Centre for Internet and Society

Use of AI and ML in Healthtech Will Not Be Limited to Services Alone, Say These Experts

praskrishna — 2018-05-06T12:17:46Z

The healthcare segment will see significant entrepreneurial activity and more investment coming in the sector.

The blog post by Sanchita Dash was published by Entrepreneur India on May 5, 2018.

The healthcare sector has been a witness to numerous technological advancements over the years. From bringing healthcare to your doorsteps to making a doctor’s life a tad bit easier with automation, startups have been making a difference with healthtech. Technologies like predictive artificial intelligence have been a step in the right direction for the healthcare industry.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning have also led to a spurt of devices which are driving the future of healthtech. A report on the Artificial Intelligence in the Healthcare Industry in India done by The Centre for Internet and Society, India, said that AI could potentially add USD 957 billion (or 15% of current gross value added) to the Indian economy by 2035 and investment in AI in the Indian healthcare industry appears to be growing. The report also states that of the USD 5.5 billion raised by global digital healthcare companies in the July-September 2017 quarter, at least 16 Indian healthcare IT companies received funding.

At a recent investment session Healthtech – Navigating the Innovation Landscapeheld by YES BANK and HealthStart Accelerator, the future of the sector was discussed. Startups and investors got together under one roof to talk about the advancements in the healthtech sector and how it’s benefiting all. We spoke to experts about how the healthtech sector is set to change in India.

Innovations of the Future

During the engaging discussion, there was one common thread – AI and ML leading the race. Pradeep K. Jaisingh from HealthStart said that the major innovations in 2018 that they look forward to are around the use of artificial intelligence AI/ML in healthcare both for services as well as devices. “Exciting possibilities are in the areas like smart diagnostics for diseases like cancer etc. Other possible areas are mental health and Neurodegenerative diseases,” he said.

Start-ups too believe in the power of AI and ML in the sector. Deepak Sahni, founder, Healthians believes that there is lot of new innovations expected in next 2-3 years in the Healthtech space. “The role AI and Machine learning is yet to show its strength in partnering with doctors for better choice of treatment and making it more personalized for patients,” he said.

What To Expect

Healthcare, like other industries, too will look at bringing convenience to the consumers. Sahni added that point of care devices are about to bring whole new spectrum to early and fast diagnostics. He believes that one can soon expect Dental, Hair, Eye and Pathology tests being done at home becoming more prevalent along with innovations to bring ECG/ ECHO/ Mammogram to become accessible at home for many. “On one side point of care will offer convenience to the urban population and on the other side it will make right diagnosis accessible and affordable for rural population as well,” he said.

Talking about the future, Sahni said that healthtech in 2018 will be much more than discovery and primary diagnosis. “The need and focus will shift to disease management and will have a holistic outcome driven treatment approach,” said Sahni.

And this change will be driven by the entrepreneurial community. Jaisingh believes that the healthcare segment will see significant entrepreneurial activity and more investment coming in the sector. “Other big development will be M&A in the Sector which will result in consolidation and a few larger players emerging in the healthcare delivery space specifically,” he said.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/use-of-ai-and-ml-in-healthtech-will-not-be-limited-to-services-alone-say-these-experts

April 2018 Newsletter

praskrishna — 2018-05-20T14:57:47Z

Dear readers,

Previous issues of the newsletters can be accessed here.

Highlights
In 2016, WhatsApp Inc announced it was rolling out end-to-end encryption, but is the company doing what it claims to be doing? Sunil Abraham and Aayush Rathi explores this in an article which was published in Asia Times on April 20, 2018. CIS submitted comments to the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India on the draft Digital Information Security in Healthcare Act on April 21, 2018. CIS had conducted research on the issues of privacy, data protection and data security since 2010 and is thankful for the opportunity to put forth its views. A blog post by Swaraj Paul Barooah examines two badly drafted provisions of the new Anti-Trafficking bill that have the potential to severely impinge upon the Freedom of Expression, including through a misunderstanding of intermediary liability. A chapter by P.P. Sneha was published in 'Making Things and Drawing Boundaries: Experiments in the Digital Humanities' edited by Jentery Sayers. The chapter throws light on some of the questions that arise around the processes by which digital objects are ‘made’ and made available for arts and humanities research and practice, by drawing on recent work in text and film archival initiatives in India. CIS made a submission to the Indian Patent Office on the issue of Statement of Working as per Form 27 under the Patents Act, 1970. Select stakeholders were invited to the consultation meeting held on April 6, 2018. Anubha Sinha attended it along with a few other public-spirited stakeholders. She made a statement stressing on the requirement of the patent system to serve the welfare-purpose and not create mere non-working/ blocking monopolies; and that the argument of representatives of patentees about non-working of patents being the existing norm, and that they cannot be questioned about this, is absolutely against the central tenets of patent law.

Highlights

In 2016, WhatsApp Inc announced it was rolling out end-to-end encryption, but is the company doing what it claims to be doing? Sunil Abraham and Aayush Rathi explores this in an article which was published in Asia Times on April 20, 2018.
CIS submitted comments to the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India on the draft Digital Information Security in Healthcare Act on April 21, 2018. CIS had conducted research on the issues of privacy, data protection and data security since 2010 and is thankful for the opportunity to put forth its views.

A blog post by Swaraj Paul Barooah examines two badly drafted provisions of the new Anti-Trafficking bill that have the potential to severely impinge upon the Freedom of Expression, including through a misunderstanding of intermediary liability.

A chapter by P.P. Sneha was published in 'Making Things and Drawing Boundaries: Experiments in the Digital Humanities' edited by Jentery Sayers. The chapter throws light on some of the questions that arise around the processes by which digital objects are ‘made’ and made available for arts and humanities research and practice, by drawing on recent work in text and film archival initiatives in India.
CIS made a submission to the Indian Patent Office on the issue of Statement of Working as per Form 27 under the Patents Act, 1970. Select stakeholders were invited to the consultation meeting held on April 6, 2018. Anubha Sinha attended it along with a few other public-spirited stakeholders. She made a statement stressing on the requirement of the patent system to serve the welfare-purpose and not create mere non-working/ blocking monopolies; and that the argument of representatives of patentees about non-working of patents being the existing norm, and that they cannot be questioned about this, is absolutely against the central tenets of patent law.

Articles:

Digital Native: Delete Facebook? (Nishant Shah; Indian Express; April 8, 2018).

Digital Native: The e-wasteland of our times (Nishant Shah; Indian Express; April 22, 2018).
What’s up with WhatsApp? (Aayush Rathi and Sunil Abraham; Asia Times; April 23, 2018).

CIS in the News:

Cambridge Analytica row: Facebook data breach hit 560K Indian users (Vidhi Choudhury and Yashwant Raj; Hindustan Times; April 5, 2018).
Govt websites face major outage; hacking ruled out (Hindu Businessline; April 6, 2018).
After data leak row, Facebook imposes restrictions on user data access (Romita Majumdar and Kiran Rathee; Business Standard; April 6, 2018).
It Took Just 355 Indians to Mine the Data of 5.6 Lakh Facebook Users. Here's How (CNN-News 18; April 7, 2018).
It feeds on you! (Anita Babu; The Week; April 8, 2018).
Pension won’t be denied for want of Aadhaar, says EPFO (Prashant K. Nanda and Komal Gupta; Livemint; April 11, 2018).
Facebook’s fake news clean-up hits language barrier (Nilesh Christopher; Economic Times; April 13, 2018).
Is This The Beginning Of The End For Facebook? (Bloomberg Quint; April 15, 2018).
Metrolife: Brutality porn has sadly many takers in India (Nina C. George; Deccan Herald; April 18, 2018).
Aadhaar data of over 89 lakh MNREGA workers in Andhra Pradesh leaked online (New Indian Express; April 27, 2018).
You Are Not the Only One: India stares at a loneliness epidemic (Asad Ali and Tabassum Barnagarwala; Indian Express; April 29, 2018).
Now, Twitter too caught up in Cambridge Analytica controversy (Prasun Sonwalkar and Vidhi Choudhury; Hindustan Times; April 30, 2018).

