Centre for Internet and Society

National IPR Policy Series: DIPP Response (2)

praskrishna — 2015-04-15T03:42:32Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/dipp-response-2.pdf

National IPR Policy Series: DIPP Response (1)

praskrishna — 2015-04-15T03:23:51Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/dipp-response-1.pdf

National IPR Policy Series: DIPP Response

praskrishna — 2015-04-26T08:45:55Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/national-ipr-policy-series-dipp-response.pdf

National IPR Policy

praskrishna — 2015-01-22T00:44:31Z

National IPR Policy

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

National IG Mechanisms – Looking at Some Key Design Issues

praskrishna — 2012-12-09T00:50:46Z

The Centre for Internet & Society is coorganizing this workshop along with Brazilian Internet Steering Committee, Institute for System Analysis, Russian Academy of Sciences, et.al., at the seventh Internet Governance Forum 2012 in Azerbaijan. The workshop will be held in Conference Room 4, from 2.30 p.m. to 4.00 p.m. Pranesh Prakash is a panelist for this workshop.

Workshop Theme:
Other
Theme Question:
It is a workshop on national level IG mechanisms, and does not directly address any main theme questions

Concise Description of Workshop:

Such is the unique nature of the Internet that its governance often calls for institutional innovations. The proposed workshop will look at a range of national level IG mechanisms across the world. While the discussion will refer to good models and practices in different countries, it will not be organized around simple show-casing of different national IG mechanisms. The discussion will centre around key contexts, requirements, challenges and possibilities. It will be directed towards examining key institutional design issues, functions and outcomes with regard to national level IG mechanisms with the purpose to help countries make appropriate decisions in their specific contexts. Some of these are; - How should the national commons of Internet resources be managed?- What kinds of mechanisms are appropriate for technical matters, what for those that are partly technical and partly social, and what for larger public policy matters, requiring more political responses? - Should there be a common single mechanism to address all the above kinds of issues, or different ones? How to coordinate different mechanisms, and different parts of the national governance machinery dealing with different aspects or kinds of IG issues? - How to ensure meaningful participation of all stakeholders in a manner that focuses on public interest?- How can the surplus from domain name registration fees etc collected by national IG agencies be employed for public interest purposes, especially, for taking up Internet related research.

Organiser(s) Name:

Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore - Civil SocietyBrazilian Internet Steering Committee - National level governance bodyInstitute for System Analysis, Russian Academy of Sciences - Academic InsitutionCentre for Community Informatics Research, Development and Training (CCIRDT), Vancouver, BC CANADA - Civil Society Instituto NUPEF , Rio de Janeiro - Civil SocietyIT for Change, Bangalore - Civil Society.

Previous Workshop(s):

See in the workshops section in IGF 2011IG4D Workshop 183: A Possible Framework for Global Net Neutrality.

Submitted Workshop Panelists:

Carlos Afonso, Insituto NUPEF, Board Member, Brazilian Steering CommiteeEmily Taylor, Independent Consultant, Formerly with NOMINETAlice Munya, Chairperson, Kenya Internet Steering CommiteeVictor Tishchenko, Institute of Advanced Systems, Russian Academy of Sciences,Sunil Abraham, Centre for Internet and Society,Moderator, Micheal Gurstein, Centre for Community Informatics Research, Development and Training, Canada.

Name of Remote Moderator(s):

Ginger Paque

Read the original published on the IGF website here

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/national-ig-mechanisms

National Electronic Accessibility Meeting Notice

praskrishna — 2014-06-26T16:43:59Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/national-electronic-accessibility-meeting-notice.pdf

National Elections 2014: How Technology Powered Campaigns

praskrishna — 2014-05-20T07:03:51Z

HasGeek and the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) welcome you to a presentation on how technology powered politicial campaigns in the recently concluded 2014 national elections. Developers, advocacy organizations and the general public are invited to participate. The event will be held at CIS on May 23, 2014, 6.00 p.m. to 8.30 p.m.

During the 2014 Indian general elections, technology was widely used for candidate and party campaigns. The purpose of these technology-driven campaigns was to help voters make more informed decisions before casting their votes. Voter responses to these campaigns continuously helped individual candidates and political parties (via their technology teams and consultants) to rework messaging till the very end.

