected are annually for some of the indicators and for some the details cannot be determined or not valid. For most of the indicators the data has to be derived from the available dataset and disaggregated as needed. Also, for some indicators the data is partially available.</p>
<p><strong>Data Not Available:</strong></p>
<ul><li>Indicator 10.7.1: Recruitment cost borne by employee as percentage of yearly income earned in country of destination</li></ul>
<p> </p>
<h3>Goal #11: <em>Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable</em></h3>
<p>Housing and the type of settlements determines the human development and the progress of development of a nation. Therefore for monitoring the goal 11 is implicit to human development. There are thirteen indicators to monitor this goal and out of which the data is available for ten indicators and for the three indicators the data is not available.</p>
<p>For three of the indicators the available data is not freely accessible, while for the remaining ones the data is accessible. And for most of the indicators the data has to be derived as needed.</p>
<p>The data is collected annually for most of the indicators and quinquennially for the Indicator 11.5.1, and for some data the data pertains to particular year and there lacks a sequence of data availability.</p>
<p>For four of the indicators – Indicator 11.2.1; Indicator 11.3.1; Indicator 11.6.1; Indicator 11.a.1, the data is available at the state/city level along with national level. And for the remaining indicators the data is available at the national level alone. Also, some of the data are not up-to-date and refers to data more than 3 or years old.</p>
<p><strong>Data Not Available:</strong></p>
<ul><li>Indicator 11.3.2: Percentage of cities with direct participation structure of civil society in urban planning and management, which operate regularly and democratically</li>
<li>Indicator 11.7.1: The average share of the built-up areas of cities that is open space in public use for all, disaggregated by age, sex, and persons with disabilities</li>
<li>Indicator 11.b.1: Percentage of cities implementing risk reduction and resilience strategies aligned with accepted international frameworks (such as the successor to the Hyogo Framework for Action on Disaster Risk Reduction) that include vulnerable and marginalised groups in their design, implementation and monitoring</li></ul>
<p> </p>
<h3>Goal #12: <em>Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns</em></h3>
<p>Production and consumption should go hand in hand, but over consumption or over production would only lead to destruction of the environment. Therefore goal 12 seeks to ensure a sustainability in both. The data is available for ten indicators out of twelve indicators, and for the two indicators the data is not available, so as to monitor the respective goals. Some of the data are partially available and using the available data the indicators can be derived.</p>
<p>Moreover, the data for six of the indicators which are available are freely accessible in the public domain whereas for the remaining four indicators – Indicator 12.4.1; Indicator 12.4.2; Indicator 12.5.1; Indicator 12.b.1, the data is not open.</p>
<p>While for most of the indicators say, Indicator 12.2.1; Indicator 12.3.1; Indicator 12.5.1; Indicator 12.a.1; Indicator 12.c.1, the data is collected annually, whereas for the others, the data which are available are for particular years or cannot be determined. Except for the Indicator 12.5.1, for which the data is available at the city level, the data for the remaining are of the national order. The data is collected from both the national institutions, ministries and also from the international organisations.</p>
<p><strong>Data Not Available:</strong></p>
<ul><li>Indicator 12.1.1: Number of countries with SCP National Actions Plans or SCP mainstreamed as a priority or target into national policies.</li>
<li>Indicator 12.8.1: Percentage of educational institutions with formal and informal education curricula on sustainable development and lifestyle topics</li></ul>
<p> </p>
<h3>Goal #13: <em>Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts</em></h3>
<p>The impact of climate change is severe, therefore taking an urgent action ensures could reduce the impact. The data is available for four of the indicators out of five, and for one of indicators the data is not available.</p>
<p>The data for three indicators are freely accessible in the public domain, whereas for the Indicator 13.3.1: Number of countries that have integrated mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning into primary, secondary and tertiary curricula, the data is not open and also not specific to the indicator. The data for some of the indicators are partially available and have to be derived.</p>
<p>The frequency of the data is not uniform and cannot be determined, by the virtue of the indicator itself. For example, the occurrence of a disaster event is random. However, for some of the indicators the reporting is either annual or quadrennial.</p>
<p>The data availability is at the national level and in case of the Indicator 13.3.1., the data is available for two states – Orissa and Tamil Nadu. Data for almost all the indicators are obtained from international organizations and very less data availability from the national databases.</p>
<p><strong>Data Not Available:</strong></p>
<ul><li>Indicator 13.2.1.: Number of countries that have formally communicated the establishment of integrated low-carbon, climate-resilient, disaster risk reduction development strategies</li></ul>
<p> </p>
<h3>Goal #14: <em>Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development</em></h3>
<p> </p>
<p>Oceans are the torchbearers for all the countries. Therefore everything related to oceans, seas and marine resources have an impact on the human life. There are ten indicators corresponding to the targets, of which the data is available for nine indicators and for one indicator the data is not available. The data for some of the indicators are not direct, but need to be derived, while for some indicators the data is partially available. To derive some indicators we need to rely on cross agency data.</p>
<p>For the Indicator 14.a.1: Budget allocation to research in the field of marine technology as a percentage of total budget to research, the data on budgetary allocation doesn't specify to marine technology.</p>
<p>The frequency of data collected for most of the indicators are not available or cannot be determined or not applicable, whereas for some the data is collected annually. And for most of the indicators the data is available at the national level and for the Indicator 14.5.1: Coverage of protected areas in relation to marine areas, the data is available for the states also.</p>
<p><strong>Data Not Available:</strong></p>
<ul><li>Indicator 14.6.1: Dollar value of negative fishery subsidies against 2015 baseline</li></ul>
<p> </p>
<h3>Goal #15: <em>Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss</em></h3>
<p> </p>
<p>This goal on restoring, promoting ecosystem and stopping biodiversity loss, etc., has fifteen indicators mapped to twelve corresponding targets. Of which, the data is available for fourteen of the indicators and the data is not available for the one of the indicators. Data for some of the indicators exist partially and for some the data has to be derived to match the indicators. To arrive at the indicators, the data has to be derived from different datasets available.</p>
<p>Most of the data which are available are closed and only five are accessible in the public platform – Indicator 15.1.1 : Forest area as a percentage of total land area; Indicator 15.4.2: Mountain Green Cover Index; Indicator 15.8.1: Adoption of national legislation relevant to the prevention or control of invasive alien species; Indicator 15.9.1: Number of national development plans and processes integrating biodiversity and ecosystem services values; Indicator 15.a.1: Official development assistance and public expenditure on conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and ecosystems.</p>
<p>The frequency of data collected is not available or cannot be determined for majority of the indicators, while the data is annually collected for the ones which can be determined. Furthermore, the data is available at the national level for all the indicators, except the Indicator 15.b.1: Forestry official development assistance and forestry FDI, for which the data is available at the level of states as well.</p>
<p>The data available are collected by international organisations like OECD, FAO, Convention on Biological Diversity, etc., as well as by the national institutions and ministries like Planning Commission, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, etc.</p>
<p><strong>Data Not Available:</strong></p>
<ul><li>Indicator 15.2.2: Net permanent forest loss</li></ul>
<p> </p>
<h3>Goal #16: <em>Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels</em></h3>
<p> </p>
<p>A society which is inclusive, peaceful, provides justice and accountable in all its forms would ensure sustainable development, therefore to promote the aforementioned parameters one has to monitor them through an established measure. There are twenty-one indicators for this goal mapped to the respective targets and out of which the data is not available for five indicators to monitor the goal. From the available dataset, the values need to be derived for some of the indicators and for some indicators the data is directly/partially available.</p>
<p>From among the data which are available, for nine indicators the data is not freely accessible in the public platform, while the remaining six data set are open to access. They are available both from national and international agencies and most of the data are not up to the date.</p>
<p>The data which are available are collected/reported annually. And, excluding four indicators. i.e.; Indicator 16.1.3, Indicator 16.3.1, Indicator 16.4.2, Indicator 16.b.1, the data is available at the state level, while for the remaining indicators the data is available only at the national level. Most of the indicators require data from past 12 months, but the available dataset does not cater the needs, as they are not updated regularly. Finally, the indicators seeks disaggregated data for monitoring the goal.</p>
<p><strong>Data Not Available:</strong></p>
<ul><li>Indicator 16.1.4: Proportion of people that feel safe walking alone around the area they live</li>
<li>Indicator 16.2.3. Percentage of young women and men aged 18-24 years who experienced sexual violence by age 18</li>
<li>Indicator 16.6.2: Percentage of population satisfied with their last experience of public services</li>
<li>Indicator 16.7.2: Proportion of countries that address young people's multisectoral needs with their national development plans and poverty reduction strategies</li>
<li>Indicator 16.a.1: Percentage of victims who report physical and/or sexual crime to law enforcement agencies during past 12 months disaggregated by age, sex, region and population group</li></ul>
<p> </p>
<h3>Goal #17: <em>Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development</em></h3>
<p> </p>
<p>Moving towards achieving SDGs in the global scenario requires support – financial, technological, etc. This support can be strengthened the relationship between the developing and the developed countries. There are twenty-four indicators to monitor the goal 17, out of which the data is available for twenty-three of the indicators and for one of the indicators the data does not exist.</p>
<p>The data which are available are direct as per the indicators, whereas for most of the indicators the data need to be derived. Data is partially available for the Indicator 17.16.1: Indicator 7 from Global Partnership Monitoring Exercise: Mutual accountability among development co-operation actors is strengthened through inclusive reviews.</p>
<p>From the data available for twenty-three indicators, fourteen of the data set are freely accessible and the nine are not open. Also, some of the data which are open are not up to date or the latest data is not open.</p>
