Internet Governance/Advocacy

The proposal for a Global Digital Compact arose from the calls to improve digital cooperation on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the United Nations. It is “expected to outline shared principles for an open, free, and secure digital future for all”, covering…

Anita Gurumurthy and Deepti Bharthur responded to a call for papers on Global AI Governance by UN Tech Envoy’s office for the first meeting of the Multistakeholder Advisory Body on AI in September 2023.

This paper builds on some key threads from a roundtable on ‘Reframing AI governance…

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…

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…

IT for Change responded to the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare public consultation white paper for the India Digital Ecosystem of Agriculture (IDEA). The key points of our submission are summarized below.

The full submission may be found here.

IT for Change responded to the call from the Ministry of Consumer Affairs for public consultation on the proposed amendments to the Consumer Protection (E-commerce) Rules, 2020.

In light of the growing recognition of the dominance of certain platforms in…

Karnataka’s Open Data Policy opens up a Pandora’s box of concerns for public interest and citizen rights

IT for Change's research series on Intelligence Infrastructures interrogates essential digital infrastructures that underpin the economy, society, and governance, putting the spotlight on the need for democratic control of these building blocks of tomorrow. Policies must straddle a people-…

Anita Gurumurthy was a part of the IGF 2021 Main Session: Digital Cooperation- Quo vadis? on December 8, 2021 where she gave a statement on the role IGF can play in digital cooperation.

This session was for assessing Internet governance approaches and mechanisms and…

The Indian Government appears convinced that cryptocurrency is a dangerous proposition. Cryptocurrency enables relatively invisible transactions, with serious implications for crime, terrorism, money laundering, tax evasion, etc. Another worry is that…

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…