Centre for Internet and Society

Srividya's Presentation

praskrishna — 2013-06-05T10:30:14Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/gaad-presentation-1

Sriram

praskrishna — 2012-07-10T08:53:41Z

Sriram

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Spyware

praskrishna — 2013-05-07T10:29:35Z

Spyware

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Spy agencies, IB and RAW, put spanner in proposed privacy law

praskrishna — 2013-11-19T09:50:05Z

The country’s intelligence agencies are out to scuttle a law that’s being drafted to protect your privacy.

The article by Nagender Sharma and Aloke Tikku was published in the Hindustan Times on November 2, 2013. Sunil Abraham is quoted.

The Intelligence Bureau and the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) have told the government to water down the proposed law that makes it a crime to leak sensitive personal information collected by government departments and the private sector.

The agencies conveyed their views to national security adviser Shivshankar Menon at a recent meeting at the prime minister’s office. With home secretary Anil Goswami backing the spooks, even arguing that “the very need for such a bill” should be reviewed, Menon has called for revisiting the provisions the agencies have objected to.

The Right to Privacy Bill 2013 lays down privacy principles and standards, and stipulates jail terms and fines for leak of sensitive personal data.

“If such a bill was to be considered, intelligence agencies should be exempted from its purview,” Goswami argued at the meeting.

The intelligence agencies also spoke about how the bill would “adversely affect or compromise” the functioning of many agencies and projects, such as the Central Monitoring System that is used to intercept phone calls and internet communication, and the National Intelligence Grid that would give law enforcement agencies access to information combat terror threats.

The proposed privacy law was initially conceptualised to address data privacy, particularly in the context of data handled by the Indian IT industry for foreign clients.

But the Department of Personnel and Training – that drew up the bill – expanded its scope to cover information collected by the government and interception by intelligence agencies.

Sunil Abraham of the Centre for Internet and Society, a Bangalore-headquartered advocacy group, said the security establishment’s attempts to scuttle the privacy law were a step back.

“Civil society isn’t against surveillance by security agencies. All that we ask for is due process and oversight,” Abraham said.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/hindustan-times-november-2-2013-nagender-sharma-alok-tikku-spy-agencies-ib-and-raw-put-spanner-in-proposed-privacy-law

Spread awareness through Malayalam Wikipedia: Gadgil

praskrishna — 2016-05-05T15:43:59Z

"Contribution of information by people of Rukadi village near Kolhapur to Marathi Wikipedia, by referring to media reports, helped spread the word about mass fish deaths in the region. Similar efforts should be initiated in Kerala so that information about local movements like Plachimada campaign would be available in the public domain," opined environmentalist Madhav Gadgil. He was speaking at the Malayalam Wikipedia workshop hosted by Swadeshabhimani Media Study Centre at Vakkom Moulavi Memorial Hall here on Wednesday.

The article was published in the Times of India on May 5, 2016.

The scientist spoke at length on how the information technology in general and the Wikipedia in particular, could help create awareness among commoners about the harmful effects of environmental degradation. He added that though Malayalam Wikipedia is ahead of other Indian languages in documenting geographical details, the content doesn't stretch beyond official information. He suggested that controversial information too must be documented with reference to media reports.

Fuad Jaleel, volunteer editor of Malayalam Wikipedia, explained Wikipedia policies on notability and reliability. The two-day workshop is organised in association with Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) and Malayalam Wikipedia community. On Wednesday, the event focused on identifying topics for wiki-articles and creating basic village/town data by making use of census. Forty participants attending the workshop will contribute articles to Wikipedia on Thursday. Representatives from CIS Bengaluru and members of Malayalam Wikipedia Community will assist them.

