Centre for Internet and Society

Seminar on Software Patents and the Commons

praskrishna — 2011-04-05T03:59:59Z

A seminar on Software Patents and Commons is being held on 1 September, 2010 in Delhi. It is jointly organised by CIS, Knowledge of Commons and the Software Freedom Law Centre. The event is sponsored by Red Hat. Pranesh Prakesh will speak on Arguments against Software Patents in India.

For the full event details and the agenda, click here

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/events/software-patents-commons

Seminar on Software Patent and the Commons

praskrishna — 2011-10-23T14:22:15Z

A pre-grant opposition has been filed against a software patent application filed in the patent office by Certicom, a wholly owned subsidiary of Research in Motion (RIM), manufacturers of Blackberry. The opposition was filed on August 31, 2010 by the Software Freedom Law Centre which has recently expanded its operations to India. This exciting development was announced by Mishi Choudhary from SFLC on the lines of the seminar on “Software Patents and the Commons” organised on 1 September 2010 in Delhi jointly by SFLC, the Centre for Internet and Society, the Society for Knowledge Commons and Red Hat. Filing more such oppositions to software patents in India was in the pipeline and this is just the beginning of a movement to take on monopolisation of knowledge and ideas through patenting software, the organisers said.

Software patent opposition is still in its nascent stage in India while several oppositions have been filed against software patents in the US and the EU. The harmful effects of software patents are little known to the Indian public, especially from the context of its danger to development in small and medium size enterprises, as pointed out by Pranesh Prakash from the Centre for Internet and Society who spoke about why software patents are bad for innovation and development in society and also in the software industry, in particular.

In the same context, Venkatesh Hariharan from Red Hat as also Mr. T.C. James, Director of the National Intellectual Property Organisation spoke about the growing importance of free and open source software in education, governmental agencies and as a key agent in information technology policy making in India. “Out of 500 super computers in the world, 446 are running on Linux”, he said, talking about how open source software makes computing highly accessible and affordable while allowing for improvements to be made to the software by any user and releasing it back to benefit the whole community. Dr. Anshu Bhardwaj involved in the Open Source Drug Discovery project undertaken by CSIR, spoke at length about the project as a live demonstration of the power of open source software in impacting drug access and development and health care reform across communities at highly economical rates.

Prof. Eben Moglen, Executive Director of Software Freedom Law Centre in New York who was the keynote speaker at the conference spoke about the growth of the free software and open source movement based on the principle of equating knowledge with commons – that is, a good to be commonly shared by all members of the public – resulting in access to and sharing of knowledge and distribution of information in society for greater innovation, creation of new ideas, communication and development. Dr. Abhijit Sen, member of the Planning Commission was the other keynote speaker who stressed on the role of the government and the policy making bodies to ensure that knowledge and education is accessible and shared without restrictions in such a way that it is not misused by the members of the society.

Other notable speakers in the event included Prabir Purkayastha from the Society for Knowledge Commons, Pradyut Bora, Chief Convenor of BJP's information and technology cell, Jaijit Bhattacharjee from Hewlett Packard and Sudhir Krishnaswamy, Professor, National University of Juridical Sciences. The event also witnessed the participants discuss the various strategies to be used from the perspective of legal analysis as well as policy reform, for opposing software patents filed or granted in India. Indian patent law clearly declares computer programmes per se or software patents to be unpatentable. Prabir Purkayastha pointed out that the most important and major scientific discoveries in history have not been patented and that this has, in no way prevented new ideas from being created and has in fact fostered such innovation. In spite of such a clear legal restriction on grant of software patents, around 1000 software patents have been filed in the patent offices in India in the last year. This trend is extremely disturbing since it poses a serious threat to access to knowledge and distribution of information in society in addition to stifling innovation and development in the software industry.

The seminar was attended by people from diverse backgrounds including the IT industry, civil society organisations, and groups working in pharma patent advocacy, media persons and government officials.