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

►Copyright and Patent

Submission

CIS' Submission on Statement of Working of Patents (Anubha Sinha; April 10, 2018).

►Wikipedia

Event Organized

Sambad Health and Women Edit-a-thon (April 15, 2018).

Blog Entries

Telugu Wikisource Feature Book in Pustakam.net (Pavan Santhosh; April 17, 2018).
Institutional Partnership with Tribal Research & Training Institute (Subodh Kulkarni; April 18, 2018).
Exploring Wikimedia platforms in Dialogue on the Urban Rivers of Maharashtra (Subodh Kulkarni; April 22, 2018).

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

►Privacy

Submission

Comments on the Draft Digital Information Security in Healthcare Act (Amber Sinha and Shweta Mohandas; April 22, 2018).

Analysis

Revenge Porn Laws across the World (Shradha Nigam; April 25, 2018).

Blog Entries

Government gives free publicity worth 40k to Twitter and Facebook (Akriti Bopanna; April 10, 2018).

Artificial Intelligence in Governance: A Report of the Roundtable held in New Delhi (Saman Goudarzi and Natallia Khaniejo; April 19, 2018).

►Free Speech and Expression

Blog Entries

A look at two problematic provisions of the draft Anti-trafficking bill (Swaraj Paul Barooah; April 21, 2018).

DIDP Request #29 - Revenue breakdown by source for FY 2017 (Akriti Bopanna; April 26, 2018).

►Cyber Security

Event Organized

Workshop on Python (April 14, 2018; CIS, Bengaluru).

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

Article

Making Humanities in the Digital: Embodiment and Framing in Bichitra and Indiancine.ma (P.P. Sneha; Making Things and Drawing Boundaries: Experiments in the Digital Humanities (2017), edited by Jentery Sayers, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, London April 1, 2018).

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

► Follow us elsewhere

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

► Support Us

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

► Request for Collaboration

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

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

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/april-2018-newsletter

In a first, Indian Singers Rights' Association distributes royalty

praskrishna — 2018-04-17T14:21:27Z

While singers say this benefits out of job artistes, the transparency in distribution remains questionable.

This info was published by the News Minute on April 14, 2018.

In a first, the Indian Singers Rights’ Association (ISRA) distributed Rs 51 lakh in royalties to singers on Friday. The beneficiaries included popular playback singers KS Chitra, P Susheela, KJ Yesudas, SP Balasubrahmanyam and Srinivas.

Speaking to The Hindu, ISRA CEO Sanjay Tandon said, “This ₹51 lakh royalty money will grow 10 fold if and when radio channels, television channels and mobile companies start paying us. Right now, only IPL teams, amusement parks and few other establishments have paid the royalty money.”

Speaking to media persons at the event, singer SP Balasubrahmanyam said, "The government has given a rule saying that royalty should reach the singers as well. This programme is organised to give a part of the shares to singers in South India. This is a good thing to be welcomed.”

In March last year, SPB and others were slapped with legal notices by renowned music director Ilaiyaraaja over performing his compositions without his explicit permission and a payment of royalty to him. While this took the singers by surprise, experts had clarified that Ilaiyaraaja was right in asking for royalty as long as he owned the copyright to the music.

Speaking to Puthiya Thalaimurai channel, singer Chitra said, "Everyone knows a singer doesn't have pension or anything. After they sing, if the song is a hit, they will get a few shows here and there. We know a lot of people who are struggling to live. This will definitely help them, especially when they are aged and cannot go to work. This royalty will really be useful. We welcome this."

Singer Srinivas added, "This is not the case where you give money to someone who already has money. This is for a singer who has disappeared after singing 4- 5 songs. He's probably struggling in a village. When the money reaches him, it is a big thing. If we meet that social responsibility, it would be a success."

However, if royalty would go to singers of all ranks remains unclear.

In a transparency review conducted by the Centre for Internet and Society, Bengaluru, that compares the publicly available information on the websites of music collective management organisations(CMOs), ISRA did not detail the “distribution of percentages, nor the administrative cut it seeks to take” as per the Copyright Amendment Act 2012.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/news/the-news-minute-april-14-2018-first-indian-singers-rights-association-distributes-royalty

Annual Report 2017-2018

praskrishna — 2019-01-29T01:57:43Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/about/reports/annual-report-2017-2018.pdf

February 2018 Newsletter

praskrishna — 2018-03-17T11:11:33Z

February 2018 Newsletter

Dear readers,

Previous issues of the newsletters can be accessed here.

Highlights
Open Access India recently released a statement to promote openness in science and research communities. CIS contributed to the text and introduced it to the participants of OpenCon 2018, Delhi. Marathi Language day is celebrated all over world on 27th February. Various events and activities were conducted by CIS-A2K in collaboration with community, institutions and government departments. Amber Sinha wrote a short series of three op-eds for Asia Times. The first article examines the debate around consent and the arguments made to discard it. The second article examines the substance of the argument of 'innovation' as a legitimate competing interest with respect to privacy. The third article looks at the two competing arms of regulation - enforcement and compliance, and how a balance of two is needed in India. Amber Sinha developed a visual guide to the story of privacy law in India and the recent judgment of Puttaswamy v. Union of India. Pooja Saxena designed and conceptualized the visual guide. CIS made a submission on the ‘White Paper of the Committee of Experts on a Data Protection Framework for India’ (“White Paper”) released by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. CIS has collaborated with LabEx ICCA (Université Paris 13), UNESCO New Delhi, Centre for Social Sciences and Humanities (CSH), and Centre d'études de l'Inde et de l'Asie du Sud (CEIAS), to organise a Research Symposium on Digital Transitions in Cultural and Creative Industries in India. The symposium gathers researchers and practitioners engaging with the changing landscape of cultural and creative industries in India in the context of the rapid expansion of digital technologies and social media.

Highlights

Open Access India recently released a statement to promote openness in science and research communities. CIS contributed to the text and introduced it to the participants of OpenCon 2018, Delhi.
Marathi Language day is celebrated all over world on 27th February. Various events and activities were conducted by CIS-A2K in collaboration with community, institutions and government departments.
Amber Sinha wrote a short series of three op-eds for Asia Times. The first article examines the debate around consent and the arguments made to discard it. The second article examines the substance of the argument of 'innovation' as a legitimate competing interest with respect to privacy. The third article looks at the two competing arms of regulation - enforcement and compliance, and how a balance of two is needed in India.
Amber Sinha developed a visual guide to the story of privacy law in India and the recent judgment of Puttaswamy v. Union of India. Pooja Saxena designed and conceptualized the visual guide.
CIS made a submission on the ‘White Paper of the Committee of Experts on a Data Protection Framework for India’ (“White Paper”) released by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
CIS has collaborated with LabEx ICCA (Université Paris 13), UNESCO New Delhi, Centre for Social Sciences and Humanities (CSH), and Centre d'études de l'Inde et de l'Asie du Sud (CEIAS), to organise a Research Symposium on Digital Transitions in Cultural and Creative Industries in India. The symposium gathers researchers and practitioners engaging with the changing landscape of cultural and creative industries in India in the context of the rapid expansion of digital technologies and social media.

CIS in the News:

Aadhaar: 'Safety is regularly evolving' (Kaplan Herald; February 5, 2018).
To protect data, don’t opt for plastic or laminated Aadhaar card: UIDAI (Komal Gupta; Livemint; February 7, 2018).
From 1 March, only registered devices to be used to authenticate Aadhaar (Komal Gupta; Livemint; February 8, 2018).
Critics of India's ID card project say they have been harassed, put under surveillance (Rahul Bhatia; editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan; Reuters; February 13, 2018).
The mystery of the website which published the ‘scoop’ on BJP’s Ram Madhav (Kaveesha Kohli and Talha Ashraf; The Print; February 13, 2018).
CCI leaves Google searching for answers (Nirmal John; Economic Times; February 13, 2018).