<p>The data is collected annually for most of the indicators and for some the data is available for particular year. Also for some of the indicators like Indicator 17.5.1: Number of national & investment policy reforms adopted that incorporate sustainable development objectives or safeguards x country; Indicator 17.6.1: Access to patent information and use of the international intellectual property (IP) system; Indicator 17.18.2: Number of countries that have national statistical legislation that complies with the Fundamental Principles of Official statistics, the frequency cannot be determined or not valid.</p>
<p>Since this indicator speaks at the national level, the granularity of the data pertains to the nation. Most of the data are obtained from the international organisations say UN, World Bank, IMF, OECD, etc., and some are from the national institutions/ministries like Planning Commission, Finance Ministry, etc.</p>
<p><strong>Data Not Available:</strong></p>
<ul><li>Indicator 17.17.1: Amount of US$ committed to public-private partnerships and civil society partnerships</li></ul>
<p> </p>
<h3>Conclusion</h3>
<p>Decision making depends on data, a data should be representative, with high quality and has to be timely collected, which ensures precise assessment of the decision being made. From the analysis it was found that, most of the data which are available are either not freely accessible, outdated and not precise to the need. Most of the SDG indicators are based on disaggregation. The disaggregation is a key to measure to the precision, especially incidences like poverty, food security, health, etc. Therefore, to monitor different parameters we need to identify the different levels prevailing in the parameter to ensure inclusivity.</p>
<p>Said above, the frequency of data collection is either annual, quinquennial and decennial. To enable real time evaluation, the data should be up-to-date. Moreover, for most of the indicators the data availability is at the national level or at the state level and sometimes at the district level. The granularity of data ensures geographic inclusiveness.</p>
<p>In a country like India for close monitoring of progress/development of any sort the data availability should be;</p>
<ul><li>at a granular level of district/block,</li>
<li>collected and updated regularly,</li>
<li>disaggregated by age, sex, and also by social group, and</li>
<li>the data should be open to be able to access in the public domain freely.</li></ul>
<p>Open data will be a crucial tool for governments to meet the transparency and efficiency challenges. For this reason, government data should be open – freely accessible, presented in a format that is comparable and reusable and, ideally, released in a timely manner.</p>
<p> </p>
<h3>Author</h3>
<p>Kiran A B, is a student of Master of Public Policy (MPP) at the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru. Kiran has an undergraduate degree in electronics and communications engineering, and he has three years full-time work experience as a software engineer, working in different technological platforms. His research interest includes interdisciplinary linkages between policy, law and technology.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/monitoring-sustainable-development-goals-in-india-availability-and-openness-02'>http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/monitoring-sustainable-development-goals-in-india-availability-and-openness-02</a>
</p>
No publishersumandroDevelopmentOpen DataOpen Government DataData RevolutionOpennessSustainable Development Goals2016-04-12T04:14:27ZBlog EntryPosts
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/posts
<b></b>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/posts'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/posts</a>
</p>
No publishersumandro2016-03-30T11:09:35ZCollectionTRAI Consultation on Differential Pricing for Data Services - Post-Open House Discussion Submission
http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/blog/trai-consultation-on-differential-pricing-for-data-services
<b>The Centre for Internet and Society sent this submission to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) following the Open House Discussion on Differential Pricing of Data Services, held in Delhi on February 21, 2016.</b>
<p> </p>
<h4>Download the submission document: <a href="https://github.com/cis-india/website/raw/master/docs/CIS_TRAI-Differential-Pricing_Submission_2015.01.25.pdf">PDF</a>.</h4>
<p> </p>
<h3>Post-Open House Discussion Submission to TRAI</h3>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Dear Ms. Kotwal,</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">This is to heartily congratulate TRAI once again for taking several steps, including the Open House Discussion, to ensure that various opinions about the topic of ‘differential pricing for data services’ are presented and are responded to - and are all in full public view.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">This brief note is to <strong>a)</strong> add to the positions and arguments submitted previously by the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), India, <strong>b)</strong> put in writing our comments during the Open House Discussion (January 21, 2016), and <strong>c)</strong> respond to other comments shared at the same event. We have six points to share in this note:<br /><br /></p>
<ol style="text-align: justify;">
<li><strong>Forbearance is not an option</strong>: We are of the opinion that though the data services market has thus far been kept un-monitored and unregulated, and there are several reasons why this situation should not continue any more. Although the reality of differential pricing (that is data packets originating from different sources being priced differently by ISPs) was highlighted with the recent offering of zero rated packs, it is a general practice in the sector, as illustrated by widely available special/curated content packs for the user to consume data from a specified web-based source. It is not surprising that most such special/curated content packs involve an arrangement between the ISP and a prominent leader in the web-content/platform sector, such as Facebook and Twitter. Serious market distorting impacts of such arrangements are imminent if they are allowed to continue without any monitoring, enforced public disclosure, and regulatory actions by a public authority.<br /><br /></li>
<li><strong>Address differential treatment of data, and not only differential pricing</strong>: Pricing is only of the three ways in which data services can be treated differently by the ISPs depending upon the source of the data packets concerned. The other two ways are: a) differential speed, or throttling of some data packets and prioritisation of the others, and b) differential treatment of data protocols, for example, the blocking of peer-to-peer or voice-over-IP traffic by an ISP. If the public authority decides to only regulate differential pricing of data service, it is highly probable that ISPs may shift to other forms of discrimination between data packets - either in terms of prioritising some data packets over others based upon their origin, or blocking of specific protocols such as voice-over-IP to prevent the functioning of certain web-based services - and continue the market distorting impacts through these other means.<br /><br /></li>
<li><strong>Allow and define reasonable network management practices</strong>: Reasonable network management has to be allowed to enable the ISPs to manage performance on their network. However, ISPs may not indulge in acts that are harmful to users in the name of reasonable network management. Below is a set of potential guidelines to identify cases when discrimination against classes of data traffic in the name of reasonable network management can be considered justified and permissible:<br />
<ul><li>there is an intelligible differentia between the classes which are to be treated differently,</li>
<li>there is a rational nexus between the differential treatment and the aim of such differentiation,</li>
<li>the aim sought to be furthered is legitimate, and is related to the security, stability, or efficient functioning of the network, or is a technical limitation outside the control of the ISP, and</li>
<li>the network management practice is the least harmful technical means that is reasonably available to achieve the aim.</li><br /></ul>
</li>
<li><strong>Establish an effective enforcement mechanism</strong>: TRAI must establish an enforcement mechanism that is open to users [and groups of users] and private sector actors as current forums are insufficient. Clear and simple rules must be established ex-ante, if they are violated - ex-post regulation must be undertaken on the basis of principles listed in the TRAI consultation paper, that is “non-discrimination, transparency, affordable internet access, competition and market entry, and innovation” <a name="fr1">[1]</a><br /><br /></li>
<li><strong>Take regulatory decisions now, but also conduct and commission further research to review and refine the decisions over a defined period of time</strong><br /><br /></li>
<li><strong>Need for better collection and proactive disclosure of statistics</strong>: TRAI publishes quarterly performance indicators statistics collected from the telecom companies about telephone, mobile, and internet sectors in India <a name="fr2">[2]</a>. It will be very useful for researchers and analysts, and allow for a much more informed public debate on the matter, if the content and form of such data are improved in the following ways:<br />
<br /><strong>Content:</strong>
<ul>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;">Please start collection (unless already done) and publication of not only data of average incoming and outgoing MOUs, average of total outgoing SMSs, Average Revenue Per User, and average data usage per GSM and CDMA subscriber, but distributions of the same in terms of user deciles (that is in terms of representative figures for each 10% section of users in ascending order of usage),</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;">Provide granular data about data usage across service areas and service providers (the numbers on ‘average data usage’ and total ‘revenue from data usage’ provided at present are very insufficient for the state of public debate),</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;">Provide data about internet subscriber base according to network technologies (for both wired and wireless) and the service providers concerned,</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;">Provide data about IP-based telephony across service areas and service providers,</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;">Provide data separately for the North Eastern states, and</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;">Provide granular data (separated from the corresponding state data) for all tier-1 cities.</div>
</li></ul>
<br />
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Form:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;">Please do not publish the data only as part of the quarterly reports available in PDF format, but also as independent machine-readable spreadsheet file (preferably in CSV format),</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;">Do not only publish quarterly data in separate files, but also provide a combined (all quarters together) dataset that would make it much easier for researchers and analysts to use the data,</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;">In some exceptional cases, the data is not provided in the report directly but a diagram containing the data is published <a name="fr3">[3]</a>, which should be kindly avoided, and</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify;">Please publish these statistics as open data, that is in open standards and under open licenses.<br /><br /></div>
</li></ul>
</li></ol>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Further, we request TRAI to explore possibilities of distributed sourcing of data, perhaps from the users themselves, about the actual network usage experiences, including but not limited to signal strength, data transfer speed (incoming and outgoing), frequency of switches between mobile (GSM and CDMA) and wi-fi connectivity, etc.</p>
<p> </p>
