Centre for Internet and Society

National Seminar on Cyber Security & Cyber Laws - Issues and Concerns

praskrishna — 2014-12-31T02:04:37Z

Sharath Chandra Ram was a panelist at this seminar organized by the Advanced Centre for Research, Development & Training in Cyber Laws & Forensics on December 27 and 28, 2014 at the National Law School of India University in Bangalore.

Sharath was part of a plenary session on "Multi-Disciplinary Challenges in Ensuring Cyber Security". He spoke about 'multi-stakeholderim in cyber security and CERT programs of nations'.

PROGRAMME SCHEDULE

Day 1 - 27^th December 2014
09:00- 10:00	REGISTRATION
10:00- 11:00 INAUGURAL SESSION AT SHRI. KRISHNAPPA MEMORIAL HALL [ACADEMIC BLOCK]	Welcome & Introduction: Dr. Nagarathna. A., Seminar Director Inaugural Address: Shri. Pratap Reddy, IPS, IGP, Internal Security Division, Karnataka Police, Bangalore Key Note Address: Dr. R. Venkata Rao, Vice Chancellor, NLSIU Vote of Thanks: Dr. T. V. Subba Rao, Senior Professor, NLSIU
11:00-11:45	GROUP PHOTO & TEA BREAK
11:45-01:00 PLENARY SESSION AT SHRI. KRISHNAPPA MEMORIAL HALL [ACADEMIC BLOCK]	THEME: "MULTI-DISCIPLINARY CHALLENGES IN ENSURING CYBER SECURITY" Members of the Panel: 1. Mr. Subrahmanya Boda, CISO, GMR 2. Mr. Sunil Varkey, CISO, WIPRO 3. Mr. Ramesh Kauta , CISO, GE [India] 4. Mr. T T Thomas, CTO Synergia Technologies, 5. Mr. Rahul Matthan, Partner, Trilegal. 6. Sharath Chandra Ram (Sharathchandra Ramakrishnan), Researcher at Centre for Internet & Society 7. Mr. Srinivas P, CISO, Infosys & Anchor, DSCI Bangalore Chapter [Moderator of the session]
01:00-02:00	LUNCH BREAK
venue	Shri Krishnappa Memorial Hall (Academic Block)		International Training Centre
02:00-03:30	Technical Session 1		Technical Session 2
03:30-04:00	TEA BREAK
04:00-05:30	Technical Session 3		Technical Session 4
6:00 to 7. 00	CULTURAL EVENING Venue: Quad, Academic Block
Day 2 - 28^th December 2014
08:00-09:00	BREAK FAST
venue	Shri Krishnappa Memorial Hall (Academic Block)	International Training Centre		MPP Class Room (Academic Block)
09:30- 11:00	Technical Session 5	Technical Session 6		Technical Session 7
11:00- 11:30	TEA BREAK
	Shri Krishnappa Memorial Hall (Academic Block)	International Training Centre		MPP Class Room (Academic Block)
11:30-1:30	Technical Session 8	Technical Session 9		Technical Session 10
01:30-02:30	LUNCH BREAK
02:30-03. 45 PLENARY SESSION AT SHRI. KRISHNAPPA MEMORIAL HALL [ACADEMIC BLOCK]	THEME: "SECURING CYBER SPACE THROUGH INSTITUTIONAL INVOLVEMENT" Members of the Panel: 1. Dr. Kamble, Director, Computer Emergency Response Team [CERT] India, Dept of Electronics & IT, Ministry of IT, Government of India 2. Dr. S.B.N. Prakash, Senior Professor of Law, NLSIU 3. Mr. Naa Vijay Shankar, Cyber Law Consultant, Bangalore 4. Mr. Balasubramanya, Vice President, Tata Consultancy Services, Bangalore 5. Mr. Ranganath, Delivery Project Executive, IBM, Bangalore 6. Mr. Venkatesh Murthy, Senior Manager, Cyber Forensics, Data Security Council of India [DSCI], Bangalore. 7. Mr. M. D. Sharath, Dy. S. P., Cyber Police, Bangalore 8. Dr. Nagarathna. A., Senior Assistant Prof of Law, NLSIU [Moderator]
3. 45 to 4. 00	TEA BREAK
04:00-05:00 AT SHRI. KRISHNAPPA MEMORIAL HALL [ACADEMIC BLOCK]	VALEDICTORY SESSION Seminar Resolutions: Dr. T. V. Subba Rao, Senior Professor, NLSIU Valedictory Address & Distribution of Certificates: : Dr. R. Venkata Rao, Vice Chancellor, NLSIU Vote of thanks: Dr. Nagarathna. A., Seminar Director

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/national-seminar-cyber-security-and-cyber-laws

First meeting of the high level committee on National Policy on Universal Electronic Accessibility

praskrishna — 2014-12-31T01:16:37Z

Sunil Abraham participated in the first meeting of the high level committee on National Policy on Universal Electronic Accessibility held on December 30, 2014 under the chairmanship of Mr.RS Sharma, Secretary, at the Department of Electronics and Information Technology, New Delhi.