HasGeek and CIS are organizing three presentations followed by an interactive Q&A session to understand how technology spurred campaigns during the 2014 elections, and how voters will have to get smarter just as parties are becoming smart in reaching out to them.

Sessions

Campaigning in the pre-Internet and Internet Era (Talk)

Vijay Grover, founder of Bangalore Media Foundation and television journalist since 17 years, will compare the past and present to explain how internet technologies have changed campaigning stratgies. Grover will argue that voters need to get smart in sifting information and making choices as more and more parties use social media and information technologies in reaching out to them.

Technology-driven campaigns (Talk)

Viral Shah, part of Nandan Nilekani's campaign management team, will talk about how India is placed in the global scene with respect to technology-driven political campaigns. Viral will also discuss how to design a campaign with technology and how technology was used to power Nilekani's campaign.

Tools used for powering campaigns and attracting volunteers (Talk)

BG Mahesh, founder and managing director at Oneindia.in, will talk about the tools used during Narendra Modi's campaign. Apart from informing voters about the candidate, volunteers were also enlisted through the drives. BG Mahesh will throw light on how technology made this possible.

Schedule

Time	Sessions
18.00 18.15	Introductions: HasGeek, CIS, The Fifth Elephant
18.15 18.45	Vijay Grover: Campaigning in the pre-Internet and Internet Era
18.45 19.15	Viral Shah: Technology-driven campaigning
19.15 19.45	B.G.Mahesh: Tools used for powering campaigns and attracting volunteers
19.45 20.15	Q & A Session
20.15 20.30	Snacks

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/events/national-elections-2014-how-technology-powered-campaigns

National Cyber Defence Summit 2016

praskrishna — 2016-10-10T12:54:29Z

National Cyber Defence Summit – 2016 was organized by the National Cyber Safety and Security Standards in association with State & Central Governments, Ministry of Defence, Government of India, AICTE & Anna University on 30 September and 1 October 2016 in Chennai. Vanya Rakesh attended the summit.

The Summit focused on multiple issues linked with the current use of cyberspace by the various stake holders and creating awareness of the responsibility associated with the judicious use of this significant and powerful tool, without endangering the fragile security and social framework. The mission of the Summit is to establish a multi-stakeholder consortium that brings together Industry, Government, and Academic interests in an effort to improve the state of Cyber Security on both a domestic and international level. Primarily, the Summit focuses on multiple issues linked with the current use of cyberspace by the various stake holders and creating awareness of the responsibility associated with the judicious use of this significant and powerful tool, without endangering the fragile security and social framework.

In fact this is the one and only High Level Summit which gathers the presence of Multi-Stakeholders from State/Central Governments, Defence, MNCs, PSUs, Academics, PSBs, Intelligence Agencies, Enforcement Agencies and etc. For more info see the website here. Agenda can be viewed here.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/national-cyber-defence-summit-2016

National Consultation on OER for Higher Education

praskrishna — 2017-03-28T15:53:03Z

Anubha Sinha attended the National Consultative Meet on OER Policy for Higher Education in India held at New Delhi on March 3, 2017. The event was organized by CEMCA (Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia).

Click to see:

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/national-consultation-on-oer-for-higher-education

National Consultation on Media Law Schedule

praskrishna — 2014-09-30T06:34:57Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/national-consultation-on-media-law-schedule.pdf

National Consultation on Media Law

praskrishna — 2014-09-30T06:52:50Z

The Law Commission of India and the National University, Delhi have joined hands to organize the National Consultation on Media Law at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi on September 27 and 28, 2014. Nehaa Chaudhari participated in this event.

Click to view the:

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/national-consultation-on-media-law

National Consultation on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Development Process

praskrishna — 2014-03-12T13:46:35Z

On February 12, 2014, CBM India in collaboration with United Nations Solution Exchange (UNSE) for Gender Community organized a 'National Consultation on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Development Processes' at the World Health Organization (WHO), Regional office for South-East Asia in New Delhi. Around 85 delegates attended the consultation

Anandhi Viswanathan participated in a panel discussion. She made a presentation on the National Resource Kit project, the challenges faced during the research phase of the project and contributed to the recommendations being submitted to the government of India by CBM regarding inclusion of persons with disabilities in development processes.

