Development and Democracy/Advocacy

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…

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…

2020

Technology is often heralded as the ultimate answer to all developmental issues, although it is a mere tool. Through its flagship programs like Digital India, Smart Cities, and Startup India, India is gearing up for a technological revolution, but it holds as many threats as promises for our…

2020

A steady stream of public commentary is flowing in about the implications of the draft Rules on Social Security Code, 2020, and the Motor Vehicle Aggregators Guidelines, 2020, for the rights of platform workers. We interrogate these developments from a data rights standpoint. The draft Rules on…

2020

IT for Change is excited to be a member of the Fair, Green and Global Alliance (FGG) – a consortium of eight global organizations – whose goal is to expand civil society voices to make trade and global supply chains just and fair in Global South contexts.

As part of this five year program…

2020

IT for Change's research and advocacy track on labor aims to consider the emergent challenges for workers and laborers in the digital economy, and build a new frontier of labor rights for the 21st century. Our work is primarily concerned with the working conditions of and social security for gig…

2020

Statement of the APRCEM S&T Constituency on COVID-19.

The world is presently facing a global health pandemic as many countries battle the widespread transmission of COVID-19 that has already cost the lives of almost 42,000 and afflicted nearly 858,000 people. The healthcare community…

2020

IT for Change was among 150 signatories to an open letter led by Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF), urging Gilead Sciences to give up its exclusive rights on patents and regulatory and trial data in remdesivir. Monopoly-based patents regime in this could obstruct access to…

2020

We are pleased to announce that Fondation Botnar has commissioned IT for Change to develop a framework focusing on ‘Health Data as Global Public Good' that centrally includes community ownership of data into it. The research for this project will lay out the nature, role and governance of health…

2020

Anita Gurumurthy participated in a session on Technology and Surveillance for the Janta Parliament, a virtual peoples' Parliament, on Tuesday, August 18, 2020. Some of the participant organisations and individuals presented resolutions before the parliament that were voted on at the end of the…

2020

India and the US are close to signing a limited trade deal that includes some key agricultural and dairy products, medical devices and some issues of digital trade. However a more ambitious Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is being discussed between the two countries and talks may be launched soon.…

2020
Statement issued by an Alliance of Labour Unions and Civil Society Organisations

The Indian Parliament is currently in the process of overhauling the country’s labour laws. Unfortunately, this exercise has sidestepped platform workers, a constituency whose needs and challenges have become…

2020

The Government of India, through the National Health Authority, released the draft Health Data Management Policy on August 26, 2020. As stated in its objectives, the Policy is meant to act as a guidance document across the National Digital Health Ecosystem (NDHE) and…

2020

IT for Change provided feedback for the EU Consultation for the New Competition Tool and the Digital Services Act Package.

This was followed up with a questionnaire that included our inputs.

The EU proposal for a New Competition Tool is one of the measures aimed at addressing gaps…

2020

The Political Economy of Data

Data and data governance are hotly contested issues in the 21st century. Typically, they have been perceived as questions of policy and political economy. Data is attributed multiple characterizations…