More details on the meeting can be accessed here.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/news/first-meeting-of-high-level-committee-on-national-policy-on-universal-electronic-accessibility

Meeting of High Level Advisory Committee

praskrishna — 2014-12-31T01:03:52Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/meeting-high-level-advisory-committee.pdf

Targeting surveillance

praskrishna — 2014-12-30T14:10:58Z

In the fall of 2005, Scotland Yard raided a flat in west London and arrested a suspected al-Qaeda militant known by a teasing Arabic nickname, Irhabi (“Terrorist”) 007.

The article by Ajai Sreevatsan was published in the Hindu on December 28, 2014. Sunil Abraham gave his inputs.

The similarities between Irhabi 007, later identified as Younis Tsouli, and India’s Mehdi Masoor Biswas are uncanny.

Neither participated in any terror attack. Their reputation stems from an alleged involvement as cyber propagandists for proto-terror groups — Irhabi was distributing manuals and teaching online seminars on behalf of the emerging al-Qaeda faction in Iraq, while Mehdi is alleged to be an IS sympathiser. Both in their early 20s with cover identities during the day, and separated by a decade in technological evolution.

Such expertise within terror groups is hardly surprising, says Sunil Abraham of the Centre for Internet and Society. “Any organisation engaged in a war for hearts and minds and oil fields will exploit contemporary technology to its fullest potential,” he says.

Irhabi currently serves a 16-year jail term, while Mehdi awaits his trial. What their cases highlight is that the phenomenon of young, tech-savvy armchair radicals is nothing new.

Research done at Israel’s Haifa University, which tracks the proliferation of terrorist websites, shows that the number of such sites went up from fewer than 100 in the late-1990s to more than 4,800 in just a decade. There is also credible evidence that an al-Qaeda website posted a sketched-out proposal for the 2004 Madrid bombings three months before the attack. Another macabre example is the crowd-sourcing effort launched in 2005 by the Victorious Army Group to build its website. By the competition’s rules, the winner would get to fire a rocket at an American base.

As Indian agencies gear up to respond to similar online threats in this part of the world, Mr. Abraham says India should not repeat the mistakes made by the West over the previous decade. “We should not get caught up in big data surveillance,” he says.

“Surveillance is like salt. It could be counter-productive even if slightly in excess. Ideally, surveillance must be targeted. Indiscriminate surveillance just increases the size of the haystack, making it difficult to find the needles,” Mr. Abraham says.

“Even in the case of Mehdi, his identity was uncovered not by online spying but by Channel 4 which did some old-fashioned detective work,” he says.

In any case, recent events show that the threat of online terror propaganda might be overblown. Much like online activism, it is subject to the law of diminishing returns.

A set of letters sent by newly recruited volunteers of IS was leaked to the French newspaper Le Figaro earlier this month and it shows youngsters complaining about being made to do the dishes or the Iraqi winter. One of them wrote: “I’m fed up to the back teeth. My iPod no longer works out here. I have got to come home.” Of the estimated 1,100 young French who are believed to have joined the IS, more than 100 have already returned.

The IS may have Twitter on its side. But the harsh realities of Iraq and the gruesome ideology behind the slick doctrinal videos are a lot harder to sell.

Mr. Abraham says there is no such thing as a Twitter revolution or a social media terror group. “Such statements underestimate the role of ideology and human beings,” he says.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-hindu-december-28-2014-ajai-sreevatsan-targeting-surveillance

ICT for Development Presentation

praskrishna — 2014-12-28T03:24:21Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/ict-4-d.pptx

Tech for Citizen Engagement 2014

praskrishna — 2014-12-28T03:03:11Z

Sunil Abraham was a speaker in the session "Rules of Engagement: Emerging Trends in Citizen Outreach" at this event organized by Omidyar Network on December 11, 2014 in New Delhi.

Details of the agenda can be seen here.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/omidyar-network-december-11-2014-tech-for-citizen-engagement-2014

Swatantra 2014: Fifth International Free Software Conference, Kerala

praskrishna — 2014-12-28T02:44:19Z

ICFOSS, Govt. of Kerala organized the fifth international Free Software Conference at Hotel Hycinth by Sparsa, Trivandrum from December 18 - 20, 2014. The Centre for Internet and Society was one of the organizations supporting the event. Prof. Subbiah Arunachalam was a speaker and made a presentation on Open Science.

Click to download Prof. Arunachalam's presentation on Open Science here. For more details see the ICFOSS web page. T. Vishnu Vardhan chaired a session on Wikimedia and Access to Knowledge in India and Rahimanuddin Shaik co-presented on Making DLI Accessible. The programme schedule can be seen here.

Theme: Free Software for a Free World

About Swatantra 2014

After India's first-ever Free Software event, “Freedom First!” that was convened in Trivandrum in 2001, Kerala had organized international Free Software conferences in 2005, 2008, and 2011. These conferences were an occasion to highlight Kerala's achievements in the domain of Free Software, as well as to bring together the community to discuss priorities and action items.