"The intention is to add wiki-articles on environmental issues at panchayat level. Malayalam Wikipedia could be used as a medium for citizen journalism. We will organize more workshops and classes," said Ram Kamal, one of the coordinators of Swadeshabhimani centre. V K Damodaran delivered welcome speech and A Suhair presented vote of thanks in the inaugural session.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/news/the-times-of-india-may-5-2016-spread-awareness-through-malayalam-wikipedia

SpicyIP Tidbit: India ratifies the Marrakesh Treaty for the Visually Impaired

praskrishna — 2014-07-02T05:31:23Z

In an encouraging step towards promoting accessibility among the differently abled, India became the first country to ratify the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled, 2013.

Click here to read the post published in Spicy IP on July 1, 2014.

The treaty aims to increase the access that differently abled people have to copyright protected material. This will dilute an extremely formidable barrier to access to knowledge that the nearly 285 million visually impaired people around the world face. We had previously blogged about the salient features of the treaty here, as well as the India’s signing of the same here. Notice that the signing had taken place in April of this year and the ratification occurred in June. This is somewhat of a record between the signing and ratification of a treaty at the WIPO and demonstrates India’s commitment towards these objectives. There are close to 78 different signatories of the treaty in the past one year along with the EU. India’s Copyright Act was amended in 2012 to add the exceptions required under the treaty. The Accessible Books Consortium was also launched at the same WIPO event. The ABC is to implement the legal framework created by the treaty. For the CIS post on this, see here.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/spicy-ip-july-1-2014-thomas-j-vallianeth-spicy-ip-tidbit-india-ratifies-the-marrakesh-treaty-for-the-visually-impaired

Spectrum Sharing

praskrishna — 2013-05-22T12:32:15Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/blog/spectrum-sharing

Spectrum Sharing

praskrishna — 2013-09-26T10:43:41Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/blog/spectrum-sharing.pdf

Spectrum Sharing

praskrishna — 2013-06-03T10:11:34Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/blog/spectrum

spectrum alloted

praskrishna — 2011-05-11T08:37:39Z

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spectrum allocation

praskrishna — 2011-05-11T08:38:58Z

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Spectrum

praskrishna — 2016-04-06T01:02:58Z

Spectrum

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Spectrum

praskrishna — 2010-03-05T05:10:50Z

Figure 1

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/publications/understanding

Speakers & Readers

praskrishna — 2013-01-21T04:12:27Z

Speakers & Readers

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Speak Easy: Citizenship, Freedom of Expression and Online Governance

praskrishna — 2012-08-01T04:56:36Z

The event organised by the YP Foundation, Youth Ki Awaaz, Change.Org and RTI Anonymous was held at the American Centre in Kasturba Gandhi Marg, Connaught Place, New Delhi on July 31, 2012. Chinmayi Arun, a Fellow at the Centre for Internet & Society

The event focused on exploring the freedom of expression vis-a-vis its impact on accessibility and connectivity across multiple youth movements focused on gender, speciality, education, governance and arts.

There were group discussions with Venkatesh Nayak (Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative), Anja Kovacs (Internet Democracy Project), Chinmayi Arun (Centre for Internet & Society) among others.

Agenda

2.00 2.30	Registrations open for workshops!
2.30 2.45	Getting started – ‘Why Speak Easy?’
2.45 4.30	Speak Easy \| Learn: Workshops on advocating online, citizenship journalism, filing the Right to Information (RTI) application, and participating in online legislation with Youth Ki Awaaz, Change.Org, Get Up 4 Change, The YP Foundation and PRS Legislative.
4.30 6.00	Speak Easy \| Converge: Exploring the Freedom of Expression vis-à-vis its impact on accessibility and connectivity across multiple youth movements focused on gender, sexuality, education, governance and arts. Group Discussions with Venkatesh Nayak (Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative), Anja Kovacs (Founder, Internet Democracy Project), Chinmayi Arun (Centre for Internet and Society) and many others.
6.00 7.00	Speak Easy \| Demand: How can young people dialogue with decision makers?

Venue Partner: The American Center
Read the original published in the YP Foundation here

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/speak-easy