Digital trade provisions embedded in free trade agreements (both bilateral and regional) and negotiations at the World Trade Organization promote unrestricted data flows, prohibit data localization, restrict source code access, and limit the ability of a country to regulate digital technologies in the public interest. These rules lock in…

At the 2025 Global Solutions Summit in Berlin, Anita Gurumurthy contributed to two high-level sessions under the theme “Bridging Divides: New Pathways for Global Prosperity”, highlighting the need for inclusive, rights-based digital transformation.

Catalyzing Digital Infrastructure Solutions for Data Agency
May 5, 2025 | 11:45–12:…

Join the Webinar here (meeting room will open 20 minutes before start time)

Dr. Skye Zhao
Lecturer, Manchester Institute of Education
Expert in digital technology in education with a focus on Generative AI

Dr. Zhao will share research-…

Our Deputy Director and Fellow - Research & Policy Engagement, Nandini Chami, will represent IT for Change at the 28th session of the UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD), which will be held in Geneva from April 7 to 11, 2025. On April 7, she will speak as part of a panel on diversifying economies in a world of…

Our Lead-Policy and Engagement, Sadhana Sanjay, represented IT for Change at a three-day Global Anti-Monopoly Convening hosted by the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. This three-day conference took place from 25 to 27 March 2025, and brought together organizations from Europe, the US,…

Anita Gurumurthy was invited to present ethical conundrums associated with digital technologies at a session on Human Rights Protocol Considerations at the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) conference on 21 March. The IETF had approached the Global Digital Justice Forum to understand its critique of the global regulatory approach of…

Nandini Chami was invited as a resource person for the Digital Rights- Asia Pacific (DRAPAC) Series webinar at EngageMedia on “Digital Labor in the Philippines and Asia-Pacific,” held on March 20, 2025. The webinar…

With support from the Permanent Mission of Germany, Friedrich Ebert Foundation, DAWN, and ITUC, IT for Change co-organized a formal CSW69 Side Event on "Gender Equality in the Platform Economy: Evolving a Policy Agenda for Beijing+30." The session took place on 10 March, 2025, from 1:15 PM – 2:30 PM EDT at the UN Conference Building, Conference…

The Residential Institute on Frontiers and Frames for a New Digitality 2025, organized by the School of Digital Justice at IT for Change with support from the Fair, Green, and Global Alliance, was held from March 4-9, 2025, at Prana Dewi Mountain Resort in Bali, Indonesia. Hosted in collaboration with the Samdhana Institute, the event convened…

Sadhana Sanjay, Lead-Policy and Engagement at IT for Change,  was invited to speak at the Cross-Regional Dialogue on Feminist Digital Justice & Dignified Work in the Gig Economy organized by ActionAid UK on 4 March 2025. This online webinar was part of a preparatory CSW69 discussion on the centrality of feminist digital justice amidst the…

Our Senior Program Associate, Marzia Ibrahim, presented updates from our research on scaling English language teacher development in Karnataka as part of the Empowering Teachers Initiative (ETI) Brown Bag Session conducted by the TPD@Scale coalition on 26 February 2025. She introduced a framework contrasting technology as product versus…

Anita Gurumurthy was invited to be a speaker at the INET-YSI South Asia Regional Conference on Social Change on the 25 February 2025 organized by the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bengaluru and the Young Scholars Initiative (YSI) of the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET). She spoke at a plenary session on Digital and…

IT for Change was at RightsCon 2025 in Taipei (and online) from February 24-27, co-organizing key sessions on AI governance, digital trade, and labor rights alongside <A+> Alliance, and OECD Watch. As AI, digital trade, and platformization reshape economies and societies, we must interrogate these shifts through the lens of equity,…

The CSET 2025 Bengaluru and New Delhi edition is one of many CSET 2025 events happening across the globe between February 17th and February 21st, 2025 in response to a call from Prof. Neil Selwyn, Faculty of Education, Monash University, and a leading international researcher in the area of digital education. See details of the call here.

To crystallize issues for concerted civil society action in the coming year, IT for Change and the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) are convening a strategy meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, on 10–11 February 2025. The meeting is organized in collaboration with the Global Digital Justice Forum (GDJF) and the Emancipatory…

 Our Program Associate, Reha Sharma, conducted an online session, ‘A Deep Dive into Storytelling as a Pedagogical Approach for Language Learning’, as part of a 3-day residential training – Professional Empowerment…

Our  Director and Lead - Education and Technology, Gurumurthy Kasinathan, was invited as an expert to speak on the risks of platformization in higher education in a discussion on "Integrating Teaching-Learning and…

Anita Gurumurthy has been invited to participate in the CITI Seminar on Global Digital Governance on the theme, The WSIS+20 Review: What is Desirable? What is Possible? What is to be Done? The seminar will be held on 29 January 2025, 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM (EST) and hosted by the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information (CITI), Columbia Business…

Our Program Associate, Reha Sharma, shared findings from the ITfC-RIESI impact study of Kerala's English Language Labs program, at the ‘Language and Culture in a Changing Society’ seminar co-organized by the Vakkom Moulavi Foundation Trust (VMFT), Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, and the Centre for Development Studies (CDS).…

As part of our ongoing engagement in the Digital Public Infrastructure space, IT For Change, Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) and Social Accountability Forum for Action and Research (SAFAR) are co-organising a roundtable on 10 Jan 2025. The event, which is being held at The Leela Palace, Bengaluru, is supported by the European Union,…

The Day 0 session "Fit for Future" at the 19th annual meeting of the Internet Governance Forum was co-organized by IT for Change as part of the Global Digital Justice Forum. The roundtable was a visioning exercise focused on advancing global digital cooperation. Anchored in the World Summit on Information Society, 20-year review (WSIS + 20…

IT for Change is excited to organize and participate in a diverse lineup of hybrid sessions at IGF 2024. The 19th annual meeting of the Internet Governance Forum takes place from 15-19 December 2024 in Riyadh. Find below a detailed list of our sessions and register for IGF 2024 to join us!

Register for IGF 2024 here.

Day 0 |…

Anita Gurumurthy participated in Main Panel 3: Role of Multistakeholder Community to Build a Digitally Empowered India at India IGF 2024, held at the Bharat Mandapam Convention Center, New Delhi, on 10 December 2024.

The panel focused on how multistakeholder collaboration can drive policy frameworks, digital inclusion, and governance…

Merrin Muhammed Ashraf has been invited to speak at the Women's Rights and Gender Based Violence: Awareness To Action webinar, organised by Commonwealth of Learning on 5th December 2024. Merrin will be commenting on technology-facilitated gender-based violence, its impact on women's rights and public participation, and the possible legal,…

Viraj Desai was invited to speak at the Global Cooperative Conference 2024, organised by the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) on 27th November in New Delhi. This is part of a parallel session titled 'Cooperatives, and Digital and New Technologies.'

Besides Viraj, the panel also includes Piero Ingrosso, Legacoop, Italy; Manuel…

Anita Gurumurthy has been invited to participate in the Towards Substantiative Equality In AI Conference 2024, organized by Mila - Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute and CEIMIA on 26th November 2024. The conference will be held in Quebec, Canada. Anita is partaking in the launch of the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence report…

Anita Gurumurthy has been invited to participate in the Data Privacy Global Conference 2024, being organized by Data Privacy Brasil from 25-26 November 2024. The conference will be held in São Paulo.

The event aims to provide a platform to discuss the latest debates on digital public infrastructure, data protection, and regulation of new…

Anita Gurumurthy was been invited to take part in B'Al Global Forum’s 5th Anniversary Symposium on the theme, ‘AI and DEI: The Future of Digital Humanitarianism.’ The event was organized on 18 November 2024 at the University of Tokyo.

Speakers at the event discussed how to harness artificial intelligence (Al) creatively to achieve…

Nandini Chami participated in the seminar Shaping the Future of Work: Strengthening Protections for Gig and Platform Workers in India, held on Saturday, November 16, 2024, at the Conference Hall, NLSIU.

Nandini was part of Panel 5: Algorithm and Conditions of Work (4:00 PM to 5:30 PM), where discussions focused on the impacts of…

Chinmayi Arakali was invited to speak at the 8th Edition of the Community Network Xchange Asia-Pacific, organized by Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF), Internet Society, T- Hub along with the Government of Telangana happened on 15th and 16th November in Hyderabad.

Chinmayi was part of a panel discussion titled ' Gender Rights and…

Our Director and Lead (Education and Technology), Gurumurthy Kasinathan, participated in a hybrid webinar titled 'Generative AI in the Classroom – Possibilities and Perils: A View from Singapore,’ co-hosted by IT for Change, Vakkom Moulavi Foundation Trust (VMFT), and the Comparative Education Society of India (CESI). The event was conducted…

Our Executive Director and Senior Fellow - Research & Policy Engagement, Anita Gurumurthy, was a speaker at the online roundtable 'What's next for the Global Digital Compact? Pathways to civil society engagement in the implementation and follow-up' organized by Civil Society Alliances for Digital Empowerment in partnership with APC, the…

Anita Gurumurthy will be participating in a side event at the UN CSTD 2024-2025 Inter-sessional Panel on 21 October 2024 in Geneva. The theme of the panel is: Pivoting to Inclusive and Equitable Economies – What Elements for an Integrated Approach to Global Data and AI Governance? The event will be co-organized by IT for Change and the Global…

Anita Gurumurthy participated in ‘The Tech We Want Summit,’ organized by the Open Knowledge Foundation on 17 October 2024. She participated in a panel titled, ‘The Tech We Want is Political.’

Since the Snowden revelations, citizen efforts have been focused on patching a broken system of surveillance, extractivism of people and the planet…

Merrin Muhammed Ashraf presented a case study report titled 'Intersectional Frames in Digitalisation Research: Revisiting a Study by IT for Change about Misogynistic Trolling Online' at a hybrid workshop on Promoting Intersectional Development Research, organized by the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies, University of the Witwatersrand,…

On September 26, 2024, IT for Change and FIAN International organized a briefing for the Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights on the implications of digitalization on these rights. We invited our partners Third World Network, TNI, Medicus Mundi and GI-ESCR.

We helped provide an overview of the imperative of acting to…

Digital technologies can contribute to structural change in the economy, social equity, and expansion of human capabilities. Yet, inclusive outcomes are far from automatic. Current trends suggest widening digital and data divides, with low-income countries falling further behind while growing wealth is accumulated by very large corporations in…

Anita Gurumurthy participated in a session at the Summit of the Future titled, ‘Inequalities and Leave No One Behind,’ on 22 September 2024 in New York. The session was part of the Global People’s Assembly 2024 and was organized by the Global Call to Action Against Poverty.

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 10 focuses on reducing…

IT for Change co-organized two events during the Summit of the Future to influence discussions on the Pact of the Future and the Global Digital Compact. The events took place in New York on 21 September 2024.

Date: 21 September 2024

Time: 11:00 AM…

As part of the Action Days of the UN Summit of the Future, Columbia University and the United Nations University held an interactive workshop that brought together relevant actors to draft a concrete Call to Action on how to promote collaboration and partnerships in the design, regulation, development, deployment, and decommissioning of digital…

Malavika Rajkumar participated in a workshop titled, ‘The Governance of Digital Platforms: Emerging Trends & Good Practices,’ in Kathmandu, Nepal on 14 September 2024. The workshop was organized by UNESCO in collaboration with Nepal's Federal Parliament.

Nepal's media landscape is rapidly evolving, with social media playing a…

Anita Gurumurthy will participate in a session at the Global Just Transitions Seminar on 10 September 2024. The seminar series features movement and grassroots leaders from across the globe, who discuss issues related to climate and labor justice, worker rights, human rights, Indigenous sovereignty, etc.

The session on 10 September will…

Nandini Chami was invited to speak at a session on ‘Breaking the Crucial Barriers in Global AI Governance’ at the UN Science Summit on 10 September 2024.

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to shape the future, establishing a comprehensive global governance framework is more critical than ever. However, this effort faces three…

Anita Gurumurthy has been invited to participate in the 11th Creative Theory Colloquium being organized by the Association of Creative Theory & Foundation for Creative Social Research; International Herbert Marcuse Society; The Raza Foundation; and Shanti Sahyog on 5 September 2024 at India International Centre, New Delhi.

Anita will…

Malavika Rajkumar took part in the Shrinking Civic Space in Asia conference organized by the Asia Centre in partnership with IDRC. As part of the conference, Malavika took part in a panel discussion on ‘Information Integrity and the Digital Public Sphere in Asia’ on 23 August 2024.

As research continues to identify the use of…

Merrin Muhammed Ashraf participated in a virtual consultation convened by the co-facilitators of the Global Digital Compact (GDC) on 22 August 2024 and delivered a statement on Rev 3.0 GDC on behalf of IT for Change and the Global Digital Justice Forum.

The statement flagged some critical gaps in the text of the GDC which must be…

Sadhana Sanjay conducted a session on ‘ILO Proposed Instrument and Barriers in Digital Trade Rules’ at the Unions for Trade Justice Campaign Workshop held in Quezon City (Metro Manila) from 19-20 August 2024. The workshop was organized by Public Services International, in collaboration with Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. The workshop brought…

As part of The Samdhana Institute’s mid-year assessment and reflection process, our Senior Research Associate, Natasha Susan Koshy, represented IT for Change to conduct a training session on digitalization in the context of agrarian and environmental systems, as part of a larger learning session on Digital Futures. The session occurred on 20…

The Secretariat for the Brazilian-German Digital Dialogue hosted a panel discussion on the topic, ‘AI, Regulation, and the Environment: Pathways to a Sustainable Planet’ on 10 July 2024 at 2 PM CEST/5.30 PM IST. The event was organized in partnership with the G20 engagement groups for Business (B20) and Think Thanks (T20).

Stakeholders…

On 6 July 2024, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan released a report titled, 'Empowering adolescents with future-ready skills – the inspiring story of Little KITEs’ during an event held in Thiruvananthapuram.

The report was based on a study conducted by IT for Change. The report highlights how the LITTLE KITEs program, implemented by…

IT for Change participated in the 32nd International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE) Annual Conference in Rome from 3-5 July 2024. The theme of the conference was - Caught Between the Digital Revolution and a Crisis of Democracy: Feminist Economics Responses and Imaginations for the Future.

The conference aspired to provoke…

Our Executive Director, Anita Gurumurthy, participated in a closed-door, virtual event organized by UN SDG Action Campaign for an informal dialogue on 2 July 2024.

The dialogue aimed to provide a space for exchange between civil society representatives from the Global South and Guy Ryder, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Policy…

Anita Gurumurthy was invited to brief diplomats at the South Centre on 26 June 2024 on the Global Digital Compact. The event was co-organized by the South Centre and the Transnational Institute.