►Wikipedia

Events Reports

Mini Train the Trainer 2018 (Subodh Kulkarni; February 26, 2018).
Marathi Language Day events by CIS-A2K in February 2018 (Subodh Kulkarni; February 27, 2018).

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Internet Governance
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►Privacy

Submission

Submission to the Committee of Experts on a Data Protection Framework for India (Amber Sinha; February 5, 2018).

Blog Entry

AI and Manufacturing and Services in India: Looking Forward (Shweta Mohandas and Pranav M. Bidare; February 13, 2018).
Unpacking Data Protection Law: A Visual Representation (Amber Sinha; February 15, 2018).
The Fundamental Right to Privacy - A Visual Guide (Amber Sinha; February 16, 2018).

Event Organized

Roundtable on AI and Finance in India (TERI, Bangalore; February 7, 2018).

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Telecom
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CIS is involved in promoting access and accessibility to telecommunications services and resources, and has provided inputs to ongoing policy discussions and consultation papers published by TRAI. It has prepared reports on unlicensed spectrum and accessibility of mobile phones for persons with disabilities and also works with the USOF to include funding projects for persons with disabilities in its mandate:

Article

Matching Realities and Aspirations (Shyam Ponappa; Business Standard; January 31, 2018 and Organizing India Blogspot; February 1, 2018).

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

Symposium

Research Symposium on Digital Transitions in Cultural and Creative Industries in India (Co-organized by LabEx ICCA (Université Paris 13), UNESCO New Delhi, Centre for Social Sciences and Humanities (CSH), Centre d'études de l'Inde et de l'Asie du Sud, and CIS; February 27 - 28, 2018; New Delhi). Anubha Sinha was a panellist for the session on "Copyright, Creative Content, and Rights of Performers", alongwith Nandita Saikia and Manojna Yeluri.

Article

Digital Native: AI Manifesto (Nishant Shah; Indian Express; February 25, 2018).

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► Follow us elsewhere

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

► Support Us

► Request for Collaboration

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/february-2018-newsletter

January 2018 Newsletter

praskrishna — 2018-03-01T01:35:56Z

January 2018 Newsletter

Dear readers,

Previous issues of the newsletters can be accessed here.

Highlights
The paper titled "Patent Working Requirements and Complex Products" has been published in the latest issue of the NYU Journal of Intellectual Property and Entertainment Law. It is one of the outputs of the Pervasive Technology project and has been authored by Prof. Jorge L. Contreras, Paxton M. Lewis, and Rohini Lakshané. CIS made a submission to the Department of Industrial Planning and Promotion on mobile patents. CIS offered its assistance on matters aimed at developing a suitable policy framework for SEPs and FRAND in India, and, working towards sustained innovation, manufacture and availability of mobile technologies in India The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in healthcare in India is increasing with new startups and large ICT companies offering AI solutions for healthcare challenges in the country. The report by by Yesha Paul, Elonnai Hickok, Amber Sinha and Udbhav Tiwari seeks to map the present state of AI in the healthcare sector in India. About 27% of India's population is still illiterate or barely literate. Most privacy policies and terms of services for web and mobile applications are in English and therefore it is only 10% of us who can actually read them before we provide our consent. The article by Sunil Abraham was published in Deccan Herald on January 20, 2018. CIS made a submission to TRAI Consultation on inputs to the National Telecom Policy. CIS in its submission also recommended what all should be the main objectives of TRAI while drafting the next edition of National Telecom Policy. Under a research grant from the Azim Premji University CIS has initiated a study of the ongoing updation process of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam and the resultant reform of citizen identification infrastructure in India. The 2G judgment of December 2017 provides a critique of how no proper evidence was presented on existence of an FCFS policy and its improper implementation, wrote Shyam Ponappa in his article in the Business Standard which was published on January 3, 2018.

Highlights

The paper titled "Patent Working Requirements and Complex Products" has been published in the latest issue of the NYU Journal of Intellectual Property and Entertainment Law. It is one of the outputs of the Pervasive Technology project and has been authored by Prof. Jorge L. Contreras, Paxton M. Lewis, and Rohini Lakshané.
CIS made a submission to the Department of Industrial Planning and Promotion on mobile patents. CIS offered its assistance on matters aimed at developing a suitable policy framework for SEPs and FRAND in India, and, working towards sustained innovation, manufacture and availability of mobile technologies in India
The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in healthcare in India is increasing with new startups and large ICT companies offering AI solutions for healthcare challenges in the country. The report by by Yesha Paul, Elonnai Hickok, Amber Sinha and Udbhav Tiwari seeks to map the present state of AI in the healthcare sector in India.
About 27% of India's population is still illiterate or barely literate. Most privacy policies and terms of services for web and mobile applications are in English and therefore it is only 10% of us who can actually read them before we provide our consent. The article by Sunil Abraham was published in Deccan Herald on January 20, 2018.
CIS made a submission to TRAI Consultation on inputs to the National Telecom Policy. CIS in its submission also recommended what all should be the main objectives of TRAI while drafting the next edition of National Telecom Policy.
Under a research grant from the Azim Premji University CIS has initiated a study of the ongoing updation process of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam and the resultant reform of citizen identification infrastructure in India.
The 2G judgment of December 2017 provides a critique of how no proper evidence was presented on existence of an FCFS policy and its improper implementation, wrote Shyam Ponappa in his article in the Business Standard which was published on January 3, 2018.

The following articles were written by CIS members:

Digital native: Memory card is full (Nishant Shah; Indian Express; January 3, 2018).
The 2G Judgment of December 2017: What Was It About? (Shyam Ponappa; Business Standard; January 3, 2018).
Fixing Aadhaar: Security developers' task is to trim chances of data breach (Sunil Abraham; Business Standard; January 10, 2018).
Another Step towards Privacy Law (Elonnai Hickok; Governance Now; January 15, 2018).

Data Protection: We can innovate, leapfrog (Sunil Abraham; Deccan Herald; January 20, 2018).

CIS in the News:

From net neutrality to IBC & Aadhaar, how Vidhi is framing key government legislation (Surabhi Agarwal and Samanwaya Rautray; Economic Times; January 4, 2018).
UIDAI denies any breach of Aadhaar database (Komal Gupta; Livemint; January 7, 2018).
Token security or tokenized security? (Manasa Venkataraman and Ajay Patri; Livemint; January 9, 2018).
UIDAI introduces new two-layer security system to improve Aadhaar privacy (Economic Times; January 11, 2018).
Hammered government offers Virtual ID firewall to protect your Aadhaar (New Indian Express; January 11, 2018).
Virtual Aadhaar ID: too little, too late? (Yuthika Bhargava; Hindu; January 11, 2018).
India To Introduce Virtual ID For Aadhaar To Strengthen Privacy (Bloomberg Quint; January 11, 2018).
UIDAI's Virtual ID, limited KYC does little to protect Aadhaar data already collected, say critics (Business Today; January 12, 2018).
Aadhaar Body Talked About Virtual ID 7 Years Ago, Put It Off: UIDAI Chief (Sukriti Dwivedi; NDTV; January 13, 2018).
Bengaluru gives data safety tips to panel (Deccan Herald; January 14, 2018).
Is your personal information under lock and key? (Sravanthi Challapalli; Hindu Businessline; January 16, 2018).
Aadhaar-privacy debate: How the 12-digit number went from personal identifier to all pervasive transaction tool (First Post; January 18, 2018).
Paytm Payments Bank woos corporates with digital incentives (Komal Gupta and Remya Nair; Livemint; January 24, 2018).
Aadhaar's new security measures are good, it is still work in progress (Alnoor Peermohamed; Business Standard; January 25, 2018).