See more details of the event of CBM website.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/national-consultation-on-inclusion-of-persons-with-disabilities-in-development-process

National Conference: WTO, FTAs and Investment Treaties: Implications for development policy space

praskrishna — 2015-10-02T03:41:00Z

The conference was jointly organized by Focus on the Global South, Institute for Studies in Industrial Development (ISID), Madhyam, MSF Access Campaign, National Working Group on Patent Laws and WTO (NWGPL), Public Services International (PSI) – South Asia, South Solidarity Initiative – ActionAid, Third Word Network (TWN), and Forum against FTAs. Nehaa Chaudhari attended the event.

Nehaa Chaudhari made a presentation on Copyright: Access to Knowledge in Free Trade Agreements?

Day 1:

9.00 to 9.30 : Registration

9.30 to 10.00: Welcome and Introduction,

Prof Murthy, ISID

Shri. TN Chaturvedi, President of ISID

Prof Goyal, ISID

Prof. Dinesh Abrol, ISID

Shalini Bhutani, Legal researcher

( The session will cover objectives of the meeting, meeting schedule with purpose why people need to come forward and strategize and brief self-introduction by participants and state the introduction to the conference in very brief (2Mins to participants))

10.00 to 11.30: Session 1: Trade and Investment regimes: An overview of implications for development policy space

(The session will provide overview of macro-economic framework with the critical perspective over current state of play on WTO, FTAs and bilateral investment treaties (BITs)).

Chair: Shri. Muchkund Dubey, Centre for Social Development (CSD)

Panel of speakers:

Prof. Biswajit Dhar, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) – Current dynamics of trade and investment negotiations: Issues and options. (Synthesis of our views and what India should do – presentation of the background paper to the conference- Speech will cover elements of trade negotiations scenario, update on WTO, FTAs, BITs

Shri. Rajiv Kher, Former Commerce Secretary, Ministry of Commerce, Government of India - WTO negotiations: Challenges Ahead,

Deborah James, Our World Is Not For Sale (OWINFS) network: Overview of recent developments in WTO negotiations and Challenges Ahead

Followed by Discussion:

11.30 to 11.45 Tea

11.45 to 1.30: Manufacturing sector and Challenges for policy space

(The session will provide an overview of challenges for employment and development emerging from proposed trade agreements such as NAMA, Information technology agreement (ITA), Environmental Goods Agreement (EGA), and impact of FTAs. It will also critically analyze Global Value Chain arguments, Make in India initiative, protecting policy space, employment and trade union rights issues)

Chair: Prof. Biswajit Dhar, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU)

Panel of speakers:

Smitha Francis, ISID – FTAs, NAMA, ITA and EGA – Implications for Manufacturing sector

Amb. Jayant Das Gupta, Former Ambassador of India to the WTO - Issues and options in Non-Agricultural Market Access negotiations in WTO

Respondents: 5 to 7 Mins

Amitava Guha, Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) / FMRI (TBC)

Gautam Mody, New Trade Union Initiative (NTUI)

Saji Narayanan, Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS)

1.30 PM to 2.30 PM: Lunch

2.30 PM to 4.00 PM: Services Liberalization and Privatization – Part 1

(The session will focus on RCEP, TPP and TISA highlighting the corporate agenda in services liberalization. The session will then look at key sectors evaluating the extent of liberalization that has taken place and routes through which development policy is being lost.)

Moderator: Benny Kuruvilla, South Solidarity Initiative

Services liberalization: The Corporate Agenda: Deborah James, CEPR

Banking and insurance sector liberalization: Prof. C.P.Chandra Sekhar

Responses:

Banking sector Unions: Thomas Franko, All India State Bank Officers Association (TBC)

Insurance sector Union: V Narasimhan, All India National Life Insurance Employees Federation (AINLIEF)

4.00 to 4.15 Tea Break

4.15 to 6.00: Services Liberalisation – Part 2: Impacts on essential services

(The session will focus on key essential services and assess the extent of liberalisation achieved through different routes and the challenges posed by the TISA agenda).