<h3>References</h3>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">[<a name="fn1">1</a>]. http://trai.gov.in/WriteReaddata/ConsultationPaper/Document/CP-Differential-Pricing-09122015.pdf.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">[<a name="fn2">2</a>]. http://www.trai.gov.in/Content/PerformanceIndicatorsReports/1_1_PerformanceIndicatorsReports.aspx.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">[<a name="fn3">3</a>]. http://www.trai.gov.in/WriteReadData/PIRReport/Documents/Performance_Indicator_Report_Jun_2015.pdf , sections 1.43 and 1.44 (pp. 31-32).</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/blog/trai-consultation-on-differential-pricing-for-data-services'>http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/blog/trai-consultation-on-differential-pricing-for-data-services</a>
</p>
No publishersumandroInternet AccessTRAINet NeutralityTelecomTRAI, OTTInternet Governance2016-03-30T13:13:30ZBlog EntryAn Urgent Need for the Right to Privacy
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/an-urgent-need-for-the-right-to-privacy
<b>Along with a group of individuals and organisations from academia and civil society, we have drafted and are signatories to an open letter addressed to the Union government and urging the same to "urgently take steps to uphold the constitutional basis to the right to privacy and fulfil it’s constitutional and international obligations." Here we publish the text of the open letter. Please follow the link below to support it by joining the signatories.</b>
<p> </p>
<h4><a href="http://goo.gl/forms/hw4huFcc4b" target="_blank">Read and sign the open letter.</a></h4>
<p> </p>
<h2>Text of the Open Letter</h2>
<p>As our everyday lives are conducted increasingly through electronic communications the necessity for privacy protections has also increased. While several countries across the globe have recognised this by furthering the right to privacy of their citizens the Union Government has adopted a regressive attitude towards this core civil liberty. We urge the Union Government to take urgent measures to safeguard the right to privacy in India.</p>
<p>Our concerns are based on a continuing pattern of disregard for the right to privacy by several governments in the past. This trend has increased as can be plainly viewed from the following developments.</p>
<p>In 2015, the Attorney General in the case of *K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India*, argued before the Hon’ble Supreme Court that there is no right to privacy under the Constitution of India. The Hon'ble Court was persuaded to re-examine the basis of the right to privacy upsetting 45 years of judicial precedent. This has thrown the constitutional right to privacy in doubt and the several judgements that have been given under it. This includes the 1997 PUCL Telephone Tapping judgement as well. We urge the Union Government to take whatever steps are necessary and urge the Supreme Court to hold that a right to privacy exists under the Constitution of India.</p>
<p>Recently Mr. Arun Jaitley, Minister for Finance introduced the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill, 2016. This bill was passed on March 11, 2016 in the middle of budget discussion on a short notice as a money bill in the Lok Sabha when only 73 of 545 members were present. Its timing and introduction as a money bill prevents necessary scrutiny given the large privacy risks that arise under it. This version of the bill was never put up for public consultation and is being rushed through without adequate discussion. Even substantively it fails to give accountable privacy safeguards while making Aadhaar mandatory for availing any government subsidy, benefit, or service.</p>
<p>We urge the Union Government to urgently take steps to uphold the constitutional basis to the right to privacy and fulfil it’s constitutional and international obligations. We encourage the Government to have extensive public discussions on the Aadhaar Bill before notifying it. We further call upon them to constitute a drafting committee with members of civil society to draft a comprehensive statute as suggested by the Justice A.P. Shah Committee Report of 2012.</p>
<p>Signatories:</p>
<ul><li>Amber Sinha, the Centre for Internet and Society</li>
<li>Japreet Grewal, the Centre for Internet and Society</li>
<li>Joshita Pai, Centre for Communication Governance, National Law University</li>
<li>Raman Jit Singh Chima, Access Now</li>
<li>Sarvjeet Singh, Centre for Communication Governance, National Law University</li>
<li>Sumandro Chattapadhyay, the Centre for Internet and Society</li>
<li>Sunil Abraham, the Centre for Internet and Society</li>
<li>Vanya Rakesh, the Centre for Internet and Society</li></ul>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/an-urgent-need-for-the-right-to-privacy'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/an-urgent-need-for-the-right-to-privacy</a>
</p>
No publishersumandroUIDBig DataPrivacyInternet GovernanceDigital IndiaAadhaarBiometrics2016-03-17T07:40:12ZBlog EntryAadhaar Bill 2016 & NIAI Bill 2010 - Comparing the Texts
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/aadhaar-bill-2016-niai-bill-2010-text-comparison
<b>This is a quick comparison of the texts of the Aadhaar Bill 2016 and the National Identification Authority of India Bill 2010. The new sections in the former are highlighed, and the deleted sections (that were part of the latter) are struck out.</b>
<p> </p>
<iframe src="http://cis-india.github.io/aadhaar-bill-2016/" frameborder="0" height="500px" width="100%"> </iframe>
<p> </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://cis-india.github.io/aadhaar-bill-2016/">http://cis-india.github.io/aadhaar-bill-2016/</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/aadhaar-bill-2016-niai-bill-2010-text-comparison'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/aadhaar-bill-2016-niai-bill-2010-text-comparison</a>
</p>
No publishersumandroUIDAadhaarBig DataPrivacy2016-03-09T11:25:01ZBlog EntrySean McDonald - Ebola: A Big Data Disaster
http://editors.cis-india.org/papers/ebola-a-big-data-disaster
<b>We are proud to initiate the CIS Papers series with a fascinating exploration of humanitarian use of big data and its discontents by Sean McDonald, FrontlineSMS, in the context of utilisation of Call Detail Records for public health response during the Ebola crisis in Liberia. The paper highlights the absence of a dialogue around the significant legal risks posed by the collection, use, and international transfer of personally identifiable data and humanitarian information, and the grey areas around assumptions of public good. The paper calls for a critical discussion around the experimental nature of data modeling in emergency response due to mismanagement of information has been largely emphasized to protect the contours of human rights.</b>
<p> </p>
<h2>Read</h2>
<h4>Download the paper: <a href="https://github.com/cis-india/papers/raw/master/CIS_Papers_2016.01_Sean-McDonald.pdf">PDF</a>.</h4>
<p> </p>
<h2>Preface</h2>
<p>This study titled “Ebola: A Big Data Disaster” by Sean Martin McDonald, undertaken with support from the Open Society Foundation, Ford Foundation, and Media Democracy Fund, explores the use of Big Data in the form of Call Detail Record (CDR) data in humanitarian crisis.</p>
<p> It discusses the challenges of digital humanitarian coordination in health emergencies like the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, and the marked tension in the debate around experimentation with humanitarian technologies and the impact on privacy. McDonald’s research focuses on the two primary legal and human rights frameworks, privacy and property, to question the impact of unregulated use of CDR’s on human rights. It also highlights how the diffusion of data science to the realm of international development constitutes a genuine opportunity to bring powerful new tools to fight crisis and emergencies.</p>
<p>Analysing the risks of using CDRs to perform migration analysis and contact tracing without user consent, as well as the application of big data to disease surveillance is an important entry point into the debate around use of Big Data for development and humanitarian aid. The paper also raises crucial questions of legal significance about the access to information, the limitation of data sharing, and the concept of proportionality in privacy invasion in the public good. These issues hold great relevance in today's time where big data and its emerging role for development, involving its actual and potential uses as well as harms is under consideration across the world.</p>
<p>The paper highlights the absence of a dialogue around the significant legal risks posed by the collection, use, and international transfer of personally identifiable data and humanitarian information, and the grey areas around assumptions of public good. The paper calls for a critical discussion around the experimental nature of data modelling in emergency response due to mismanagement of information has been largely emphasized to protect the contours of human rights.</p>
<p>This study offers an important perspective for us at the Centre for Internet and Society, and our works on Privacy, Big Data, and Big Data for Development, and very productively articulates the risks of adopting solutions to issues important for development without taking into consideration legal implications and the larger impact on human rights. We look forward to continue to critically engage with issues raised by Big Data in the context of human rights and sustainable development, and bring together diverse perspectives on these issues.</p>
<p><em>- Elonnai Hickok, Policy Director, the Centre for Internet and Society</em></p>
<p> </p>
<h2>CIS Papers</h2>
<p>The CIS Papers series publishes open access monographs and discussion pieces that critically contribute to the debates on digital technologies and society. It includes publication of new findings and observations, of work-in-progress, and of critical review of existing materials. These may be authored by researchers at or affiliated to CIS, by external researchers and practitioners, or by a group of discussants. CIS offers editorial support to the selected monographs and discussion pieces. The views expressed, however, are of the authors' alone.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/papers/ebola-a-big-data-disaster'>http://editors.cis-india.org/papers/ebola-a-big-data-disaster</a>
</p>
No publishersumandroBig DataPrivacyOpen DataDisaster ResponseInternet GovernanceHumanitarian ResponseCIS Papers2016-04-21T09:57:26ZBlog EntryThe Aakash Tablet and Technological Imaginaries of Mass Education in Contemporary India (Excerpt)
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/aakash-tablet-and-technological-imaginaries-of-education-in-india-excerpt
<b>In a recently published paper, Jahnavi Phalkey and Sumandro Chattapadhyay explore public initiatives in technological solutions for educating the poor and the disadvantaged in independent India. Here is an edited excerpt from the paper that traces the recent history of technological solutions for mass education and unpacking the narrative of ‘failure’ that is associated with the Aakash experiment.</b>
<p> </p>
<p><img src="https://github.com/cis-india/website/raw/master/img/2016.02.14_s-campion-aakash.jpg" alt="Students using <p>Aakash tablet, Anupshahr, Uttar Pradesh. Photograph by Sonali Campion." /></p>
<h6>Students at Pardada Pardadi Education Society in Anupshahr, Uttar Pradesh, use the Aakash tablet in class as part of a pilot project introducing the low-cost computer into rural schools. Photograph by Sonali Campion, April 09, 2013: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sonalicampion/9449250639/">https://www.flickr.com/photos/sonalicampion/9449250639/</a>.</h6>
<p> </p>
In 2010, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) of the Government of India launched a set of prototype devices of an affordable tablet computer, the development and production of which were to be supported by the Ministry as part of its larger ICTs for education project. This device later came to be known as the “Aakash” tablet, and the project went through several iterations, between 2010 and 2014, of not only technological re-designs, but also institutional arrangements to design, develop, manufacture, test, and procure the devices.
