Centre for Internet and Society

WISER Lecture : Sumandro Chattapadhyay on Deregulation by Code

praskrishna — 2017-03-29T11:48:08Z

University of the Witwatersrand organized a talk by Sumandro Chattapadhyay on Derugulation by Code on March 8, 2017 in Johannesburg.

On November 08, 2017, the Government of India initiated a demonetisation process. It involved cancellation of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 currency notes as legal tender, establishing of a time bound process for the notes to be returned to the banks, announcement of specific emergency services (such as hospitals and utilities) for which the canceled notes could still be used, and introduction of a new Rs. 2,000 note. While the purpose of the demonetisation move was publicly articulated in terms of removal of unaccounted wealth held in cash form, the state narrative quickly moved to being primarily focused on promotion of various forms of digital payments, especially mobile-based payments. The notion of a "WhatsApp moment" in Indian banking in particular, and in Asian banking in general, has been in circulation since 2015. Nandan Nilekani, a significant technocrat politician of India who has been CEO of Infosys (a major Indian IT company) and the Chairman of the UID/Aadhaar project, was one of the first persons to take note of this upcoming "revolution". In a lecture given by him on August 21, 2015, he described the technological and market forces, enabled by policy decision, that are going to disrupt the Indian banking landscape.

Sumandro's lecture discussed the linkages between this WhatsApp moment and the demonetisation move, and locate them in the context of institutional and technological changes happening in the Indian banking sector since 2008. The talk focused on the development and proliferation of the Unified Payments Interface - an universal, private-owned, government-backed, mobile-to-mobile payment infrastructure - as the key instrument through which the ongoing deregulation of banking in India is being driven.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/wiser-lecture-sumandro-chattapadhyay-on-deregulation-by-code

Internet Freedom Festival 2017

praskrishna — 2017-03-29T11:24:38Z

The Global Unconference of the Internet Freedom Communities took place at Valencia in Spain from March 6 to 10, 2017. The event was organized by the IFF. Vidushi Marda on behalf of CIS took part in the event.

Vidushi as part of her work with Working Group 1 (WG1) of the Freedom Online Coalition (FOC), organised a workshop along with Mallory Knodel from APC. This workshop was titled "Practical implementations of human rights respecting cybersecurity policy". Participants in the workshop were divided into groups to evaluate the recommendations developed by WG1 in light of existing cyber security policies from around the world. The recommendations can be found here and the accompanying narrative document can be found here.

The session ended up being productive - we received feedback from participants about the effectiveness of the recommendations, and also about aspects of these recommendations that needed revisiting/more work. A more detailed account of the session can be found at the Wiki page.

Vidushi also attended the following sessions:

Data Protection Law and its Different Manifestations
Using the Ranking Digital Rights Corporate Accountability Index for Advocacy & Research
The identity we can't change: a new wave of biometric policies around the world
Enabling free speech online by legal defence: the need for skilled lawyers to secure the free flow of information online: Vidushi channeled a discussion about Shreya Singhal v. Union of India as an important case study in understanding how legal defence has been used to secure rights online. She specifically spoke about the distinction made in the judgment b/w communications on the internet vs. communications elsewhere.

For more info see here.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/internet-freedom-festival-2017

CUSAT Workshop: "Rethinking IPR: Fourth Annual National Workshop for Law Students"

praskrishna — 2017-03-29T10:59:29Z

The workshop was organized by the Inter University Centre for IPR Studies in association with Cochin University of Science and Technology from February 8 to 10, 2017 in Cochin. Pranesh Prakash was the resource person for a copyright workshop for LL.M. students.

Pranesh led and guided student discussion on:

P2P File Sharing - Based on analysis of the Copyright Act I haven't yet written about.
Technological Protection Measures: http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/tpm-copyright-amendment
Benefits of Piracy: http://idl-bnc.idrc.ca/dspace/handle/10625/46491
Misrepresentations of copyright industry: http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/fallacies-lies-and-video-pirates + http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/calling-out-the-bsa-on-bs + http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/2010-special-301
John Doe orders: http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/john-doe-orders-isp-blocking-websites-copyright-1 (3-part series) + http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/delhi-high-court-orders-blocking-of-websites-after-sony-complains-infringement-of-2014-fifa-world-cup-telecast-rights

See the event brochure
See the programme agenda

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/news/rethinking-ipr-fourth-annual-national-workshop-for-law-students

Rethinking Intellectual Property Rights

praskrishna — 2017-03-29T10:50:44Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/files/rethinking-intellectual-property-rights

Google Hangout on Technology and Jobs

praskrishna — 2017-03-29T10:38:42Z

Vanya Rakesh was a speaker at a Google hangout discussion held on Friday, March 24th, 2017 on "Technology and Jobs" as part of a project that ICRIER is doing with World Bank headquarters and several institutions across the world, titled “Jobs for Development”.

Video

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/google-hangout-on-technology-and-jobs

Indo - French Perspectives on Digital Studies

praskrishna — 2017-03-29T05:17:33Z

Anubha Sinha was a speaker at the Indo-French workshop on Open Access at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi on March 15, 2017. The event was organized by the Digital Studies Group.

Anubha Sinha broadly spoke on the state of open access in India, the features of the DBT-DST policy, ICAR policy, how to shape the future of open access movement in India and what are the obstacles in the same.