ICFOSS is proud to present the fifth international Free Software conference of Kerala, Swatantra 2014, scheduled during 18-20 December 2014 at Thiruvananthapuram.

The theme of the conference is “Free Software for a Free World”. This reflects emerging concerns that citizens and communities face vis-a-vis privacy, online rights & freedoms, and security at the global level. Free Software provides a viable alternative to proprietary software which often compromises on these aspects. Further, Free Software also provides a technologically robust and cost effective alternative to other genres of software for all public uses, notably in Academia, Government, and personal computing, and even in the Arts & Culture domains.

International dignitaries participating at the Conference include Dr. Richard Stallman and Ms. Nina Paley. Several luminaries from the FOSS world within the country are also expected to take part.

About 150-200 Free Software enthusiasts, including practitioners, developers, researchers, academics, students, as well as representatives from civil society institutions, industry and the Government are expected to participate in the three-day conference.

Supported by

FSF-India
Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore
SFLC.IN, Delhi
Swathanthra Malayalam Computing
FOSSEE, IIT-B
SPACE
DCBB, Kerala University
Spoken Tutorials, IIT-B
IEEE Kerala Section

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/swatantra-2014-icfoss-december-18-20-2014-fifth-international-free-software-conference-in-kerala

Open Science Presentation at ICFOSS

praskrishna — 2014-12-28T01:41:37Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/open-science.ppt

Why did India fail to discover the ISIS Twitter handle?

praskrishna — 2014-12-27T03:27:16Z

India's surveillance system fails to track the servers of internet giants like Google or Facebook because these do not have servers in the country, says a leading cyber law expert.

The article by Anita Babu was published in the Business Standard on December 26, 2014. Sunil Abraham gave his inputs.

Back in 2009, after the investigation team, probing into the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, almost cracked the case, it was the US’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) which connected the missing links by arresting David Headley, the mastermind.

Five years later, India is staring at a similar situation, when Bengaluru-based Mehdi Masroor Biswas, was allegedly found to be operating a pro-ISIS (Islamic State) Twitter handle. It was a British broadcaster, Channel 4, which blew the lid off Biswas’s activity. Soon after the report, Indian authorities swung into action. Last year, when communal violence broke out in some parts of Uttar Pradesh, a Pakistani news organisation reported that a fake video was being circulated to fan sentiments.

But, why have Indian agencies failed to detect such activities which pose a threat to the national security? A senior government official said intelligence agencies in the country scan the internet for leads. But, in the light of increased threats, systems need to be beefed up significantly. Perhaps, as a first step towards this, the home ministry on Wednesday formed a committee to prepare a road map for tackling cyber crimes in the country.

It will give suitable recommendations on all facets of cyber crime, apart from suggesting possible partnerships with public and private sector, non-governmental organisations and international bodies.

According to Sunil Abraham, executive director of a Bengaluru-based research organisation, the Centre for Internet and Society, it’s time we move closer towards intelligent and targeted surveillance, rather than mass surveillance. This will require monitoring a selected accounts or profiles, instead of tapping information from across the population. Old-fashioned detective work is also very important, as it has helped zero in on Biswas.

Another problem the country faces is that a lot of data is being pooled in by multiple agencies, but of little use. “We must free up our law enforcement agencies and intelligence services from the curse of having too much data,” Abraham adds. Since most of the internet companies are headquartered outside India, the authorities face a lot of difficulties in accessing information from these networks.

“India’s surveillance system fails to track the servers of internet giants like Google or Facebook because these do not have servers in the country. Our system is only confined within the country,” says Pavan Duggal, a leading cyber law expert.

Since the US has the capability to access information from telecom companies, service providers such as Twitter and Facebook and the consortia that run submarine cables, these companies cooperate in a much more effective and immediate manner, adds Abraham. “But these are things that we will never be able to do in India,” he adds.

For instance, India follows the mutual legal assistance treaty procedure, to gather and exchange information in an effort to enforce public laws or criminal laws. However, this is a time-consuming process and often takes up to two years before we get any data from these companies.

But due to the threat of cyber-terrorism being shared by both companies and governments, companies such as Google, Twitter and Facebook are cooperating more than before, experts say.

Internet and Jurisdiction Project, an international group that works towards ensuring digital coexistence, tries to get a procedural law between two countries in a harmonised manner and includes collection, storage, handling and processing of evidence.

More lubricating efforts should be undertaken internationally on these lines, say experts. Hopefully, the new committee will take steps in this direction.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/business-standard-december-26-2014-anita-babu-why-india-failed-to-discover-the-isis-twitter-handle

Access to Rare Books Made Easy

praskrishna — 2014-12-27T01:56:57Z

Rare Odia books that are out of print and not easily accessible on the internet, will now be available at the click of the mouse. In a bid to make them available online, the Odia Wikipedia community last week launched WikiSource, an Odia e-library and a sister project of Odia Wikipedia that has been trying to popularise use of Odia language on the Internet since 2002.