<p> </p>
<h2>Technological Solutions for Mass Education</h2>
<p>Our exploration of technological solutions for mass education in India has taken us through a not-so-linear history of projects that have informed the imagination and making of the Aakash project. This include the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment, or SITE (1975); University Grants Commission-led Countrywide Classroom project (1984 -); the Simputer, the first hand-held device developed in India (1998); the Hole in the Wall project developed and led by Sugata Mitra (1999); the Government of India-led EDUSAT (2004); National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (2003); and finally, a national online education portal named Sakshat (2006). The Satellite Instructional Television Experiment itself terminated rather quickly, but it led to several versions of television based instruction programmes, most notably aimed at higher secondary and university students. Instruction in the broadcast-format continues to date, even after the arrival of the internet and the fact it has become the preferred medium for the Indian state. The television has not been replaced, but certainly shadowed by a variety of internet access and computing devices.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Aakash, a “Low Cost Access-Cum-Computing Device”</h2>
<p>An early official description of the then-nameless tablet as a “low cost access-cum-computing device” is noteworthy <strong>[1]</strong>. It is difficult to imagine a contemporary computing device that does not also function as an access device (say, to the internet). Where does the need for calling it an “access-cum-computing” device come from? It comes, perhaps, from the hierarchy of priority – the device is primarily an access device, and secondarily can perform the function of a general-purpose computer. An archaeological reading of the assumptions of learning processes embodied in this device reveals an earlier layer of thinking – that of broadcasting educational programmes to television sets via satellite connection. Labelling it as “access-cum-computing” frames the object as being shaped by the residue of the Indian state’s education technological experiences of the past, including that of the SITE initiative.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>“[The] Aakash tablet was my dream but it was not fulfilled”</h2>
<p>Throughout the short history of the Aakash device, the verdict of “failed innovation” figures prominently – from the early failure of "Sakshat" <strong>[2]</strong>, to allegations of the Chinese origin of the Aakash device <strong>[3]</strong>, to manufacturing troubles and under-production of the device <strong>[4]</strong>, to criticisms of the tablet’s built quality and computing capacity <strong>[5]</strong>, to mistrust and failed collaborations between parties involved in its production <strong>[6]</strong>, and intra-governmental criticisms of the implementation process <strong>[7]</strong>. Moreover, there remained a continuous tension within the government itself regarding the necessity of the project, especially fuelled by (and fuelling) the image of the project as being driven by the dreams of a specific minister <strong>[8]</strong>.</p>
<p>To simply describe the Aakash project’s failure as one due to the unbearable heaviness of functions ranging from the technical to the symbolic and political is to fall short of a full explanation. Alongside that narrative of failure, it is critical to foreground the quiet success of the project in establishing the tablet computer as a near-essential and familiarised everyday object for access to educational material. There is an alarming accuracy in the MHRD claim that the Aakash project established a sub $100 tablet market in India – it did, even if it was not for the device they wanted to promote <strong>[9]</strong>.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>The Device is the Desire</h2>
<p>We observe that the Aakash project, as well as the ones preceding it, have been driven primarily by a desire to scale up the provision of education. The initiatives towards building delivery infrastructures for such mass-scale provision of education has almost always been accompanied by a larger desire for developing capabilities in space exploration, communication, and computing – the key technologies of twentieth century geopolitics. Our study of the manufacturing of the Aakash tablet, and its surrounding discourses, foreground the technological imagination of the state after liberalisation in India (1991), and its unique arrangements and efforts to create domestic capability of technological innovation in a context of globalised production and communication networks. We see our role as one of recovering the work of technology in the history of education as understood through the interactions between the state, academia, and industry.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Archival Research in (Increasingly) Digital India</h2>
<p>Documenting the project has been an interesting historical exercise. We have been attentive to documents disappearing from their online locations. One remarkable possibility for archival research opened up by the internet is the (limited, and often uncertain) ability to access materials that are not presently available on a website, but were part of it in the past. This possibility allowed us to access a few crucial government documents that are not directly available on the official websites any more. We have also been attentive to the reiterations and revisions that do not merely overtake or shadow earlier documents. They sometimes erase earlier documents altogether as digital revisions. We do not have access to personal correspondence or internal institutional correspondence relating to the project. We are, however, skeptical of that happening as no protocols for the archiving of digital correspondence is yet in place with the Government of India. Doing recent history of India is becoming an ever more difficult exercise that historians must urgently attend to, if we are to make the present ready to have its own past in the future.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>References</h2>
<p><strong>[1]</strong> Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. “The History of Aakash Low Cost Access cum Computing Device.” Sakshat. October 05, 2011. <a href="http://archive.sakshat.ac.in/pdf/Final_Note_Aakash.pdf">http://archive.sakshat.ac.in/pdf/Final_Note_Aakash.pdf</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[2]</strong> Mukherjee, Arindam. “Bonsai Netbooks.” Outlook. February 16, 2009. <a href="http://www.outlookindia.com/article/Bonsai-Netbooks/239719">http://www.outlookindia.com/article/Bonsai-Netbooks/239719</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[3]</strong> Raina, Pamposh, and Mia Li. “India’s ‘Aakash,’ Now Made in China.” The New York Times. November 26, 2012. <a href="http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/26/india%E2%80%99s-super-cheap-tablet-now-made-in-china/">http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/26/india%E2%80%99s-super-cheap-tablet-now-made-in-china/</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[4]</strong> Nanda, Prashant K., and Surabhi Agarwal. “Government Close to Giving Up on Aakash Project.” Mint. March 22, 2013. <a href="http://www.livemint.com/Politics/fmEi8gsOSFgOzSTFfLsw6J/Govt-almost-gives-up-on-Aakash-says-no-point-in-hardware-ob.html">http://www.livemint.com/Politics/fmEi8gsOSFgOzSTFfLsw6J/Govt-almost-gives-up-on-Aakash-says-no-point-in-hardware-ob.html</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[5]</strong> Chopra, Ritika. “Kapil Sibal's Cheap Aakash Proves to be a Dud.” Mail Today. January 08, 2012. <a href="http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/kapil-sibal-cheapest-tablet-of-world-aakash-failure/1/167730.html">http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/kapil-sibal-cheapest-tablet-of-world-aakash-failure/1/167730.html</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[6]</strong> Julka, Harsimran. “14 Lakh Aakash Tablets Booked in 14 Days.” The Economic Times. January 03, 2012. <a href="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/hardware/14-lakh-aakash-tablets-booked-in-14-days/articleshow/11345695.cms">http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/hardware/14-lakh-aakash-tablets-booked-in-14-days/articleshow/11345695.cms</a>. Parthasarathi, Ashok. “Cloudy Outlook for Aakash.” The Hindu. May 21, 2012 (Updated: May 22, 2012). <a href="http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article3439629.ece
">http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article3439629.ece</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[7]</strong> Comptroller and Auditor General of India, Government of India. Report No. 19 of 2013 - Union Government (Civil) - Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India on Compliance Audit Observations. Government of India. 2013. <a href="http://www.cag.gov.in/content/report-no-19-2013-compliance-audit-observations-union-governmentcivil">http://www.cag.gov.in/content/report-no-19-2013-compliance-audit-observations-union-governmentcivil</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[8]</strong> At an event in late 2013, Kapil Sibal admitted, “[the] Aakash tablet was my dream but it was not fulfilled, I tried hard...” Quoted in Press Trust of India. “Kapil Sibal: Aakash Tablet is My Unfulfilled Dream.” Financial Express. December 24, 2013. <a href="http://www.financialexpress.com/news/kapil-sibal-aakash-tablet-is-my-unfulfilled-dream/1211284/0 ">http://www.financialexpress.com/news/kapil-sibal-aakash-tablet-is-my-unfulfilled-dream/1211284/0 </a>.</p>
<p><strong>[9]</strong> See <strong>[1]</strong>.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> This is an edited excerpt from a paper titled ‘The Aakash Tablet and Technological Imaginaries of Mass Education in Contemporary India’ recently published in History and Technology, on 5 February, 2016. The paper can be accessed here: <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07341512.2015.1136142" target="_blank">http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07341512.2015.1136142</a> (the first 50 downloads are free).</p>
<p>Cross-posted from <a href="http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/southasia/2016/02/12/the-aakash-tablet-and-technological-imaginaries-of-mass-education-in-contemporary-india/" target="_blank">South Asia @ LSE Blog</a>.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/aakash-tablet-and-technological-imaginaries-of-education-in-india-excerpt'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/aakash-tablet-and-technological-imaginaries-of-education-in-india-excerpt</a>
</p>
No publishersumandroResearchers at WorkEducation TechnologyInternet HistoriesResearch2016-02-14T10:11:09ZBlog EntryInternet Researchers' Conference 2016 (IRC16)
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/irc16
<b>The first Internet Researchers' Conference (IRC16) will be organised at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi, on February 26-28, 2016. The focus of the Conference is on the experiences, adventures, and methods of 'studying internet in India.' We are deeply grateful to the Centre for Political Studies (CPS), JNU, for hosting the Conference, and to the CSCS Digital Innovation Fund (CDIF) for the generous support. It is a free and open conference. Please use the form to register.</b>
<p> </p>
<h4>It is our great pleasure to announce the beginning of the Internet Researchers' Conference (IRC), an annual conference series initiated by the Researchers at Work (RAW) programme at CIS to gather researchers, academic or otherwise, studying internet in/from India to congregate, share insights and tensions, and chart the ways forward.</h4>
<p> </p>
<h4>This conference series is specifically driven by the following interests: 1) creating discussion spaces for researchers studying internet in India and in other comparable regions, 2) foregrounding the multiplicity, hierarchies, tensions, and urgencies of the digital sites and users in India, 3) accounting for the various layers, conceptual and material, of experiences and usages of internet and networked digital media in India, and 4) exploring and practicing new modes of research and documentation necessitated by new (digital) forms of objects of power/knowledge.</h4>
<p> </p>
<h4>The first edition of the Conference, IRC16, is engaging with the theme of 'studying internet in India.' The word <em>study</em> here is a shorthand for a range of tasks, from documentation and theory-building, to measurement and representation.</h4>
<p> </p>
<h2>Dates and Venue</h2>
<p>The IRC16 will take place during <strong>February 26-28, 2016</strong>, at the Convention Centre of the <a href="http://jnu.ac.in/">Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU)</a>, Delhi. We are grateful to <a href="http://www.jnu.ac.in/SSS/CPS/">Centre for Political Studies (CPS)</a> at JNU for hosting the Conference, and to the <a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/cscs-digital-innovation-fund">CSCS Digital Innovation Fund (CDIF)</a> for its generous support.</p>
<p> </p>
<iframe src="https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m14!1m12!1m3!1d1752.512135244194!2d77.16642650602853!3d28.53899019877363!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!5e0!3m2!1sen!2s!4v1455124383423" frameborder="0" height="300" width="600"></iframe>
<p> </p>
<h2>Registration and Programme</h2>
