Centre for Internet and Society

Optics

praskrishna — 2012-10-03T09:01:58Z

optical fibre

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Optical Fibre 2

praskrishna — 2012-10-02T02:25:53Z

Optical Fibre

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Optical Fibre 1

praskrishna — 2012-10-02T02:24:10Z

Optical Fibre

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optical fibre

praskrishna — 2012-10-16T03:58:07Z

optical fibre

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Optical Fibre

praskrishna — 2012-03-30T05:13:25Z

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optical

praskrishna — 2012-10-16T04:20:11Z

optical

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optical

praskrishna — 2012-10-16T04:05:47Z

optical

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Opposition questions govt move to make Aadhaar must

praskrishna — 2017-04-12T14:19:20Z

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh claimed that the Aadhaar system was becoming an instrument of social exclusion rather than one of identity.

The article by Komal Gupta was published in Livemint on April 11, 2017. Pranesh Prakash was quoted.

The Rajya Sabha on Monday witnessed a lively debate on Aadhaar, with the opposition questioning the government’s move to make the 12-digit unique identification number mandatory for a host of welfare benefits.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh claimed that the Aadhaar system was becoming an instrument of social exclusion rather than one of identity.

“My major concern is implementation, how Aadhaar is being used to exclude people to avail benefits of the schemes which have been designed for them…If you need to apply to avail benefits, it’s as good as mandatory,” said Ramesh.

The former cabinet minister argued that over 25% of the population will stand excluded.

“The Rs50,000 crore savings due to Aadhaar linkage as given by the government is highly questionable,” he said, adding that according to Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) reports, 92% of the savings on domestic gas subsidies is not on account of Aadhaar implementation or direct benefit transfer. “Instead, it is because of the fall in international oil prices,” Ramesh argued.

Trinamool Congress member Derek O’Brien said that for manual labourers, biometric identification does not always match and that can deprive them of welfare.

He gave the example of Andhra Pradesh, where almost half the 85,000 ration card holders in 2014 were unable to get subsidized foodgrains due to faulty point of sale machines and biometrics not matching.

K.T.S Tulsi, member of Parliament and senior Supreme Court advocate, said, “Not in my whole career have I come across a greater mutilation of a statutory provision than what has taken place in the case of Aadhaar.” He said Section 29 of the Aadhaar Act doesn’t permit data stored with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to be shared with anyone but a provision was later made for voluntary agreement to allow the sharing of data.

IT and law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “No religion, income, medical history, ethnicity or education is asked in Aadhaar. Even email ID and phone number is optional.”

“The right of privacy of individuals must be respected. The privacy of the data cannot be breached by us except in the case of national security,” Prasad added.

He claimed that the government has been blacklisting operators that share data from the Aadhaar system. It has blacklisted 34,000 operators, and has taken action against 1,000 of them.

Prasad also said that UIDAI will be accountable to the Parliament.

Expressing concern on mandating the use of Aadhaar for different services, Pranesh Prakash, Policy director of the Centre for Internet and Society, said, “As an enabler, people would want to have Aadhaar. But when it is made mandatory, it becomes more of a disenabler instead of an enabler.”

“With the move towards a digital economy, setting up of a data protection authority as recommended by the Shah committee is important along with mass surveillance and greater accountability from the government,” he added.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/livemint-april-12-2017-komal-gupta-opposition-questions-govt-move-to-make-aadhaar-must

Opportunities for TV White Spaces in India Workshop

praskrishna — 2013-09-18T04:51:11Z

Shyam Ponappa, a fellow at the Centre for Internet and Society is participating in a workshop on TV White Space. The workshop is being organized by the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay and sponsored by the Ford Foundation at the Royal Hotel Plaza in New Delhi on June 21, 2013.

See the original published by the Indian Institute of Technology website here

About the Workshop

This workshop will discuss the regulatory aspects of TV white space with a focus on Indian requirements. We believe that making the most efficient use of the TV white space spectrum will offer tremendous benefits to the low-income broadband users in India. It will also provide opportunities to the academia and indigenous industries for research and development, thereby creating intellectual property related to methods feasible for TV white space spectrum usage and access in India.

The workshop is intended for researchers, policy makers, and industry professionals working in the area of TV white spaces. The discussions will provide exposure to the TV white space applications and regulations across the world. The regulatory framework for TV white space present elsewhere in the world will be in focus, and we will provide suggestions for the same in India. This workshop may sow the seeds of developing a regulatory framework for TV white space operation in India.

The program consists of an overview of the TV white space regulations and standards from different countries around the world, and a discussion on the TV white space regulations necessary for the Indian context.