During her presentation, Anita spoke about the ways to expand inclusion in and benefits from the digital economy for all, and highlighted the…

IT for Change's Anita Gurumurthy was invited to participate in the Global Learning and Strategic Convening on the Political Economy of AI, Data, and Digital Technologies organized by the Global Fund for a New Economy between 21-22 June, 2024 in Mexico City, Mexico.

The event aimed to lay the groundwork for a shared structural political…

Anita Gurumurthy was invited to take part in a workshop on ‘Social and Solidarity Economy for Advancing the Sustainable Development Goals in Asia’ organized by the International Labour Organization from 18-19 June 2024.

Anita participated in a panel on ‘Social and Solidarity Economy and Workers' Rights and Conditions in Digital Labour…

Our Research Assistant, Merrin Muhammed Ashraf, represented IT for Change at a virtual meeting convened by the co-facilitators of the Summit of the Future on 30 May 2024. The goal of the meeting was to hear first-hand from civil society about the UN Civil Society Conference and for a direct exchange of ideas between Major Groups and other…

Twenty years ago, the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) set the framework for global digital cooperation with a vision to cultivate people-centric, inclusive, and development-oriented information and knowledge societies. The WSIS+20 Forum High-Level Event 2024 commemorated a significant milestone, marking two decades of progress in…

IT for Change's Nandini Chami participated remotely as an expert speaker at the Global South Study Week program titled "Alternatives in Governance and Sustainable Human Development". The programme was organized by the Arab NGO Network for Development, Third World Network, Social Watch, the Global Policy Forum and the Asfari Institute of the…

Our Research Assistant, Merrin Muhammed Ashraf, represented IT for Change at a virtual meeting convened by the co-facilitators of the Global Digital Compact (GDC) on 21 May 2024. The goal of the meeting was to provide an update on the GDC process while giving stakeholders the opportunity to exchange views on the Rev1 (Revised Text 1) of the…

Nandini Chami has been invited to participate in a webinar titled, ‘What kind of multilateralism and global governance do we want?’ to speak on the Global Digital Compact. The webinar is being organized by the People's Working Group on Multistakeholderism on 16 May 2024 at 6.30 PM IST.

The webinar will explore the evolving landscape of…

Anita Gurumurthy took part in the 2024 APC Community Gathering organized by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) on 16 May 2024 in Chiang Mai, Thailand. She participated in an advocacy plenary titled, ‘What is the advocacy that we need to ensure that the internet and digital technologies enable gender justice, environmental…

Anita Gurumurthy participated in the UNDP’s Human Development Report Office (HDRO) Research Seminar on 7 May 2024.

Her talk focused on the data divide, arguing why it is critical in the understanding of development from a capabilities approach. Global discourses on data often emphasize technicalized conceptions of trust and security.…

IT for Change's Nandini Chami participated in a panel discussion at the 'Academia Social Sector Dialogue' organized by SRM University, Andhra Pradesh on May 3, 2024. The workshop aimed to initiate a dialogue on how universities may work together with the social sector to augment teaching and curriculum building for impactful student learning…

IT for Change's Anita Gurumurthy spoke at the G20 Side Event "Promoting Informational Integrity" conducted on the 1 May 2024 at São Paulo, Brazil. The G20 Side Event emphasized global discussions on promoting information integrity, taking place back to back to NetMundial +10 in São Paulo, and combining high-level meetings and a one-day event…

IT for Change's Anita Gurumurthy participated in the NETmundial+10 event organized by the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee- CGI.br in São Paulo, Brazil between 29-30 April, 2024,  as a part of the High-Level Executive Committee, representing civil society organizations.

NETmundial+10, is the second iteration of global…

IT for Change is co-organizing a side event, ‘Building an Economic Justice Playbook for WSIS+20: An Expert-led Dialogue,’ at the upcoming 27th Session of the Commission on Science and Technology for Development on 17 April 2024 in Geneva. Join us in envisioning a new and equitable information society with experts from civil society, academia,…

IT for Change's Anita Gurumurthy participated in a dialogue with the G77+China countries on "the summit of the future: risk and opportunities for developing countries" organized by the South Centre and Transnational Institute. The event was conducted on 11 April. 2024 in Geneva, Switzerland.

The dialogue's objective was to analyse and…

IT for Change's Malavika Rajakumar participated in an Experts Meeting on "Unpacking Gendered Disinformation in India: Deepening Understanding and Exploring Countermeasures" organized by Association for Progressive Communications between the 9-10 April 2024 in Goa, India.

The event addressed themes of on-going trends and disinformation…

IT for Change’s Director, Gurumurthy Kasinathan, was one of the speakers in a masterclass, as part of the Transnational Institute's online course about Digital Capitalism. Designed especially for activists, the course is an introduction to key aspects of digital capitalism.

He spoke about how digital platforms are emerging in different…

Anita Gurumurthy was invited to speak at the PARIS21 Spring Meetings 2024 organized in Washington D.C. from 3-4 April 2024.

The PARIS21 Spring Meetings provide an opportunity to rethink the way we approach the opportunities and challenges around development data. Centered around a different topic every year, the conference brings…

AI and digitalization have become topics of everyday discussion and debate, but what are their implications for activists fighting for social and environmental justice? To explore this, the Transnational Institute (TNI) organized a six-week course from April to May 2024 analyzing what is digital capitalism, how and by whom it is being shaped,…

IT for Change’s Gurumurthy Kasinathan participated as a speaker at the 2024 National Summit on the Right to Education Act, organized in New Delhi on 1 April 2024 by the RTE Cell, Council for Social Development (New Delhi), in collaboration with the RTE Forum.

He presented crucial inputs about RTE in Karnataka during a thematic session…

IT for Change’s Anita Gurumurthy and Nandini Chami will be participating in the 64th Annual Conference of the Indian Society of Labour Economics, to be held in Hyderabad between 29-31 March 2024.

At 9:00 AM on 30 March, Anita will be present in the capacity of a discussant in a technical discussion, chaired by Mariko Ouchi, Senior…

Our Research Assistant, Merrin Muhammed Ashraf, was invited to participate in a webinar titled, ‘Information Integrity in the G20: Social Media, Human Rights and Democracy’ being organized by FGV Direito Rio on 22 March 2024 at 6.30-8.30 PM IST.

At the webinar, speakers discussed devising strategies to combat misinformation, improve the…

The UN SDG Action Campaign hosted the Civil Society Strategic and Networking Meeting from 20-21 March 2024 at the UN in Bonn which provided a dialogue space for civil society, UN representatives, and the co-facilitators of the Summit of the Future to share views and agree on messages, priorities and strategies towards the Summit of the Future…

The Global Digital Justice Forum, IT for Change, Third World Network, and Association for Progressive Communications organized a Civil Society Strategy Meeting in Penang, Malaysia from 3-5 March 2024. Titled, ‘From WSIS to Now: What Next for Digital Justice?’, this meeting proved to be a crucial gathering of diverse stakeholders determined to…

Our Research Consultant, Jai Vipra participated as a civil society representative at the 13th Ministerial Conference of the WTO. Her advocacy efforts along with the Our World Is Not For Sale network were instrumental in ensuring that harmful international agreements on digitalization in agriculture and e-commerce were not finalized. She engaged…

IT for Change’s Viraj Desai and Ranjitha Kumar participated in Design Beku’s Future Pathways Workshop, held between 27 - 26 February 2024 in Tamil Nadu, India. This workshop represents the culmination of Design Beku's research intervention in the Vrutti fieldsite for our project, ‘Centering Women in India's Digitalizing Economy’.

The…

Anita Gurumurthy participated virtually in a global event titled, ‘Digital Dialogues: Thinking Together about the G20 Digital Agenda’ on 20 February 2024. The event saw diverse stakeholders from around the world coming together to engage in several pertinent discussions focused on digital economy issues, in the context of the Brazilian…

IT for Change conducted a training session for resident team members of the Institute of Social Studies Trust (ISST) on 16 February 2024. The theme of the training session was ‘Gender and Digitality’ and Anita Gurumurthy, Eshani Vaidya, and Malavika Rajkumar from IT for Change participated in the event, which was held at the Young Women…

Anita Gurumurthy took part in a session titled, ‘All Hands on Deck: Shaping an Inclusive Future of AI’ on 6 February 2024. The discussion was held as part of UNESCO’s ‘Global Forum on the Ethics of AI 2024’ in Kranj, Slovenia.

Artificial intelligence (AI) processes and systems are too important and complex to be decided upon by a few…

IT for Change's Malavika Rajkumar participated in the Asia Pacific Regional CSO Forum & Regional CSW68 Consultation on the Priority Theme for the 68th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women. The event was organized by Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development, UN Women, and others between 4-5 February 2024 in Bangkok,…

The United Nations invited IT for Change to take part in a virtual global consultation to develop a UN Code of Conduct for Information Integrity. We were one of 20 organizations that took part in the event and Anita Gurumurthy represented IT for Change. The event was hosted virtually on 23 January 2024.

The UN is developing a code of…

Malavika Rajkumar took part in a panel discussion titled, ‘Introducing the UNESCO Global NGO Repository on AI Ethics: Strengthening the Role of Civil Society’ on 14 December 2023. The panel was organized by UNESCO’s Bioethics and Ethics of Science and Technology Section, in collaboration with Achim Rosemann from the Leverhulme Centre for the…

Merrin Muhammed Ashraf took part in a panel discussion titled, 'The Only Way is Ethics', organized as a part of 14th International Forum of NGOs in Official Partnership with UNESCO on 14 December 2023. Bringing together speakers from Australia, Czechia, France, and India, the panel focused on the need for an ethical approach to the use and…

On 13 December 2023, Merrin Muhammed Ashraf represented IT for Change at a virtual consultation convened by the co-facilitators of the preparatory process for the Summit of the Future. The goal of this consultation was to give MGoS and civil society representatives the opportunity to share their overall views and expectations for the Summit and…

Anita Gurumurthy was invited by the Diplo Foundation to conduct a training session for UN Permanent Mission representatives on the Global Digital Compact (GDC) and digital governance from 11-15 December 2023.

During the event, Anita conducted three sessions:

1. Data governance: Between privacy protection and free data flows
…

The third edition of the India Internet Governance Forum was held in New Delhi on 5 December 2023. The theme of the forum this year was ‘Moving Forward: Calibrating Bharat’s Digital Agenda’.

Anita Gurumurthy took part in the event, where she highlighted the need to address two critical divides in order to accelerate India’s digital…

Malavika Rajkumar took part in a panel discussion co-hosted by UN Women and IIT Delhi on ‘Combating Online Gender-based Violence’ on 5 December 2023.

As digital technology mediates more and more of our daily lives, it is also facilitating new and heightened forms of gender-based violence (OGBV). Cyberbullying, doxing, hate speech,…

IT for Change is thrilled to be participating in an exciting line-up of sessions at the UNCTAD eWeek from 4-8 December 2023.

Organized with eTrade for all partners and held under the theme ‘Shaping the future of the digital economy’, eWeek 2023 will mobilize global support for a more inclusive and sustainable digital economy. Over 150…

IT for Change and Platform Cooperativism Consortium (PCC), along with Kerala Development and Innovation Strategic Council (K-DISC) co-organized the conference, ‘Roots of Resilience - Building Platform Cooperatives for Sustainable and Feminist Local Economies,’ which was conducted at the Kerala Arts and Crafts Village, Trivandrum, Kerala between…

Anita Gurumurthy has been invited by the University of Edinburgh to take part in a panel discussion on ‘Technomoral Conversations: The Geopolitics of AI’ on 20 November 2023 at 6 PM GMT/11.30 PM IST.

The geopolitics of AI is one aspect of the dynamic interplay between nations as they vie for technological supremacy, economic dominance,…

Globally, there is recognition that decent work in platform workplaces is predicated on legal guarantees for fair algorithmic management, ensuring equitable outcomes for workers. Unfortunately, India currently lacks a regulatory framework to protect gig workers from rights violations stemming from arbitrary and opaque algorithmic decision-…

Anita Gurumurthy took part in a panel discussion on ‘Right to Information and Privacy: Congruent or Contradictory?’ on 16 November 2023 at 3 PM IST. The event was organized by the Impact and Policy Research Institute (IMPRI).

Anita was joined by an expert group of panelists, including Shailesh Gandhi, RTI activist and former Central…

Anita Gurumurthy took part in the UN Commission on Science and Technology’s (UNCSTD) inter-session panel on 6 November 2023.

The panel addressed the following two priority themes:
•    Theme 1: Data for Development
•    Theme 2: Global cooperation in science, technology, and innovation for development

The Commission…

We are thrilled to invite you to the launch of our Judicial Resource Guide on ‘Forging a Survivor-Centric Approach to Online Gender-Based Violence’ and Research Report, ‘The Judiciary’s Tryst with Online Gender-Based Violence’ in New Delhi on 4 November 2023.

The launch event aims to enable critical discussion and deliberation on OGBV.…

Shreeja Sen took part in a workshop organized by NITI Aayog and Indira Gandhi Institute for Development Research titled, ‘Harnessing Data for Development to Accelerate Progress on Sustainable Development Goals’ on 3 November 2023 in New Delhi.

The workshop uncovered a wide range of topics that are relevant to India when it comes to…

Anita Gurumurthy was on the keynote panel of the 2023 Social Forum organized by the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner on 2 November 2023 in Geneva. The theme of the Forum was, ‘The contribution of science, technology and innovation (STI) to the promotion of human rights, including in the context of post-pandemic…

Nandini Chami participated in a panel titled 'Re Imaginations of the Future: Feminist Practices for the Defense of Human Rights in the AI Era' on 19 October 2023. The panel aims to explore the governance of data and AI from a feminist and decolonial perspective. To this end, it aims to make visible the advocacy work of feminist organisations…

Nandini Chami has been invited to take part in a panel discussion during Decidim Fest 2023 in Spain on 19 October 2023. Titled, ‘Re-Imaginations of the Future: Feminist Practices for the Defense of Human Rights in the AI Era,’ the panel will explore the governance of data and AI from a feminist and decolonial perspective. The panel aims to make…

In an era where large corporations monopolize the digital economy and use this power to grab wealth, control the narrative, and influence policy, Public Services International organized a panel on 16 October 2023 to discuss the effects of digitalization on public services and their workers, as part of its World Congress held at the Palexpo,…

Nandini Chami was a speaker at session titled 'What is the nature of the internet? Different Approaches' held at the Internet Governance Forum in Kyoto, Japan on 11 October 2023.

