Research papers

In September 2021, the Centre for Internet and Society and IT for Change co-organized a strategy meeting on the government's newly launched e-Shram portal, designed to deliver targeted social security benefits to informal sector workers. This strategy meeting brought together civil society representatives, researchers, academics, trade unions,…

 As part of our ongoing projects on gender and the digital economy, IT for Change invited proposals and pitches under two National Gender Fellowship tracks.

1. Research Fellowship, under the European Commission supported project, Centering Women in India’s Digitalizing Economy.

2. Fellowship for Longform Essay, as part of The…

Even as the Covid-19 pandemic continues into its second year, we are yet to put in place a system that addresses students’ needs and concerns during the pandemic. While shutting down schools and switching to online learning seemed inevitable when the pandemic began, it soon became clear that the decision neglects students who lack access to…

Anand Desai and Neeta Jose presented two papers at an online International Conference on English Language Teaching during Pandemic Times: Grappling with the New Normal organized jointly by RIESI and ITfC on 25th and 26th June 2021.

About the conference- The global Covid-19 pandemic has forced educational stakeholders to disseminate…

Anita Gurumurthy has authored a chapter, 'New Cartographies of the Digital Commons: Going by Feminist Wisdom' for a major anthology - Labouring Women: Issues and Challenges in Contemporary India edited by Praveen Jha, Avinash Kumar, and Yamini Mishra.

About the book: It is well known that notions of work and employment in official data…

The rhetoric of the e-commerce opportunity in policy dialogues on trade and development often fails to engage with concerns on equity and inclusion. While the pandemic has given a new impetus to digital trade, the status quo of data extractivism presents an insurmountable barrier to gender-inclusive economic recovery. A new gender…

Parminder Jeet Singh, Anita Gurumurthy, and Nandini Chami contributed a chapter on Open Institutions and Their “Relevant Publics”: A Democratic Alternative to Neoliberal Openness to the book Critical Perspectives on Open Development: Empirical Interrogation of Theory Construction, published by IDRC.

Over the last ten years, “open”…

IT for Change’s research – as part of our project Recognize, Resist, Remedy – has demonstrated a need for legal-institutional reform to combat sexist hate online. There is also a global acknowledgement today, such as from the Council of Europe and the EU, that sexist hate speech online needs to be addressed by the law. In India, the 273rd Law…

The report is a critical review of IFC investments in EdTech with recommendations to IFC, Union and state governments and civil society on EdTech funding, policy and program.

EdTech 1 in India got funding of 3.8 billion from venture capitalists in 2021 and has a future valuation of USD 30 billion. Accordingly, this…

This paper discusses how the platform economy – dominated by a few firms – is extractivist, exploitative and expedient. It is based on an unsustainable model with scant regard for natural resources, and is built on the back of a global division of labor that bears the marks of race, class, gender, and geography. The paper emphasizes the…