Videos

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/softtware-patents-and-the-commons

Seminar on Quality of Services in Telecom and Data Services: Issues, Challenges and Solutions

praskrishna — 2016-10-19T02:15:43Z

National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi organized a seminar on quality of services in telecom and data in Delhi on September 21, 2016. Shyam Ponappa was a speaker.

CUTS and IIT have recently published a report on quality of services in mobile data services, which is available here. The aim of the organizers was to bring together a diverse group of stakeholders to generate a debate on the findings of the study. This will be followed by a broader discussion on the next steps towards achieving better QoS in telecom and data services. For agenda of the meeting, click here.

Video

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/news/seminar-on-quality-of-services-in-telecom-and-data-services-issues-challenges-and-solutions

Seminar on Open Access for Scientific Information

praskrishna — 2011-06-09T12:41:22Z

Open-access provides free online access to quality scholarly material that can be defined as “open domain,” meaning publicly supported research information, and “open access,” so that it is copyrighted to be freely available scholarly material. Open-access publishing enables researchers in developing countries to establish priority for their research, which they could use later to defend their intellectual property. It removes excess barriers in terms of both price and permission, enhances national research capacity, and improves visibility for developing-country research. Open access thus enables a global platform for this research and collaboration and reciprocates the information flow from South to North among all countries.

In India, there is a large opportunity for open-access publishing. There are many non-commercial research and development institutions, both academic and research laboratories. For example, there are approximately 300 universities that offer both graduate and research programs. There are also many R&D laboratories operating within government science agencies, which cover domains like industrial research, defense research, agricultural research, medicine, ecology, environment, information technology, space, energy, and ocean development.

Many of these institutions, and also several professional societies, publish science journals. Tools like the Open Journal Systems could help many of these journals to come online in an open-access environment. Open Access is relevant to India because most research is funded from public money, institutional framework and information infrastructure, trained manpower and financial resources are adequately available. It widens distribution of information and knowledge and lowers the cost of reaching a fairly wide audience while maximising return on public money. The OA movement is being supported by research funding agencies, academic institutions, researchers and scientists, teachers, students, and members of the general public.

Open access publishing can foster the exchange of research results amongst scientists from different disciplines, thus facilitating interdisciplinary research, whilst providing access to research results to researchers world-wide, including from developing countries, as well as to an interested general public.

Access to and sharing of information, including scientific information, goes through dramatic changes because of rapidly emerging new communication and information technologies (ICTs) and the societal transformations that they generate. But what are the long-term strategies to efficiently harness the open access potential for developing new approaches to knowledge acquisition and sharing? What needs to be done to effectively integrate these strategies into forward looking and sustainable policy making? How can we harness the potential of open access to develop knowledge societies that are people-centred, inclusive and development oriented? What are the global environmental trends that will influence open access in the next few years? What are the main needs of the open access stakeholders in India and South Asia ? Which are the publishing models for open-access journals and what does it imply to finance and sustain open access journals in developing countries; how to overcome language and other barriers ?

These issues are of strategic relevance to UNESCO as they address key challenges linked to building knowledge societies, one of the overarching objectives of the Medium Term Strategy 2008-2013.

UNESCO, jointly with the Centre for Internet Society is well placed to mobilize interested stakeholders to develop efficient implementation strategies in the area of acquision and sharing of scientific information and to integrate them into forward looking and sustainable policies.

UNESCO believes that open access is an enriching part of the scholarly communication process that can and should co-exist with other forms of communication and publication, such as society-based publishing and conferencing activities. Open access publications are also more easily included and searchable in search engines and indexing databases.

In order to initiate a sub-regional dialogue on democratizing access to scientific and health-related information, on the economics of scientific publishing and the implications of the various open-access models and the copyright and intellectual property issues, UNESCO convenes a one day seminar on 16 March 2011 in New Delhi. The concept of « open access » and the inter-relationships between academic institutions, researchers, scientists and publishers will be examined, as well as the challenges and barriers which OA is currently facing in this part of the world.