<p>Conference programme: <a href="https://github.com/cis-india/IRC16/raw/master/IRC16_Programme-v.2.2.pdf">Download</a> (PDF).</p>
<p>Programme booklet: <a href="https://github.com/cis-india/IRC16/raw/master/IRC16_Programme-Booklet.pdf">Download</a> (PDF).</p>
<p><strong>[Important]</strong> Invitation letter to help you enter JNU campus: <a href="https://github.com/cis-india/IRC16/raw/master/IRC16_Invitation-Letter.pdf">Download</a> (PDF).</p>
<p>Please register for the Conference here: <a href="http://goo.gl/forms/uu0HjXWbxK" target="_blank">Form</a> (Google).</p>
<p>We apologise for not being able to provide travel or accommodation support.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Etherpads</h2>
<p>#Methods&ToolsForInternetResearch : <a class="external-link" href="https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/IRC16-InternetResearch">https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/IRC16-InternetResearch</a></p>
<p>#DigitalDesires: <a href="https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/IRC16-DigitalDesires">https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/IRC16-DigitalDesires</a>.</p>
<p>#InternetMovements: <a href="https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/IRC16-InternetMovements">https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/IRC16-InternetMovements</a>.</p>
<p>#WebOfGenealogies: <a href="https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/IRC16-WebOfGenealogies">https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/IRC16-WebOfGenealogies</a>.</p>
<p>#MinimalComputing: <a href="https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/IRC16-MinimalComputing">https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/IRC16-MinimalComputing</a>.</p>
<p>#STSDebates: <a href="https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/IRC16-STSDebates">https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/IRC16-STSDebates</a>.</p>
<p>#ArchiveAnarchy: <a href="https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/IRC16-ArchiveAnarchy">https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/IRC16-ArchiveAnarchy</a>.</p>
<p>#ManyPublicsOfInternet: <a href="https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/IRC16-ManyPublicsOfInternet">https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/IRC16-ManyPublicsOfInternet</a>.</p>
<p>#DigitalLiteraciesAtTheMargins: <a href="https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/IRC16-DigitalLiteraciesAtTheMargins">https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/IRC16-DigitalLiteraciesAtTheMargins</a>.</p>
<p>#FutureBazaars: <a href="https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/IRC16-FutureBazaars">https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/IRC16-FutureBazaars</a>.</p>
<p>#PoliticsOnSocialMedia: <a href="https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/IRC16-PoliticsOnSocialMedia">https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/IRC16-PoliticsOnSocialMedia</a>.</p>
<p>#SpottingData: <a href="https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/IRC16-SpottingData">https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/IRC16-SpottingData</a>.</p>
<p>#WikiShadows: <a href="https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/IRC16-WikiShadows">https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/IRC16-WikiShadows</a>.</p>
<p>#FollowTheMedium: <a href="https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/IRC16-FollowTheMedium">https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/IRC16-FollowTheMedium</a>.</p>
<p>#AFCinema2.0: <a href="https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/IRC16-AFCinema2.0">https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/IRC16-AFCinema2.0</a>.</p>
<p>#LiterarySpaces: <a href="https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/IRC16-LiterarySpaces">https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/IRC16-LiterarySpaces</a>.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Resources</h2>
<p>Call for sessions: <a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/irc16-call" target="_blank">http://cis-india.org/raw/irc16-call</a>.</p>
<p>Proposed sessions: <a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/irc16-proposed-sessions" target="_blank">http://cis-india.org/raw/irc16-proposed-sessions</a>.</p>
<p>Selected sessions: <a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/irc16-selected-sessions" target="_blank">http://cis-india.org/raw/irc16-selected-sessions</a>.</p>
<p>Please join the <a href="https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/researchers">researchers@cis-india</a> mailing list to take part in pre- and post-conference conversations.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/irc16'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/irc16</a>
</p>
No publishersumandroConferenceCDIFInternet Researcher's ConferenceFeaturedLearningIRC16Researchers at WorkEvent2016-02-27T06:19:33ZEventOpen Data Hackathons are Great, but Address Privacy and License Concerns
http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/open-data-hackathons-are-great-but-address-privacy-and-license-concerns
<b>This is to cross-publish a blog post from DataMeet website regarding a letter shared with the organisers of Urban Hack 2015, Bangalore, in response to a set of privacy and license concerns identified and voiced during the hackathon by DataMeet members. Sumandro Chattapadhyay co-authored and co-signed the letter. The blog post is written by Nisha Thompson.</b>
<p> </p>
<p>Hackathons are a source of confusion and frustration for us. DataMeet actively does not do them unless there is a very specific outcome the community wants like<a href="https://github.com/datameet/maps/tree/master/parliamentary-constituencies"> freeing a whole dataset </a>or introducing <a href="http://datameet.org/2015/05/13/mumbai-meet-6-data-science-hackathon/">open data to a new audience</a>. We feel that they cause burn out, are not productive, and in general don't help create a healthy community of civic tech and open data enthusiasts.</p>
<p>That is not to say we feel others shouldn't do them, they are very good opportunities to spark discussion and introduce new audiences to problems in the social sector. <a href="http://www.datakind.org/chapters/datakind-blr">DataKind</a> and <a href="https://rhokbangalore.wordpress.com/">RHOK</a> and numerous others host hackathons or variations of them regularly to stir the pot, bring new people into civic tech and they can be successful starts to long term connections and experiments. A lot of people in the DataMeet community participate and enjoy hackathons.</p>
<p>However, with great data access comes great responsibility. We always want to make sure that even if no output is achieved when a dataset is opened at least no harm should be done.</p>
<p>Last October an open data hackathon,<a href="https://www.hackerearth.com/sprints/urban-hack/"> Urban Hack</a>, run by Hacker Earth, <a href="http://www.nasscom.in/">NASSCOM</a>, <a href="http://www.xrci.xerox.com/">XEROX</a>, <a href="https://console.ng.bluemix.net/?cm_mmc=EcoDISA-_-Bluemix_day-_-11-15-14::12-31-15-_-UrbanHack">IBM </a>and <a href="http://wri-india.org/">World Resource Institute India</a> wanted to bring out open data and spark innovation in the transport and crime space by making datasets from <a href="http://mybmtc.com/">Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC)</a> and the Bangalore City Police available to work with. A DataMeet member (<a href="http://www.lostprogrammer.com/">Srinivas Kodali</a>) was participating, he is a huge transport data enthusiast and wanted to take a look at what is being made available.</p>
<p>In the morning shortly after it started I received a call from him that there is a dataset that was made available that seems to be violating privacy and data security. We contacted the organizers and they took it down, later we realized it was quite a sensitive dataset and a few hundred people had already downloaded it. We were also distressed that they had not clarified ownership of data, license of data, and had linked to sources like <a href="http://openbangalore.org/">Open Bangalore</a> without specifying licensing, which violated the license.</p>
<p>The organizers were quite noted and had been involved with hackathons before so it was a little distressing to see these mistakes being made. We were concerned that the government partners (who had not participated in these types of events before) were also being exposed to poor practices. As smart cities initiatives take over the Indian urban space, we began to realize that this is a mistake that shouldn't happen again.</p>
<p>Along with <a href="http://cis-india.org/">Centre for Internet and Society</a> and Random Hacks of Kindness we sent the organizers, Bangalore City Police and BMTC a letter about the breach in protocol. We wanted to make sure everyone was aware of the issues and that measures were taken to not repeat these mistakes.</p>
<p>You can see the letter here:</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2702333-Appropriate-and-Responsible-Practices-for.html" height="500" width="600"></iframe></p>
<p>We are very proud of the DataMeet community and Srinivas for bringing this violation to the attention of the organizers. As people who participate in hackathons and other data events it is imperative that privacy and security are kept in mind at all times. In a space like India where a lot of these concepts are new to institutions, like the Government, it is essential that we are always using opportunities not only to showcase the power of open data but also good practices for protecting privacy and ensuring security.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em>Originally posted on DataMeet website: <a href="http://datameet.org/2016/02/02/to-hack-or-not-to-hack/">http://datameet.org/2016/02/02/to-hack-or-not-to-hack/</a>.</em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/open-data-hackathons-are-great-but-address-privacy-and-license-concerns'>http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/open-data-hackathons-are-great-but-address-privacy-and-license-concerns</a>
</p>
No publishersumandroPrivacyOpen DataOpen Government DataFeaturedHackathonOpenness2016-02-05T20:37:18ZBlog EntryNASSCOM-DSCI Annual Information Security Summit 2015 - Notes
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/nasscom-dsci-annual-information-security-summit-2015-notes
<b>NASSCOM-DSCI organised the 10th Annual Information Security Summit (AISS) 2015 in Delhi during December 16-17. Sumandro Chattapadhyay participated in this engaging Summit. He shares a collection of his notes and various tweets from the event.</b>
<p> </p>
<h2>Details about the Summit</h2>
<p>Event page: <a href="https://www.dsci.in/events/about/2261">https://www.dsci.in/events/about/2261</a>.</p>
<p>Agenda: <a href="https://www.dsci.in/sites/default/files/Agenda-AISS-2015.pdf">https://www.dsci.in/sites/default/files/Agenda-AISS-2015.pdf</a>.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Notes from the Summit</h2>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr">Mr.G.K.Pillai ,Chairman DSCI addressing the audience @ 10th Annual Information Security Summit '15 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AISS15?src=hash">#AISS15</a> <a href="https://t.co/JVcwct3HSF">pic.twitter.com/JVcwct3HSF</a></p>
— DSCI (@DSCI_Connect) <a href="https://twitter.com/DSCI_Connect/status/676979952277987328">December 16, 2015</a></blockquote>
<p>Mr. G. K. Pillai, Chairman of Data Security Council of India (DSCI), set the tone of the Summit at the very first hour by noting that 1) state and private industries in India are working in silos when it comes to preventing cybercrimes, 2) there is a lot of skill among young technologists and entrepreneurs, and the state and the private sectors are often unaware of this, and 3) there is serious lack of (cyber-)capacity among law enforcement agencies.</p>
<p>In his Inaugural Address, Dr. Arvind Gupta (Deputy National Security Advisor and Secretary, NSCS), provided a detailed overview of the emerging challenges and framework of cybersecurity in India. He focused on the following points:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/India?src=hash">#India</a> Dy NSA Dr Arvind Gupta calls 4 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/cybersecurity?src=hash">#cybersecurity</a> by <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/design?src=hash">#design</a> in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ICT?src=hash">#ICT</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AISS15?src=hash">#AISS15</a> <a href="https://t.co/79kq9lWGtk">pic.twitter.com/79kq9lWGtk</a></p>
— Deepak Maheshwari (@dmcorpaffair) <a href="https://twitter.com/dmcorpaffair/status/676980799347023872">December 16, 2015</a></blockquote>
<ul>
<li>Security is a key problem in the present era of ICTs as it is not in-built. In the upcoming IoT era, security must be built into ICT systems.</li>
<li>In the next billion addition to internet population, 50% will be from India. Hence cybersecurity is a big concern for India.</li>
<li>ICTs will play a catalytic role in achieving SDGs. Growth of internet is part of the sustainable development agenda.</li>
<li>We need a broad range of critical security services - big data analytics, identity management, etc.</li>
<li>The e-governance initiatives launched by the Indian government are critically dependent on a safe and secure internet.</li>
<li>Darkweb is a key facilitator of cybercrime. Globally there is a growing concern regarding the security of cyberspace.