►Wikipedia

Blog Entries

Government of Odisha adopting Creative Commons License to Promote Transparency and Access to Knowledge (Sailesh Patnaik; January 17, 2018).
Experience and Learning outcome from Wikipedia Education Program (Lakshmi Karlekar; January 30, 2018).

Events Organized

Marathi Wikipedia Workshop at Dept. of Mass Communication, Solapur University (Organized by CIS-A2K and Dept of Mass Communication, Solapur University; Solapur; January 2, 2018).
Marathi Wikipedia Workshop at Dayanand College, Solapur (Organized by CIS-A2K and Dayanand College, Solapur; Solapur; January 3, 2018).
Marathi Wikipedia Workshop at Willingdon College, Sangli (Organized by CIS-A2K and Willingdon College; Sangli; January 5, 2018).
Marathi Wikipedia Workshop at Govt.Science & Arts College, Aurangabad (Organized by CIS-A2K and Govt.Science & Arts College; Aurangabad; January 9, 2018).
Marathi Wikipedia Workshop at Dr.Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada Vidyapeeth (Organized by CIS-A2K and Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University; Aurangabad; January 10, 2018).
Marathi Wikipedia Workshop at Shivaji University, Kolhapur (Organized by CIS-A2K and Shivaji University; Kolhapur; January 15, 2018).
Wikidata Workshop (Organized by CIS-A2K and Andhra Loyola College; Vijaywada; January 20 - 21, 2018).
Train the Trainer 2018 (Organized by CIS-A2K; Mysore; January 26 - 28, 2018).

►Pervasive Technologies

Research Paper

Patent Working Requirements and Complex Products (Jorge L. Contreras, Rohini Lakshané and Paxton M. Lewis; JIPEL NYU Journal of Intellectual Property & Entertainment Law, Vol. 7 - No.1 on January 16, 2018).

Submission

Submission to DIPP at Meeting with IP Stakeholders (Anubha Sinha; January 1, 2018). The submission was made in December 2017 but it was published on the website in January 2018.

►Openness

Our work in the Openness programme focuses on open data, especially open government data, open access, open education resources, open knowledge in Indic languages, open media, and open technologies and standards - hardware and software. We approach openness as a cross-cutting principle for knowledge production and distribution, and not as a thing-in-itself.

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Internet Governance
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►Privacy

Blog Entry

Artificial Intelligence and the Healthcare Industry in India (Yesha Paul, Elonnai Hickok, Amber Sinha and Udbhav Tiwari (Ecosystem mapping by Shweta Mohandas, Sidharth Ray and Elonnai Hickok. Designed by Saumyaa Naidu under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License; January 26, 2018).

Events Organized

Roundtable on A.I. and Manufacturing and Services (TERI, Bengaluru; January 19, 2018).

null Bangalore Meet: Special Session on Digital Identity and Privacy (CIS, Bengaluru; January 19, 2018). Sunil Abraham gave a talk.

►Free Speech and Expression

Blog Entries

Internet Governance Forum Report 2017 (Shweta Mohandas; January 11, 2018).

Mobile net ban during peaceful protest leaves farmers confused (Shruti Jain; January 19, 2018).

‘Hurt sentiments’ cost Udaipur internet access for four days (Shruti Jain; January 19, 2018).

-----------------------------------

Article

Submission to TRAI Consultation on "Inputs for Formulation of National Telecom Policy - 2018" (Pranesh Prakash; January 25, 2018).

Blog Entry

Life of a Tuple: National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the Reform of Citizen Identification Infrastructure in Assam (Sumandro Chattapadhyay; January 22, 2018). All posts related to the study can be found here.

-----------------------------------
About CIS
-----------------------------------

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

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Twitter - Information Policy: https://twitter.com/CIS_InfoPolicy
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E-Mail - Access to Knowledge: a2k@cis-india.org
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► Support Us

► Request for Collaboration

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/Qjanuary-2018-newsletter

December 2017 Newsletter

praskrishna — 2018-03-17T11:12:26Z

Dear readers,

Previous issues of the newsletters can be accessed here.

Highlights
Shruthi Anand wrote a report that seeks to map the development of Artificial Intelligence both generally and in specific sectors culminating in a stakeholder analysis and contributions to policy making. CIS made a submission to the Department of Industrial Planning and Promotion on December 7, 2017. CIS also offered its assistance on other matters aimed at developing a suitable policy framework for SEPs and FRAND in India, and, working towards sustained innovation, manufacture and availability of mobile technologies in India. The Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks held a meeting with IP stakeholders on December 7, 2017, chaired by the Secretary, DIPP, to take suggestions on improving procedures and functioning of the Office. Anubha Sinha attended the meeting and requested the DIPP to improve compliance of uploading Form 27s by patentees and ensure proper enforcement of related provisions within the Indian Patent Act, 1970. A Kannada Wikipedia orientation workshop was held at the Entrepreneurship Centre, SID, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru on 26 November, 2017. The day long event was aimed at adding content to Kannada Wikimedia projects on topics such as ecology, environment, wildlife and sciences of Karnataka. Shyam Ponappa wrote an article on the tragedy of commons in the Business Standard on December 6, 2017. Just like porn is not real life, all news is not real news. It’s time, therefore, to come of age in the 18th year of this century, wrote Nishant Shah in an article in the Indian Express on December 31, 2017.

Highlights

Shruthi Anand wrote a report that seeks to map the development of Artificial Intelligence both generally and in specific sectors culminating in a stakeholder analysis and contributions to policy making.
CIS made a submission to the Department of Industrial Planning and Promotion on December 7, 2017. CIS also offered its assistance on other matters aimed at developing a suitable policy framework for SEPs and FRAND in India, and, working towards sustained innovation, manufacture and availability of mobile technologies in India.
The Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks held a meeting with IP stakeholders on December 7, 2017, chaired by the Secretary, DIPP, to take suggestions on improving procedures and functioning of the Office. Anubha Sinha attended the meeting and requested the DIPP to improve compliance of uploading Form 27s by patentees and ensure proper enforcement of related provisions within the Indian Patent Act, 1970.
A Kannada Wikipedia orientation workshop was held at the Entrepreneurship Centre, SID, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru on 26 November, 2017. The day long event was aimed at adding content to Kannada Wikimedia projects on topics such as ecology, environment, wildlife and sciences of Karnataka.
Shyam Ponappa wrote an article on the tragedy of commons in the Business Standard on December 6, 2017.
Just like porn is not real life, all news is not real news. It’s time, therefore, to come of age in the 18th year of this century, wrote Nishant Shah in an article in the Indian Express on December 31, 2017.

CIS wrote the following articles:

New Recommendations to Regulate Online Hate Speech Could Pose More Problems Than Solutions (Amber Sinha; Wire; October 14, 2017). This was published in the month of December on the CIS website.
Breeding misinformation in virtual space (Amber Sinha; Asian Age; December 3, 2017).
India’s Data Protection Regime Must Be Built Through an Inclusive and Truly Co-Regulatory Approach (Amber Sinha; Wire; December 1, 2017).
Digital native: Memory card is full (Nishant Shah; Indian Express; December 3, 2017).
Should Aadhaar be mandatory? (Amber Sinha; Deccan Herald; December 9, 2017).
Digital native: The age of consent (Nishant Shah; Indian Express; December 31, 2017).

CIS in the News:

Aadhaar linking deadline approaches: Here are all the myths and facts (Business Today; December 7, 2017).
Checks and balances needed for mass surveillance of citizens, say experts (Hindu; December 9, 2017).
Masking personal data to protect privacy crucial for India, say experts (Deepti Govind; Livemint; December 11, 2017).
Paranoid about state surveillance? Here’s the FD Guide to living in the age of snoops (Sriram Sharma; Factor Daily; December 12, 2017).
Deadline For Linking Bank Accounts With Aadhaar To Be Extended To 31 March (Komal Gupta and Ramya Nair; Livemint; December 14, 2017).