Overall objectives

Strengthen awareness of UNESCO’s stakeholders on the potential of open access in scientific knowledge sharing that are dramatically accelerated by ICTs;
Provide analysis for anticipating foreseeable trends end emerging challenges in order to enable Indian and South Asian stakeholders to develop strategies and policies to take them up;
Develop a partnership and collaboration among interested stakeholdesr in order to improve access to and sharing of scientific information and research through open access

Expected results

The discussion of the Open Access Seminar is expected to achieve the following results:

UNESCO’s stakeholders enabled to understand trends and emerging challenges related to the impact of open access on scientific information acquisition and sharing;
Possible developments prospected in the area of scientific information sharing in the coming 5 years;
Specific technology generated trends, and their consequences for development in scientific information and research sharing
Highlight the collaborative and collective efforts and actions behind the Open Access movement
Discussions of best practices of Open Access Initiatives

Who should attend:

Science editors
Policy makers
Information professionals
Researchers
Open Access movement activists
Academics and all those interested in electronic publishing.

Terms of Reference:

1) Initiatives within the open access movement (with focus on what all of this means for developing countries):

discussion on the pros and cons of open access
different models used and paths to achieving open access to the health literature
research reports and open access
democratizing access to scientific and health-related information
economics of scientific publishing and implications of the various open-access models
copyright and intellectual property

2) Open Access and the journals from developing countries

what does it means to bring journals online
publishing models for open-access journals
financing and sustaining open access journals in developing countries
costs associated with open access in developing countries
language barriers and translation
training information specialists and users on searching and accessing health literature

This event is co-organised by UNESCO and the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore

Download the agenda here

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/events/open-access

Seminar on Odia Language in New Delhi by the Intellects

praskrishna — 2014-05-06T15:04:41Z

Recently the Odia Language has been accorded classical status by the Government of India. It has increased the responsibility of all Odias to protect, promote and propagate the Odia literature at this digital age while the next gen Odias are moving away from their mother tongue.

The event report was published in Odisha Samachar on April 24, 2014. Subhashish Panigrahi participated in the event.

It is now important for all the scholars, writers, intellectuals and students of Odia literature to shoulder the responsibility to carry forward the legacy of the language while confronting the challenges. On this issue a brain storming seminar has organized by a New Delhi based progressive forum of intellectual Odia people; THE INTELLECTS at Tyagaraj Nagar Jaggnath Mandir, New Delhi. Odia Intellectuals stresses on need for revival of Bhagabat Tungi in Odisha villages as knowledge hub. It should be noted that The Intellects a Delhi based organization of Odia intellectuals and Shree Jagannath Mandir & Odisha Art And Cultural Center have come together to organize aseminar on the subject “Relevance Of Bhagabat Tungi In The Evolution Of Odia LanguageFrom Budha Era To Digital Age” on the occasion of one year celebration its mission ASA SIKHIBA AMARI BHASHA which is an initiative to teach Odia language in New Delhi.

The conference was about the discussion over creative platform for future development of Odia language and literature. Delegates were drawn from diverse areas to provide more interdisciplinary insight in to issues and challenges that are in from of Odia language to march ahead in the new age of computer.

The seminar was attended by Rajya Sabha MP Baisnab Parida, Dr. Subash Pani, Dr. Bhagaban Prakash, researcher Subrat Prusty, writer and lawyer Biraja Mohapatra, journalist and Odiakart.com founder Sahasranshu Mahapatra, Subhashish Panigrahi- Programme Officer at the Centre for Internet and Society, Kamdev Biswal of Tyagraj Nagar Jaggnath Temple and The Intellects chairman Shri Debendra Nath Rout. Sh. Subrat Prusty was felicitated with The Intellects Award-2014 for his contribution to Odia language. Sh. Ramachandra Nath has felicitated for his pallibani mission in New Delhi. Students of ASA SIKHIBA AMARI BHASHA were felicitated for their performance in learning process of Odia in national capital. The program was attended by who is who of Delhi Odias like Dr. Anita Panda, Prof. Saudamini Barik, Jayaram Samal, Indubhushan Lenka, OdiaRadio Founder, Sitanshu Mohapatra, Journalist Asit Ranjan Mishra, OdishaDiary (www.orissadiary.com) founder Prachee Naik, Rashmi Ranjan Parida,The Intellects members Sangram Dhar, Smrutidhara Rout, Anasuya Sahoo, Aditya Mohanty, Nirmal Dhal, Sanjaya Parida,Pankajamala Sarangi, Premanda Swain, lawyer Sanjeeb Kumar Mohanty, Tarun Samantray, and others.