</li><li>On the other hand, there exists deep divide in access to ICTs, and also in availability of content in local languages.</li>
<li>The Indian government has initiated bilateral cybersecurity dialogues with various countries.</li>
<li>Indian government is contemplating setting up of centres of excellence in cryptography. It has already partnered with NASSCOM to develop cybersecurity guidelines for smart cities.</li>
<li>While India is a large global market for security technology, it also needs to be self-reliant. Indian private sector should make use of government policies and bilateral trust enjoyed by India with various developing countries in Africa and south America to develop security technology solutions, create meaningful jobs in India, and export services and software to other developing countries.</li>
<li>Strong research and development, and manufacturing base are absolutely necessary for India to be self-reliant in cybersecurity. DSCI should work with private sector, academia, and government to coordinate and realise this agenda.</li>
<li>In the line of the Climate Change Fund, we should create a cybersecurity fund, since it is a global problem.</li>
<li>Silos are our bane in general. Bringing government agencies together is crucial. Trust issues (between government, private sector, and users) remain, and can only be resolved over time.</li>
<li>The demand for cybersecurity solutions in India is so large, that there is space for everyone.</li>
<li>The national cybersecurity centre is being set up.</li>
<li>Thinktanks can play a crucial role in helping the government to develop strategies for global cybersecurity negotiations. Indian negotiators are often capacity constrained.</li></ul>
<p>Rajendra Pawar, Chair of the NASSCOM Cyber Security Task Force, NASSCOM Cybersecurity Initiative, provided glimpses of the emerging business opportunity around cybersecurity in India:</p>
<ul>
<li>In next 10 years, the IT economy in India will be USD 350 bn, and <a href="https://blogs.dsci.in/building-usd-35-billion-cyber-security-industry-how-do-we-do-it/">10% of that will be the cybersecurity pie</a>. This means a million job only in the cybersecurity space.</li>
<li>Academic institutes are key to creation of new ideas and hence entrepreneurs. Government and private sectors should work closely with academic institutes.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr">'Companies+Govt+Academia= High growth of the cybersecurity industry' - Rajendra Pawar at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AISS15?src=hash">#AISS15</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/DSCI_Connect">@DSCI_Connect</a></p>
— Shivangi Nadkarni (@shivanginadkarn) <a href="https://twitter.com/shivanginadkarn/status/676995090955530246">December 16, 2015</a></blockquote>
</li>
<li>Globally, cybersecurity innovation and industries happen in clusters. Cities and states must come forward to create such clusters.</li>
<li>2/3rd of the cybersecurity market is provision of services. This is where India has a great advantage, and should build on that to become a global brand in cybersecurity services.</li>
<li>Everyday digital security literacy and cultures need to be created.</li>
<li>Publication of cybersecurity best practices among private companies is a necessity.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr">Corporate disclosures of breaches being considered with Nasscom under cybersec task force: Rajendra Pawar <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AISS15?src=hash">#AISS15</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/DSCI_Connect">@DSCI_Connect</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/ETtech">@ETtech</a></p>
— Neha Alawadhi (@NehaAlawadhiET) <a href="https://twitter.com/NehaAlawadhiET/status/676994553799417856">December 16, 2015</a></blockquote>
</li>
<li>Dedicated cybersecurity spending should be made part of the e-governance budget of central and state governments.</li>
<li>DSCI should function as a clearing house of cybersecurity case studies. At present, thought leadership in cybersecurity comes from the criminals. By serving as a use case clearing house, DSCI will inform interested researchers about potential challenges for which solution needs to be created.</li></ul>
<p>Manish Tiwary of Microsoft informed the audience that India is in the top 3 positions globally in terms of malware proliferation, and this ensures that India is a big focus for Microsoft in its global war against malware. Microsoft India looks forward to work closely with CERT-In and other government agencies.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr">RSA's Kartik Shahani <a href="https://twitter.com/DSCI_Connect">@DSCI_Connect</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AISS15?src=hash">#AISS15</a> Adopt a Deep & Pervasive Level of True Visibility Everywhere <a href="https://t.co/2U8J8WkWsI">pic.twitter.com/2U8J8WkWsI</a></p>
— Debjani Gupta (@DebjaniGupta1) <a href="https://twitter.com/DebjaniGupta1/status/676999786722156544">December 16, 2015</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr">Data localization; one of the stumbling blocks that undermine investments in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/cybersecurity?src=hash">#cybersecurity</a>. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AISS15?src=hash">#AISS15</a> <a href="https://t.co/vrff3Amcv0">pic.twitter.com/vrff3Amcv0</a></p>
— Appvigil (@appvigil_co) <a href="https://twitter.com/appvigil_co/status/677043180731301888">December 16, 2015</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr">Trust verification 4 embedded devices isnt complex bt much desired as people lives r dependent on that-cld cause physical damage <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AISS15?src=hash">#AISS15</a></p>
— Lokesh Mehra (@lokesh_mehra) <a href="https://twitter.com/lokesh_mehra/status/677057992831860736">December 16, 2015</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr">"Most compromised OS in 2k15: iOS"-Riyaz Tambe, Palo Alto Networks <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AISS15?src=hash">#AISS15</a></p>
— Indira Sen (@drealcharbar) <a href="https://twitter.com/drealcharbar/status/677015382356533249">December 16, 2015</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr">Security by default in IOS architecture tho' can't verify code as noṭ open - is it security by obscurity? <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AISS15?src=hash">#AISS15</a> <a href="https://t.co/kbPZgH8oA0">pic.twitter.com/kbPZgH8oA0</a></p>
— Lokesh Mehra (@lokesh_mehra) <a href="https://twitter.com/lokesh_mehra/status/677055086611173376">December 16, 2015</a></blockquote>
<p>The session on <strong>Catching Fraudsters</strong> had two insightful presentations from Dr. Triveni Singh, Additional SP of Special Task Force of UP Police, and Mr. Manoj Kaushik, IAS, Additional Director of FIU.</p>
<p>Dr. Singh noted that a key challenge faced by police today is that nobody comes to them with a case of online fraud. Most fraud businesses are run by young groups operating BPOs that steal details from individuals. There exists a huge black market of financial and personal data - often collected from financial institutions and job search sites. Almost any personal data can be bought in such markets. Further, SIM cards under fake names are very easy to buy. The fraudsters are effective using all fake identity, and is using operational infrastructures outsourced from legitimate vendors under fake names. Without a central database of all bank customers, it is very difficult for the police to track people across the financial sector. It becomes even more difficult for Indian police to get access to personal data of potential fraudsters when it is stored in a foreign server. which is often the case with usual web services and apps. Many Indian ISPs do not keep IP history data systematically, or do not have the technical expertise to share it in a structured and time-sensitive way.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr">Mr. Triveni Singh talks about raiding fake call centres in Delhi NCR that scam millions every year <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AISS15?src=hash">#AISS15</a> <a href="https://t.co/EmE4y3jux2">pic.twitter.com/EmE4y3jux2</a></p>
— pradyumn nand (@PradyumnNand) <a href="https://twitter.com/PradyumnNand/status/677063276442738689">December 16, 2015</a></blockquote>
<p>Mr. Kaushik explained that no financial fraud is uniquely committed via internet. Many fraud begin with internet but eventually involve physical fraudulent money transaction. Credit/debit card frauds all involve card data theft via various internet-based and physical methods. However, cybercrime is continued to be mistakenly seen as frauds undertaken completely online. Further, mobile-based frauds are yet another category. Almost all apps we use are compromised, or store transaction history in an insecure way, which reveals such data to hackers. FIU is targeting bank accounts to which fraud money is going, and closing them down. Catching the people behind these bank accounts is much more difficult, as account loaning has become a common practice - where valid accounts are loaned out for a small amount of money to fraudsters who return the account after taking out the fraudulent money. Better information sharing between private sector and government will make catching fraudsters easier.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/AkhileshTuteja">@AkhileshTuteja</a> With data overload and big data being prevalent are we considering privacy elements <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AISS15?src=hash">#AISS15</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/KpmgIndiaCyber?src=hash">#KpmgIndiaCyber</a></p>
— Atul Gupta (@AtulGup15843145) <a href="https://twitter.com/AtulGup15843145/status/677082045701488640">December 16, 2015</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr">'Tech solns today designed to protect security - solns for privacy need to evolve'- <a href="https://twitter.com/Mayurakshi_Ray">@Mayurakshi_Ray</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AISS15?src=hash">#AISS15</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/DSCI_Connect">@DSCI_Connect</a></p>
— Shivangi Nadkarni (@shivanginadkarn) <a href="https://twitter.com/shivanginadkarn/status/677066470325534721">December 16, 2015</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr">In-house tools important but community collaboration critical to fight security threats <a href="https://twitter.com/tata_comm">@tata_comm</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AISS15?src=hash">#AISS15</a> <a href="https://t.co/ZjbCnaROXC">pic.twitter.com/ZjbCnaROXC</a></p>
— aparna (@aparnag14) <a href="https://twitter.com/aparnag14/status/677067260268187648">December 16, 2015</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr">'Orgns in India have a long way to go b4 they internalise privacy principles' Subhash S, CISO ICICI <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AISS15?src=hash">#AISS15</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/DSCI_Connect">@DSCI_Connect</a></p>
— Shivangi Nadkarni (@shivanginadkarn) <a href="https://twitter.com/shivanginadkarn/status/677066928880410624">December 16, 2015</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr">Prof PK giving an interesting brief on Academia role in Cyber Security. <a href="https://twitter.com/ponguru">@ponguru</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/DSCI_Connect">@DSCI_Connect</a> at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AISS15?src=hash">#AISS15</a> <a href="https://t.co/MEiO6sCJwu">pic.twitter.com/MEiO6sCJwu</a></p>
— Vikas Yadav (@VikasSYadav) <a href="https://twitter.com/VikasSYadav/status/677088566871101440">December 16, 2015</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr">Potential for interaction between Academia, Government and Industry but not an established reality yet. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AISS15?src=hash">#AISS15</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MappingCyberEducation?src=hash">#MappingCyberEducation</a></p>
— Indira Sen (@drealcharbar) <a href="https://twitter.com/drealcharbar/status/677089590717517824">December 16, 2015</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr">I have figured out why information security is not in any boardroom discussions. Cause there are no good speakers / orators . <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AISS15?src=hash">#AISS15</a></p>
— Virag Thakkar (@viragthakkar) <a href="https://twitter.com/viragthakkar/status/677078491699871745">December 16, 2015</a></blockquote>
<p>The session on <strong>Smart Cities</strong> focused on discussing the actual cities coming up India, and the security challenges highlighted by them. There was a presentation on Mahindra World City being built near Jaipur. Presenters talked about the need to stabilise, standardise, and securitise the unique identities of machines and sensors in a smart city context, so as to enable secured machine-to-machine communication. Since 'smartness' comes from connecting various applications and data silos together, the governance of proprietary technology and ensuring inter-operable data standards are crucial in the smart city.</p>
<p>As Special Purposed Vehicles are being planned to realise the smart cities, the presenters warned that finding the right CEOs for these entities will be critical for their success. Legacy processes and infrastructures (and labour unions) are a big challenge when realising smart cities. Hence, the first step towards the smart cities must be taken through connected enforcement of law, order, and social norms.</p>