►Copyright & Patent

Submission

Submission to DIPP at Meeting with IP Stakeholders (Anubha Sinha; December 12, 2017).
CIS' Submission to DIPP and CGPDTM at meeting with IP Stakeholders (Anubha Sinha; December 13, 2017).

►Openness

►Wikipedia

Blog Entries

Christ University Wikipedia Education Program Internship (Manasa Rao; December 11, 2017).
Wikipedia Orientation Program at Rotary Club of Salem (Manasa Rao; December 11, 2017).
Nichole Saad from the Wikimedia Foundation visits Christ University (Manasa Rao; December 17, 2017).
Kannada Wikipedia Orientation Workshop at IISc, Bengaluru (A. Gopalakrishna; December 19, 2017).
Wikimedia Technical Workshop at Savitribai Phule Pune University (Manasa Rao; December 19, 2017).
Marathi Wikipedia workshop for Sandarbh Science magazine writers (Manasa Rao; December 19, 2017).
Marathi Wikipedia - Vishwakosh Workshop for Science writers in IUCAA, Pune (Manasa Rao; December 20, 2017).

-----------------------------------

Internet Governance
-----------------------------------

►Free Speech & Expression

Blog Entries

It Hurts Them Too (Mir Farhat; December 19, 2017).
Internet Shutdowns: A Modern-day Siege (Ayswarya Murthy; December 19, 2017).
Days to Derail Work of Two Generations? (Mahesh Kumar Shiva; December 19, 2017).
Sorry, Business Closed until Internet is Back On (Nalanda Tambe; December 19, 2017).
Stock Brokers Don't Love an Internet Shutdown (Binita Parikh; December 19, 2017).
Was there an Unofficial Internet Shutdown in BHU & NTPC? (Saurabh Sharma; December 19, 2017).
How Media beat the Shutdown in Darjeeling (Manish Adhikary; December 19, 2017).
Internet and the Police: Tool to Some, Trash to Others (Manoj Kumar; December 19, 2017).
Business Woes from Saharanpur's Internet Ban (Mahesh Kumar Shiva; December 19, 2017).
Amid Unrest in the Valley, Students See a Dark Wall (Aakash Hassan; December 19, 2017).
The Rising Stars in Music Loath Losing their Only Platform (Umar Shah and Mir Farhat; December 19, 2017).
Internet and Banking: A Trust Broken (Roshan Gupta; December 19, 2017).
Online or Offline, Protest Goes On (Junaid Nabi Bazaz; December 19, 2017).
Digital Banking Dreams: Interrupted (Safeena Wani; December 19, 2017).
Will Darjeeling Regain the Trust of Tourists? (Roshan Gupta; December 20, 2017).
Silence on the Dera Front (Sat Singh; December 20, 2017).
ISPs in Kashmir Grappling with Mounting Losses Amid Recurrent Shutdowns (Safina Wani; December 20, 2017).
Taxes in the Time of Internet Shutdown (Avijit Sarkar; December 20, 2017).
Every Town had its Jio Dara (Ayswarya Murthy; December 20, 2017).
Education and Employment Opportunities Tossed out of the Window (Roshan Gupta; December 20, 2017).
Darjeeling’s e-commerce Crumbles after 100 days sans Internet (Avijit Sarkar; December 20, 2017).
E-administration Efforts are Lame Ducks without Internet (Amit Kumar and Sat Singh; December 20, 2017).

►Privacy

Blog Entries

Artificial Intelligence - Literature Review (Shruthi Anand; edited by Amber Sinha and Udbhav Tiwari with research assistance by Sidharth Ray; December 16, 2017).
AI and Healthcare in India: Looking Forward (Shweta Mohandas; edited by Roshni Ranganathan; December 16, 2017).

Participation in Event

FIGI Symposium 2017 (Organized by Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (TSB) of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), jointly with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Bank and the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructure (CPMI) and support of the Government of India; November 29 - December 1, 2017; Bangalore). Elonnai Hickok participated in the symposium and spoke in the "Security, Infrastructure, and Trust" working group on big data and privacy in DFS.

-----------------------------------

Article

The tragedy of the unused commons (Shyam Ponappa; Business Standard; December 6, 2017).

-----------------------------------
About CIS
-----------------------------------

► Follow us elsewhere

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Twitter - Access to Knowledge: https://twitter.com/CISA2K
Twitter - Information Policy: https://twitter.com/CIS_InfoPolicy
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E-Mail - Access to Knowledge: a2k@cis-india.org
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For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/december-2017-newsletter

November 2017 Newsletter

praskrishna — 2018-01-10T01:57:29Z

November 2017 Newsletter

Dear readers,

Previous issues of the newsletters can be accessed here.

Highlights
Anubha Sinha took part in the 35th Session of the World Intellectual Property Organization (“WIPO”) Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (“SCCR”) at Geneva from 13 November, 2017 to 18 November, 2017. She posed a question on the agenda 'Other Matters' on behalf of CIS on Day 5, 17 November, 2017. CIS also gave statements on Limitations and Exceptions for Libraries and Archives and GRULAC Proposal for Analysis of Copyright in the Digital Environment. CIS-A2K signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Telangana Government’s IT, Electronics & Communications Department with to catalyse the development of the Wikimedia movement in Telangana and improve the state of free-licensed digital content in Telugu and Urdu. The Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India has published the Guidelines for Indian Government Websites (GIGW). Nirmita Narasimhan on behalf of the Centre for Internet & Society gave comments on GIGW. The government has already set up a Nudge unit; now, it should apply the Nobel laureate's insights on auctions relating to essential infrastructure wrote Shyam Ponappa in an article in the Business Standard on November 1, 2017. DataMeet and CIS have collaborated on identifying and addressing the challenges to open up and integrate data and information in the water sector. CIS commented on the Consultation Paper on Privacy, Security and Ownership of Data in Telecom Sector published by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on August 9, 2017. CIS published a report that compares laws and regulations in the United Kingdom and India to see the similarities and disjunctions in cyber security policy between them. CIS sent comments on TRAI consultation paper on promoting local telecom equipment manufacturing. The submission drew on research primarily done in the Pervasive Technologies project.

Highlights

Anubha Sinha took part in the 35th Session of the World Intellectual Property Organization (“WIPO”) Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (“SCCR”) at Geneva from 13 November, 2017 to 18 November, 2017. She posed a question on the agenda 'Other Matters' on behalf of CIS on Day 5, 17 November, 2017. CIS also gave statements on Limitations and Exceptions for Libraries and Archives and GRULAC Proposal for Analysis of Copyright in the Digital Environment.
CIS-A2K signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Telangana Government’s IT, Electronics & Communications Department with to catalyse the development of the Wikimedia movement in Telangana and improve the state of free-licensed digital content in Telugu and Urdu.
The Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India has published the Guidelines for Indian Government Websites (GIGW). Nirmita Narasimhan on behalf of the Centre for Internet & Society gave comments on GIGW.
The government has already set up a Nudge unit; now, it should apply the Nobel laureate's insights on auctions relating to essential infrastructure wrote Shyam Ponappa in an article in the Business Standard on November 1, 2017.
DataMeet and CIS have collaborated on identifying and addressing the challenges to open up and integrate data and information in the water sector.
CIS commented on the Consultation Paper on Privacy, Security and Ownership of Data in Telecom Sector published by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on August 9, 2017.
CIS published a report that compares laws and regulations in the United Kingdom and India to see the similarities and disjunctions in cyber security policy between them.
CIS sent comments on TRAI consultation paper on promoting local telecom equipment manufacturing. The submission drew on research primarily done in the Pervasive Technologies project.