This program was attended by nearly 600 Odias living across the national capital region. The Intellects also organsing 7-days BHAGABAT SANDHYA will also be organized at the premises of Shree Jagannath Mandir, Tyagraj Nagar, New Delhi from 21st April to 27 April 2014 in an effort to spread the noble principles of the SHREEMAD BHAGABAT .

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/eodishasamacharseminar-on-odia-language-in-new-delhi-by-the-intellects

Seminar on "Hate Speech and Social Media"

praskrishna — 2014-02-13T06:22:41Z

NALSAR University of Law, in collaboration with the British Deputy High Commission organized a seminar on Hate Speech and Social Media in Hyderabad on January 4 and 5, 2014. Chinmayi Arun was one of the speakers at the seminar.

Richa Kaul Padte was a keynote speaker on the panel on ‘Marginalised Communities and the Experience of Social Media’, while Anja Kovacs was the keynote speaker on the panel on ‘Internet - A Democratic Space?’.

This seminar focused on emerging debates on free speech, marginalisation and radicalisation in the context of the internet. Long hailed as a great democratiser, the internet has been instrumental in granting a voice to millions of people, and yet, in permitting anonymity it raises important questions of liability and responsibility. Over the course of two days, the seminar explored issues through conversations between people who have worked on various aspects of this issue, including leading jurists, lawyers, bloggers and activists who have embraced new technologies. Some of the prominent speakers at the seminar included Hon’ble Justice Madan B Lokur, Hon’ble Dr. Justice S Muralidhar, Teesta Setalvad, Geeta Seshu, Chinmayi Arun, Anja Kovacs and Apar Gupta.

Click to read the details posted on Internet Democracy Project website.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/nalsar-seminar-hate-speech-social-media

Self-regulation in media and society meet to gain legal perspectives

praskrishna — 2011-04-02T01:22:15Z

With electronic media generally expressing its opposition to government imposed regulations, a two-day workshop is being organised here from tomorrow on 'Comparative Perspectives on Media Self-Regulation and Society'.

The workshop will explore international and comparative perspectives on media regulation as it affects current and the future role of information in society, Star India said in a statement.

The workshop will explore contemporary issues around media self-regulation in India from the differing perspectives of academics, bureaucrats and politicians, industry leaders, civil society and legal experts. In light of the current controversies in the media, including growing demands for content regulation on India's entertainment channels, as well as debates over media ethics, this will be a highly relevant and contemporary workshop.

The University of Oxford's Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy (PCMLP) in collaboration with the National Law University- New Delhi, the National University of Juridical Sciences- Kolkata, and the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, with support from Star India .

Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni, Ministry Joint Secretary Arvind Kumar, and National Commission for Women member Secretary Zohra Chatterjee will be speaking at the workshop.

Among other expected speakers are ex-chief justice of India JS Verma who had drawn up a code for the electronic media on behalf of the News Broadcasters Association, academician Professor Satish Deshpande, former Central Board of Film Certification chairperson Anupam Kher, Centre for Internet and Society's Sunil Abraham, senior columnist Sevanti Ninan, BAG Films and Media CMD and President of the Association of Radio Operators of India (AROI) Anurradha Prasad, senior advocates Prashant Bhushanand Siddharth Luthra, TV Today Executive Director and CEO and IBF Vice President G Krishnan and NDTV CEO KVL Narayan Rao.

Leading international researchers and experts in media regulation, Professor Monroe E Price from the University of Pennsylvania, Jonathan Blake of Covington and Burling, and Professor Wolfgang Shulz from the Hans Bredow Institute will be a part of this Seminar.

Star India will be represented by COO Sanjay Gupta, EVP and General Counsel Deepak Jacob and EVP (Marketing and Communications) Anupam Vasudev.

