Advocacy

Schools and educational institutions have tended to use proprietary software applications: software that is not sold, but ‘licensed’, by the vendor. Here, the institution is only a ‘user’, and neither owns the software nor has any control over it. Over the last decade, however, the Indian public school and higher education systems have made…

The Government of India, through the National Health Authority, released the draft Health Data Management Policy on August 26, 2020. As stated in its objectives, the Policy is meant to act as a guidance document across the National Digital Health Ecosystem (NDHE) and sets out the minimum standard for data privacy…

The Indian Parliament is currently in the process of overhauling the country’s labour laws. Unfortunately, this exercise has sidestepped platform workers, a constituency whose needs and challenges have become especially stark and visible during the pandemic. It is…

The Gopalakrishnan Committee set up by the government on developing a governance framework for non-personal data recently put out its draft report for public consultation. The report’s main purpose is to ensure wide sharing and availability of data in society. To ensure that companies share the required data, it was found necessary to develop…

A virus may be apolitical but our response to it reveals biases and inequities in our systems. As we all adapt to the new “normal”, it is critical that we look at the stated and unstated assumptions, and implicit and explicit changes being made to our social welfare systems, which impact people differently.

Millions of children have been…

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. However a more ambitious Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is being discussed between the two countries and talks may be launched soon. The coverage of this FTA is expected to be vast with…

Anita Gurumurthy spoke 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 as a run up to a BRICS civil society forum happening later this year.

Anita spoke about "Feminist Pathways to Digital Transformation Post-Pandemic – Some…

Anita Gurumurthy participated in a session on Technology and Surveillance for the Janta Parliament, a virtual peoples' Parliament, on Tuesday, August 18, 2020. Some of the participant organisations and individuals presented resolutions before the parliament that were voted on at the end of the session. IT for Change presented a resolution on a…

IT for Change contributed an input on gender and digital technology in the post-Covid moment to a report for the NITI Aayog, titled 'Covid-19: Impact on Women and Girls'. This report was prepared by a group of organizations working for gender equality and women's empowerment. The input is based on our ongoing project, ‘Centering Women in India'…

Data is almost universally recognised as the most valuable economic resource today. Seven out of the top 10 companies globally by market capitalisation are data-centric. In these circumstances, it appears strange that there has hardly been any worthwhile attempt to look at who has economic rights to various kinds of data, and how these rights…