CIS in the News:

Big Data for governance (Alekhya Hanumanthu; Telangana Today; November 4, 2017).
How tech is making life easier for differently-abled (Shalini Umachandrani; November 7, 2017).
India Today Conclave Next 2017: Aadhaar was rushed, says MP Rajeev Chandrashekhar (Priya Pathak; India Today; November 8, 2017).
What You Need To Worry About Before Linking Your Mobile Number With Aadhaar (Roopa Raju and Shekhar Rai; Youth Ki Awaaz; November 8, 2017).
OPINION | Data is New Oil and Human Mind the New Battlefield. India Must Wake Up Now (Lt. General (Retd.) D. S. Hooda; News18.com; November 11, 2017).
Aadhaar seeding: benefits and concerns (Shaikh Zoaib Saleem; Livemint; November 14, 2017).
Privacy issues exist even without Aadhaar (Ronald Abraham; November 15, 2017).
Advocating for Openness: Nine Ways Civil Society Groups Have Mobilized to Defend Internet Freedom (Centre for International Media Assistance; November 15, 2017).
Govt working to set up financial CERT to tackle cyber threats (Komal Gupta; Livemint; November 16, 2017).
Financial CERT to combat cyber threats, says MoS home affairs (CISO MAG; November 17, 2017).
UIDAI admits 210 government websites made Aadhaar details public (Financial Express; November 20, 2017).
India’s internet missionaries: The women Google is relying on to spread its Next Billion message (Sunny Sen; Livemint; November 21, 2017).
FCC’s plan to repeal net neutrality may not impact India (Surabhi Agarwal; Economic Times; November 23, 2017).
Indian activists slam FCC decision to ditch net neutrality (Kul Bhushan; Hindustan Times; November 23, 2017).
FCC’s plan to repeal net neutrality may not impact India (Surabhi Agarwal; Economic Times; November 23, 2017).
Why should you keep a close eye on the net neutrality debate in the US (Subhrojit Mallick; Digit; November 24, 2017).
Cyberattacks a significant threat to democracy: Modi (Komal Gupta; Livemint; November 24, 2017).
Aadhaar verification at airports raises need for stricter data privacy regulations (Aman Sethi; Hindustan Times, November 27, 2017).
IDAP Interview Series: Interview with Nirmita Narasimhan (IDIA Law; November 27, 2017).
Govt releases white paper on data protection framework (Komal Gupta; Livemint; November 28, 2017).
Bengalureans to receive Helen Keller award (Deccan Herald; November 30, 2017).

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

Submission

Comments on Guidelines for Indian Government Websites (Nirmita Narasimhan; November 26, 2017).

►Copyright & Patent

35th SCCR: CIS Statement on Limitations and Exceptions for Libraries and Archives (Anubha Sinha; November 15, 2017).
35th SCCR: CIS Statement on Limitations and Exceptions for Libraries and Archives (Anubha Sinha; November 17, 2017).
35th SCCR: CIS' Question to Dr. Rostama on her Study on the Impact of the Digital Environment on Copyright Legislation (Anubha Sinha; November 19, 2017).

►Wikipedia

Blog Entry

CIS-A2K signs MoU with Telangana Government (Manasa Rao; November 8, 2017).

►Openness

-----------------------------------

Internet Governance
-----------------------------------

►Privacy

Blog Entries

A Comparison of Legal and Regulatory Approaches to Cyber Security in India and the United Kingdom (Divij Joshi; edited by Elonnai Hickok; November 12, 2017).
Counter Comments on TRAI's Consultation Paper on Privacy, Security and Ownership of Data in Telecom Sector (Amber Sinha; November 23, 2017).

Participation in Event

BIS International Seminar on Internet of Things (Organized by BIS; November 15, 2017; India Habitat Centre, New Delhi). Amber Sinha attended the event.
Internet Universality Indicators for a Safe, Secure and Inclusive Cyberspace for Sustainable Development (Organized by UNESCO in collaboration with the Ministry of Electronics and IT, Government of India; UNESCO Conference Room, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi; November 17, 2017). Amber Sinha attended the event.

Roundtable on Data Integrity and Privacy (Organized by Observer Research Foundation; November 18, 2017). The round table discussion was chaired by Shri Baijayant Panda, Hon'ble Member of Parliament.

►Cyber Security

Blog Entry

Breach Notifications: A Step towards Cyber Security for Consumers and Citizens (Amelia Andersdotter; November 14, 2017).

Event Organized

Roundtable on Enhancing Indian Cyber Security through Multi-Stakeholder Cooperation (Indian Islamic Centre; Lodhi Road; New Delhi; November 4, 2017).
Open House on Security Practices in FinTech (Organized by CIS and Has Geek; November 17, 2017).

Participation in Event

Multinational Cyber Security Forum at University of Haifa (Organized by Center for Cyber, Law and Policy and University of Haifa in collaboration with the Hewlett Foundation Cyber Initiative; November 5 - 7, 2017). Sunil Abraham participated in the meeting held in Israel.
Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace (GCSC) (Organized by GCSC; November 21, 2017; New Delhi). Pranesh Prakash participated in the event.

-----------------------------------
Telecom
-----------------------------------

CIS is involved in promoting access and accessibility to telecommunications services and resources, and has provided inputs to ongoing policy discussions and consultation papers published by TRAI. It has prepared reports on unlicensed spectrum and accessibility of mobile phones for persons with disabilities and also works with the USOF to include funding projects for persons with disabilities in its mandate:

Article

Nobel Laureate Richard Thaler's Views On Auctions (Shyam Ponappa; Business Standard; November 1, 2017).

Submission

Comments on TRAI Consultation Paper on Promoting Local Telecom Equipment Manufacturing (Anubha Sinha; November 26, 2017).

Articles

Digital native: Rebellion by Google Doc (Nishant Shah; Indian Express; November 4, 2017)
Digital native: Let there be life (Nishant Shah; Indian Express; November 19, 2017).

-----------------------------------

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Twitter - Access to Knowledge: https://twitter.com/CISA2K
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For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/november-2017-newsletter

India Today Conclave Next 2017: Aadhaar was rushed, says MP Rajeev Chandrashekhar

praskrishna — 2017-11-26T06:41:07Z

Talking at the ongoing India Today Conclave Next 2017, MP Rajeev Chandrashekhar said that Aadhaar was rushed and foisted on the country by authorities that fail to first create a proper ecosystem. Chandrashekhar gave his comments at a keynote titled Privacy -- The Fundamental Right for the Digital Citizen.

The article by Priya Pathak was published by India Today on November 8, 2017.

Chandrashekhar, who has been vocal on the issues like data protection, privacy and net neutrality, said that the government should have created a proper ecosystem for Aadhaar by bringing norms and laws around data protection and privacy before asking people to sign up for the unique ID.

The MP talked about India's journey from being a largest unconnected world to becoming the largest connected world. But Chandrashekhar criticised the "flawed" Aadhaar and said that it was a classic example of how a government system would push for technology in governance without addressing key bits of the ecosystem around the citizen and the consumer.

"If that (Aadhaar) wasn't enough, the IT act and section 66A and its language and its vagueness and its potential for misuse was another example of the faults of a bureaucracy or a political system trying to legislate or create solutions in the digital world, " he said.

At the same time, he lauded the recent Supreme Court order that held all Indians had fundamental right to privacy. "The latest finding of Supreme Court of Privacy as fundamental right is a big deal and it will alter number of things going forward," he said. He added that there should be more debate and discussion on data privacy as there is an attempt to characterise data privacy as some of kind of elitist issue in India which it's not.

Privacy, especially for the digital world, currently is one of the most debated topics in India. The country in the past few years has seen a number of instances where a government or a private entity has knowingly or unknowingly compromised the data of its users. Recently a study published by Centre for Internet and Society, a Bengaluru-based organisation, revealed that private data of more 130 million Aadhaar card holders were leaked from four government websites.

The Supreme Court in August this year declared privacy as a fundamental right. A nine-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar has declared that "right to privacy is an intrinsic part of Right to Life and Personal Liberty under Article 21 and entire Part III of the Constitution".

