India should prioritise strong AI governance to ensure data sovereignty, promote indigenous innovation, and address ethical concerns.
ChatGPT may represent a point of inflection in public consciousness about the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its key role in society. It is time…
Abstract
Twitter, the social-networking platform which serves as a socio-political barometer, was recently purchased by Elon Musk, owner of Tesla. Musk has fired 50% of Twitter staff, toyed with its policies on registration and posts, making it an oligarch’s doll. Clearly the world needs…
Over the last two decades, information and communication technologies have become an important part of the implementation of different types of programs and schemes by the Government of India in the form of ‘large-scale public digital information systems’, designed for the implementation of…
In April 2023, the Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology introduced Amendments to The Aadhaar Authentication for Good Governance (Social Welfare, Innovation, Knowledge) Rules, 2020, and opened the same for public consultation. The Amendment allows non-state actors to provide…
A data-propelled tendency for economic concentration and the policy deficits that have fueled the rise of Big Tech companies have brought to the fore a critical realization – market power is coterminous with data power and the entrenched control of Big Tech over the data value chains is at the…
The Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act of 2023 has rightly been criticised for failing to uphold good consent and data subject rights. One provision that has been largely overlooked is Section 16, which pertains to the transfer and processing of personal data outside India. Section 16…
In the last few years, data has been likened, aside from the hackneyed comparison to ‘oil’, to any number of tangible entities such as mineral deposits, dividend deposits, and even the Alaskan Permanent Fund. Metaphors as a tool could re-entrench existing power asymmetries or resist them,…
As procurers of all the civic tech that surrounds us, municipal authorities today find themselves in a unique position — they have become the custodians of personal and aggregate data generated by the world’s largest human concentrations. Rich or poor, large or small, democratic, autocratic, or…
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has published a draft version of the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022 (hereinafter the Bill) for public comments to be submitted by January 2, 2023. The current draft of the personal data protection bill marks the fourth…
The public release of ChatGPT, an AI-powered chatbot by OpenAI, in November 2022, percolated the public consciousness with the disruptive potential, both incredible and iniquitous, of emerging general purpose AI technologies. In the following months, AI has dominated the public discourse and…
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has proposed amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. With an aim to increase platform accountability, the proposed amendments focus heavily on stemming the…
The National Health Authority (NHA) recently released its Data Sharing Guidelines draft for PM-JAY. The NHA invited responses and comments from the public and as such IT for Change duly sent in its recommendations. While the NHA's proposal is certainly a step in the right direction, there are a…
Cross-border data flows are the most hotly contested issue globally in terms of digital trade. IT for Change proposes a new framework to govern cross-border data flows, 'Data Flow with Data Right', which in our view should assure developing countries that their concerns, especially economic and…
Just Net Coalition, along with more than 170 civil society groups addressed an Open Letter to the UN Secretary General urging him to shelve plans for a High Level Multistakeholder Body which, if set up, can be expected to become the default apex global digital governance and policy body. This…
The draft Digital Markets Act envisages the obligations of data sharing by large gatekeeper platforms along with ex-ante oversight by the regulator of such platforms, in the EU. This regulation is framed as a part of the Digital Services Act Package, being discussed by the EU to regulate the…