While the scope of internet governance, and all internet-related policy and regulation grows, and spaces where these matters are discussed proliferate, one…

Anita Gurumurthy participated as a panelist at the Main Session on Future of Digital Governance organized during the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) 2023 in Kyoto, Japan on 11 October 2023.

Topics related to digital governance are front and center on the international agenda. Over the next few years, several international processes will…

Nandini Chami has been invited to take part in a panel discussion on ‘Status and Rights of Platform and Gig Workers: Evidence from India’ that will be conducted on 10 October 2023 at 5 PM IST. The discussion is being organized by LEAD, Krea University and the Centre for Research on the Economics of Climate, Food, Energy and Environment, Indian…

The General Assembly endorsed resolution A/70/125 on December 16, 2015, calling for a high-level meeting in 2025 to comprehensively review the progress of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) known as WSIS+20 Review. WSIS envisions a "people-centered, inclusive, and development-oriented information society" utilizing ICT for…

We are co-organizing a networking session alongside the Transnational Institute and the Digital Constitutionalism Network at IGF 2023 in Kyoto. Our session, titled "Radical Imaginings-Fellowships for NextGen Digital Activists," is scheduled for Monday, 9 October 2023, from 16:30-17:30 Kyoto Time (JST)/ 7:30-8:30 UTC at WS 9 – Room C-2.

…

We're co-organizing a Day '0' pre-event for IGF 2023 in Kyoto titled "A Global Compact for Digital Justice: Southern Perspectives," in collaboration with the Global Digital Justice Forum, Dynamic Coalition on Platform Responsibility, and Dynamic Coalition on Internet Rights and Principles. Slated for Sunday, 8 October 2023, from 16:00-19:00…

Nandini Chami participated in the High Level Symposium on 'Feminist Contributions in Artificial Intelligence: Epistemological and Ethical Justice of Equality,' from 2 to 3 October 2023. The event co-organized by the Special Representation for Feminist Foreign Policy of the Argentine Foreign Ministry and UNESCO, in collaboration with UN Women…

Merrin Muhammed Ashraf has been invited to participate in a focus group discussion (FGD) on 28 September 2023 on technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TF GBV) in Asia. The event is part of a qualitative research study conducted by a group of researchers at the University of Melbourne in partnership with UNFPA. The FGD aims to bring…

Anita Gurumurthy has been invited to speak at the second edition of the School’s Paulo Freire Annual Lecture at Loughborough University London. Titled "Conscientization in Times of Cognitive Injustice", the lecture will take place on 27 September 27, 2023, at 11 pm IST. 

The lecture will critically examine the AI revolution and its…

Anita Gurumurthy will be taking part in a round-table discussion co-organized by UNESCO and Le Grand Continent on 21 September 2023 at 9.30 PM IST. The discussion is being organized as part of a seminar entitled ‘Human Sciences and Social Transformations’.

The session will focus on the effect that the development of digital social…

IT for Change and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung are co-organizing a one-day dialogue in Brussels on September 18, focusing on the intersection between data rights and decent work in the digital workplace. Titled “Worker Data Rights in the Digital Economy,” the event is structured as an expert dialogue. It will feature 30 participants, including…

Global governance stands at a pivotal moment with the rise of “UN 2.0” and heightened decision-making roles for transnational corporations (TNCs). This has sparked concerns about the future role of developing nations. On September 7, our Executive Director, Anita Gurumurthy, took part in a hybrid discussion addressing "Multistakeholderism and…

Our Research Associate Malavika Rajkumar participated in a virtual stakeholder consultation hosted by Equality Now on September 6, 2023. This event united civil society groups, academics, tech firms, UN agencies, and other pivotal players addressing online sexual exploitation and abuse (OSEA), tech-driven gender-based violence, and broader…

We are delighted to invite you to the 2023 edition of the School of Feminist Economics on Feminist Digital Justice, being conducted virtually from 5-7 September 2023.

Hosted by DAWN in collaboration with IT for Change, this virtual event will be a unique opportunity to explore the interrelation between economic dynamics and the…

Malavika Rajkumar and Merrin Muhammed Ashraf participated and presented a paper at ESIL Interest Group on International Law and Technology Pre-Conference Workshop - Annual Conference of the European Society of International Law on the…

While the digital economy holds much promise, for the Pacific there are still major structural hurdles with connectivity for communities to be able to best use online technologies. Despite this, there is a rush to write legally binding rules for the digital economy with the major players looking to lock in their advantages and lock out others…

Ranjitha Kumar was invited to speak at a workshop on 'Examining Approaches to Worker Led Governance of Data and AI Technologies', organized by CIFAR on 17 August 2023. Speaking under the thematic session ‘Designing for Uncertainty and Change’, Ranjitha presented IT for Change's ongoing work with SEWA Cooperative Federation on designing…

We live in a ubiquitous world of blurring boundaries among the physical, digital, and biological worlds. Technology is integral to our everyday life and it is the interface through which individuals interact with society. However, this transition has not been equitable. The enormous body of knowledge, generated from the labour of many, should…

Anita Gurumurthy took part in a panel discussion on ‘Building a Human-AI Future’, organized by the Asia Society India Centre at Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai on 8 August 2023.

How is AI transforming the face and future of lives and work in India, an emerging hub of technology? What are the potential gains and pitfalls of AI for Indian…

Nandini Chami was a speaker at an event titled "The Past and Present of Digital Liberties in India" on 8 August 2023 organised by the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies, and University of Oxford where she shared about the vision of the Global Digital Compact and role civil society and social movements could play in digital policymaking…

IT for Change joined 22 WACC partner organizations in Nairobi, Kenya for a partner sharing and consultation session from 1-3 August 2023. The overarching theme of the gathering, framed under the banner of "Communication Rights: Towards a Digital Justice Agenda," prompted participants to collaboratively articulate a set of crucial digital…

Anita Gurumurthy was invited to the stakeholder consultation workshop on ‘Understanding and Improving Women's Work on Digital Labor Platforms’ organized by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on 27 July 2023 in New Delhi.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) is implementing a research project titled, ‘Understanding and…

Malavika Rajkumar will be attending an online focus group discussion (FGD) on addressing the challenge of Online Gender-based Violence (OGBV) on 26 July 2023. The event is being organized by The Dialogue, as part of their qualitative study on delineating the responsibility of different stakeholder groups in effectively addressing OGBV. The FGD…

The research initiative ‘Promoting Intersectional Development Research’ is a joint project between the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies (SCIS) and Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC). The objective of this project is to understand, inform and promote intersectional approaches to development research across different…

Eshani Vaidya will take part in a symposium on ‘Digital Inclusion and Empowerment in India’ being organized by the Policy and Development Advisory Group (PDAG) on 25 July 2023.

The symposium will focus on themes such as, digital inclusion and labor markets, digital literacy and skills facilitating learning and accessing government…

The Young Researchers for Social Impact (YRSI) program is a one-of-its-kind initiative designed to immerse high school students in 'live' research projects with social impact organizations. In the 2023 edition, the program has 85 teens in the age group of 15-18, who are working with the Young Leaders for Active Citizenship (YLAC) and partner…

The Tech and Policy Lab of the University of Western Australia organized a ‘Tech Crimes Summit’ on July 17-18, 2023 at Perth. The two-day summit convened lawyers, researchers, academicians, and technologists to investigate criminal law as a tool for tackling Big Tech misconduct.

Anita Gurumurthy was a speaker in the session that explored…

Sreyan Chatterjee participated in the ‘International Conference on New Technologies and the Future of Work in the Global South’ organized by the Institute for Human Development, International Labour Organization, and Wits University, in collaboration with Niti Aayog. The three-day event began on 17 July 2023.

At the conference, Sreyan…

Digital technologies have made a significant impact on the information and communication processes in all spheres of life with digitalization being witnessed not just in terms of data but also in our modes of interactions. In education as well, the digital push can be seen to have increased owing to the prolonged school closures during the…

Anita Gurumurthy has been invited to take part in a webinar titled, ‘From Data to Action: Empowering Change and Addressing Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence.’ The webinar will be conducted on 11 July 2023 at 10 AM EST/7.30 PM IST. The event is being organized by UN Women and the Global Partnership for Action on Gender-Based Online…

Ranjitha Kumar will be attending the ILO’s 8th Regulating Decent Work Conference in Geneva. During the three-day conference, along with SEWA’s Salonie Muralidhara Hiriyur, Ranjitha will be making a presentation on a research study titled, ‘Re-imagining the Platform Firm: Lessons and Design Blueprints from SEWA’s Data Trust Experiment' on 11…

At the national level, in collaboration with esteemed academics and civil society groups from India, IT for Change played a crucial role in co-producing a T20 brief, focussing on robust digital public infrastructure governance. Our impact was evident in the G20 New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration which prominently emphasized the importance of "safe…

The entry of generative AI applications in the digital marketplace has intensified recent public debates about AI. Silicon Valley’s ‘move fast’ techno-optimism is now under the scanner. A humane and just AI system requires a radical restructuring of the global political-economic regime of knowledge, innovation, and development. In an era…

IT for Change members will take part in a hybrid international conference on ‘Global Perspectives on Platforms, Labor and Social Reproduction’ on 27 June 2023. The conference will be co-organized by the Platform Labor project and the Global Digital Cultures initiative in Amsterdam.

The conference aims to provide a space for questioning…

CCAOI along with the AADYA Society Institute For Management and Legal Studies is organizing an online interactive discussion on ‘Cybercrime and the Existing Regulatory Landscape in India’ on 27 June 2023 at 04.30 PM IST.

The objective of the discussion is to sensitize the legal community, students, and interested community members in…

Climate change is an existential threat for people and the planet. Its harmful effects undermine the full enjoyment and realization of all human rights, disproportionately affecting those who are already in vulnerable situations. Over the past years, the Human Rights Council took on resolutions and discussions on specific aspects of climate…

Anita Gurumurthy was invited as a resource person by the Diplo Foundation for their training program for the representatives of the UN Permanent Missions on the Global Digital Compact during 20-21 June 2023.

The first session that Anita took part in was on ‘Data governance: Between privacy protection and free data flow’. Here, she spoke…

On 14 June 2023, taking part in their fourth consultation on the Global Digital Compact, Viraj Desai shared a few comments on governance of digital commons, on behalf of IT for Change.

The Global Digital Compact is expected to “outline shared principles for an open, free, and secure digital future for all”. The informal consultations…

Nandini Chami will moderate a hybrid session on 'Claiming the Cyborgian Dream in the Al paradigm: Co-constructing an Agenda for Feminist Digital Justice' during RightsCon 2023 on 8 June 2023 at 11pm (IST). Co-moderated by Flora Partenio and Sala Weleikeba from DAWN, and Alejandra Santillana Ortiz from the Instituto de Estudios Ecuatorianos,…

The betterplace lab organized a roundtable on 1 June 2023 to explore collaboratively with 16 representatives from civil society organizations and academia, as well as individual activists, how the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) should adapt its future digital policy for it to be truly feminist,…

Anita Gurumurthy took part in a conference titled, ‘Building Trust in Digital Identities – Leveraging the Power of Technology, Policy, and Digital Cooperation’, organized by EPFL and Geneva Internet Platform on 31 May 2023.

The conference aimed to facilitate an exchange between technologists, diplomats, policymakers, industry, and the…

IT for Change participated and made a contribution to the sixth session of the Intergovernmental Group of Experts on E-commerce and the Digital Economy meeting conducted by UNCTAD from 10-12 May 2023.

The following were the substantive agenda items for the session:

Anita Gurumurthy has been invited to take part in UN Trade Forum 2023, organized by UNCTAD on 8-9 May 2023. The Forum will be held in a hybrid format and those interested can tune in to the various sessions virtually.

Anita will be taking part in a session titled, ‘Gender gaps and digital solutions - Launch of UNCTAD Policy Review: E-…

On 8 May 2023, taking part in their third consultation on the Global Digital Compact, Viraj Desai shared a few comments on human rights in the digital sphere, on behalf of IT for Change.

The digital paradigm not only reflects, but also amplifies intersectional exclusion and discrimination based on social locations, such as class, race,…

The eighth annual Multi-Stakeholder Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for the SDGs (STI Forum) will be held from 3 to 4 May 2023, organized by the UN interagency task team on STI for the SDGs (IATT), convened by UN-DESA and UNCTAD, and the 10-Member Group of high-level representatives appointed by the Secretary-…

Anita Gurumurthy was invited to speak at the webinar: ‘Data on Purpose 2023: “Making Tech Work for Workers”’ on 2 May 2023 at 9 PM IST, organized by the Stanford Social Innovation Review and Ford Foundation.

Generative AI. Big Data. Algorithmic Management. Robotics. Technologies currently being developed and deployed will change—have…

IT for Change hosted a roundtable on the proposed Digital India Act (DIA) with IPCIDE and NASSCOM on April 28, in New Delhi. The aim of the roundtable was to bring together views and perspectives from a diverse set of representatives across civil society, industry, policy practitioners, and academics.

You can find the Program agenda…

Anita Gurumurthy was invited by the University of San Francisco to take part in a public forum on ‘Planetary Feminism: Confronting Crisis through Collective Struggle’ on 25 April 2023. The Forum was organized by the University’s Department of Media Studies as part of their ongoing semester-long special course focusing on topics such as women…

Anita Gurumurthy has been invited to take part in a panel discussion on ‘Digital Health: Addressing the Interface of Development, Human Rights and Data Governance’, during the upcoming UN World Data Forum. The event will be co-organized by the South Centre and the Brazilian Institute for Consumer Rights (Idec) on 25 April 2023 at 12.30 PM IST…

Anita Gurumurthy was invited by the University of Padova to take part in two seminars on 17-18 April 2023.
In the first seminar on decolonizing technology, she participated in a highly informative discussion with Prof. Lynn Mario de Sousa on knowledge and digital cultures on 17 April 2023.

At the second seminar which was organized…

Anita Gurumurthy was invited by the EuromediApp Spring School to deliver a talk on ‘Knowledges, Values and Emerging Communication Orders’ on 14 April 2023.

The Spring School deals with regulatory and governance issues, related to digital media and platforms. In particular, the 2023 School focused on regulatory and policy options for…

Amay Korjan represented IT for Change at the Global Digital Compact's ‘Deep Dive Consultation on Internet Governance’ on 13 April 2023.

This session focused on answering the following questions:

The International Labor Organization organized a training workshop on `Strengthening Youth & Women Leadership in Trade Unions in India’ from 11 to 13 April 2023. The event saw the participation of 25 senior trade union leaders who attended eight sessions over the course of three days.