The article by Diana Sahu was published in the New Indian Express on December 5, 2014

The online library has 69 books by authors Jagannath Mohanty, Upendra Bhanja, Fakir Mohan Senapati, Gopabandhu Das, Baladeva Rath and Ram Das. Besides, the complete volume of Bhagwad Gita in Odia language is available on WikiSource.

The project has been implemented by Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society’s Access to knowledge programme. Odia Wikipedian Subhashish Panigrahi, also a programme officer of the Centre for Internet and Society, said work on digitisation of the books was started in April this year by a team of 12 Wikipedians, comprising mostly students and working professionals.

Apart from them, 50 tribal students and nine faculty members of Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) helped them with the digitisation job. As most of the books were typed in Akruti font - a proprietary Indian Script Code for Information Interchange (ISCII) compliant font - the font was converted to Unicode text type to make the books searchable and accessible universally in all mobile and web platforms.

In the first phase, 11 books focusing on children’s literature, travelogue and biographies of noted people from Odisha by eminent Odia author Jagannath Mohanty were digitised. Subsequently, works of other authors were added to the e-library and made available on the internet with open access through free licence.

Subhashish said the WikiSource project was started in 2013 as an incubator project. It went through a tough process of being accessed by the Wikimedia Language Committee and Wikimedia Foundation’s board before being released last week. “There are several precious books that are out of print and not easily accessible on the internet. So we thought of digitising them and taking them to the masses. Apart from the 69 books, 81 of seven Odia authors that were already scanned and digitised by Bhubaneswar-based voluntary organisation, Srujanika, have been re-licensed and added to the library,” he said. Srujanika has digitised 740 old Odia magazines and books so far.

Generally a technique called Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is used for digitising scanned books, which currently is in testing phase in Odia. “Faculty member of ITER in Bhubaneswar Ajit Nayak along with his students have rectified the bugs and made character recognition more accurate.

But because of problems with OCR, the books had to be re-typed by the students of KISS on Odia Wikisource, Subashish added. Old books apart, books by contemporary authors like Debiprasanna Pattanayak, Ramakrushna Nanda, Subrat Prusty, Bharat Majhi and Nirmala Kumari Mohapata, and many other authors have been taken up for digitisation by Odia WikiSource team. Odia WikiSource is now live at or.wikisource.org.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/new-indian-express-december-5-2014-diana-sahu-access-to-rare-books-made-easy

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

Thank You To Our 2014 Sponsors

praskrishna — 2014-12-27T14:27:26Z

Today’s the last day of work in 2014 for the editorial team at MediaNama, though we’ll run a Holiday Wire update intermittently this week, we’ll have a brief year end review for each major segment. Thank you for reading us in 2014, and have a great Christmas and New Year.

The blog entry was published in Medianama on December 22, 2014.

From the business side, it’s been a great 2015 for us, and we really appreciate the support we received in 2014 from all our sponsors, especially Spice Digital, our annual sponsor, and Antfarm, which supported us for almost the entire year. We’re still working, for an idea of our 2015 plans and editorial calendar, please see the presentation here.

Annual Sponsor:

- Spice Digital Ltd: a part of Spice Global Group – US$2 Billion conglomerate promoted by Dr. BK Modi, is one of India’s leading Mobile Value Added Services company and offers innovative solutions for Telecom Operators, Enterprises and Government using mobile connectivity media – Voice, SMS, USSD, WAP & 3G. We are preferred partner of all major telecom service providers in India and providing services to international telecom players in over 20 countries across the globe. We are pioneers in innovation and technology and committed to deliver excellent Award winning products and services to the customers.

We have exclusive tie-ups with Hungama and PPL for music streaming services.
We have acquired two leading international VAS players, MMS (Indonesia) and Beoworld (Malaysia).
Recently, we had a major financial investment from MediaTek (Taiwan).

Our sponsors during 2014:

- Antfarm is an innovation sandbox based out of Mumbai. It is led by a team of blue sky thinkers, entrepreneurs and professionals. The company takes great ideas with disruptive potential, puts together all the key ingredients of people, technology, strategy, marketing and capital to build these into scalable companies. The ultimate aim is to create global businesses that are ideated and built out of India. The first set of companies launched are Stylista.com, Arrive.com, Fork Media, and the farm is currently scaling up ideas in education, travel & leisure, retail, ad-tech and healthcare.

- Astro-Vision is a name easily recognized and held in great esteem in the world of astrology services. Its products range from software that run on the latest operating systems to web based solutions for major portals and the latest range of mobile phones. Astro-Vision’s focus has always been on providing innovative astrology solutions using the latest technologies in the field of IT and communications. From Desktop PCs to internet portals and mobiles phones, Astro- Vision’s range of solutions includes stand alone applications, online apps and astro content services. The company has strategic tie-ups with major IT enabled service networks like Suvidhaa, Reliance world, One stop shop and many networks under the Government of India’s CSC scheme, including Spanco and GNG. Many popular Indian websites today are powered by Astro-Vision’s web based astrology solutions and astrology content.