Moderator: PSI

Panel of speakers: Health system: privatization and challenges to domestic regulation: Amit Sengupta, People’s Health Movement (PHM) – Challenges from autonomous liberalization and TISA, (Presentation will also cover the issue of Movement of health professional - debunking Mode 4.).

Privatization of education: Anil Sadagopal, All India Right to Education Forum Anil Sadagopal/ or JJ Thilak, National University of Education Planning and Administration (NUEPA) (presentation will focus on Foreign universities) (TBC)

Privatisation of electricity: EAS Sharma (TBC)

Responses:

Water sector: Jammu Anand, National Platform against water privatization / or someone from Karnataka

Day 2

9.30 AM to 11.30 AM: Trade policies and Agriculture: Challenges to food sovereignty and local communities

(The session will discuss challenges emerging from trade policies in the agriculture sector with the focus on WTO negotiations and India’s FTAs. It will also include views from representatives of farmers’ organizations)

Chair: Ranja Sengupta, TWN (We will say we are looking forward to strategy related suggestions)

Panel

Prof. Abhjit Das, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT): Agriculture and challenges emerging from trade negotiations / Ranja in case of (Speech will cover key agriculture issues in WTO Agreement on Agriculture and FTAs)

Afsar Jafri, Focus on the Global South – Food sovereignty, Peasant livelihood and free trade

Shalini Bhutani, Legal Researcher – Seeds and Intellectual Property Rights – implications for local communities

Responses (5 to 7 min.)-

Sridhar - ASHA

Biraj Patnaik - Right to Food Campaign -

Yudhvir Singh - Via Campasina

Kannaiyan - Via Campasina

Vijoo Krishnan - All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS)

11.30 am to 11.45: Tea Break

Discussion

11.45 to 1.15

Investment regime and Challenges for Development:

Moderator: Prof. Chimni, JNU

Kavaljit Singh, Madhyam: Investment regimes and challenges for development (20 min)

Prof. Chalapaty Rao, ISID: FDI and Development demystifying foreign investments' contribution to development (10 min)

Kajal Bharadwaj, ISDS case studies (health, mining and environment cases)

(The session will demystify issues around BIPAs and Foreign Direct investment. It will cover issues emerging from FTAs through BIPA, and review of BIPA with example of ISDS cases)

Responses:

FDI in Retail: Dharmendra Kumar / Praveen

Natural resources and Infrastructure Investment: NAPM – Madhuresh /Forest Workers

Infrastructure Investment in North East: Ramananda Wangkheirakpam, North East Peoples’ Alliance (NEPA)

1.15 to 2.15 Lunch Break

2.15 to 3.15: Session on Intellectual Property

Chair: Prof. Dinesh Abrol, ISID

Medicines - MSF Access Campaign

“TRIPS – State of Play in WTO negotiations” By Gopakumar, Third World Network (TWN)

“Copy rights: Access to knowledge” by Neha Chowdhury (CIS)

3.15 to 5.15 The Way Forward

(Starts with presentation from moderators on key issues raised in sectoral sessions. From each section draw a broad conclusion and arrange them towards a declaration or statement of unity)

Chair: Prof. Deepak Nayyar

Moderators: Prof. Dinesh Abrol and Shalini Bhutani

Valedictory address by Shri. S P Shukla (TBC)

Creating a Time line of key moments

4.00 to 4.15 Tea Break

4.15 to 5.45 Conclusion

5.45 to 6.00: Vote of Thanks

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/news/national-conference-wto-ftas-and-investment-treaties-implications-for-development-policy-space

National Conference on: Harnessing technology for the empowerment for the persons with visual impairments

praskrishna — 2014-02-03T10:38:53Z

Dr. Nirmita Narasimhan participates as a speaker at this event. The event is organized by NIVH.

Click to read the complete agenda published by NAB Centre for Blind Women & Disability Studies

Background Note

As we all are aware, Assistive Technolgy has played an unprecedented role in equalizing opportunities and in improving the quality of life of people with disabilities in last few years, with solutions helping in the elimination of barriers in all kinds of environments.