During the workshop, Sonakshi Agarwal led a…

India has been experiencing a rapid increase in privately-held wealth relative to public wealth, together with rising unemployment and inflation, and declining wages and government investment in welfare programs. This has resulted in growing inequality in terms of wealth and income. This trend is being accelerated by the platformization of…

The COVID-19 pandemic affected the progress of SDG4, but it led to advancements in online education technology. Education should be inclusive, learner-centered, affordable, and reach the last mile, while respecting cultural diversity and local languages.

To discuss about Quality Education and how Digital Transformations around the world…

Anita Gurumurthy was invited to take part in a high-level panel session to review the progress made on the implementation of and follow-up to the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) at the 26th UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD). The session was held on 29 March 2023 in Geneva.

CSTD…

Our Advocacy Associate, Viraj Samir Desai represented IT for Change during a consult for the Global Digital Compact on 27 March 2023.

The consultation sessions aim to share knowledge and views, as well as allow for contributions on a wide range of digital issues. At this consult, representing IT for Change, Viraj spoke on ‘Digital…

Multinational corporations have grown wealthy by monopolizing the resources we need to live a dignified life – whether it’s the food we eat, the medicines we need to treat ourselves, or the technology which increasingly underlies our day-to-day lives.

These leviathans set the rules of the game, forcing countries to compete with each…

R. Vaishno Bharati and Avantika Tewari presented a paper titled, ‘Beyond Bringing Bodies into the Algorithm: A Study of Menstruapps’ at the 'Algorithms for Her? 2' conference organized by the University of Sheffield, UK. The conference was held at the Millennium Gallery between 23-24 March 2023.

Vaishno and Avantika presented the…

Anita Gurumurthy spoke at a panel discussion on 'Making Digital Liveable: The Social Economy and the Digital Age' at the OECD Social Economy Summit on 21 March 2023.

Anuradha Ganapathy and Malavika Rajkumar are invited to speak at International Co-operative Alliance's (Asia and Pacific) virtual lecture on 7 March 2023 for International Women's Day. The talk is titled 'DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality'.

The theme for International Women’s Day, 8 March 2023 (IWD 2023) is, '…

IT for Change is excited to host and participate in a diverse lineup of sessions during the CSW67 from 5-14 March 2023 in New York. Find below a detailed list of our sessions and register here to join us at the event this year.

Sunday, 5 March

Conversation with the Head of UN Women and Co-chair of CSW67

Organizers: NGO CSW…

IT for Change is hosting and participating in an exciting line up of sessions in this year's LDC5 Conference and the Civil Society Forum from 4 to 9 March, 2023.

Click on this link to find the complete list of our sessions.

Our Executive Director Anita Gurumurthy is invited to speak at the opening plenary of the introductory…

Shreya Bali has been invited to speak at the virtual conference, ‘Corporate Charcha 2023’, organized by Symbiosis Center for Information Technology on 26 February 2023 at 10 AM IST. Shreya will be speaking on the topic, ‘Datafication: A New Paradigm Spanning the World’.

The conference aims to provide a platform for experts in the field…

Anand Desai has been invited to speak at a webinar on ‘Enabling Technology For Social Impact’, organized by Civil20 on 23 February 2023 at 9.30 AM IST.

This webinar aims to bring together experts who will share their deep insights on the risks, opportunities, and challenges for policy development that enables accessibility and…

Anita Gurumurthy took part in a 'Conference on Agriculture, Land and Forests’, held by Focus on the Global South from 18-19 February 2023 in New Delhi.

The conference aimed to focus on the following key issues:

As the UN CSW67 conference draws closer, Nandini Chami was invited by the Despise Girls to join them on their YouTube show, ‘Lets Talk Economic Justice’. The episode was broadcast live on 16 February 2023. Nandini spoke on a variety of topics ranging from the macro understanding of digitalization to CSW67.

Watch the recording here.

Anita Gurumurthy took part in the ‘Expert Group Meeting on SDG 11’, conducted from 8-9 February 2023. The meeting was organized by the Division for Sustainable Development Goals of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA/DSDG), United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), and the United Nations Development…

Nandini Chami took part in the ‘Asia Pacific Regional CSO Forum on the Priority theme of CSW67’, organized by APWLD on 6 February 2023.

Over 70+ participants from across the world took part in the event, as they shared issues affecting women and girls in their countries relevant to CSW67. Emerging issues identified included digital…

Our Advocacy Associate Viraj Samir Desai represented IT for Change during a consult for the Global Digital Compact on 3 February 2023.

Following the political declaration adopted at the occasion of the United Nations’ 75th anniversary in September 2020, the Secretary-General in September 2021 released a Common Agenda report. The Common…

Parminder Jeet Singh was invited to take part in the workshop, ‘Will UK-India trade deal hinder sustainable development?’ organized by Bond and the Trade Justice Movement on 1 February 2023.

One of the touted benefits of the UK’s exit from the European Union is its ability to strike trade deals independently of the EU. The UK has since…

Shreeja Sen will be taking part in OECD Watch’s ‘2023 Global Gathering’, organized from 30 January-1 February 2023. The workshop aims to discuss the role of the OECD, OECD Guidelines, and OECD Watch in the changing corporate accountability landscape. The workshop will introduce in detail aspects of the OECD Guidelines on Multinational Entities…

IT for Change will be hosting a five-day residential institute on Frontiers and Frames for a New Digitality in Chiang Mai, Thailand, beginning on 30 January 2023. The institute aims to capacitate civil society actors with the necessary vocabulary and tools to appropriately frame and approach emerging digital intersections with their work, as…

Parminder Jeet Singh has been invited to take part in a panel discussion, ‘The Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF): What is in store for partner countries and India?’ on 27 January at 4.30 PM IST. The event is being held by TWN Trust India and Third World Network.

The Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) is a major initiative…

Parminder Jeet Singh participated in a workshop on ‘Enabling Data Sharing Ecosystem: Challenges and Expectations from Data Management Office (DMO)’ on 18 January 2023. The workshop was organized by Wadhwani Foundation and Chase India in New Delhi.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) released the draft 'India…

Malavika Rajkumar was invited to take part in a panel discussion on ‘Challenging Big Tech’ at the Asia-Pacific Digital Rights Forum on 13 January.

The Internet today is largely controlled by a hegemony of giant technology companies that control so much of people’s online lives, but largely escape regulation and accountability for the…

IT for Change, in collaboration with TISS, Oxfam India, and the National Coalition on Education Emergency, will be organizing a webinar discussing, ‘Is EdTech a Danger to Education?’ The webinar will be held on 23 December at 11 AM IST.

The education sector has been experiencing a ‘digital push’ for a while now, but this has accelerated…

Anita Gurumurthy was invited to chair a panel discussion on Public Spaces as the Primary Terrain of Contestation with Digital Emerging as Counter/Parallel Public organized by Krea University. This discussion was part…

Parminder Jeet Singh has been invited to participate in a webinar being organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as part of its ‘Commercial Determinants of Health’ webinar series on 16 December at 7.30 PM IST.

This is the third webinar being conducted as part of the series, and it will explore the impact of the digital and…

Deepti Bharthur participated in the ‘2022 Study Week on Macroeconomic, Trade, Investment and Development Policies’ organized by the Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND), the Asfari Institute for Civil Society and Citizenship, and Third World Network. The event was held from 12-16 December 2022.

The objectives of the study week were as…

IT for Change, in collaboration with Research ICT Africa (RIA) and Freidrich-Ebert Stiftung (FES), hosted a workshop on ‘Feminist Digital Economy’ on 13-14 December 2022.

The workshop was organized with the aim to collect region-specific input for the 2023 UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW67). It focused on sub-Saharan Africa and…

Anita Gurumurthy was invited to participate in a panel discussion Data for Development: Role of G20 in Advancing the 2030 Agenda on 13 December. The event was hosted by India’s G20 Secretariat in collaboration with…

Parminder Jeet Singh was invited to take part in a panel to discuss ‘If Sharing is Caring, How Can Policymakers Incentivize Data Sharing? The EU and India Have Some Ideas’. The discussion was organized by Digital Trade and Data Governance Hub on 6 December at 10 AM EST/8.30 PM IST.

Researchers have shown that increased data sharing could…

Parminder Jeet Singh has been invited to take part in a virtual learning call on the Digital Data Protection Bill, 2022. The event will be organized by SFLC.in on 6 December at 6.30 PM IST. The bill is currently open for public consultation and comments till 17 December. The discussion is being organized with the aim to better understand the…

Gurumurthy Kasinathan has been invited to take part in Digital Delhi Conclave, 2022 being organized by IIIT-Delhi on 3 December. The conclave will be held at the university’s campus and will begin at 9.30 AM IST. This year’s theme for the conclave is ‘Quality and Equitable Education’. In particular, speakers will explore how digital…

Anita Gurumurthy has been invited to take part in a working session discussing ‘How can data justice be realised practically?’ at Internet Governance Forum 2022. The session will be conducted on 2 December at 4.15 PM IST.

This roundtable will form part of an ongoing research-to-policy influence process which is mapping out and developing…

Gurumurthy Kasinathan has been invited to speak on ‘EdTech and its Implications for Public Education’ at Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University (AUD), Delhi. The event is being conducted as part of the University’s School of Education Studies’ ‘Seminar Series’ on 2 December at 2 PM IST.

The session will be moderated by Krishna Kalyan Dixit, AUD.…

Deepti Bharthur took part in a panel discussion on ‘Silicon Valley and the Global South’ organized by the Berkley Student Forum on 1 December 2022.

New technologies, businesses, and leaders coming out of Silicon Valley have been revolutionizing ways of life globally. Capable of reaching the world’s most vulnerable populations in the…

Anita Gurumurthy will be participating in a panel discussion on 'Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights' organized by the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) in Bengaluru on 30 November. The event will be held at Bangalore International Centre at 6 PM IST.

The discussion is a part of a project at NLSIU, supported by the…

Anita Gurumurthy has been invited to speak at a panel during the Our Future is Public Conference. The conference will be held from 29 November-2 December in Santiago, Chile. The conference aims to provide an opportunity to raise public consciousness and strengthen collaboration between actors and movements to develop joint strategies.

…

IT for Change is co-organizing a webinar on  "Exploring the Education Technology Landscape". The main speaker for the event is Prof. Rajaram Sharma, Former Joint Director, CIET, NCERT, and his talk will be followed by discussions on ICT & education. The webinar will be useful to broaden the understanding of teachers, teacher educators,…

Over 80 trade unions, environmentalists, tax watchdogs, and worker-rights groups organized about 120 strikes, worker actions, and protests in across 30 countries from 21-25 November as part of the Make Amazon Pay campaign. The protests ranged across Poland, Germany, Japan, the United States, South Africa, and India. Further, Amazon warehouse…

IT for Change will be hosting the State of Big Tech Dialogue, an online panel discussion to mark the launch of our upcoming report, ‘State of Big Tech: Dismantling Digital Enclosures’ on 21 November from 7:00-9:00 PM IST/2:30-4:30 PM CET.

To build strategies to respond to the aggrandizement of Big Tech power, our report moves past the…

Anita Gurumurthy has been invited to take part in a panel discussion organized by the NGO Committee on the Status of Women/New York (NGO CSW/NY) on November 17 at 6.30 pm IST. The discussion will focus on the impact of digitalization, innovation, and technological change on the lives of women and girls.

The event is being organized as…

Anita Gurumurthy will be taking part in the conference ‘Owning the Future: Sustainably Scaling Platform Cooperatives With the Global South’ hosted by Platform Cooperativism Consortium and the Institute for Technology and Society. The conference will be held from November 4-6 in Brazil. The event aims to address one specific question: How have…

Anuradha Ganapathy has been invited to take part in a panel discussion on ‘Gender Digital Divide – Impact on Societies and Democracy’ organized by UNDP, India on October 31 at 3 PM IST.

The panel will discuss the emerging signals, insights, and good practices on bridging the gender digital divide and its implication on democracy. In…

Anita Gurumurthy has been invited to moderate a panel discussion titled ‘Boon, Bane, or Bust: Can our Planet Survive Tech?’ organized by ORF on 28 October at 12.30 pm IST. The discussion is being organized as part of ORF’s ‘Conform or #Cancel’ dialogue.

Humanity's drive to innovate is based on the belief that technologies create a…

Praminder Jeet Singh participated in a panel discussion titled ‘Data Colonization Hinders a Just Transition’ organized by the Asia-Europe People’s Forum on October 21 at 2.30 PM IST.

The webinar focused on Big Data, the control internet companies wield over our daily lives, and the rules these companies should bind by.

Besides…

Anita Gurumurthy will be attending the 'Roundtable Discussion on Developing Legislative Interventions for On-Demand Platform Work in India',  organized by Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy and FES. The event will be held at Bangalore International Centre, 9.30 am onwards. 

Parminder Jeet Singh has been invited to take part in a virtual policy roundtable on the Consent Manager framework and its instantiation within India’s health data regulatory landscape. The roundtable will be organized by Aapti and Swasth Alliance on October 14 at 5:00 PM IST.

The aim of the roundtable is to convene a multi-stakeholder…

Parminder Jeet Singh has been invited to take part in a workshop on STI for SDGs Roadmap on October 11, organized by RIS and OPSA in New Delhi. Parminder will be speaking on the panel ‘Indian Perspectives on STI for SDGs’.

India has demonstrated a strong will to leverage Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) for sustainable and…

Gurumurthy Kasinathan participated in a panel discussion titled ‘India Online: Inclusive digital education for the next generation’ on 11 October. The discussion was hosted by the SRF Foundation as part of their ‘National Conference on Democratizing Digital – Breaking Barriers for 21st Century Education’.

Digital education is the need of…

Anita Gurumurthy took part in a webinar on “Leveraging the Digital Transformation for Decent Work in the Global South” organized by the International Training Centre, ILO. The webinar was conducted on October 10 at 12.30 pm IST.

The session focused on the opportunities and challenges that the digital economy brings about for countries of…

Anita Gurumurthy participated at the launch of “Global Manifesto for Fairer Platform Work” published by Fairwork. In anticipation of the ILO's Meeting of Experts on Decent Work in the Platform Economy, a 'Manifesto for Fairer Platform Work' to protect and ensure the rights of platform workers across the world was launched on October 7 at 7.30…

Parminder Jeet Singh has been invited to take part in a panel discussion on Cross-Border Data Flows held as part of the C20 Summit Parallel Events on October 6 at 4.30 pm IST.

During the discussion speakers will discuss the G20 agenda and the need for international legal framework and governance on cross-border data flows.