See the workshop schedule here

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/indo-french-perspectives-on-digital-studies

Talk by Anubha Sinha on Open Access in JNU

praskrishna — 2017-03-29T05:12:05Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/files/talk-by-anubha-sinha-on-open-access-in-jnu

Net Neutrality Resources

praskrishna — 2017-04-22T09:11:21Z

Submissions by the Centre for Internet and Society to TRAI and DoT, 2015-2017.

Submission for TRAI Consultation on Regulatory Framework for Over-the-Top Services (June 29, 2015)
Submission to TRAI Consultation on Differential Pricing (January 7, 2016)
Counter Comments to TRAI on Differential Pricing (January 14, 2016)
TRAI Consultation on Differential Pricing for Data Services: Post-Open House Discussion Submission (January 25, 2016)
Submission to TRAI Consultation on Free Data (June 30, 2016)
Submission to TRAI Consultation on Proliferation of Broadband through Public WiFi Networks (August 28, 2016)
Submission to TRAI Consultation Note on Model for Nation-wide Interoperable and Scalable Public Wi-Fi Networks (December 12, 2016)
Submission to TRAI Consultation on Net Neutrality (April 18, 2017)

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/resources/net-neutrality-resources

TRAI Consultation on Differential Pricing for Data Services - Post-Open House Discussion Submission

praskrishna — 2017-03-29T04:35:57Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/resources/net-neutrality/trai-consultation-on-differential-pricing-for-data-services-post-open-house-discussion-submission

Conference on Safety Against Online Child Sexual Abuse

praskrishna — 2017-03-29T04:10:16Z

Japreet Grewal was a speaker at a conference on safety against online child sexual abuse which was jointly organized by CID, Telangana and the Department for Women Development and Child Welfare, Telangana on March 16 and 17, 2017 in Hyderabad.

Japreet spoke about the existing legal framework in India on online child sexual abuse and the challenges in implementing the preventive and response mechanisms to address this problem. Various stakeholders including media, police, school educators and child protection organisations attended this event.

Read the agenda here

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/conference-on-safety-against-online-child-sexual-abuse

Agenda of the Conference on Safety Against Online Child Sexual Abuse

praskrishna — 2017-03-29T04:06:35Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/files/agenda-of-the-conference-on-safety-against-online-child-sexual-abuse

From Virtual to Reliable: Exploring Freedom and Facts in the World of WWW (World Wide Web)

praskrishna — 2017-03-29T04:01:25Z

An interactive seminar on internet freedom was organized by the Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands and Adaan Foundation on March 21, 2017 at the India International Centre in New Delhi. Saikat Dutta and Amber Sinha were panelists.

The seminar was coincident with the inauguration of the World Press Photo Exhibition 2016. In total there were four panelists. Read the agenda here.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/from-virtual-to-reliable-exploring-freedom-and-facts-in-the-world-of-www-world-wide-web

Interactive Seminar on Internet Freedom

praskrishna — 2017-03-29T03:56:03Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/files/interactive-seminar-on-internet-freedom

क्‍या आधार पर जल्दबाज़ी में है सरकार?

praskrishna — 2017-03-29T03:52:08Z

Amber Sinha took part in a discussion on Aadhaar aired by NDTV on March 27, 2017.

एक जुलाई 2017 से आयकर रिटर्न भरने और पैन नंबर के लिए आधार नंबर देना अनिवार्य हो जाएगा. बिना आधार के अब आयकर रिटर्न नहीं भरा जा सकेगा. जिस किसी के पास पैन कार्ड है उसे एक जुलाई तक आधार नंबर देना होगा. अगर ऐसा नहीं करेंगे तो पैन कार्ड अवैध हो जाएगा. माना जाएगा कि आपके पास पैन कार्ड या पैन नंबर नहीं है. आयकर फार्म और पैन नंबर में आधार को अनिवार्य किये जाने से कई सवाल फिर से उठे हैं. 2009 से लेकर 2017 के बीच आधार के इस्तमाल को लेकर, इसके लीक होने से लेकर अनिवार्य किये जाने के ख़तरे को लेकर कई बहसें सुनी, पचासों लेख पढ़े. दूसरी तरफ हमने समाज में देखा कि आधार को लेकर ग़ज़ब का उत्साह है.

Watch the Video on NDTV

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/ndtv-march-27-2017-discussion-on-aadhaar

IDRC - Open Development Book - Authors' Workshop

praskrishna — 2017-03-29T03:47:14Z

Sumandro Chattapadhyay participated in the authors' workshop organized by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching at the University of Cape Town in South Africa on March 11 and 12, 2017.

The workshop gathered the contributers to an upcoming book by IDRC on open development. This volume will continue, extend, and reflect back on the previously published "Open Development: Networked Innovations in International Development" (Edited by Matthew L. Smith and Katherine M. A. Reilly). Elonnai Hickok, Gus Hosein from Privacy International and Sumandro Chattapadhyay are writing a chapter for this book that is tentative titled as "Six Principles for Openness and Privacy in the Time of Data Revolution".

This chapter will bring together personal and institutional experiences from policy advocacy and grounded practice in open data and privacy across the “South” and the “West” to discuss a potential framing of these two concerns as not opposing but complimentary rights. We locate this discussion of openness and privacy within the context of the ongoing “data revolution”, and propose six principles towards engaging with present and future challenges in generation and management of, innovation with, and reliance on data as an economic and social resource.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/idrc-open-development-book-authors-workshop