– Bruce Clay

- Buongiorno, founded in 1999, is known in the worldwide mobile commerce ecosystem for developing and managing paid apps and content that help consumers get greater enjoyment from mobile devices. On July 2012, after the settlement of a successful public tender offer, Buongiorno became a wholly-owned subsidiary of NTT DOCOMO – a global leader in mobile telecommunications technologies and services.

With direct connections to more than 130 telecom operators in 25 countries, over 10 years’ experience and a team of 600 professionals, Buongiorno makes the mobile internet experience happen for consumers globally.

- CCAvenue is India’s largest payment gateway solution powering 85% of the eMerchants in India across all verticals & has played the role of a catalyst to the growth of ecommerce with real time, multi-currency, multiple payment options online payment processing services. The solution is powered by proprietary technology that integrates transaction-processing, advance shopping cart, Invoicing, mobile page, risk assessment and fraud control, smart analytical dashboards, live monitoring of bank gateways, financial reporting etc. CCAvenue is the only complete PG solution in the country that has the unique ability to offer the full spectrum of 100+ Internet payment options.

5 Credit Cards
50 Debit Cards
6 ATM cum Debit Cards
50+ Netbankings
Mobile Payments
4 Cash Cards
CCAvenue PhonePay IVRS Based Payment Systems.

– The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) is a non-profit research organization that works on policy issues relating to freedom of expression, privacy, accessibility for persons with disabilities, access to knowledge and IPR reform, and openness (including open government data, free/open source software, open standards, open access to scholarly literature, open educational resources, and open video), and engages in academic research on digital natives and digital humanities.

CIS critically engages with concerns of digital pluralism, public accountability and pedagogic practices, in the field of Internet and Society, with particular emphasis on South-South dialogues and exchange.

Hosting and Support

- E2E Networks: India’s most clued in dedicated hosting company founded by geeks. E2E Networks Private Limited has been into the business of providing Low latency Dedicated Servers and VPS Servers in India since 2009. E2E Networks goes way beyond merely provisioning servers/cloud infrastructure. Our expertise includes strategies and managed services help for implementing the most suitable cloud architecture based on public, private or hybrid cloud platforms for your web facing or enterprise applications.

- Fortumo allows any developer to set up payment processing for web and mobile services, games or apps using carrier billing. Payments work for PC applications, web services and HTML5, Android, Windows Phone & Windows 8 apps. Fortumo supports payments in 81 countries through 300 mobile operators. Get started with our self-service setup (no monthly fees or minimum volume commitments) at http://fortumo.com.

– Getit Infomedia is India’s digital supermarket for SMEs to get relevant business leads. We seamlessly deliver excellent value across all media platforms be it Voice, Mobile Applications, Online, WAP, Web chat, Print etc. The services provide presence, enquiries and leads to its advertisers while ensuring end users (consumers) have access to the best information, benefits and offers.

Event Sponsor

- Google is a global technology leader focused on improving the ways people connect with information. Google’s innovations in web search and advertising have made its website a top internet property and its brand one of the most recognized in the world.

- India.com is a joint venture between two media giants – Zee Entertainment Enterprise Ltd (ZEEL) and www.PMC.com is all about the new India that is funny, witty, shocking. It shows the new age Indian in their language. India.com provides a perspective that is reflective of the changing dynamic of the role media plays in India. Find out what the new India is saying only at india.com. Discover India and Indians at india.com for no one covers the new India as india.com! Get the latest updates follow @indiacom on Twitter.

– Info Edge (India) Limited is among the leading internet companies in India. Info Edge runs leading internet businesses – Naukri.com -India’s no. 1 job site, Jeevansathi.com – one of the leading matrimonial portal,99acres.com – India’s No.1 real estate portal and Shiksha.com – India’s leading education portal. The company also owns Quadrangle – an offline executive search business, and Naukri Gulf (a leading jobsite in the Middle East market). Info Edge also owns Brijj.com, a professional networking site and Allcheckdeals.com, an online real estate brokerage firm which is run as a subsidiary company.

- OnMobile Global Ltd. is a pioneer in white-labelled, Value Added Products and Services [VAS] for mobile, landline and media service providers. The #1 VAS specialist in emerging and high-growth markets, OnMobile touches the lives of over 1500 million mobile users across 55 countries each month. With our diverse product portfolio of Mobile Music, multi-screen Video Gateway and delivery solutions, Phone Backup and Personal Cloud Management solutions, Voice and Video portals, M-Commerce products and services, we generate 2 – 5% contribution for top customers and top line revenues of over US $800 million for over 92 customers globally. We deliver our products by the best combination of a hosted Cloud with on-site operations at the customer premises or through products deployed in customer networks.

Founded in 2000, OnMobile has business spread across India, U.S., LATAM, Africa, Australia, Middle East and Europe. The company was publicly listed in India in 2008. Recent acquisitions include Voxmobili (2007), Telisma (2008), Dilithium Networks (2010) and LiveWire (2013).