Besides…

Parminder Jeet Singh has been invited to a working session titled “Governing Data for Global Flows and Exchanges for Digital Trade” organized by ITfC, The South Centre, and the Transnational Institute on 30 September as part of the 2022 WTO Public Forum. The session will be held at 9.00 pm IST.

Data being a digital society’s key resource…

Parminder Jeet Singh took part in a workshop on “Trustworthy Data Spaces: A Dialogue between North and South” during the 2022 WTO Public Forum on 29 September. The workshop was organized by Diplo Foundation, the Swiss Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM, Switzerland), and the Geneva Internet Platform (GIP).

Although data is non-…

Anita Gurumurthy participated at a session titled “Digital transition - Cooperative platforms have a future!” on 27 September 2022. The session was conducted as part of the Global Innovation Coop Summit at 1.00 pm IST. Speakers at the session analyzed the need and role of collaborative platforms in the context of the cooperative world.

…

The Fifth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC5) was organized in Bonn, Germany from 27-30 September. At the conference, civil society actors, researchers, and networkers, mainly from the Global South and with strong LDC participation, gathered. The meeting aimed to provide a timely opportunity to assess the current…

Parminder Jeet Singh has been invited to take part at a working session organized by the Rosa-Luxemburg-Foundation panel at the WTO Public Forum 2022. The session is titled “Democratic Technological Development and Overcoming the Digital Divide in the post-Covid recovery" and will be conducted on 27 September at 9.00 pm IST.

The "Années…

APWLD and IT for Change, with support from Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) are co-organizing a virtual workshop on Feminist Visions for Digitalizing Economies in Asia. The workshop will examine two specific issues:

1. What are the top considerations for gender justice in the digitalizing economies of the Asia-Pacific?

2. What are…

Parminder Jeet Singh will be speaking at a virtual learning call on non-personal data (NPD) hosted by SFLC.in on September 19 at 4.30 pm IST. The learning call has been organized to discuss certain pressing issues related to NPD governance in India, the developments so far, and the way forward.

The call will focus on the following issues…

Even though the pandemic exposed the deep injustice of our economic and social system, it failed to trigger needed change. More than two years on, the health crisis continues, compounded by spiraling food and energy prices, escalating wars and geopolitical tensions, and ever more signs of environmental collapse. How can progressive forces…

In June 2022, the NITI Aayog published a research report titled, 'India's Booming Gig and Platform Economy - Perspectives and Recommendations on the Future of Work', mapping the opportunities and challenges in India’s platformizing economy, and coming up with recommendations for a future of work agenda.

In order to engage with this…

There is a very strong narrative that argues that, given the lack of resources of our multilateral institutions and the expertise of corporations, they should sit at the decision-making tables alongside states. Multistakeholderism, the name of this phenomenon where corporations have voice and vote, most times dislocating states, especially from…

IT for Change is co-organizing a workshop on The Digital Ecosystem Opportunity for Indian Agriculture: Making the Right Choices, with Vrutti, and Sewa Cooperative Federation as part of it's EU funded project, Centering Women in India's Digitalizing Economy on August 24, 2022, at the India International Centre, Delhi.

In recent years,…

Southern Centre for Inequality Studies is organizing a series of Future of Work(ers) Policy Dialogue. Anita Gurumurthy will be an expert speaker for the discussion on the 16th of August, 2022 on Emerging Forms of Worker Power in the Digital Economy.

They will be looking at how have platform workers responded to digitization. How has…

Global Index on Responsible AI, a project of Data for Development Network organized a workshop on what a feminist construction of AI would mean for the Global South on the 16th of August, 2022. It hoped to unpack a set of tools, ie. OECD Principles, UNESCO Principles, GIRAI for assessing efforts by states to create socially responsible and…

PAC organized a panel discussion to celebrate and bring in India’s 75 years of Independence. The Panel, "Revisiting the Social Contract - Imperatives for the Future" marked the beginning of a series of activities that PAC will be focussing on in the coming year.

Pranay Kotasthane from Takshashila Institution

Anita Gurumurthy from…

WWF-Pacific , PANG & DAWN are co-organizing a talk on marine genetic resources and data governance on the 9th of August. Anita Gurumurthy will be part of the panel, along with:

Dr Katy Soapi - Ocean Scientist

Chee Yoke Ling - TNI Director

Tekau Frere - OPOC advisor

You can watch a recording of the event here.…

Uli is a browser plug-in, based on machine leaning and non-ML approaches, to help mitigate online gender and sexual abuse on Twitter in three Indian languages: Hindi, Tamil, and Indian English. UIi has been jointly produced by The Centre for Internet and Society and Tattle Civic Tech, with support from Omidyar Network. The tool design is based…

Nandini Chami spoke at the third online discussion from the “post-covid feminist agenda” series organized by The Regional Gender and Feminism Office at Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES).

The session was organized in partnership with The Access to Knowledge for Development Center (A2K4D) at the school of business, The American University in…

Civil-20 or C20 is an official G20 Engagement group where its presence would ensure the G20 leaders listen to peoples’ voices with the aim of protecting the environment and promoting social and economic development, human rights, and the principle of leaving no one behind.

To achieve the goals and to strengthen the role of C20 in…

Centre for International Governance Innovation is organizing a private roundtable on the future of institutions on the 20th of July, 2022. Anita Gurumurthy will be participating in this roundtable.

The Future of Institutions series asks creative and impactful organizations, leaders, and thinkers to come together to propose answers to two…

To strengthen India’s data protection laws, the Joint Parliamentary Committee’s (JPC) Report on the Personal Data Protection Bill (2019) recommended widening the scope of the bill to include aspects of non-personal data (NPD), including anonymized personal data. This move is believed to be fraught with many lacunas and may lead to unintended…

This webinar will serve as an introductory session to provide key elements for understanding the phenomena of digitalization of food systems from seed to stomach (also known as the 4.0 revolution in food and agriculture). This webinar is being conducted as a free and open teach-in, organized as two 45-minute sessions with 15 minutes for Q&A…

On June 20, 2022, IT for Change and FES co-organized a workshop in Berlin titled, ''. The workshop proposed to examine and discuss the different approaches of the EU and India with regard to data infrastructures and data rights and laws. The objective is to help policymakers make well-considered and deliberate choices in their respective…

Parminder Singh was invited as a speaker for the global assembly of Tech & Game Workers in Berlin on the 16-17th of June to be part of two intensive days discussing how to organize the future of work in the videogame sector.

He spoke on digitalisation & ecologial sustainability and organizing Tech Workers. You can access the…

The Access to Knowledge for Development (A2K4D) Center, in cooperation with Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) - Berlin and IT for Change, is hosting the closed virtual regional workshop on ‘Feminist Visions of the Digital Economy in MENA'. The workshop will curate Middle East and North African (MENA) perspectives on the “The Deal we Always Wanted…

We hosted a session at the 11th edition of RightsCon to discuss the current state of affairs and the future agenda for workers’ rights in the digital economy. The session was hosted as a community lab and was co-organized by IT for Change, Why Not Labs, and the ILO. The discussion focused on crystalizing workers’ rights within national…

At this year’s RightsCon summit, we hosted a community lab discussing how judicial systems can ensure access to justice for LGBTQIA+ persons in cases of online gender-based violence in the Global South. The lab explored models and strategies to mitigate violence and identify challenges faced by the LGBTQIA+ community across various legal…

IT for Change is hosting two exciting sessions at RightsCon 2022, happening virtually from June 6 to 10. To participate in these sessions, register for RightsCon 2022 now. 

A community lab hosted by IT for Change and InternetLab. 

The…

The South Centre and the Transnational Institute, with the support of the Peoples’ Working Group on Multistakeholderism (PWGM), co-organized an online policy dialogue with developing countries’ representatives in Geneva and New York and civil society organizations to discuss the characteristic, impact and challenges that multistakeholderism…

Shreeja Sen will be part of a session on Gender-based violence and judicial practices in the 2022 Global Cooperation and Training Framework (GCTF) Conference on Ending Gender-based Violence organized by the Gender Equality Committee of the Executive Yuan on 25th May, 2022.

Find the agenda of the conference here.

Watch a recording…

Parminder Jeet Singh was invited to speak at a webinar on 'Strengthening the Governance of Health Data', organized on May 18. The webinar highlighted issues such as the need to improve health data governance, the need for sector-specific principles for health, health data governance principles and how they complement existing principles to…

Anita Gurumurthy has been invited to take part in an event discussing the ‘Right to health and personal data protection: currents challenges and potentials’. The event is being hosted by the Brazilian Institute of Consumer Defense (IDEC) with support from the Institute of Communication and Scientific Information in Health of Fiocruz and the…

Italian conference about platform cooperativism which will take place on 13th May in Bologna, titled it "Cooperative Platforms: a lever for youth policies and the protection of new jobs". The aim was to discuss whether cooperative platforms can be the right instrument to welcome young people into the labor market and bring them closer to the…

Parminder Jeet Singh was invited to speak at a workshop on ‘Trade and Investment Agenda Post Covid-19’ on May 12. Parminder spoke at a session identifying key corporate sectors and actors that are influencing and shaping global policies in the post-pandemic scenario. The session was organized by the Transnational Institute. 

Shreeja Sen will be talking at the session on Deepfakes, Disinformation, Doxxing: How Countering Gender Violence Online Builds a Better Web for All, on 11th May, 2022 as part of the Good Tech Fest.

Register here.

About the session:

Chayn, NotMyPorn, Wise Afrika, IT for Change, and the World Wide Web Foundation showcase…

The 7th Annual Multi-Stakeholder Forum on Science, Technology, and Innovation for the SDGs (STI Forum) will be held on 5-6 May 2022 on the theme “Science, technology and innovation for building back better from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) while advancing the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. The STI…

Anita Gurumurthy was invited to speak at a working session organized by the Bar Association of India (BAI) during their seminar on the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2021. The seminar was organized on 3 May 2022. Anita spoke at a working session discussing “Data Governance within the Personal Data Protection Bill & Criminal Law and Privacy…

Commonwealth of Learning and IT for Change are offering a course for teachers and teacher educators on the use of Geogebra for mathematics teaching and learning from the 2nd to the 30th of May, 2022.

To enroll for the course, click here.

Teaching Mathematics with Technology (TMT) course introduces…

IT for Change, Internet Freedom Foundation and Bharatiya Krishak Samaj are co-organizing a workshop called 'Right-Digitalisation' to be held in Delhi on April 30th. The workshop will take a cross-sectoral look at “Where digitalization is going wrong; and how to get it right?” across five sectors - health, education, agriculture, online commerce…

The 2nd in a two-part webinar series, "Trade, Gender & Post-War Recovery: Exploring the Arguments & Intersections," held on 27th April, 2022 organized by  Consortium on Gender, Security and Human Rights and Gender and Trade Coalition, featuring:

-Nandini Chami, IT for Change
-Diyana Yahaya, Independent Feminist Activist…

IT for Change is hosting and participating in an exciting line up of sessions in this year's eCommerce week from 25th to 29th of April, 2022. Find a detailed list of our sessions below, and register for the conference here to access recordings and attend the sessions.

1. Promoting Inclusive Data Policy Through Capacity Building

…

Anita Gurumurthy spoke at the 11th Krishna Raj Memorial Lecture on Digital Health - Access, Equity, and Surveillance, organized by Anusandhan Trust SATHI, Centre for Health Equity, Law & Policy & Indian Law Society on the 23rd of April, 2022.

Other lecturers in the panel are:

Apar Gupta (Key note speaker)

Vivek…

IT for Change and InternetLab co-organized a roundtable on April 19th and 20th to catalyze a productive debate revolving around the central question: what new imaginaries of social media governance will be adequate to eradicate the unfreedoms arising from misogyny in online communications agora?

Through this roundtable, the organizations…

Shreeja Sen was part of a panel discussion organized by the Womens Foreign Policy Group on Countering Tech-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence and Intimidation. Her talk was rooted in the same ideas that shape our Recognize, Resist, Remedy project.

You can watch a recording of the session here.

About the event: Technology-…

Anita Gurumurthy has been invited to take part in a webinar on India’s evolving data governance regime. The webinar is being organized by the Elliott School of International Affairs on the 29th of March. Her co-panelist will be Arindrajit Basu, Research Lead, Centre for Internet in Society. The discussion will be moderated by…

Anita Gurumurthy was invited to speak at a policy dialogue on ‘Examining Platform, Data and AI Infrastructures’. The event was organized by the Ashank Desai Centre for Policy Studies, IIT Bombay on the 23rd of March, 2022.

Anita was part of a panel discussion on ‘Data, Platforms and AI: A Troubled Legacy’. Her co-panelists included:…

Covid-19 has had a terrible impact on every aspect of life, as we all know. The sufferings of the underprivileged because of Covid-19 and the efforts taken to combat the infection are self-evident. Humankind has witnessed an unprecedented tragedy of the century. Loss of loved ones, lost livelihood prospects for historically marginalized groups…

As a part of the NGO CSW 66 Forum, IT for Change and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung are organizing an online event on "Feminist Futures in the Digitalizing World of Work". This online discussion will explore questions on the feminist futures of work in the digital epoch, the policy and programmatic actions are needed at the global, national and…

Malavika Rajkumar will be part of a panel on Gendered Access to Justice organized by One Future Collective on the 8th of March, 2022.

The panel aims to address the gendered nature of the idea of justice and the process of seeking justice in India. The panel will talk about their on-ground experiences of working in the legal and policy…

Anita Gurumurthy has been invited to speak at the "Southern Region Stakeholders' Conference on Violence Against Women." She will be speaking on a panel on, “Violence Against Women- where we are, what is done so far to combat gender-based violence and what more to do.” Her co-panelists include: 

Uma Mahadevan, IAS, Principal Secretary (…

Parminder Jeet Singh has been invited to speak at the Zoom discussion on "The Fintech Landscape of Blockchains, Cryptocurrency and the Digital Rupee. Should We Be Concerned?". Parminder and his co-panelists explore the Fintech Landscape of Blockchains, CryptoCurrency and the Digital Rupee. His co-panellists include: 

Usha Ramanathan,…

Anita Gurumurthy was invited as a speaker to a virtual national conference being organized by Daulat Ram College, University of Delhi on February 26, 2022. The theme of the conference was “Digital India: Prospects and Challenges”. The conference focused on the changes brought about by digitization in the context of socio-political realities of…

Parminder Singh was part of a panel on Amazon on the 19th of February at the (online) Asia Pacific Social Forum. The panel was jointly organized by the Working Peoples Coalition, Joint Action Committee against Foreign Retail and e-commerce, Acorn International, UNI Global Union, and Progressive International.