<p>Privacy-by-design and security-by-design are necessary criteria for smart cities technologies. Along with that regular and automatic software/middleware updating of distributed systems and devices should be ensured, as well as the physical security of the actual devices and cables.</p>
<p>In terms of standards, security service compliance standards and those for protocols need to be established for the internet-of-things sector in India. On the other hand, there is significant interest of international vendors to serve the Indian market. All global data and cloud storage players, including Microsoft Azure cloud, are moving into India, and are working on substantial and complete data localisation efforts.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr">Session - Why should you hire Women Security Professionals?... Balancing gender diversity
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AISS15?src=hash">#AISS15</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DSCI_Connect?src=hash">#DSCI_Connect</a> <a href="https://t.co/uIMfG9PvAb">pic.twitter.com/uIMfG9PvAb</a></p>
— Jagan Suri (@jsuri90) <a href="https://twitter.com/jsuri90/status/677109792679157760">December 16, 2015</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr">gender Diversity in cybersecurity critical 4 India's future. <a href="https://twitter.com/symantec">@symantec</a> partnered with <a href="https://twitter.com/nasscom">@nasscom</a> via 1000 women scholarships <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AISS15?src=hash">#AISS15</a></p>
— Lokesh Mehra (@lokesh_mehra) <a href="https://twitter.com/lokesh_mehra/status/677118674197602304">December 16, 2015</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr">Dialogue with CERT-In
.. Starting 2nd Day of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AISS15?src=hash">#AISS15</a>
.. B J Srinath, DG, CERT
<a href="https://twitter.com/DSCI_Connect">@DSCI_Connect</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/security?src=hash">#security</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/privacy?src=hash">#privacy</a> <a href="https://t.co/cvDcrgkein">pic.twitter.com/cvDcrgkein</a></p>
— Vinayak Godse (@godvinayak) <a href="https://twitter.com/godvinayak/status/677342972170493952">December 17, 2015</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr">New <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/problems?src=hash">#problems</a> can't b solved w old <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/solutions?src=hash">#solutions</a>: <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/India?src=hash">#India</a> CERT DG BJ Srinath <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AISS15?src=hash">#AISS15</a></p>
— Deepak Maheshwari (@dmcorpaffair) <a href="https://twitter.com/dmcorpaffair/status/677341246281539585">December 17, 2015</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr">17 entities within <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Indian?src=hash">#Indian</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/government?src=hash">#government</a> engaged in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/cybersecurity?src=hash">#cybersecurity</a>: <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/India?src=hash">#India</a> CERT head <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AISS15?src=hash">#AISS15</a></p>
— Deepak Maheshwari (@dmcorpaffair) <a href="https://twitter.com/dmcorpaffair/status/677341728282533888">December 17, 2015</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr">Scope of activities by CERT in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/India?src=hash">#India</a> way more than its counterparts elsewhere <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AISS15?src=hash">#AISS15</a></p>
— Deepak Maheshwari (@dmcorpaffair) <a href="https://twitter.com/dmcorpaffair/status/677342193854451712">December 17, 2015</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/India?src=hash">#India</a> CERT looks 8 prediction & <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/prevention?src=hash">#prevention</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/cybersecurity?src=hash">#cybersecurity</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/emergency?src=hash">#emergency</a> not just <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/response?src=hash">#response</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AISS15?src=hash">#AISS15</a></p>
— Deepak Maheshwari (@dmcorpaffair) <a href="https://twitter.com/dmcorpaffair/status/677343140630540288">December 17, 2015</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/India?src=hash">#India</a> CERT willing to <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/share?src=hash">#share</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/information?src=hash">#information</a> rather than just receiving <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AISS15?src=hash">#AISS15</a></p>
— Deepak Maheshwari (@dmcorpaffair) <a href="https://twitter.com/dmcorpaffair/status/677343512833101824">December 17, 2015</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr">Savita CERTin outlines drill initiatives taken 4 preparedness-detect (protect), defend attacks wth response <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AISS15?src=hash">#AISS15</a> <a href="https://t.co/wXrkgoLzr2">pic.twitter.com/wXrkgoLzr2</a></p>
— Lokesh Mehra (@lokesh_mehra) <a href="https://twitter.com/lokesh_mehra/status/677346822449303553">December 17, 2015</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr">CERTin also offers incident predicatibility,Crisis mgmt plans, <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/cybersecurity?src=hash">#cybersecurity</a> assurance ladder (7 levels) besides 24 x 7 prevention <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AISS15?src=hash">#AISS15</a></p>
— Lokesh Mehra (@lokesh_mehra) <a href="https://twitter.com/lokesh_mehra/status/677348506869239809">December 17, 2015</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/India?src=hash">#India</a> has 7.2 million bot infected <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/machines?src=hash">#machines</a>: <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/India?src=hash">#India</a> CERT DG Srinath <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AISS15?src=hash">#AISS15</a></p>
— Deepak Maheshwari (@dmcorpaffair) <a href="https://twitter.com/dmcorpaffair/status/677355051308871680">December 17, 2015</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr">Seizure & protection of electronic devices as admissible evidence (certificate u Sec 65B) imperative under Forensics investigation <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AISS15?src=hash">#AISS15</a></p>
— Lokesh Mehra (@lokesh_mehra) <a href="https://twitter.com/lokesh_mehra/status/677364713005576192">December 17, 2015</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr">'Law enforcement agency&corporate world must collaborate to fight cybercrime'-Atul Gupta,Partner-Risk Adv. @ <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AISS15?src=hash">#AISS15</a> <a href="https://t.co/GwAQWhYMmK">pic.twitter.com/GwAQWhYMmK</a></p>
— KPMG India (@KPMGIndia) <a href="https://twitter.com/KPMGIndia/status/677373217711919104">December 17, 2015</a></blockquote>
<p>Mr. R. Chandrasekhar, President of NASSCOM, foregrounded the recommendations made by the Cybersecurity Special Task Force of NASSCOM, in his Special Address on the second day. He noted:</p>
<ul>
<li>There is a great opportunity to brand India as a global security R&D and services hub. Other countries are also quite interested in India becoming such a hub.</li>
<li>The government should set up a cybersecurity startup and innovation fund, in coordination with and working in parallel with the centres of excellence in internet-of-things (being led by DeitY) and the data science/analytics initiative (being led by DST).</li>
<li>There is an immediate need to create a capable workforce for the cybersecurity industry.</li>
<li>Cybersecurity affects everyone but there is almost no public disclosure. This leads to low public awareness and valuation of costs of cybersecurity failures. The government should instruct the Ministry of Corporate Affairs to get corporates to disclose (publicly or directly to the Ministry) security breeches.</li>
<li>With digital India and everyone going online, cyberspace will increasingly be prone to attacks of various kinds, and increasing scale of potential loss. Cybersecurity, hence, must be part of the core national development agenda.</li>
<li>The cybersecurity market in India is big enough and under-served enough for everyone to come and contribute to it.</li></ul>
<p>The Keynote Address by Mr. Rajiv Singh, MD – South Asia of Entrust Datacard, and Mr. Saurabh Airi, Technical Sales Consultant of Entrust Datacard, focused on trustworthiness and security of online identities for financial transactions. They argued that all kinds of transactions require a common form factor, which can be a card or a mobile phone. The key challenge is to make the form factor unique, verified, and secure. While no programme is completely secure, it is necessary to build security into the form factor - security of both the physical and digital kind, from the substrates of the card to the encryption algorithms. Entrust and Datacard have merged in recent past to align their identity management and security transaction workflows, from physical cards to software systems for transactions. The advantages of this joint expertise have allowed them to successfully develop the National Population Register cards of India. Now, with the mobile phone emerging as a key financial transaction form factor, the challenge across the cybersecurity industry is to offer the same level of physical, digital, and network security for the mobile phone, as are provided for ATM cards and cash machines.</p>
<p>The following Keynote Address by Dr. Jared Ragland, Director - Policy of BSA, focused on the cybersecurity investment landscape in India and the neighbouring region. BSA, he explained, is a global trade body of software companies. All major global software companies are members of BSA. Recently, BSA has produced a study on the cybersecurity industry across 10 markets in the Asia Pacific region, titled <a href="http://cybersecurity.bsa.org/2015/apac/">Asia Pacific Cybersecurity Dashboard</a>. The study provides an overview of cybersecurity policy developments in these countries, and sector-specific opportunities in the region. Dr. Ragland mentioned the following as the key building blocks of cybersecurity policy: legal foundation, establishment of operational entities, building trust and partnerships (PPP), addressing sector-specific requirements, and education and awareness. As for India, he argued that while steady steps have been taken in the cybersecurity policy space by the government, a lot remains to be done. Operationalisation of the policy is especially lacking. PPPs are happening but there is a general lack of persistent formal engagement with the private sector, especially with global software companies. There is almost no sector-specific strategy. Further, the requirement for India-specific testing of technologies, according to domestic and not global standards, is leading to entry barrier for global companies and export barrier for Indian companies. Having said that, Dr. Ragland pointed out that India's cybersecurity experience is quite representative of that of the Asia Pacific region. He noted the following as major stumbling blocks from an international industry perspective: unnecessary and unreasonable testing requirements, setting of domestic standards, and data localisations rules.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr">The Policy Makers' panel in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AISS15?src=hash">#AISS15</a> in progress. Arvind Gupta, Head, BJP IT cell (<a href="https://twitter.com/buzzindelhi">@buzzindelhi</a>) speaks. <a href="https://t.co/9yWR0gMwf5">pic.twitter.com/9yWR0gMwf5</a></p>
— Nandkumar Saravadé (@saravade) <a href="https://twitter.com/saravade/status/677437443356798977">December 17, 2015</a></blockquote>
<p>One of the final sessions of the Summit was the Public Policy Dialogue between <a href="https://twitter.com/rajeevgowda">Prof. M.V. Rajeev Gowda</a>, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, and <a href="https://twitter.com/buzzindelhi">Mr. Arvind Gupta</a>, Head of IT Cell, BJP.</p>
<p>Prof. Gowda focused on the following concerns:</p>
<ul>
<li>We often freely give up our information and rights over to owners of websites and applications on the web. We need to ask questions regarding the ownership, storage, and usage of such data.</li>
<li>While Section 66A of Information Technology Act started as a anti-spam rule, it has actually been used to harass people, instead of protecting them from online harassment.</li>
<li>The bill on DNA profiling has raised crucial privacy concerns related to this most personal data. The complexity around the issue is created by the possibility of data leakage and usage for various commercial interests.</li>
<li>We need to ask if western notions of privacy will work in the Indian context.</li>
<li>We need to move towards a cashless economy, which will not only formalise the existing informal economy but also speed up transactions nationally. We need to keep in mind that this will put a substantial demand burden on the communication infrastructure, as all transactions will happen through these.</li></ul>
<p> Mr. Gupta shared his keen insights about the key public policy issues in <em>digital India</em>:</p>
<ul>
<li>The journey to establish <em>the digital</em> as a key political agenda and strategy within BJP took him more than 6 years. He has been an entrepreneur, and will always remain one. His approached his political journey as an entrepreneur.