However, inspite of the advanced development, the Assistive technology for the VI has been confined to special devices leading mostly to disparate solutions. These devices also are most often rendered incompatible with the quickly changing technological landscape interfacing with all sectors of development, making it unaffordable or obsolete for people with disabilities to communicate with the highly digital and networked society in the contemporary world. This disparity further isolates the disabled population calling out for a more holistic approach to make the mainstream technology accessible from the designing stage.

Moreover, increasingly all services in every sphere of life, be it employment, education, communication, entertainment, civic participation, or government functions are moving either primarily or exclusively online worldwide.

While for PWDs, the Internet has a great potential to enhance their freedom to access goods, services and information independently through online services; a sizeable population of people especially with visual impairment are increasingly finding it difficult to access online services and information due to design barriers. This is becoming an alarmingly serious issue in the near future, considering the engagement of vital sectors like banking and publications with technology.

We already face a rate of unemployment that is more than 3 times as high as the rest of the population and experience similar gaps in educational achievement. High levels of inaccessibility on the Web and Internet-enabled mobile technologies are threatening to exclude people with visual impairment even further, who experience disability from the information society.

The potential of an accessible Internet is immense which could not only increase the inclusion of people with disabilities and facilitate online education, telework, participation in e-government, but also would enable social relationships that overcome barriers and challenges presented by the physical world.

We are, therefore, in a situation of necessity, to harness the enormous prospects of technology to create an empowering, economically progressive and inclusive society, with a new approach to implement the public policy to eliminate the virtual barriers that are in place, ensuring that people with disabilities are not marginalized.

The need of the hour is to develop an accessible technology plan to

Define the accessible technology strategy,
Identify requirements,
Design, develop, and purchase technology,
Implement and Train in a timely manner

The national conference on ` Harnessing technology for the empowerment for the persons with visual impairments’ being organised by the NIVH, a premier Institute of Government of India in the field of visual disability functioning under the administrative control of Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment to be held on 19th Nov 2013 aims to create opportunities of exploring the potential of inclusive solutions which are designed to serve all people regardless of their physical abilities.

The conference would bring together best practices models from India and abroad. It would facilitate interaction between the inclusive design experts for online services & accessible information and the officials from all levels of government and PSUs. The conference will in particular address the problems and potential solutions with reference to access to banking services, web and online services, access to documents and publications in digital, Braille and audio formats, and access to Digital Television
On the sidelines of the conference, a small exhibition will display a range of products hardware and software rendering possible solutions.

It is understood that all the participants invited to this conference have a critical role in the implementation of legal commitments and policy decisions for creating an accessible, enabling and empowering environment in which people can access all the services and information intended to benefit all citizens of the country.

Draft agenda

9:00 – 9:30 a.m.: Registration
9:30 a.m.- 10:20 a.m.: Inaugural Session
9:30 a.m.: Felicitations
9:36 a.m.: Lighting of Lamp followed by a devotional song
9:40 a.m.: Welcome address by J.S. DDA and objectives of the Conference
9:45 a.m.: Address by Secy. DDA
9:55 a.m.: Key Note address
10:15 a.m.: Vote of Thanks by Director NIVH
10:20-10:40 a.m.: Tea Break
10.40 a.m.: Plenary Session 1
11.40 a.m.: Plenary Session 2
2.15 p.m.: Plenary Session 3
4.00 p.m.: Plenary Session 4

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/nabcentreforwomen-november-19-2013-national-conference-on-harnessing-technology-for-the-empowerment-for-the-persons-with-visual-impairments

National Conference on Use of Technology in Higher Education

praskrishna — 2014-03-06T07:30:32Z

The Ministry of Human Resource and Development and Planning Commission in partnership with Microsoft Research and British Council organized a conference at the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay on February 25, 2014.

Nehaa Chaudhari participated in the event as a panelist in the session on "Future of Content Creation".

Click to download the schedule.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/iitb-february-25-26-2014-national-conference-on-use-of-technology-in-higher-education