About the forum: In the…

Khawla Zainab spoke at a webinar on Public Reason and Social Media: Questioning the Stakeholders organized by the Economic and Political Weekly.

At the event, she shared some insights from The Macro Frames of Microwork: A Study of Indian Women Workers on AMT in the Post-Pandemic Moment with reference to the labour and labour practises…

Parminder Singh spoke at the Virtual Stakeholder Consultation on Non-Personal Data Regulation and Intersection with PDP Bill organized by the Dialogue on the 10th of Feb, 2022.

Registration link here.

Other speakers at the consultation were:

Astha Kapoor - Co-founder of Aapti Institute

Manoj Garg - Co-founder of…

Parminder Singh was one of the speakers at the UN DESA's Sustainable Development Divison & Ecosoc Partnership forum Spotlight Session - Bridging the Gap: Addressing the vacuum in multilateral governance of digital technology to close the digital divide and support efforts to leave no one behind.

This session was jointly organized by…

Parminder Singh was invited to give a lecture on 'Economic issues of interest in Internet Governance' for the Virtual School of Internet Governance on 31st January, 2022.

Access the module here.

Avantika Tewari spoke at the World March of Women's global conference, titled, "Feminist Solidarity Against Corporate Power" on 20th January 2022.

The objective of the conference was to mount a global challenge against the tyranny of Big Tech and Transnational Companies that have simultaneously, appropriated the space for resistance.…

Amshuman Dasarathy was a panelist at a webinar organized by BOOM on AI and Extreme Speech on the 20th of January, 2022.

Other panelists at the event were Maya Mirchandani and Elonnai Hickok. The event was co-organised by BOOM and LMU Munich, led by Professor Sahana Udupa. Other than extreme speech, panelists discussed the threat and…

The Round Table, Our Future at Stake: The Corporate Capture of Multilateralism aims not only to address the Davos agenda of multistakeholderism but to initiate a dynamic exchange and contribute to building a dialogue between concerned social movements, affected sectors and governments.

Register for it here.

About the event

…

Parminder Jeet Singh delivered a public talk organized by All India IT & ITES Employees' Union on 16th January 2022 to discuss workers rights of ownership over data they generate.

Link to register for the event.

You can read the summary of his talk here.

SAMVADA is a youth-focused organization based in Bengaluru that has been working towards building youth leadership, equipping youth in socially critical livelihoods, promoting youth work, and advocating for youth rights. Samvada is organizing a National Consultation on 'Aligning Youth Work with Livelihood Challenges' on 10th and 11th December,…

Parminder Singh was invited as a speaker to two international workshops as part of the Global Partnership Network Project, under the Jawaharlal Nehru University-Kassel collaborative project on Agricultural Value Systems and Finance Capital, held on 9 December 2021 and Contract Farming in India, held on 10 December 2021.

They were jointly…

The IGF is a global multistakeholder platform that facilitates the discussion of public policy issues pertaining to the Internet

Like every year, the IGF will bring people together from various stakeholder groups as equals to discuss public policy issues about the Internet from 6-10th December, aiming to facilitate a common understanding…

This Twitter chat was held on IT for Change's twitter account- @ITforChange
 along with Breakthrough India on Dec 3rd, 2021, from 5 PM – 6 PM IST during the #16DaysofActivism

You can follow the conversation or add your questions & comments using the hashtag #StopDigitalHate on Twitter.

Read through the conversation using…

Anita Gurumurthy was part of an expert panel discussion on the impact of Covid-19 crisis on gender justice in Asia.

The corona pandemic and the related countermeasures, once again, exposed persisting inequalities in Asian societies – in wealth and income, but also along lines like gender, race, caste, and others. Especially less…

Parminder Singh will be talking at the IGF Webinar: 16 Years of IGF Evolution and Strengthening – Taking Stock and Looking Forward organized by MAG Chair in collaboration with the MAG Working Group on IGF Strategy and Strengthening.

This interactive moderated panel looked back and took stock of how the IGF has evolved and what its key…

Nandini Chami was part of a Consultation with CSOs On Sectoral Reporting Template for the ICT Sector jointly organized by UNDP India and Partners in Change on 16th November as part of their work towards development of ICT Sector specific – Business Responsibility and Sustainability Framework (BRSR).

Background:

The Indian Ministry…

Nandini Chami will be moderating a panel on Community Networks: Media, Misinformation and Misuse on the third day of the 5th Community Network Xchange Conference organized jointly by DEF & Internet Society.

Panel Brief: Access to credible information is crucial during crises such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In response to this…

The Fifth South Asia Forum on the Sustainable Development Goals(SAFS 2021) was held on 15-16th November 2021. The theme of the event was Building back better from COVID-19 while accelerating the implementation of the SDGs in South and South-West Asia.

About the event: The South Asia Forum on the SDGs (SAFS) was conceived as the…

Anita Gurumurthy will be part of a panel speaking on the topic- “Co-Ops for the Indian Digital Economy?” as part of TheNewCommonSense - 2021 Conference of the Platform Cooperativism Consortium

Register for the event here and get the conference live stream here.

Key questions to be discussed in this conversation include:

1.…

Anita Gurumurthy participated in the 5th South Asia Peoples Forum on Sustainable Development Goals on the 10th of November, 2021.

The main objectives of the forum were to (i) Assess the political, economic, social and environmental situation of the region in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, ii) Identify civic actions and policy…

Anita Gurumurthy was a speaker at the International Online Conference on 'The Other Agenda' - held on the 28th of October on the occasion of the Summit of the Heads of State and Government of the countries belonging to the G20.

Opening statements were made by

- Roberto Morea, Transform Europe, IT on The Other Agenda Project in the…

IT for Change attended the Asia rounds discussion held by Facebook’s Oversight Board, to issue a Policy Advisory Opinion regarding community guidelines restricting sharing of private residential information on Facebook. The session was held on 7th October virtually.

About the session: The Asia round of the meeting from the Oversight…

Anita Gurumurthy will be part of a panel on ' Bringing Women Online: Creating Coalitions for Safe Connectivity in South Asia' in the Women's Safety Symposium for South and Southeast Asia being held on 6th and 7th October.

Overview from organizer: At Facebook, we are committed to ensuring women feel safe on our platforms. We believe that…

Anita Gurumurthy is part of a panel on Social Media, Networks, and Movements for Women's Empowerment on September 30, 2021 as part of the Gender and Digital Health Webinar Series co-organized by The Gender & Health Hub, UNU-IIGH, The University of Cape Town and BBC Media Action.

The Gender and Digital Health Webinar Series is a…

The World Trade Organization Public Forum 2021 is being held from September 30 to October 1. IT for Change is participating in two sessions.

Register here to attend the sessions.

On September 30, Parminder Singh will be speaking at the 61st session- "Conditions for appropriate e-commerce in developing countries."

Session…

Anita Gurumurthy and Parminder Jeet Singh were part of two panels at the Civil Society Forum for the 15th Session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD15) to be held from 3rd to 7th October, 2021. The theme for this year's conference is From Inequality and Vulnerability to Prosperity for All.

The Forum was…

Anita Gurumurthy was invited to be a part of the 7th #OneSouthAsia Conversation organized by the World Bank Group which focussed on the potentials and challenges of leveraging technologies to build human capital and help South Asia manage risks and shocks.

Spanning conversations on how to overcome regional barriers, promote cross-country…

Parminder Singh was invited to speak at an India Counter Dialogue on the UN Food Systems Summit organized by Jan Sarokar. This event was held over two sessions on 3rd and 4th September 2021.

The overall program of the Dialogue consists of four sessions. These sessions were developed around the five Action Tracks, although not limited to…

Parminder Jeet Singh will be participating in a session on Industry 4.0 and the Future of Work: Managing the Impacts, as a part of a policy roundtable on Harnessing Industry 4.0 for India's Development: Opportunities and Challenges. The event is being organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry and the Institute for Studies in Industrial…

Nandini Chami made a presentation on "Platform accountability for gender-based cyber violence: An analysis of the Indian legal-policy landscape" for the fellows at the Young Leaders in Tech Policy Fellowship, as part of their training program. This fellowship is conducted by the International Innovation Corps, at the University of Chicago, and…

Anita Gurumurthy will be speaking about 'Biodiversity as Big Data: How DSI fits into Global Data Flows' at a capacity-building webinar on Digital Sequence Information (DSI), organized by the Global Youth Biodiversity Network in collaboration with Third World Network.

This first session aims to be a primer for those who are new to the…

Anita Gurumurthy will be delivering the keynote lecture on the second day of Back to the Future, the Techne Student Congress, held from July 5 to 7, 2021. The congress will be hosted by Loughborough University London.

Anita's keynote is on 'Justice in the Post-public Sphere: The New Challenge for Global Communication Governance', wherein…

 The Regional Institute of English, South India (RIESI) and IT for Change are organizing a two-day international conference on Grappling with the New-Normal: English-Language Teaching during Pandemic Times.

The global Covid-19 pandemic has forced educational stakeholders to disseminate knowledge outside the ease of a classroom. Each…

IT for Change's Khawla Zainab will be speaking at an online seminar on Precarious Futures for Gender Equality in the Post-Covid Tourism World, hosted by the Transforming Tourism Initiative on Thursday, June 17, 02:30 pm CET.

The tourism sector has been severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. This has worsened the already precarious…

Anita Gurumurthy will be participating in a discussion on digital health and international cooperation, organized by Medicus Mundi International Network as part of their Series of Policy Dialogues, and co-organized by IT for Change, among others.

This session shall allow actors representing different realities and positions to assess the…

Anita Gurumurthy spoke at a plenary session on The Future of Data Ecosystems at the CORE Net conference on Learnings for Resilience and Resurgence on June 10, 2021. The session was anchored by Aapti Institute and presented by CORE Net.

This plenary was about new frontiers in data, data stewardship, data sharing and emergent ideas of data…

IT for Change is hosting and participating in an exciting line-up of sessions at RightsCon 2021, happening virtually from June 7 to 11.

Click on the session-specific links below to know more and add them to your RightsCon schedule!

Re-envisioning Digital Education: The Pandemic’s Fallout and the Future of Inclusive Education…

Parminder Jeet Singh will be participating in a civil society pre-event on Frontier Technologies, The Digital Economy and Development, organized by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). This event is part of a series of online dialogues with civil society to be held in preparation for the UNCTAD15 Ministerial…

Nandini Chami will be conducting the fourth Crash Course on big tech, techno-feudalism and democracy, on the topic of Big Tech and the Global South. This session is being organized by Crash Course, a platform designed to open up debate on social, economic, ecological and regenerative justice.

This crash course will take a closer look at…

Parminder Jeet Singh will be participating in a panel discussion on digital trade, global inequality, and multilateral e-commerce agreements at this panel discussion, organized by the German Federal Foreign Office, as part of their Digital Diplomacy Debate series.

Today, many trade flows of goods and services move entirely online. While…

Anita Gurumurthy will be delivering the keynote address at the IFIP 9.4 Virtual Conference, 2021, the theme of which is Resilient ICT4D. Anita's keynote is titled Where to, from resilience? An exploration of post-pandemic, digital pathways towards the “distribution of freedom”. 

The first Virtual IFIP 9.4 Conference on Implications of…

IT for Change will be co-hosting the Research Working Group Meeting of the Global Platform Governance Network in May.

CIGI and Reset have partnered to create the Global Platform Governance Network (GPGN). The GPGN is a global community of civil servants, legislative staff and regulators committed to a collaborative and harmonized…

Deepti Bharthur moderated a session on Realigning Data and Technology at The Global Solutions Summer School 2021 hosted by Global Solutions: The World Policy Forum.

The session, featuring Francesca Bria (President, Italian National Innovation Fund), was part of a series of online dialogues. The overarching theme of these dialogues was:…

Nandini Chami spoke at two roundtables during the Data Justice Conference, 2021 on May 20-21. The conference, hosted by the Data Justice Lab at Cardiff University’s School of Journalism, Media and Culture (JOMEC), brought together international scholars, practitioners, activists, and community groups to discuss the possibilities and challenges…

On behalf on the Just Net Coalition, Anita Gurumurty participated in the Consultation of Civil Society with the Co-Chairs of the Preparatory Committee for the Fifth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC5) on May 20, 2021.

This consultation will be followed by the first PREPCOM for the Fifth UN Conference on the…

Anita Gurumurthy introduced and co-moderated a session on 'Beyond state control and corporate power:  An alternative digitalization of public health' hosted by the Geneva Global Health Hub (G2H2) on Wednesday, 12 May 2021.

This session was part of Lost in the Pandemic? The pulse of global health in times of SARS-CoV-2 – a series of…

IT for Change is hosting the strategy roundtable 'Socializing Data Value: How Can Data Governance Meet the Challenge?' on May 11-12, with support from Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES).

The two-day roundtable will bring together a small group of scholars, scholar-activists, and practitioners to explore the elements of an institutional…

Parminder Jeet Singh will be participating in a panel discussing the distinction between personal and non-personal data, and the ways in which different countries have tried to regulate the flow of non-personal data.

Globally, laws pertaining to non-personal data are fragmented, and in most cases, this data is unregulated. The…

Parminder Jeet Singh participated in a discussion on the global governance of digitalization, and actions being taken at the multilateral level to govern digital technologies. The session sought to find whether multilateral governance of digital technology will help close the digital divide.

Other panelists for the session included:…

Parminder Jeet Singh will be participating in a panel discussion on WhatsApp's move into commerce. The webinar will explore how the world’s largest messaging app is set to generate a new commercial ecosystem, by hoping to see users opt-in to a chat-like interaction with businesses, powered by the metadata Facebook and WhatsApp have been…

IT for Change and Third World Network are co-hosting a learning session on "Decoding Digital Sequence Information: A Development Perspective", with support from Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung on Wednesday, March 31, 2021.

The session aims to equip scholars and activists to understand the issues at stake for the global governance of digital…

Anita Gurumurthy will speak at the thematic session on the role of media in building a feminist agenda during the Generation Equality Forum 2021.

The session aims to explore the gaps in regulatory mechanisms - particularly with respect to the cross-border jurisdiction of social media and its role in shaping national public spheres; and…

Parminder Jeet Singh spoke about "Delhi Declaration for a Just and Equitable Internet" at a session on Decolonizing Digital Rights, hosted by the University of Padova as part of the Online Winter School: Times and Spaces of Globalization.

The session reflected on the social, political, and economic impact of the internet and related…

Anita Gurumurthy will be chairing a panel on Critical Approaches and Theories for Platform Governance, at the First Annual Conference of the Platform Governance Network, being held from March 24-26, 2021.