Time	Details
09:30 10:00	Inauguration and Introduction
10:00 10:30	WhiteSpace Applications, Regulations and Technologies, Dr. Apurva Mody, White Space Alliance
10:30 11:00	Tea Break
11:00 11:30	Geo-location Database – U.S. TV White Spaces and Beyond John Malyar, iConnective
11:30 12:00	TV White Space Detection and Spectrum Characterization in India, Prof. Vinay Ribeiro (IIT Delhi) and Prof. Animesh Kumar (IIT Bombay). Based on collective work done at IIT Delhi and IIT Bombay
12:00 12:30	White Space Opportunities in South India Prof. Zafar Ali Khan, IIT Hyderabad
12:30 14:00	Lunch
14:00 14:30	Enabling the Global Spectrum Village, Jeffery Yan, Microsoft
14:30 15:00	TI solutions for TV white space Jose Frangline, Texas Instruments
15:00 16:00	Panel Discussion
16:00 16:30	Tea Break
16:30 17:00	Regulations of Ofcom, Dr. Reza Karimi, Technical Policy Director, Ofcom
17:00 17:30	Regualtions of FCC, Dr. Julius Knapp, Chief, Office of Engineering and Technology, FCC

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/iitb-june-21-2013-opportunities-for-tv-white-spaces-in-india-workshop

OpenStreetMap

praskrishna — 2012-02-14T09:26:18Z

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Openness

praskrishna — 2015-09-18T01:43:09Z

Openness

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Openness

praskrishna — 2014-05-22T06:41:28Z

Openness Poster

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OpenData Week in Madrid - OD4D Summit, Open Data Charter Meetings, and IODC16

praskrishna — 2016-10-16T03:11:54Z

Sumandro Chattopadhyay took part in three open data events in Madrid in the first week of October 2016.

OD4D Summit

Sumandro Chattopadhyay has been a member of the Open Data Research Network (funded by IDRC), which is now part of the Open Data for Development (OD4D) Network. The Network completed 2 years and held its first summit on October 3, 2016. The event was organized by IDRC. Participants discussed the way forward for the Network. Among other things the need for regional cooperation in open data policies and practices in the South, South East, and East Asia was noted.

Open Data Charter Meeting

Sumandro represented CIS in the Open Data Charter Lead Stewards' meeting held on October 5, 2016. The meeting was focused on finalising the business plan of the Charter for 2017-2020, including setting up a secretariat for coordinating and leading the work. The document was thoroughly discussed and will be revised further by the Lead Stewards during the next month, before sharing the draft version with the General Stewards in mid-November.

A meeting was held with the General Stewards and other participants on the evening of the same day. For more info, click here.

IODC 16

The 4th International Open Data Conference (IODC 16) organized by red.es, IDRC, the World Bank and Open Data in Madrid on October 6 and 7, 2016 brought out a lot of real concerns, sometimes even slightly bitter and worried, about the actual state of open data across the world and the relevance/implications of open data for various stakeholders. More info on IODC here.

Sumandro spoke at the Regional Talk session focusing on Asia. He spoke on Opening Data for innovation: from supply-driven to demand-driven Open Data strategies and moderated the session on demand-driven open data strategies.

Collected tweets from IODC can be accessed here.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/opendata-week-in-madrid-od4d-summit-open-data-charter-meetings-and-iodc16

Open Systems Interconnection Model

praskrishna — 2013-05-22T06:41:44Z

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

Open Standards: Ensuring Accessibility and Inclusiveness

praskrishna — 2011-04-05T03:58:25Z

The Centre for Internet and Society is co-organising a workshop on Open Standards at the Internet Governance Forum on 16 September, 2010.

The Dynamic Coalition on Open Standards and the Dynamic Coalition on Accessibility and Disabilities have a shared interest on ensuring accessibility of information for all.

Persons with disabilities often find that the audio captioning system for a particular video format does not work with others video formats (requiring re-captioning). Or that the proprietary font standard used by their government cannot be read by their screen-reader.

The principle of inclusion also requires us to ensure that persons who choose non-dominant operating systems and software are not artificially kept out of enjoying the benefits of the World Wide Web.

While it is recognized that open standards are not a sufficient guarantor of accessibility, both DCOS and DCAD believe open standards are a prerequisite. A World Wide Web based on proprietary formats would not be able to deliver an accessible experience to those with disabilities.

This workshop seeks to look at the interface between open standards and accessibility for persons with disabilities and how such standards are important for safeguarding their rights. It would also seek to find ways to promote open standards from this perspective.

Which of the five broad IGF Themes or the Cross-Cutting Priorities does your workshop fall under?
Security, Openness and Privacy

Have you organized an IGF workshop before? Yes
If so, please provide the link to the report:

http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/index.php/component/chronocontact/?chronoformname=Workshopsreports2009View&curr=1&wr=94

Provide the names and affiliations of the panellists you are planning to invite:
People who are planned to be invited are:

Catherine Trautmann (MEP)
Eddan Katz (Electronic Frotier Foundation)
Nasser Kettani (Microsoft)
Shadi Abou-Zara (World Wide Web Consortium)
Vint Cerf (Father of the Internet)
Wilfried Grommen (Microsoft)

Biographies:
There are no panelists biographies associated to this workshop at the moment.

Provide the name of the organizer(s) of the workshop and their affiliation to various stakeholder groups:
Centre for Internet and Society (Civil Society) / World Wide Web Consortium (Technical Body)

Organization:Centre for Internet and Society
Contact Person: Pranesh Prakash

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