The move has been praised by many including Rajeev Chadrashekhar who has said that it is a big welcome step. "It is clear that Aadhaar and all other legislations existing and proposed will have to meet the test of privacy being a fundamental right," he recently said.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/india-today-priya-pathak-november-8-2017-india-today-conclave-next-2017-aadhaar-was-rushed-says-mp-rajeev-chandrashekhar

October 2017 Newsletter

praskrishna — 2018-01-10T00:53:03Z

October 2017 Newsletter

Dear readers,

Previous issues of the newsletters can be accessed here.

Highlights
CIS submitted its comments on mobile accessibility guidelines to the Ministry of Electronics & IT, Govt. of India. Between 1 to 16 September, an online discussion took place on the creation of social media guidelines and strategy for Telugu Wikimedia handles online. Manasa Rao captured the developments in a blog post. Padma Venkataraman in a blog entry chronologically mapped CIS’ efforts at enhancing financial transparency and accountability at ICANN, while providing an outline of what remains to be done. Shyam Ponappa's article on NPAs and structural issues was published in the Business Standard on October 5, 2017.

Highlights

CIS submitted its comments on mobile accessibility guidelines to the Ministry of Electronics & IT, Govt. of India.
Between 1 to 16 September, an online discussion took place on the creation of social media guidelines and strategy for Telugu Wikimedia handles online. Manasa Rao captured the developments in a blog post.
Padma Venkataraman in a blog entry chronologically mapped CIS’ efforts at enhancing financial transparency and accountability at ICANN, while providing an outline of what remains to be done.
Shyam Ponappa's article on NPAs and structural issues was published in the Business Standard on October 5, 2017.

CIS in the News:

Attempted data breach of UIDAI, RBI, ISRO and Flipkart is worrisome (DailyO, October 4, 2017).
Sex, drugs and the dark web (Hindu; October 7, 2017).
Ahead of data protection law roll out, experts caution that it shouldn't limit collection and use of data (First Post; October 12, 2017).
#NAMAprivacy: The economics and business models of IoT and other issues (Medianama; October 18, 2017).
#NAMAprivacy: Data standards for IoT and home automation systems (Medianama; October 18, 2017).
Majority of top politicians' Twitter followers fake: audit (Furquan Moharkan; Deccan Herald; October 24, 2017).
Awards for those working on employment opportunities for disabled (Eastern Mirror; October 24, 2017).
Nibbling away into your bank account, salami attackers cart away a fortune (New Indian Express; October 25, 2017).
Nirmita Narasimhan wins the 18th NCPEDP-Mindtree Helen Keller Award 2017! (National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People; October 31, 2017).

►Wikipedia

Blog Entries

Odia Wikisource Turns 3 (Manasa Rao; October 22, 2017).
Wikimedia Workshop at Ismailsaheb Mulla Law College, Satara (Subodh Kulkarni; October 24, 2017).
Marathi Wikipedia Edit-a-thon at Dalit Mahila Vikas Mandal, Satara (Subodh Kulkarni; October 24, 2017).
Marathi Wikipedia Workshop at MGM Trust's College of Journalism and Mass Communication, Aurangabad (Subodh Kulkarni; October 24, 2017).
Orientation Program at Kannada University, Hampi (A. Gopalakrishna; October 24, 2017).
Marathi Wikipedia Workshop at Solapur University (Subodh Kulkarni; October 24, 2017).
Discussion on Creation of Social Media Guidelines & Strategy for Telugu Wikimedia (Manasa Rao; October 24, 2017).

►Openness

-----------------------------------

Internet Governance
-----------------------------------

►Freedom of Expression

ICANN’s Problems with Accountability and the .WEB Controversy (Padma Venkataraman; October 24, 2017).
Why Presumption of Renewal is Unsuitable for the Current Registry Market Structure (Padma Venkataraman; October 29, 2017).
CIS’ Efforts Towards Greater Financial Disclosure by ICANN (Padma Venkataraman; October 29, 2017).

►Cyber Security

Participation in Event

CyFy 2017 (Organized by Observer Research Foundation; New Delhi; October 2 - 4, 2017). Sunil Abraham was a speaker.

►Privacy

Blog Entry

GDPR and India: A Comparative Analysis (Aditi Chaturvedi; October 17, 2017).

Participation in Event

Securing The Digital Payments Ecosystem (Organized by NITI Aayog; October 9, 2017).

►Big Data

Blog Entry

Revisiting Per Se vs Rule of Reason in Light of the Intel Conditional Rebate Case (Shruthi Anand; October 4, 2017).

Event Organized

Emerging Issues in the Internet of Things (CIS, Bengaluru; October 23, 2017). Andrew Rens gave a talk.

-----------------------------------

Article

NPAs & Structural Issues (Shyam Ponappa; Business Standard; October 4, 2017).

Articles

Digital Native: There is no spoon, There is no privacy (Nishant Shah; October 9, 2017).
Digital Native: Finger on the buzzer (Nishant Shah; October 22, 2017).

-----------------------------------
About CIS
-----------------------------------

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Twitter - Access to Knowledge: https://twitter.com/CISA2K
Twitter - Information Policy: https://twitter.com/CIS_InfoPolicy
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E-Mail - Access to Knowledge: a2k@cis-india.org
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For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/october-2017-newsletter

UNESCO Internet Universality Indicators consulted at the 8th Asia Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum

praskrishna — 2017-08-23T02:05:44Z

“Internet Universality indicators should measure broad social implications of the Internet and serve as a powerful tool to foster sustainable development,” was a strong message delivered by Asia-Pacific stakeholders at UNESCO consultation to develop Internet Universality indicators during the 8th Asia Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum (APrIGF) in Bangkok (Thailand), 29 July 2017.

This was published by UNESCO on August 9, 2017.

The Bangkok consultation event, co-moderated by Ms. Xianhong Hu (UNESCO) and Ms. Chat Garcia Ramilo (Association for Progressive Communications, APC), brought multi-stakeholders and experts from the Asia Pacific region to contribute to prioritizing issues within the five categories indicators along the Internet Universality R.O.A.M principles, namely on human Rights, Openness, Accessibility, Multi-stakeholder participation, as well as concerning Crosscutting issues.

“Rights entail a number of digital rights including freedom of religious and political expression and right to assembly and association online. Privacy concerns on the Internet are extremely important as well”, stated Ms Gayatri Khandahi from APC on human Rights indicators. In addition, she noted the importance of social and economic rights exercised on the Internet, such as the right to work and the right to political participation, and the jurisdiction challenges of these rights in the pretext of Internet. She emphasized the need to consult also with vulnerable groups, such as women, trans-gender groups and migrants.

Dr. Anja Kovacs from Internet Democracy Project pointed out that rights have impact on other themes or indicators, for instance online abuse of women impacts access in India. She also noted that in the course of developing these indicators, it is crucial to take into account future trends because digital rights are evolving and these indicators might not be useful in 10 years.

“Open Internet is a top concern since it is being limited by many localized requirements. Thus openness requires open and transparent policy and decision making process which is at the core of multi-stakeholder approach”, commented by Prof. Xue Hong from Beijing Normal University on Openness indicators. She suggested “open access” needs to consider people’s various barriers to access Internet, including legal barriers. She suggested that “open source”, “open innovation” and “open market” are also important aspects to measure the level of openness.

On Accessibility indicators, Mr Winston Roberts from the International Federation of Library Associations & Institutions (IFLA) suggested that the definition of universal access needs to be updated and access in various forms can be used as an indicator, such access to broadband. He stressed the importance to include quality access and access in rural areas.

“Access and accessibility should be defined clearly. Access should include indicators to assess quality of service and openness should include assessment of the market”, stated Ms. Bishakha Datta. Mr. Naveed Haq from Internet Society suggested those accessibility indicators could check how many government websites are available to people with disabilities.

