Development and Democracy/Advocacy

Generative AI. Big Data. Algorithmic Management. Robotics. Technologies currently being developed and deployed will change the very nature and quality of work for countless people. To explore the risks of tech innovation that fails to serve labor and envision what is needed to build a better,…

Workers in India's platform economy have been working in gruelling conditions for several years, in the absence of fundamental labor rights, such as access to welfare, redressal for occupational harms, and the right to collective bargaining. Simultaneously, the platform economy has also created…

Shifting macro-level trends are restructuring the conditions under which platforms have operated for long, and are redetermining their actions and choices. Furthermore, a shrinking financial and tightening legislative landscape has created significant roadblocks for the growth-first model that…

IT for Change participated in the call for inputs by the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to development, in order to collect information for thematic reports on outlining a vision for the future in “reinvigorating the right to development” and understanding the role of business in realizing…

Over the past two years, there have been concerning instances of excess and malpractice by Big Tech, leading to serious social, political, and economic consequences. These include data extractivism, increased worker precarity, setbacks in gender justice, the domination of developing countries'…

IT for Change submitted its inputs to the public consultation organized by the Rajasthan government on its proposed Rajasthan Platform Based Gig Workers (Registration and Welfare) Bill, 2023. The Bill is one of the first to create a fund for guaranteeing social security benefits to platform-…

The Roots of Resilience Conference, a collaborative effort by the Kerala Development and Innovation Strategic Council (KDISC), IT for Change (ITfC), and the Platform Cooperativism Consortium (PCC) unfolded in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India, from 30 November to 2 December 2023. One key outcome…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

The public release of ChatGPT, an AI-powered chatbot by OpenAI, in November 2022, percolated the public consciousness with the disruptive potential, both incredible and iniquitous, of emerging general purpose AI technologies. In the following months, AI has dominated the public discourse and…

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…