OnMobile is the first Indian telecom VAS Company to go public. The company’s shares are listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) as on March 31, 2010

– Qualcomm Ventures is the investment arm of Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM), a Fortune 500 company with operations across the globe.As the Venture Capital investment arm of Qualcomm, the world leader in next-generation mobile technologies, Qualcomm Ventures has been making strategic investments in early-stage technology companies since 2000. With a $500 million fund commitment, Qualcomm Ventures seeks to make strategic investments in early stage high-technology companies that have the potential to dramatically transform our world.

QPRIZE (www.qprize.com)

QPrize™ is Qualcomm Venture’s Seed investment competition. It’s designed to provide entrepreneurs their first level of funding so they can launch their idea into a successful start-up business. The QPRIZE competition was first launched in 2009 to promote innovation in the technology industry and is designed to identify the industry’s most promising early-stage technology companies. We are looking for bright, energetic and resourceful entrepreneurs who have a passion for bringing new technologies and services to market. Our goal is to have QPrize act as a catalyst for our winners, providing the initial capital to launch their great ideas and support the company to its first institutional funding round.

– Times Internet (TIL) is a premier digital product company and the digital arm of The Times of India Group. It reaches over 100m visitors and serves 2 billion pageviews every month across web and mobile, with businesses across news, entertainment, sports, local, ecommerce, classifieds, startup investments, local partnerships, and more.TIL’s key properties in the news category includetimesofindia.com, economictimes.com and navbharattimes.com. Under its fold are topmost internet entertainment portals in India — Gaana.com – the music broadcasting service and BoxTV.com – the video streaming site. Indiatimes Shopping emerges as one of the top five e-commerce companies in India & TimesCity, a lifestyle destination covering recommendations across Restaurants, Movies, Events, Nightlife in your city. Times Internet has also entered into partnerships with global companies offering them its tremendous reach through online media platforms under its initiative called Times Global Partners(TGP). The TGP portfolio ranges from licensing partnerships to investments and acquisition. In the last year, TGP has made four acquisitions, twelve global partnerships, four minority investments and over 20 investments into start-ups through TLabs in the Indian ecosystem.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/medianama-december-22-2014-thank-you-to-our-2014-sponsors

Study of Privacy Policies of Indian Service Providers

praskrishna — 2014-12-21T15:09:49Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/study-of-privacy-policies-indian-service-providers.pdf

WIPO Delegates Hear Concerns of NGOs on Exceptions for Libraries

praskrishna — 2014-12-27T14:40:05Z

As World Intellectual Property Organization member states launched into discussions on exceptions and limitations to copyright for the benefit of libraries and archives this week, non-governmental organisations were given the opportunity to present their views on the issue. They delivered vibrant, sometimes contradictory, statements on the opportunity for a treaty to preserve exceptions in the international copyright system.

The 26th session of the WIPO Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) is taking place from 16-20 December. After two days devoted to the protection of broadcasting organisations, the focus of the next two days has been on a potential international instrument providing exceptions and limitations for libraries and archives.

In their general statements, countries remained faithful to their known positions. Developing countries generally underlined the necessity of achieving a balanced international copyright system and their wish to establish a legally binding instrument, and developed countries were of the view that the existing international copyright system already provides exceptions which could be used by libraries and archives.

The African Group said the countries in the group: find it difficult to set up and understand the existing limitations and exceptions; believe an international legally binding instrument would enable them to understand better how they can provide exceptions and limitations for libraries and archives; and consider that it would provide a mechanism for cross-border exchange for such entities.

The European Union clearly stated that its member countries were not willing to consider a legally binding instrument, and said that exceptions and limitations for libraries and archives did not require the same kind of action that was taken in favour of visually impaired people, referring to the recently adopted Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled.

Developed countries, in particular those in the European Union, did not always stand in favour of a treaty providing exceptions and limitations to copyright for visually impaired people. In the discussion on libraries and archives, developed countries are in favour of sharing national experiences rather than establishing binding new norms.

The United States said it was not in support of norm-setting through treaty provisions. The delegate also said exceptions and limitations should be consistent with other member state obligations, including the so-called three step test.

The notion of three-step test haunted the discussions leading to the Marrakesh Treaty. It stems originally from Article 9(2) of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (IPW, WIPO, 14 June 2013) and provides conditions for reproduction.

A large number of non-governmental organisations took the floor on 18 December, with stark differences in the approach of the issue of exceptions and limitations to copyright for libraries and archives.

Industry, Creators: International Instrument Superfluous

The industry, such as the International Federation of Film Producers, the Motion Picture Association (MPA), The International Association of Editors (IPA), the International Video Federation (IVF), the Ibero-Latin-American Federation of Performers (FILAIE), and the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers (STM), said that the existing international copyright framework already provides exceptions and limitations, and national legislations can be develop to address issues met by libraries and archives.

FILAIE said that it was in support of the Marrakesh Treaty but that a balance between society and the rights holders should be maintained. The IPA said there is no need for change in the international law, and suggested active legislative assistance to WIPO member states by the secretariat.

IVF concurred and said effective technical assistance in implementing the existing international copyright framework should be a focus of the SCCR.