The session will feature a wide range of presentations and inputs from researchers on critical approaches to platform governance, …

Parminder Jeet Singh spoke at a virtual panel discussion titled 'Public Square or Walled Garden? A Conversation on India's New Internet Regulations', hosted by the Centre for Communication Governance, NLU, Delhi.

The session reflected on the recently notified Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code…

Anita Gurumurthy will be participating in the Paulo Freire Centennial, organized by the University of Loughborough, London, celebrating the birth of the Brazilian educator. The program consists of talks based on the five principles of Freire’s ‘ontological call’ – humility, empathy, love, hope and dialogue – which he presented as the spirit of…

Anita Gurumurthy will participate in the panel "Leveraging Technology as an Equity Enabler in Society", as part of the CII-IWN Annual Summit 2021, the overarching theme for which is "Equity the Leveller".

Other panellists include:

Anita Gurumurthy will be delivering the keynote lecture at the launch of the B'AI Global Forum 2021, at the session "Gender Justice in the AI Era: A dialogue on engagement and activism", on the topic of Feminist Futures in the Intelligence Economy, which will be followed by a panel discussion.

The panel will discuss what the necessary…

Anita Gurumurthy and Nandini Chami participated in two panels in the 2nd United Nations South Asia Forum on Business and Human Rights, 2021.

Anita Gurumurthy moderated a panel titled, "Addressing Gender Bias in New Technologies", on March 17, 2021 which reflected on the following questions:

    How do new technologies depict and…

Anita Gurumurthy will be chairing the panel "Optimizing Tech-Based Solutions for Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Social Business" at the second International Conference on Gender Equality (ICGE), organized by The Gender Park in association with UN Women.

The ICGE aims to bring together a global cross-section of scholars, practitioners,…

Anita Gurumurthy will be moderating a session at the Civil Society Forum 2021 on "Digital Technology and Good Governance: Creating a Legal Environment that Protects Human Rights, Respects Privacy, and Prevents Abuses".

This session will explore how global digital governance must be guided by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at…

IT for Change, with support from EdelGive Foundation and International Development Research Centre, Canada (IDRC), is bringing together legal scholars, practitioners, platform intermediaries, feminist activists and journalists in a three-part webinar series to unpack sexist hate speech online across February, in the lead up to International…

IT for Change will be hosting the Seventh Quarterly Roundtable of the Data Governance Network on Wednesday, January 27th from 3:15 to 5:45 PM IST.

Researchers from the DGN nodes – IDFC Internet Democracy Project, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, and IT for Change – will make exciting research presentations on diverse data…

IT for Change will be co-organizing the webinar The Great Take Over: How we resist the Davos capture of global governance, which critically examines and challenges the capture of global governance by large transnational corporations.

The post Covid-19 world presents a new opportunity for corporations to ensure that global governance…

IT for Change participated in two events at the World Social Forum 2021, held virtually.

Bhavna Jha participated in the panel "Contemporary pressures on the collective imagination and resistance", which explored the role of communication, education and culture in the future of democracies.

Other panellists included:

Parminder Jeet Singh was a participant in the Virtual Stakeholder Consultation on Non Personal Data Governance Framework, held as part of the Stakeholder Consultation on Future of India’s Data Governance Policies, where he presented an intervention on the revised version of the Draft Non Personal Data Framework and its relation to the Personal…

Gurumurthy Kasinathan will be participating in India FOSS Week, hosted by Civic Data Lab and supported by Omidyar Network India, in a panel discussion on FOSS and Education.

The panel will discussion questions around how educational institutes can be better supported in sustainably adopting Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), and how …

Parminder Jeet Singh will be participating in a public round table discussion on "Open Digital Ecosystems: The Way Forward for India", co-hosted by Omidyar Network India and Carnegie India. This session is part of the first virtual edition of the annual Global Technology Summit (GTS), 2020, co-hosted by Carnegie India and the Ministry of…

Anita Gurumurthy will be moderating a virtual discussion on "Digital Platforms, Labour Rights, and Organising for Women in the Gig Economy", which is part of Arthan's "Women, Work and the Gig Economy" research initiative, and is taking place during their international Future of Work forum from December 16 to 18, 2020.

The session will…

Anita Gurumurthy and Nandini Chami will be presenting a feminist action framework for the digital economy at the Global South Women's Forum 2020, during the session "The Deal We Always Wanted", co-organized by IT for Change and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. This session seeks to highlight the urgent imperative for social movements to respond to the…

Yogesh K S gave a lightning talk hosted by the Creative Commons Open Education Platform demonstrating how MediaWiki platform, and Wikimedia open knowledge projects can be used as pedagogical tools to access content online, collaboratively create and share learning resources, thereby facilitating and integrating wikis into the Open Education.…

Nandini Chami spoke at the launch of Campaign of Campaigns, a collaborative project by the Civil Society Group on Financing for Development (CS Group on FfD) and the Women’s Working Group on Financing for Development (WWG on FfD), aiming to promote a “package” of macro demands about the most pressing global challenges and to rally support for…

Anita Gurumurthy spoke at a panel discussion on 'Lessons learned from 2020 to democratize economic governance and planning ahead', organized by the Women's Working Group on Financing for Development (WWG on FfD). The panel was part of their Global Town Hall for Macro Solutions for Women, People and the Planet.

Anita broadly discussed the…

Bhavna Jha will be speaking at Cybercrimes Against Women: Towards A New Legal Framework, a webinar held on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, organized by the Centre for Constitutional Rights Research & Advocacy (CCRRA), India.

As the Covid-19 pandemic continues and more women take to digital spaces…

Nandini Chami will participate in a panel discussion on 'Promoting Women’s and Girls’ Empowerment through Digitalization' at a high-level event organized the European Commission, in cooperation with the European External Action Service and the German Presidency of the European Union, on November 25 2020.

The event will mark the launch of…

Parminder Jeet Singh will be speaking at a session on Financing for Development and South Asia, as part of the series "South Asia Peoples Forum on the SDGs (SAPF 2020): Protecting Rights of the People in the time of Covid-19 crisis".

Focusing on the critical issue of financing key development objectives including but not limited to the…

Anita Gurumurthy spoke at a webinar on Platform Cooperatives, as part of the ILO COOP 100 Symposium, where she presented insights from an upcoming research paper from IT for Change, conducted for the ILO. The paper, titled "Platform Labour in Search of Value", researches new political organizing strategies and economic models being explored by…

Nandini Chami participated in a CSO consultation convened by Partners in Change and UNDP for the Ministry of Corporate Affairs on 16 Nov 2021, developing a business and human rights reporting template, technically 'Business and Sustainability Reporting template', for ICT Sector companies.

The discussion was able to establish the…

Parminder Jeet Singh is participating in a panel discussion on Non-Personal Data: Scope and Challenges, as part of IIM Bangalore and IISc Bangalore's panel series on Non-Personal Data for Public Good.

The first in the panel series, this kick-off discussion will look at the potential for Non-Personal Data to provide significant economic…

Anita Gurumurthy gave a masterclass on Economies Through Data: Southern Feminist Perspectives, as part of the World Social Forum of Transformative Economies, 2020. This masterclass was organized by DAWN and Escuela de Economia Feminista in collaboration with IT for Change and Feminist Digital Justice.

Anita discussed how the struggles…

Rising to the challenges of a global pandemic, the UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF) will be convened virtually this year from Nov 2 - 17, 2020.

Like every year, the IGF will bring people together from various stakeholder groups as equals to discuss public policy issues about the Internet, aiming to facilitate a common understanding of…

Anita Gurumurthy participated in a webinar on Digital Sequence Information: Taking Stock and Moving Forward, organized by the Third World Network as part of their Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework series of webinars.

The webinar aimed to bring participants up to date on international discussions related to digital sequence…

Parminder Jeet Singh is participating in a panel discussion on perspectives on digital sovereignty in the Global South, organized by the Heinrich Boell Foundation, Washington, DC, a non-profit organization that is part of the global green movement, and Konnektiv, a Berlin-based agency working at the intersection of technology, collaboration,…

Gurumurthy Kasinathan is participating in a panel discussion on the application of data and technology to improve developmental and humanitarian outcomes without exacerbating inequalities and causing harm, organized by the London International Development Network, on 22 October, 2020.

This panel will discuss whether data and technology…

IT for Change co-organized a webinar on 'Why Does Data Governance Matter for Workers' Rights?' with Public Services International, Focus on the Global South, and Third World Network. This is the third and last of a three-part webinar series on digital trade rules and workers' rights.

The webinar explored why data governance matters for…

Anita Gurumurthy gave a talk titled ‘Understanding the Digital Economy at the Covid Conjuncture’, as part of a one-month, international webinar series on Covid-19 and its impact on women. This series was a collaborative effort between the Department of Women’s Studies, University of Calicut and the Indian Association for Women’s Studies (IAWS…

IT for Change and the Women’s Working Group on Financing for Development, an alliance of women’s organizations and networks which advocates for the advancement of women’s human rights and gender equality in the Financing for Development related UN processes, co-hosted a panel on What the Social Contract Means in the Age of Data – Feminist…

IT for Change's Khawla Zainab and Ankita Aggarwal made a presentation on Understanding Data Capitalism as part of a two day workshop on Digitalisation and Women. 

The workshop, organized by World March of Women, saw feminist activists from across countries coming together to discuss issues such as digitalisation and women's labor,…

IT for Change's Anita Gurumurthy was a panelist at a discussion on 'Feminist Internet -- An Alternative', co-organized by Breakthrough and Arthan.

This session was a part of a 2-day series about 'Making Technology Gender Inclusive', to understand how technology can be made gender friendly and more accessible by women and girls.

…

IT for Change's Deepti Bharthur and Nandini Chami participated in a discussion about 'Digital Commons: Actions Research Perspectives' on Thursday, 10th Sept 2020, at 5:00 pm.

The discussion was part of a collaborative initiative by the Centre for Financial Accountability (CFA) and Environment Support Group Trust (ESG) titled '…

Parminder Jeet Singh contributed to the plenary meeting on “Criticism of Globalisation in the Digital World: Big Data, Technology Giants and Counter-force”, organised by the Karibu Foundation as part of the Norwegian Social Forum, from 4 - 6 September. The theme of the 2020 forum was “From Crisis to Struggle”, focusing on peoples’ mobilisation…

Anita Gurumurthy spoke at a two-part webinar series titled 'Research and Destruction: The Role of Science in Waging Imperialist War and Fighting for Just Peace', organized by Commission 13 of the International League of Peoples' Struggle (ILPS). 

This webinar series highlighted the ways in which scientific institutions utilize their…

Gurumurthy Kasinanthan participated in a discussion about whether algorithms are here to stay, and how we can respond to the challenge of algorithmic injustice, organised by Open Democracy on 27th Aug 2020.

The discussion raised issues about governments increasingly using algorithms to make decisions that affect us all. The UK’s exam…

Sadhana Sanjay represented IT for Change at a virtual roundtable about the gig economy, co-organized by the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre and the Center for Alliance of Labor and Human Rights (CENTRAL).

The discussion brought together civil society organizations and workers organizations working on the gig economy to…

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. India hopes to secure a continuation of GSP concessions and a possible reversal of punitive tariff hikes by the US. However, a more ambitious Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is also…

Anita Gurumurthy participated in the Janta Parliament, a virtual people's parliament, jointly organised by by several civil society initiatives and grassroots movements, to discuss urgent governance, policy and rights-based issues that have arisen during the Covid-19 pandemic, and to put forward policy suggestions to the government.

The…

Anita Gurumurthy will be speaking at an online conference entitled "Countering the Effects of the Pandemic: Women’s Viewpoints" organized by the "women and girls" working group of the Civil BRICS.

The discussion will highlight some of the principal economic problems that BRICS countries are facing after the pandemic, and discuss…

Parminder Jeet Singh will be a panelist for a discussion about 'Unpacking Community Consent and Collective Models for Data Stewardship', facilitated by Astha Kapoor. This panel, hosted by Aapti Institute, is part of their discussion series titled 'Data Deliberations'.

The idea of community ownership and governance of data and the…

IT for Change's Anushka Mittal and Parminder Jeet Singh will participate in the Data Governance Network's Fifth Quarterly Roundtable, hosted by IDFC Institute. The online roundtable, which takes place between August 4 and August 6, will see researchers present their work on use of technology in government during the Covid-19 pandemic.

…

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. India hopes to secure a continuation of GSP concessions and a possible reversal of punitive tariff hikes by the US. However, a more ambitious Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is also…

IT for Change's Parminder Jeet Singh will be speaking about community rights over data at the virtual stakeholder consultation on non-personal data governance, organized by The Dialogue on Friday, July 31 from 4:00 pm to 7:30 pm IST.

The objectives of the consultation, held in the wake of the Committee of Experts’ report on India’s Non-…

Parminder Jeet Singh was a part of an interactive discussion about the draft non-personal data governance framework. The session was moderated by Amrita Choudhury from CCAOI and Internet Society, India Delhi Chapter, and Rahul Sharma from The Perspective.

The participants deliberated on the nature of non-personal data and issues…

Rising to the challenges of a global pandemic, the RightsCon Summit Series will be hosting its ninth edition on an online platform from July 27-31, 2020.

Like every year, the summit will bring together business leaders, policy makers, technologists, advocates, academics, government representatives, and journalists from…

Parminder Jeet Singh's latest research 'Economic Rights in a Data-based Society: Collective Data Ownership, Workers’ Rights, and the Role of the Public Sector' was presented and discussed at the conversation about 'Data Ownership: Corporate Control or Collective Ownership?', organized by Public Services International – PSI and the Friedrich…

IT for Change will co-host a webinar with Public Services International (PSI) titled 'Covid and Free Trade: Workers Countering Big-Tech in the Post-Covid Era' .

While the Covid-19 pandemic has led to an unprecedented health crisis and is predicted to have devastating economic impacts, technology giants such as Google, Amazon, Facebook,…

Yogesh KS will participate and present a paper on Integrating Wikis into Open and Distance Learning, co-authored with Gurumurthy Kasinathan, at the 24th Indian Distance Education Associate (IDEA) National Conference. The presentation is scheduled between 3:15 pm and 4:45 pm on July 18, Saturday.

The event is being organized by the…

Anita Gurumurthy is one of the speakers at this panel discussion on the long-term implications of increasing digitisation and population surveillance in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic. The panel will focus on the long-term consequences of increasing levels of digitised cash transfers, digitised cash payment systems and digital health…

Anita Gurumurthy will participate in the second plenary panel for the 2020 conference of the International Association of Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) which aims to examine the theme 'The Future of Internet Governance: Risk, Trust and Institutions'.