The workshop is aimed at bringing together diverse views of academics, bureaucrats, policy makers, industry leaders, civil society and legal experts.

"In light of the current controversies in the media fraternity around the world, this workshop will deal with increased demands for content regulation on entertainment channels in India, as well as current debates on media ethics," the Star India release said.

Read the original news here

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/self-regulation

Seeking Survey Participants for Research on Musician Livelihood

praskrishna — 2016-08-16T01:30:36Z

Are you a musician based in India? Do you compose, write lyrics, perform, record, or teach music as one of your main income sources? If so, the Center for Internet and Society is interested in hearing from you!

We are conducting research on the changes within the Indian music industry, with a particular focus on the impact of new technologies.

At this time, we are interested in the voices of India-based musicians. Specifically, we are interested in understanding how you earn money as a musician. We are also interested in how your involvement with copyright societies, digital media platforms, and other organizations affects your livelihood.

We hope to gather this data via a survey, which we hope to close on August 25th. It will take about 15 minutes.

As a token of appreciation, you will be entered for a chance to win cash prizes or tickets to attend India-based music festivals and conferences.

If interested, please access the survey link here: https://goo.gl/forms/Jsvv3777dAbR99YD3

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/jobs/seeking-survey-participants-for-research-on-musician-livelihood

Security: Privacy, Transparency and Technology

praskrishna — 2015-08-19T02:24:57Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/security-privacy-transparency-technology.pdf

Security, Governments, Data

praskrishna — 2014-12-23T13:49:36Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/security-government-data.docx

Security Challenges

praskrishna — 2013-01-31T05:37:23Z

Security Challenges

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/SecurityChallenges.png

Security and Surveillance: A public discussion on Optimizing Security while Safeguarding Human Rights

praskrishna — 2014-12-19T08:46:34Z

The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) invites you to a public discussion on optimizing security and safeguarding human rights at its Bangalore office on Friday, December 19th, 2014, 16:00 to 18:00.

The Centre for Internet and Society, in collaboration with Privacy International UK, has undertaken exploratory research into surveillance, security, and the security market in India.

Through this research, we hope to understand and document policy and law associated with security, surveillance, and the security market in India and learn about the regulation of security and related technologies such as encryption, filtering, monitoring software, and interception equipment. We also hope to understand the import and export policy regime for dual use technologies.

Such findings will be critical in creating evidence based research to inform security policy and regulation in India and work towards enabling regulatory frameworks that optimize the nation’s security while protecting the rights of citizens.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/security-and-surveillance-optimizing-security-human-rights

Securing the internet’s future

praskrishna — 2016-03-28T02:24:35Z

Mike Godwin, who proposed the eponymous law about online discussion threads, speaks about net neutrality, differential pricing and why no government is likely to oppose stricter surveillance measures.

The article by Bhavya Dore was published in Hindu Businessline on March 25, 2016.

For gravity, there’s Newton’s law, for internet discussion threads, there’s Godwin’s law. Twenty-five years ago, a law student trawling through cyberspace noticed a recurring pattern: at some point in an online discussion, someone would invariably invoke Hitler or the Nazis. The observation led to an act of ‘mimetic engineering’ — rifling through discussion boards, pointing this out, and promptly naming the law after him.

Godwin’s law states: As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one — that is, the likelier this becomes.

Mike Godwin, 59, a portly, white-haired gent in Harry Potter glasses is best known for this aphoristic piece of wisdom. “The purpose,” he says, “was to make the people who engaged in frivolous comparisons of atrocities seem like they weren’t thinking.”

It is generally understood that when one of the arguers is falling back on the Nazis as rhetorical shorthand, that person is starting to lose the argument.

“It certainly means one of the arguers has gone to a higher or lower level,” he said.

Godwin was in India in February as part of a series of talks organised through the Centre for Internet and Society on net neutrality.

In early February, at the Mumbai University’s civics and politics department, he was on a panel with three others at a discussion that occasionally took an agitated tone.

