Development and Democracy/Advocacy

2023

Over the past two years, we have simultaneously witnessed worrying excess and malpractice by Big Tech with grave social, political, and economic outcomes — data extractivism, the exacerbation of worker precarity, reversal of gender justice gains, the infrastructural takeover of much of the…

2023

From October 24, 2022 - November 30, 2022 IT for Change participated in deliberations of the Working Group convened by the Forum on Information and Democracy which…

2023

On 2nd January 2023, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) notified the draft Amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 ('Draft Amendment') in relation to online gaming as well as the due diligence…

2022

IT for Change signed the post-MC12 statement on access to medicine, which includes over 100 groups on it thus far, including Public Services International (PSI), Focus on the Global South, African Alliance, Vaccine Advocacy Resource Group, World Federation of Public Health Associations, Health…

2022

This is IT for Change’s response to the draft National Data Governance Framework Policy (NDGFP) released for public consultation by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) in May 2022. Given that the NDGFP is not very different from the draft Data Accessibility and Use…

2022

The question of decent work for the platform economy is one of significance, in light of the millions of workers engaged in online web-based or location-based services globally.  The ILO meeting of experts on Decent Work in the Platform Economy has outlined a detailed list of considerations to…

2022

DataSyn is a free monthly newsletter from IT for Change providing concise and relevant analysis on all matters concerning Big Tech. Building on our strong tradition of deep research and policy engagement on the digital economy with a focus on the Global South, DataSyn delivers quality analysis…

2022

India’s Budget 2022 presents digital infrastructure as key to economic recovery for the pandemic-hit economy. Several proposals suggest the ambition for digital resilience: Universal last-mile broadband connectivity, DESH-Stack e-portal for digital enskillment and jobs, delivery of hi-tech…

2022

With our societies getting increasingly digitalized and datafied if governments are to keep fulfilling their central societal role they too must get digitalized and datafied. But this must be undertaken in appropriate ways that protect and enhance people’s rights, requiring strong new…

2021

We are pleased to announce that on May 4, 2021, the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres appointed IT for Change's Anita Gurumurthy to a ten-member expert group that will support the development of the UN Technology Facilitation Mechanism (TFM). The group will advise on ways to…

2021

IT for Change is part of a coalition of NGOs and labor unions that has called on the Reserve Back of India (RBI) to not proceed with licensing corporations to run parallel financial infrastructures like Universal Payment Interface (UPI) on a for-profit basis. This coalition includes the workers…

2021

IT for Change inputted to the public consultation on the Draft National Geospatial Policy, 2021 put out by the Department of Science and Technology.

Our submission emphasized on the fact that physical locations are a shared public resource and the policy supporting wider democratization…

2021

The Just Net Coalition (JNC) made a submission with comments and text suggestions to the Zero Draft of the Doha Programme of Action for Least Developed Countries. The Zero Draft was released by the co-chairs of the Fifth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC5),…

2021

IT for Change responded to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights’ (UN OHCHR’s) call for comments and textual suggestions on the Draft Convention on The Right to Development. Our submission focused on strengthening obligations on State Parties by specifically…

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…