“Internet is a classic example where various communities are represented and thus multistakeholderism becomes important”, said Mr. Naveed Haq from Internet Society on Multistakeholder indicators. Mr. Sunil Abraham from Center for Internet Society raised challenges that the government needs to deregulate policies and laws and redo them with a multi-stakeholder process, but on the other hand, private sectors fail to mitigate harm through the self-regulatory model. Mr. Joyce Chen, ICANN representative, highlighted the importance to engage with governments, who need to facilitate more dialogue.

“The rights and interest of those vulnerable groups, such as transgender and women should be considered by the indicators, particularly to assess how rights, such as the right to privacy intersect with their agenda”, suggested by Ms. Bishakha Datta from Point of View on Crosscutting dimension indicators. Dr Anja Kovacs pointed out that it is crucial not miss out groups of people whose interests might not be directly aligned with their governments, for instance refugees or migrants.”

In addition to the ongoing on-site Multistakeholder consultation sessions, UNESCO is now also offering the possibility for interested actors, including Member States, to participate in the consultation online at https://en.unesco.org/internetuniversality.

As an ongoing project developed by UNESCO, Internet Universality Indicators aims to serve as a recognized and authoritative global research tool for national assessing Internet development along the lines of UNESCO’s Internet Universality concept as endorsed by UNESCO 38^th General Conference in 2015. The final indicators will be presented in 2018 and will be submitted to the UNESCO Member States in the International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) for endorsement.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/unesco-internet-universality-indicators-consulted-at-the-8th-asia-pacific-regional-internet-governance-forum

July 2017 Newsletter

praskrishna — 2017-08-23T02:03:19Z

Dear readers,

Previous issues of the newsletters can be accessed here.

Highlights
In an article published in the Huffington Post on July 1, 2017, Nirmita Narasimhan stated that imposing taxes on assistive devices is unfair. It is unconscionable that disability aids and assistive technology are considered a luxury and taxed at a higher rate than rough semi-precious stones or cashew nuts. A research paper on patent working requirements and complex products in India authored by Prof Jorge L. Contreras, University of Utah, and Rohini Lakshané, CIS has been accepted for publication in the Jindal Global Law School Law Review 2017. Negotiators from 16 countries met in Hyderabad for discussing a free trade agreement titled Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. Anubha Sinha along with Arul George Scaria reported this in an article published by Live Law.in. Supreme Court of India while dismissing an appeal by the Indian Reprographic Rights Organization ruled that there was no copyright infringement and no licence was required since the activities fell under the education exception in Indian copyright law. In an article published by EIFL, Anubha Sinha discusses the judgment and what it means for access to educational materials in India. Odia Wikipedians, in conjunction with Indian Athletics Federation and Sports and Youth Services collaborated to document the 2017 Asian Athletics Championships. Hundreds of photos were uploaded and new Wikipedia content added to inform the event’s fans, wrote Sailesh Patnaik and Jnanaranjan Sahu in a blog post. As recently as May 27, 2016, the General Data Protection Regulation (REGULATION (EU) 2016/679 was adopted The Data Protection Directive (1995/46/EC) will be replaced by this Regulation. It is expected that under this Regulation data privacy will be strengthened. Aditi Chaturvedi analyses the developments in a report.

CIS in the news:

UIDAI declining multiple requests by police to share Indian citizens’ biometrics (Justin Lee; Biometrics; July 4, 2017).
Act now to protect yourself against future ransomware attacks (Sanjay Kumar Singh; Business Standard; July 5, 2017).
Reliance Jio data leaked on website : report (Livemint; July 10, 2017).
Supreme Court sets up constitution bench to hear Aadhaar privacy issues (Priyanka Mittal; Livemint; July 12, 2017).
Centre to form panel to 'encrypt' MGNREGA-DBT database and prevent leaks (Sanjeeb Mukherjee; Business Standard; July 14, 2017).
Calls for law change after Indians left in dark over data leaks (Rahul Bhatia and Sankalp Phartiyal; Reuters; July 14, 2017).
Indians Call For More Stringent Data Protection Laws (PYMTNS; July 17, 2017).
Social Activist Alleges Threat By Police Officer Over Possession of Aadhaar (Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar; Wire; July 16, 2017).

Aadhaar privacy: Key issues that all Aadhaar card holders should bear in mind (Business Today, July 19, 2017).
Data in the open makes it easy for cyber criminals (Kiran Parashar KM; New Indian Express; July 26, 2017).

CIS members wrote the following articles

Why GST Is A Step Backward For The Disabled (Nirmita Narasimhan; Huffington Post; July 1, 2017).
Course Packs for Education Ruled Legal in India (Anubha Sinha; EIFL; July 12, 2017).
Digital native: Not only words (Nishant Shah; Indian Express; July 16, 2017).
Aadhar: Privacy is not a unidimensional concept (Amber Sinha; Economic Times; July 23, 2017).
RCEP IP Chapter: A Serious Threat to Access to Knowledge/ Cultural Goods? (Arul George Scaria and Anubha Sinha; July 27, 2017).
Digital native: Ever on the go (Nishant Shah; Indian Express; July 30, 2017).

Article

Why GST Is A Step Backward For The Disabled (Nirmita Narasimhan; Huffington Post; July 1, 2017).

►Pervasive Technologies and Copyright

Research Paper

Patent Working Requirements and Complex Products: An Empirical Assessment of India's Form 27 Practice and Compliance (Jorge L. Contreras and Rohini Lakshané; SSRN and Jindal Global Law School Review; July 17, 2017).

Participation in Event

19th RCEP Meeting (Organized by Ministry of Commerce, Government of India; July 17 - 28, 2017; Hyderabad). Anubha Sinha participated in the meeting.

►Wikipedia

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

Blog Entries

Note: The events were organized earlier but reports were published in July 2017:

Christ University Wikipedia Education Program Internship (Manasa Rao and Ananth Subray; July 5, 2017).
Christ University Wikipedia Education Program Faculty Orientation Report (Ananth Subray; July 7, 2017).
How It Came To Be: Wiki Loves Uniformed Services (Krishna Chaitanya Velaga; July 10, 2017).
Tallapaka Pada Sahityam is now on Wikisource (Pavan Santhosh; July 10, 2017).
Thematic Edit-a-thon at Yashawantrao Chavan Institute of Science, Satara (Subodh Kulkarni; July 11, 2017).
Asian Athletics Championships 2017 Edit-a-thon (Sailesh Patnaik and Jnanaranjan Sahu; July 31, 2017).

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Internet Governance
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►Privacy

Blog Entry

Data Protection: Understanding the General Data Protection Regulation (Aditi Chaturvedi; July 4, 2017).

Participation in Event

IViR Summer Course on Privacy Law and Policy (Organized by the University of Amsterdam; July 3 - 7, 2017; Amsterdam). Amber Sinha attended the course.

►Free Speech and Expression and Cyber Security

Participation in Events

OHD on Consultation Paper on Net Neutrality (Organized by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India; July 25, 2017). Pranesh Prakash was a speaker.
UNESCO Multistakeholder consultation at 8th Asia Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum (APrIGF) (Organized by UNESCO; Bangkok; July 26 - 29, 2017). Sunil Abraham was a speaker. Vidhushi Marda also participated in the event.
Cybersecurity Workshop: Spotlight On GCCS 2017 (Organized by Global Partners Digital (GPD) and the Centre for Communication Governance at National Law University, Delhi, in collaboration with Digital Empowerment Foundation, Digital Asia Hub and Open Net Korea; Bangkok; July 25 - 27, 2017). Sunil Abraham was a speaker. Udbhav Tiwari and Vidushi Marda participated in the event.

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Telecom
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CIS is involved in promoting access and accessibility to telecommunications services and resources, and has provided inputs to ongoing policy discussions and consultation papers published by TRAI. It has prepared reports on unlicensed spectrum and accessibility of mobile phones for persons with disabilities and also works with the USOF to include funding projects for persons with disabilities in its mandate:

Participation in Event