</li><li>While we are producing numerous digitally literate citizens, the companies offering services on the internet often unknowingly acquire data about these citizens, store them, and sometimes even expose them. India perhaps produces the greatest volume of digital exhaust globally.</li>
<li>BJP inherited the Aadhaar national identity management platform from UPA, and has decided to integrate it deeply into its digital India architecture.</li>
<li>Financial and administrative transactions, especially ones undertake by and with governments, are all becoming digital and mostly Aadhaar-linked. We are not sure where all such data is going, and who all has access to such data.</li>
<li>Right now there is an ongoing debate about using biometric system for identification. The debate on privacy is much needed, and a privacy policy is essential to strengthen Aadhaar. We must remember that the benefits of Aadhaar clearly outweigh the risks. Greatest privacy threats today come from many other places, including simple mobile torch apps.</li>
<li>India is rethinking its cybersecurity capacities in a serious manner. After Paris attack it has become obvious that the state should be allowed to look into electronic communication under reasonable guidelines. The challenge is identifying the fine balance between consumers' interest on one hand, and national interest and security concerns on the other. Unfortunately, the concerns of a few is often getting amplified in popular media.</li>
<li>MyGov platform should be used much more effectively for public policy debates. Social media networks, like Twitter, are not the correct platforms for such debates.</li></ul>
<p> </p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AISS15?src=hash">#AISS15</a>: <a href="https://twitter.com/rajivgowda">@rajivgowda</a> & <a href="https://twitter.com/buzzindelhi">@buzzindelhi</a> are talking abt proactive disclosure as a key part of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/cybersecurity?src=hash">#cybersecurity</a> strategy <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/openData?src=hash">#openData</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/DataPortalIndia">@DataPortalIndia</a></p>
— sumandro (@ajantriks) <a href="https://twitter.com/ajantriks/status/677447609502445568">December 17, 2015</a></blockquote>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/nasscom-dsci-annual-information-security-summit-2015-notes'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/nasscom-dsci-annual-information-security-summit-2015-notes</a>
</p>
No publishersumandroCybersecurityNASSCOMDSCIInformation SecurityCyber Security2016-01-19T07:58:56ZBlog EntryConsultation on 'Digital Futures of Indian Languages'
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/digital-futures-of-indian-languages-2015
<b>A consultation on 'digital futures of Indian languages' will be held at the CIS office in Bangalore on December 12, 2015, to generate ideas and structure the Indian languages focus area of the CSCS Digital Innovation Fund (CDIF). It is being led by Dr. Tejaswini Niranjana, Centre for the Study of Culture and Society (CSCS), and Tanveer Hasan, A2K programme at CIS; and is supported by CDIF.</b>
<p> </p>
<h2>A Consultation to Generate Ideas for the CSCS Digital Innovation Fund (CDIF)</h2>
<p>We at the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society, Bangalore; Centre for Indian Languages in Higher Education, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai; and Access to Knowledge Programme, Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, have between us more than a decade-long experience in the field of Indian languages for higher education and Indic language computing. Together we have, over the past ten years, produced new research and incubated innovative pilot projects to stimulate the use of Indian languages in higher education, especially in the context of a widening linguistic divide in that sphere.</p>
<p>As a new phase in this process, we would like to explore the possible digital futures of Indian languages. Already, there have been many interesting but sporadic attempts at digitization of Indian language text resources and development of software for translation between Indian languages and a host of Indian language support platforms for web-based services. While this momentum is impressive, a lot more remains to be done, when seen against the backdrop of the surging demand for Indian language computational tools, especially those with potential for knowledge-use, that is, tools which could be used by students, teachers, researchers, media analysts, self-learners, bibliographers, librarians, archivists, collectors and the public at large.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/cscs-digital-innovation-fund" target="_blank">CSCS Digital Innovation Fund</a> is looking to help set up new platforms that aid in generating, processing and making available a wide range of born-digital content. Under the CDIF, the Indian Languages initiative will support the development of new technological aids, apps, software programmes, websites, DYI digitisation devices, and any other project which will enrich the digital use of Indian languages.</p>
<p>We are organising this national consultation with the intention of bringing together people who have been or would like to be involved in such initiatives. We expect each participant to make a short 10-15 minute presentation on an idea they would like to develop, to take part in the general discussions, and to offer feedback to other speakers. We hope to learn from these conversations so that our own research and initiative development will benefit from the inputs as also to contribute to the conversation in such a way that isolated practices, innovations and opportunities are given a platform for greater generalisation and scalability.</p>
<p>- <em><strong>Tejaswini Niranjana, Ashwin Kumar AP, and Tanveer Hasan</strong></em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/digital-futures-of-indian-languages-2015'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/digital-futures-of-indian-languages-2015</a>
</p>
No publishersumandroLanguageCDIFLearningIndic ComputingResearchers at WorkEvent2016-01-15T06:10:57ZEventInternet Researchers' Conference 2016 (IRC16) - Selected Sessions
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/irc16-selected-sessions
<b>We are proud to announce that the first Internet Researchers' Conference (IRC16), organised around the theme of 'studying internet in India,' will be held on February 26-28, 2016, at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi. We are deeply grateful to the Centre for Political Studies (CPS) at JNU for hosting the Conference, and to the CSCS Digital Innovation Fund (CDIF) for generously supporting it. Here are the details about the session selection process, the selected sessions, the Conference programme (draft), the pre-Conference discussions, accommodation, and travel grants. The Conference will include a book sprint to produce an open handbook on 'methods and tools for internet research.'</b>
<p> </p>
<h2>Session Selection Process</h2>
<p>We received 23 superb session proposals for the IRC16. All the teams that submitted sessions were invited to vote for their eight favourite session in a double-blind manner - the teams did not know the names of the people who proposed other sessions, and we at CIS did not know which team has voted for which particular set of sessions. After receiving all the votes, we could not help but change the format of the Conference (as planned earlier) to accommodate 15 sessions in total. All Discussion and Workshop sessions of the Conference are double track, except for the three Discussion sessions that received most number of votes.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Selected Sessions</h2>
<ol>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/irc16-proposed-digitaldesires"><strong>#DigitalDesires</strong></a>: Received 8.15% votes. Proposed by Silpa Mukherjee, Ankita Deb, and Rahul Kumar.</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/irc16-proposed-followthemedium"><strong>#FollowTheMedium</strong></a>: Received 7.60% votes. Proposed by Zeenab Aneez and Neha Mujumdar.</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/irc16-proposed-stsdebates"><strong>#STSDebates</strong></a>: Received 7.60% votes. Proposed by Sumandro Chattapadhyay and Jahnavi Phalkey.</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/irc16-proposed-digitalliteraciesatthemargins"><strong>#DigitalLiteraciesAtTheMargins</strong></a>: Received 7.06% votes. Proposed by Aakash Solanki, Sandeep Mertia, and Rashmi M.</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/irc16-proposed-internetmovements"><strong>#InternetMovements</strong></a>: Received 7.06% votes. Proposed by Becca Savory, Sarah McKeever, and Shaunak Sen.</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/irc16-proposed-futurebazaars"><strong>#FutureBazaars</strong></a>: Received 5.97% votes. Proposed by Maitrayee Deka, Adam Arvidsson, Rohini Lakshané, and Ravi Sundaram.</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/irc16-proposed-minimalcomputing"><strong>#MinimalComputing</strong></a>: Received 5.97% votes. Proposed by Padmini Ray Murray and Sebastian Lütgert.</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/irc16-proposed-webofgenealogies"><strong>#WebOfGenealogies</strong></a>: Received 5.97% votes. Proposed by Ishita Tiwary, Sandeep Mertia, and Siddharth Narrain.</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/irc16-proposed-wikishadows"><strong>#WikiShadows</strong></a>: Received 5.97% votes. Proposed by Tanveer Hasan and Rahmanuddin Shaik.</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/irc16-proposed-literaryspaces"><strong>#LiterarySpaces</strong></a>: Received 5.43% votes. Proposed by P.P. Sneha and Arup Chatterjee.</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/irc16-proposed-archiveanarchy"><strong>#ArchiveAnarchy</strong></a>: Received 4.34% votes. Proposed by Ranjani M Prasad and Farah Yameen.</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/irc16-proposed-afcinema2.0"><strong>#AFCinema2.0</strong></a>: Received 3.80% votes. Proposed by Akriti Rastogi and Ishani Dey.</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/irc16-proposed-manypublicsofinternet"><strong>#ManyPublicsOfInternet</strong></a>: Received 3.80% votes. Proposed by Sailen Routray and Khetrimayum Monish.</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/irc16-proposed-politicsonsocialmedia"><strong>#PoliticsOnSocialMedia</strong></a>: Received 3.80% votes. Proposed by Rinku Lamba and Rajarshi Dasgupta.</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/irc16-proposed-spottingdata"><strong>#SpottingData</strong></a>: Received 3.80% votes. Proposed by Dibyajyoti Ghosh and Purbasha Auddy.</li></ol>
<p> </p>
<h2>Dates and Venue</h2>
<p>The IRC16 will take place during <strong>February 26-28, 2016</strong>, at the <a href="http://jnu.ac.in/"><strong>Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU)</strong></a>, Delhi. We are delighted to announce that the Conference will be hosted by the <a href="http://www.jnu.ac.in/SSS/CPS/"><strong>Centre for Political Studies (CPS)</strong></a> at JNU, and will be generously supported by the <a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/cscs-digital-innovation-fund"><strong>CSCS Digital Innovation Fund (CDIF)</strong></a>.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Conference Programme</h2>
<p>Access the draft programme (v.2.1): <a href="https://github.com/cis-india/IRC16/raw/master/IRC16_Programme-v.2.1.pdf">Download</a> (PDF).</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Pre-Conference Conversations</h2>
<p>Please join the researchers@cis-india mailing list to take part in the pre-conference conversations: <a href="https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/researchers">https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/researchers</a>.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Accommodation</h2>
<p>CPS and CIS will provide accommodation to all non-Delhi-based team members of the selected sessions, during the days of the Conference.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Travel Grants</h2>
<p>We will offer 10 travel grants, up to Rs. 10,000 each, for within-India travel. The following non-Delhi-based team members of the selected sessions have been selected for travel grants: Aakash Solanki, Dibyajyoti Ghosh, Neha Mujumdar, Purbasha Auddy, Rahmanuddin Shaik, Rashmi M, Rohini Lakshané, Sailen Routray, P.P. Sneha, and Zeenab Aneez.</p>
<p>The travel grants are made possible by the <a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/cscs-digital-innovation-fund">CSCS Digital Innovation Fund (CDIF)</a>.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/irc16-selected-sessions'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/irc16-selected-sessions</a>
</p>
No publishersumandroInternet Researcher's ConferenceFeaturedLearningIRC16Researchers at Work2016-01-18T09:23:06ZBlog Entry