“[The debate] hasn’t become heated in every country to the same degree,” he said. “In India it has.” The public discussion has been polarised, with activists vehemently opposing, among other things, ‘Free Basics’ — a Facebook offering. On February 8, the telecom regulator ruled against differential pricing, debarring telecom operators from offering slices of the internet at different prices.

Godwin doesn’t see net neutrality and differential pricing as mutually exclusive. “I think some forms [of differential pricing] are potentially good and some forms are potentially bad,” he said. “And the regulator has to look closely and make a determination about the harms or benefits.”

Godwin has worked with the Wikimedia Foundation, which offered Wikipedia Zero for free in some countries through specific providers, as a gateway to Wikipedia. But he isn’t trying to convince you one way or the other.

“[There is] an idea that there was something valuable about carriers [service providers] being neutral,” he said. “And I still think that that’s true… But the thing that changed was this: with Wikipedia, I realised it doesn’t matter if you have neutrality if nobody can afford it. Neutrality hasn’t served the people who can’t afford to pay to have the wires built up to their provinces.”

This then boils down to the fundamental question: how do we create a world that gets people connected? “It may involve cross-subsidies of various sorts, and all of these things historically have invited some degree of government regulation,” said Godwin. “The question is less ‘do you regulate or not regulate’, the question is ‘do you do it right’.”

But does Free Basics mean anything to a developing country which needs real basics first: water, sanitation, shelter? Godwin doesn’t buy into the premise that the internet is a luxury that comes after all these things.

“I think that [idea] is wrong,” he said. “Because when people can share information or resources about where the water is or what good health practices are or how to properly cultivate a crop, they help everyone else. And the impulse to help and share what they know is strong.”

Godwin’s first law has now been well entrenched in popular culture. But wait, he has a second one. This one goes: Surveillance is the crack cocaine of governments.

“Almost all governments want to engage in surveillance,” he said. “Some governments have disagreements with other governments over their surveillance but rarely will we see them categorically refuse to surveil.”

And yet, he says, our outrage over this is driven by an “antiquated notion of privacy” that the content of our emails or conversations should be free from prying eyes. “In the rest of the century and future centuries people will look back at this idea and laugh: that people thought that content was the important thing,” he said. Someone reading your mail isn’t the only possible violation, but whether they are accessing the whole ecosystem of your communication. “The metadata can give away the whole store,” he said. “The metadata can be more revealing. Who are you talking to, at what time of day, for how long, how big is the message? These are all things that can matter.”

That’s not the only thing that’s changed. The internet has, since its early days, become a more charged, more violent place, where poison, bile and abuse fly thick and fast.

“The level of hatefulness directed towards women online is particularly bad,” he continued, “It is a huge cross-cultural problem.”

The other enduring problem is how do you balance free speech rights while curtailing hate speech? “If there were an easy answer I’d tell you what it is,” said Godwin.

Still, banning or blocking sites, as the Indian government has been in the past eager to do, is hardly a solution. “I won’t say there is never an argument for it,” said Godwin, pausing a beat, “I will say that I have never heard one that was any good.”

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-hindu-business-line-march-25-2016-bhavya-dore-securing-internets-future

Securing e-Governance: Ensuring Data Protection and Privacy

praskrishna — 2012-06-15T04:10:57Z

Privacy India in partnership with the Centre for Internet & Society, International Development Research Centre, and Society in Action Group is organizing a discussion on E-Governance. It is based on the theme, ‘Security and Privacy Issues’, and will be held in Ahmedabad, Gujarat on June 16, 2012, from 9.30 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. Registration is free and open to the public.

India has witnessed a rapid proliferation of the use of information and communication technology in the delivery of government services. E-government is seen as an instrument to simultaneously increase the efficiency, transparency and accountability of public administration and improve public service delivery. Consequently, this has transformed the traditional delivery of public sector services, this is known as “e-governance”. These developments have implications and pose challenges for privacy and security.

