Advocacy

2021

Whether it the food people eat, the school children attend, or getting the much needed vaccines, in all walks of our daily lives, UN multilateral institutions play a key role in guaranteeing or providing access to goods and services, especially for marginalized groups. Last September, UN Secretary General António Guterres published the document…

2021
Why legalizing crypto assets is dangerous

The Indian Government appears convinced that cryptocurrency is a dangerous proposition. Cryptocurrency enables relatively invisible transactions, with serious implications for crime, terrorism, money laundering, tax evasion, etc. Another worry is that the crypto mania is getting built of purely…

2021

Anita Gurumurthy was a part of the IGF 2021 Main Session: Digital Cooperation- Quo vadis? on December 8, 2021 where she gave a statement on the role IGF can play in digital cooperation.

Read it here.

This session was for assessing Internet governance approaches and mechanisms and fostering democratic equity and inclusiveness. The panel…

2021

IT for Change recently responded to the call for consultation by the National Health Authority (NHA) and Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) on the proposed National Health Data Retention Policy.

ITfC deems the retention of health data important towards both establishing longitudinal medical histories of individuals as well as public…

2021

IT for Change's research series on Intelligence Infrastructures interrogates essential digital infrastructures that underpin the economy, society, and governance, putting the spotlight on the need for democratic control of these building blocks of tomorrow. Policies must straddle a people-centric vision of tech-design and institutional…

2021

IT for Change's Parminder Singh is the co-chair of the Data Principles Circle of Transform Health, a global initiative which works in coalition towards Universal Health Coverage goal of the SDGs. The initiative recently released its draft Health Data Governance Principles. This is the first set of global health data principles which goes beyond…

2021

The pandemic has exposed India’s ambivalence about scientific knowledge. While masking and distancing constitute scientific wisdom, we see mass disregard of these in festivals and polls. The pandemic has exposed another ambivalence — about beliefs on the purpose and processes of education. Education experts’ views have sharply contrasted with…

2021

Karnataka’s Open Data Policy opens up a Pandora’s box of concerns for public interest and citizen rights

Last week, the Government of Karnataka (GoK) notified its Open Data Policy (ODP) to open up government-held personal and non-personal datasets for “innovation, co-creation and research”. The government’s logic fits very much into the…
2021

IT for Change, along with other civil societies advocated on a number of critical issues regarding the UNCTAD XV held from 3-7th October, 2021 in Barbados.
These statements, few of many sent to member states at a crucial moment of discussion by civil societies managed to leverage pressure and improve on the nature of the mandate…

2021

IT for Change made substantial contributions to the Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture's (ASHA's) response to the Government of India's Ministry of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmer Welfare on their Consultation Paper on IDEA (India Digital System of Agriculture).

In the letter, the signitories urge the Government of…