The International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organisation (IFRRO), in its statement, also said the current international conventions adequately provide for the establishment of relevant library exceptions in national legislation, such as reproduction for preservation proposals. The sharing of experiences ” both in the wording of library and archive exceptions and practical solutions seems to IFRRO to be the most appropriate way to enhance the performance of library and archive services,” the representative said.

“Exceptions and limitations are already part of the toolkit of existing treaties,” the representative for the International Federation of Actors and the International Federations of Musicians said. The international normative framework is providing “a coherent and flexible structure with just recognition of the contribution of creators to the information society and knowledge society, and the establishment of exceptions and other mechanisms providing access for the public to creative content,” he said.

The International Authors Forum concurred with the idea that existing provisions contain sufficient flexibility and asked that WIPO member states “will take advantage of the opportunity provided by the WIPO texts for adequate remuneration for the authors in accordance with the three-step test.”

Libraries, Archive Underline Inadequacies, Support Treaty

Libraries and archivists have a different view of the issue and reported on problems as they experience them on the ground.

The German Library Association cited a new study published by the European Commission (Study on the application of Directive 2001/29/EC on copyright and related rights in the information society [pdf]), and said it “paints a dire picture of the adequacy of the Directive for exceptions for libraries in the European Union in the digital environment.”

In particular, the representative said, it “identifies a lack of cross-border application of exceptions for libraries and a patchwork of national laws as preventing libraries from fulfilling their functions,” in particular presenting cross-border issues, he said.

“There is a high level of international copyright protection,” he said, but “there is no such uniformity of limitations.” To act legally, he said, “library staff has to know about the limitations and exception, not only in their own country, the country of origin, but also in the country of destination of its service.”

The Canadian Library Association said it came to WIPO “to ensure a basic copyright framework is made available to libraries everywhere, and not just in Canada to deliver essential information services, and so that other communities can benefit from the same societal and economic impacts as we have in Canada.”

Even in Canada, the representative said, libraries’ activities are under threat, “as increased restrictions such as technology group protection measures and licensing terms and conditions degrade the environment in which we work, leaving libraries changing our role to simple market access intermediaries for publishers.”

For Electronic Information for Libraries, an international framework establishing basic standards is necessary to avoid increasing inequalities in public knowledge. “We recognise the theory that the international copyright framework provides legal space to ensure meaningful limitations and exceptions,” the representative said, “But when the reality is different, and the gap between countries is widening, intervention is required to ensure the integration of key public interest concepts into the international framework.”

The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions also underlined the disparity in national exceptions and limitations making it impossible for libraries to “competently fulfil our role as intermediaries between rights holders and users.”

When technology is able but the mindset is not

praskrishna — 2014-12-19T01:33:22Z

There are enough digital products and services to help people with disabilities. But widespread ignorance stands between them and digital inclusion reports Geetanjali Minhas.

The story appeared in 1-15 December 2014 issue of Governance Now

Twenty-four-year-old Bhavesh Patel moves around giving a demonstration of the screen reader Dolphin Supernova in such a sure-footed manner that no one can imagine he is totally blind. The device has a voiceover function that can be used on iPhone.

Not just that, Patel travels every day from his home in Vikhroli to his office in Goregaon, changing buses and trains with minimal assistance.

Patel’s colleague, Debashish, who is autistic, and no less capable, is known for his immaculate spellings within the company.

Team leader Priti Rohra, despite low vision, skillfully heads the testing team for websites and meticulously ensures that guidelines for the disabled are adhered to. Rohra works on policies and research and has prepared many reports for BarrierBreak, a company where 75 percent of the staff has disabilities like autism, inhibited vision and impaired hearing.

Its unique competitive advantage has allowed the company to help develop niche products and services for converting textbooks into more disabled-friendly formats like digital talking books (Epub Conversion). Till now, it has produced 1.5 million pages of disabled-friendly textbooks.

“When the government provides technology to its own employees it is enhancing their productivity,” says Shilpi Kapoor, founder-director of BarrierBreak and a member of the Nasscom Disability Advisory Group. “The fundamental difference here is that internationally, disability inclusion is a mandate, whereas in India it is considered charity and therefore a challenge. As a result many disabled are denied jobs as per their calibre and given salaries as doles.”

The priority given to policies for development of disabled-friendly information technology tools and services has been relatively low in India. Usually, it stems from an inaccurate understanding that the development of such tools and services will cost more money, and there will be no opportunity to recover it from the market.

A critical component of digital inclusion is to make websites and applications disabled-friendly. Most websites are not compliant with international guidelines on disabled-friendly requirements. Developers, officials and policy makers give disability accessibility a cold shoulder, retrofitting it into existing policies and processes as an after-thought.

An attitudinal shift might come if the new national policy on universal electronic accessibility (NPUEA) notified by DeitY is implemented, resulting in nearly 7,000 government websites becoming accessible to the disabled, especially visually impaired.