The right to privacy in India has been a neglected area of study and engagement. Although sectoral legislation deals with privacy issues, India does not as yet have a horizontal legislation that deals comprehensively with privacy across all contexts. The absence of a minimum guarantee of privacy is felt most heavily by marginalized communities, including HIV patients, children, women, sexuality minorities, prisoners, etc. — people who most need to know that sensitive information is protected.

Since June 2010, Privacy India in collaboration with Privacy International, based in London, has been engaging in public awareness through workshops and consultations. These provide a platform for policy makers, sectoral experts, NGOs, and the public to discuss and deliberate different questions of privacy, its intersections and its implications with our everyday life. The discussions have ranged from topics of identity and privacy, to minority rights and privacy, and consumer privacy. The workshops have been organized in different cities — Bangalore, Guwahati, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Goa, etc.

Agenda

9.00 - 9.30	Registration
9.30 - 10.00	Welcome Prashant Iyengar is a practicing lawyer and lead researcher for Privacy India. He will present who Privacy India is, and the objectives of Privacy India's research. His presentation will focus on discussing privacy in India.
10.00 - 10.15	Tea Break
10.15 - 10.45	Session I People as the Most Vulnerable Link in e-Governance Dr. Nityesh Bhatt, Sr. Associate Professor and Chairperson in the information Management Area at Institute of Management, Nirma University, Ahmedabad
10.45 - 11.15	Ongoing e-Governance projects: Issue with security and privacy Professor Subhash Bhatnagar, Advisor - Center for Electronic Governance, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
11.15 - 11.25	Discussion
11.25 - 11.55	E-governance: What is it? Mr. Gopalkrishnan Devanathan (Kris Dev), Co-founder of the International Transparency and Accountability Network.
11.55 - 12.25	Security and privacy in e-governance with reference to the Gujarat Government Dr. Neeta Shah, Director (eGovernance), Gujarat Informatics, Ltd.
12.25 - 12.35	Discussion
12.35 - 1.20	Lunch Break
1.20 - 1.50	Session II Cyber Usages: Challenges and Dispute Resolution Utkarsh Jani, Advocate, Jani Advocates
1.50 - 2.20	Concern for privacy and security of the common man Dr. Mrinalini Shah, Professor of Operations Management at Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad
2.20 - 2.50	Security issues in e-Governance: A hacker's perspective Mr. Sunny Vaghela, Founder & CTO, TechDefence Private Limited
2.50 - 3.00	Discussion
3.00 - 3.30	Session III Securing the desktop through Virtualisation Anindya Kumar Banerjee, Regional Manager East, CG & MP at NComputing Inc
3.30 - 4.00	Opening up Data and privacy Ms. Nisha Thompson, Data Project Manager at Arghyam/India Water Portal
4.00 - 4.10	Discussion
4.10 - 4.25	Tea Break
4.25 - 5.00	Discussion and Questions

Confirmed Speakers

Dr. Nityesh Bhatt, Sr. Associate Professor and Chairperson in the Information Management Area at Institute of Management, Nirma University, Ahmedabad
Utkarsh Jani, Advocate, Jani Advocates
Gopalakrishnan Devanathan (Kris Dev), Co-Founder of the International Transparency and Accountability Network
Prof. Subhash Bhatnagar, Advisor- CEG- IIMA
Anindya Kumar Banerjee, Regional Manager- East, CG & MP @ NComputing India
Nisha Thompson, Consultant, India Water Portal
Dr. Mrinalini Shah, Professor, NMIMS University, Mumbai
Sunny Vaghela, Founder & CTO, TechDefence Private Limited
Prashant Iyengar, Assistant Professor, Jindal Global Law School & Assistant Director, Centre for Intellectual Property Rights Studies

Please confirm your participation with Natasha Vaz at natasha@cis-india.org. We sincerely hope you will be able to attend and look forward to your participation.

Download the following:

E-Governance, Identity and Privacy [PDF, 253 Kb]
Event Poster [PDF, 162 Kb]
Event Brochure [PDF, 1618 Kb]

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/securing-e-governance

Securing E-Governance, Ahmedabad

praskrishna — 2012-06-06T03:48:57Z

This is the event poster.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/securing-e-governance-event.pdf