IAMCR 2020 online sessions and plenaries will be a series of high-quality pre…

Parminder Jeet Singh was a delegate at a meeting about "COVID-19, Trade in Services and E-Commerce". The meeting was organized by South Center in collaboration with UNCTAD, Centre for WTO Studies, IT for Change, Public Citizen and TWN.

In the session overview, Aileen Kwa and Amb Mulumbi Peter addressed concerns about "What is needed in…

Anita Gurumurthy was part of this online panel on 'Digitalisation and Global Equity: Who Benefits, Who Loses?' organised by ICT for Sustainability.

While stories of global digital enablement continue to be told and manifest in various ways, new forms of disadvantage, divides and even imperialist structures have also emerged. The…

Bhavna Jha spoke at a webinar on Gender-Based Violence and Technology organized by UNDP and UNICEF.

The webinar discussed the rise in the use of mobile and web-based technology to support the increasing number of survivors of gender-based violence since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. This policy dialogue focused on the…

Anita Gurumurthy was one of the speaker at a webinar organised by the Feminist Internet Research Network (FIR Network) on a feminist transformation of the internet. Other speakers included Mariana Valente of Internet Labs, Marwa Azelmat, Helani Galpaya of LIRN Asia and Anriette Esterhuysen.

IT for Change's Gurumurthy Kasinathan was a panelist at the e-assembly on 'Covid-19 Pandemic and Higher Education: Challenges and Beyond', on June 17 and 18. The e-assembly aimed to deliberate on the issues and concerns in higher education due to the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic. Gurumurthy Kasinathan spoke at the panel on “Digitalizing Higher…

The global trade in data now outstrips trade in goods, and data is widely understood as a valuable raw material. Importantly, it is a raw material that we all create, through our lives and work, yet most of us - including public bodies like the NHS and communities in the Global South - are capturing little if any value from our data output.…

Prior to the pandemic, popular opposition to the power of Big Tech was growing. Yet, in the Covid-19 moment, Big Tech has emerged stronger than ever. A new digital economy opportunism is deepening faultlines of inequality, while systems of surveillance are being normalised that will invariably be deployed along class and race lines.

This…

IT for Change's Executive Director Anita Gurumurthy is speaking at an online seminar titled 'Women, Leadership and Sustainability in Critical Times'. This is a joint initiative of the University of Padova Centre for Gender Studies ‘Elena Cornaro’ and the Department of Politics Law and International Studies: the first in a series of meetings…

IT for Change's Nandini Chami is one of the speakers at the webinar on 'Trading Away Women’s Rights: How Free Trade has Undermined Women’s Human Rights Before & During This Time of Pandemic'. The event will focus on the ways in which the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has further exacerbated the undermining of the rights outlined in the…

IT for Change's Executive Director Parminder Jeet Singh will be part of this roundtable discussion intended to explore the challenges of automated decisions made within governmental setups, and how to tactically use and strategically employ existing legal standards mechanisms as means of accountability for such systems. It will bring together…

IT for Change's Parminder Jeet Singh will be part of a webinar hosted by FES and Public Services International. The input will be provided by Parminder  to present the key findings of the study titled, 'Economic Rights in a data-based society' .

Comments will be provided by Rosa Pavanelli, General Secretary of Public Services…

IT for Change's Anita Gurumurthy will be part of a webinar hosted by FES in Asia and WIDE+. Titled 'The Digital Economy in Asia: Feminist Perspectives', the webinar will explore feminist perspectives on how the Fourth Industrial Revolution is impacting the present and future of women's work in Asian economies. In specific, it will focus on the…

The panel included Justice (retd.) BN Shrikrishna, Parminder Jeet Singh, executive director of IT for Change, Ashutosh Chadha, vice president of public policy at MasterCard, Rama Vedashree, chief executive officer of Data Security Council of India (DSCI), and Bishakha Bhattacharya, Executive Government and Regulatory Affairs, IBM India. The…

Anita Gurumurthy was a panelist at a one-day conference on “Internet Governance in India: People, Purpose and Process” organised by the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) with the support of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY).

This paper was written as part of the…

The socialization of Artificial Intelligence and the reality of an intelligence economy marks an epochal moment. The impacts of AI are now systemic – restructuring economic organization and value chains, public sphere architectures and sociality. These shifts carry deep geopolitical implications, reinforcing historical exclusions and power…

IT for Change was present at the the Public Policy Forum & Public Policy LITFest organised by the SKOCH Group. Speaking at a panel titled 'Data Governance at Crossroads', Anita Gurumurthy pointed out that all discussions on data governance must start by recognising data as a 'resource ecosystem', rather than as a commodity. Data governance…

Pre-event organised by Just Net Coalition
Monday, November 25 | 14:20 - 18:15
Venue: Estrel Saal C
Speakers from IT for Change: Anita Gurumurthy, Parminder Jeet Singh

Pre-event co-organised by
FGV, ISOC,…

Yogesh K S will attend the State of the Map(SOTM) Asia 2019 conference being held in Dhaka, Bangladesh. At the conference, he will talk on how to dive deep into OpenStreetMap data using Taginfo.

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)

Digital disruptions have rapidly led to the creation of enormous wealth, but it is highly concentrated around a small number of countries, companies and individuals. Meanwhile, they raise…

Anita Gurumurthy participated in a convention titled 'Built for Purpose: Charting the Future of Asia's Civil Society in Transformative Times' organised by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Ford Foundation. The event brought together various civil society activists.

Anita's presentation at this event, tited 'New Actors, New…

IT for Change and Indian Police Foundation, with support from UN Women and Web Foundation, organized a Strategy Meeting on a Systemic Response to Gender-based Cyberviolence, on 27 August 2019, in New Delhi at "We the People Hall", UN House, 55 – Lodhi Estate, New Delhi.

Today, gender-based cyberviolence is a veritable national crisis…

Nandini Chami from IT for Change attended a conference in Bali, Indonesia to kick off a new regional project by Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) on the topic with the working title Women and the Future of Work in Asia .

The future of work will see wide-ranging changes for employers and workers, including automation, artificial intelligence…

Are you planning to be at RightsCon this year? Join us at Tunis, and be part of shaping a future agenda for digital equity and social justice.
 

Just Net Coalition invites you to the workshop:

What do social movements need to do in the age of data…

Anita Gurumurthy was a participant at a 'strategic futures' workshop organized by the Transnational Institute (TNI) to discuss some of the key challenges social movements will need to confront in the next decade.

The subject of the presentation was 'Surveillance Capitalism and Digital Futures'. We are in the age of surveillance…

Nandini Chami will be a participant at the Stockholm Internet Forum (SIF) organised by the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida). SIF is a platform for advancing a free, open, and secure Internet as a driver of development. It offers an arena for the exchange of ideas, knowledge and collaboration. The forum will explore the most…

Parminder Jeet Singh will be a discussant at the event titled “The Future of the WTO: Emerging Issues for Developing Countries” organized by the Third World Network and TWN Trust. The event aims to discuss the current situation at the WTO, the options faced by developing countries and in particular, India, and their emerging positions.

Parminder Jeet Singh will be a panelist at the session "Data Law in China and India" at the Global Data Law Conference which will be held on April 26-27, 2019 at NYU School of Law.
He'll be reflecting on India's data laws in the context of the broader e-commerce policy. 

He'll also be a part of the discussion on "Developing Digital…

Anita Gurumurthy attended the event "At The Same Table" facilitated by the EdelGive Foundation. It is an engagement platform for free and frank discussion on issues and ideas that collectively concern the funding community. It is a two-hour convening bringing together the funding fraternity in philanthropy - companies doing strategic CSR,…

Anita Gururmurthy spoke at the faculty workshop titled "Data for development: Mapping key considerations for policy and practice in India", which carried out an in-depth stocktaking of India's AI scenario. She focused on the following questions:

1. What is India’s current approach to data and AI technologies for development?
2.…

Anita Gurumurthy was a speaker at International Conference on Universal Social Protection and Labour where she talked about 'Livelihood futures in the digital economy'. See her presentation here.

Nandini Chami was a panelist at the session: 'Towards an empowerment scorecard for women in e-commerce' during  UNCTAD e-Commerce week in Geneva, Switzerland.

The pane deliberated on the following questions:

To what extent has the global digital economy and the current e-commerce regime been successful in furthering women’s…

Ira Anjali Anwar and Meenakshi Yadav attended a policy lab on AI & Democracy, organised by Tandem Research in partnership with Microsoft Research and FES. It considered the ways in which AI and data-driven decision making are shaping ideals and practices of democracy in India, with a view towards identifying the relevant research and policy…

Just Net Coalition and its partners are organising a three day workshop on Equity and social justice in a digital world – An inter sectoral/movements dialogue for a digital justice agenda from 25-27 March, 2019 in Bangkok, Thailand. The workshop is aimed at shaping progressive and Southern agendas for the digital society and economy. Read more…

Deepti Bharthur attended a roundtable event on Social Media and Democracy on 22nd March. The event was organised by CIS in collaboration with Social Science One, and the Kofi Annan Commission on Elections and Democracy in the Digital Age. The conference was on social media and democracy, with particular attention to the Global South, especially…

Yogesh presented a paper on ‘AI and Education’ at the National Seminar on 'Innovative Practices and Research in the era of Digi­Education' organised by Department of Education and Education Technology, Central University of Hyderabad (UoH).

While other presenters spoke about the potential benefits, Yogesh cautioned the participants on…

Anita Gurumurthy was a panelist at an international conference organized by Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) to reflect on “Feminist Visions for the Future of Work” with experts from trade unions, social movements and progressive feminist academics from Asia, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Europe. The goal was to enrich the debates…

IT for Change is holding a session on public data sets by Dr. Rajendran Narayanan, professor, Azim Premji University. Dr. Narayanan has extensive experience working with public data sets especially on designing and developing bottom up Janatha information systems and his work on MGNREGA is also well known. The session will be delivered in…

Parminder Jeet Singh from IT for Change is speaking at International Asia Conference 2019 on 'Data Sovereignty vs. Free Data: A Debate on Data Localization'.

Gurumurthy Kasinathan from IT for Change is speaking at the National Conference at RIESI on "Technology and English Language Teaching". 

Gurumurthy Kasinathan from IT for Change was a speaker at Kerala Education Conference on "Education in the age of Technology".

This education festival was conducted by Kerala School Teachers Association (KSTA) – the progressive and largest teachers association of Kerala to discuss the political, social, cultural and academic aspects and…

Anita Gurumurthy is delivering a valedictory keynote at India HCI Conference 2018 on "Seeing beyond the screen - reflections on crafting technology for the art of change". The conference is organised by Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology.

Watch the presentation here.

Amrita Vasudevan from IT for Change is attending FORE International Conference on Digital Innovation as a plenary speaker. The conference aims to provide collaborative platform for researchers and experts to discuss the impact of digital technologies for creating safer cities in India. 

Vijaya Teachers College and Centre for Education and Technology, IT for Change are launching a blended course for B.Ed students of Vijaya Teachers College on “ICT integrated learning”.

This course, developed by IT for Change, is based on the National ICT Curriculum of Central Institute of Education Technology, National Council of…

Parminder Jeet Singh is a panelist at 23rd All India Children's Educational Audio Video & ICT Mela organised by Central Institute of Educational Technology (CIET), National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT). The theme of the panel is "Technology and Learning: The Road Ahead" where he will speak on open educational…

The Teaching Learning Centre (TLC) of Ramanujan College, University of Delhi is organizing an Induction Training Programme for young college and university teachers. The Teaching Learning Centre has been initiated by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India under its scheme Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya National…

DAY 1 19 November 2018

Introduction to the workshop 10.00 am – 10.30 am

1. Objectives of the refresher workshop of 1st semester course

2. Students expectations from this workshop

3. Students feedback about the course 4. Take them through the courses on moodle

Personal…

Yogesh KS from IT for Change attended the State of the Map (SotM) annual conference of OpenStreetMap (OSM) held this year at IIM Bangalore. The conference brought together participants and contributors from around the Asian countries to discuss challenges, learn, and celebrate mapping together on OSM.

The thirteenth Annual Meeting of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) will be in Paris, France from 12 to 14 November 2018 on the theme, Internet of Trust. 

Join us at the following sessions -

1. Agenda setting session

Internet Rights and Principles: Sustainable Futures: The Internet, Human Rights, and Environmental Issues…

E-commerce remains a small share of the overall retail in India, and any policy covering it will govern this fledgling ecosystem for at least a decade at a moment where its exponential growth has just started kicking in. The draft policy, albeit withdrawn, has raised concerns across a spectrum of issues, like FDI, privacy, protectionism, etc.,…

The digital economy can be a game-changer for gender equality, especially in developing country contexts. But this potential can be unlocked only if the policy roadmap focuses on women’s meaningful inclusion in the digital marketplace and on creating ‘high value’ opportunities through digital innovations in key economic domains. The session…

Digital platforms are rewiring the global economy, fundamentally shifting how we socialize, work, buy, sell and consume. Being organized globally, most of these platforms directly impinge on global trade, and vice versa. The proposed session will address the multiple policy challenges that platforms, and global trade around them, present for…

The Digital Development Forum 2018 was organised by the Asian Development Bank in Manila, Philippines from 4 - 5 September, 2018 where Anita Gurumurthy represented IT for Change and made a presentation on the topic 'Are women benefiting equally from the digital economy?'

The Justice Srikrishna Committee has released a draft data protection law for India, and we will be discussing the issues related to the draft bill, looking at the following issues amongst others,

The millennial euphoria about feminist emancipation in a digitally mediated new world is faced with a more sobering reality. While new possibilities for community and solidarity, voice and self expression, have certainly opened up, this is not a simplistic narrative of empowerment and change. Digital artifacts and spaces are no exception to…

The 2018 United Nations Public Service Forum will take place in Marrakesh, in the Kingdom of Morocco from 21-23 June 2018, with the theme of “Transforming governance to realize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”.

Anita Gurumurthy will speak on 'ICT and Inequality – What sustainable strategies to close the Digital Divide
by…

UNCTAD are organizing a brainstorming meeting for UNCTAD Information Economy Report 2019, which is to focus on "Capturing Value in the Digital Economy in Developing Countries".

The meeting will take place in Geneva, on Thursday, 31 May, and Friday, 1 June 2018. Parminder Jeet Singh from IT for Change will participate in the session. …

The Conference on ‘Digital Trade in Africa: Implications for inclusion and human rights’ was organised in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 31 May-1 June 2018. Nandini Chami represented IT for Change and made a presentation on the topic ‘Ensuring women’s meaningful inclusion in the digital economy: Some reflections.’ The presentation can be found here…