Various reports, including a 2012 survey by the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), found that almost 25 percent of 7,800 government websites failed to open and the remaining had accessibility barriers. The web accessibility survey report of Indian government websites by the national centre for promotion of employment for disabled people (NCPEDP) in 2012 too revealed that of the 200 government websites tested, only two were found to be disabled-friendly.

“Disability is a major social issue that India is grappling with. It needs to be addressed through not just policy, but also through assistive technology solutions,” says Prakash Kumar, CEO, Goods and Services Tax Network.

CIS executive director Sunil Abraham, who was on the committee that formulated the NPUEA, says besides non-confirmation of websites to international norms, there are many technical hurdles. Text-to-speech and speech-to-text software, mature optical character recognition systems, speech and grammar check and machine translation are some of the features that are still not available for most Indian languages, he adds. “Many government websites use font encoding for Indian languages which results in the failure of text-to-speech technologies.”

DeitY, under the ministry of communication and information technology, is supporting some technology interventions for the disabled, across different Indian languages. This also includes text-to-speech tools. “Mobile phone manufacturers should also provide in-built tools to cater to the needs of disabled people,” points out Ajay Kumar, joint secretary, DeitY.

Emphasising a strong legal framework for implementation of the policy, Kumar adds that though the new policy promotes disability inclusion, the information technology ministry does not have the legal backing to enforce it. “The ministry of social justice and empowerment is creating a legal framework for the bill that is under consideration by the concerned committee to mandate some of these things, including technology assistance for the disabled,” he adds.

Abraham says besides ensuring that websites and services are accessible to the disabled, the new policy must be updated to include a mandate that all parties providing essential services to the general public must comply with accessibility standards. “Manufacturers of ICT products should provide at least one accessible model of their products within each price range that they are operating within,” he says.

Sam Taraporevala, associate professor and head of sociology department, St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai and the director of Xavier’s resource centre for the visually challenged, says with the government accepting a policy that IT tools should follow accessibility standards, it is now a question of monitoring, and, perhaps, even judicial activism.

Nirmita Narasimhan, policy director, CIS, who works closely with various government departments to bring accessibility into their policies and programmes, concurs. “There must be accountability and a monitoring mechanism to check whether websites are disability compliant,” she says.

Maharashtra is the only state to make it compulsory for every department to have a scheme for procuring disability access products. Yet, compliance remains a problem. “Despite the government holding awareness camps at various districts, barriers are created for accessing government schemes. Resistance on part of government agencies to give out equipment to disabled people and lack of awareness among people about the availability of such facilities are the other stumbling blocks. Yet, there are ways for getting these products,” says Kapoor.

Experts say the needs and requirements of the disabled vary according to their disability and affordability of tools. Also, low income levels of many disabled people is a dissuading factor toprocuring equipment. “Most available tools and technologies are proprietary and, hence, costly and we are not able to scale them up in a big way,” says Kumar.

Taraporevala, born with 100% visual impairment, was instrumental in getting the guidelines for opening and operating demat accounts for visually impaired persons implemented. He also says mainstream consumer product companies are moving into touchscreen modes in mobile phones forgetting a large chunk of disabled population. “While the standards are there, implementation suffers due to lack of awareness which, in turn, leads to less demand,” he says.

The way forward

Governance Now also asked experts if corporate social responsibility (CSR) towards disability inclusion could address challenges in recruitment of disabled persons. “Instead of a hammer approach, a care approach has to be adopted,” says Rita Soni, CEO, Nasscom Foundation. According to Kumar, “Absence of commercial interest in promoting disability accessibility products has afflicted the sector with neglect.” However, Kapoor says, “This has to be an equal opportunity business. There will be differential costs, but at the same time the total number of disabled people in India is close to 70 million and a billion world over. How can you not treat them like a client?”

Speaking of the revised CSR rules under the Companies Act, Soni adds, “You can support skilling of persons with disabilities that has nothing to do with your business and have it considered as CSR expenditure. But if you make your office building or internet accessible, it does not count. Creating incentives around disability will make us a more inclusive society and make disability more amenable to office environment.”

Maharashtra IT secretary Rajesh Aggarwal adds, except for the metro, none of our public transport systems are disabled-friendly. As per national building code of India, while giving permissions for public buildings there must be a checklist to ensure that buildings and toilets are wheelchair and blind-friendly. Similarly, hotels must have few rooms which are disabled-friendly.” This awareness has not yet set in,” he says.

The Asia-Pacific region study of UNESCO global report 2013 has said many countries in the developing world are struggling to attain their millennium development goals of providing universal primary education to all by 2015. Our education system, on the other hand, has serious flaws. “We do not teach professionals about assistive technologies and for that reason an eye doctor does not know about low vision aids or a speech therapist does not know how to use communication devices,” says Kapoor.

Taraporevala is of the view that universal (architectural) design needs to be actively woven into every design curriculum across the spectrum, instead of being an optional subject. Physical infrastructure, building standards, for instance, need to reflect this and there needs to be active lobbying to ensure that certificates for public places are not given if they lack certain standards.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/news/e-gov-reach-december-15-2014-geetanjali-minhas-when-technology-is-able-but-mindset-is-not