Development and Democracy

The gagging of free speech and its direct fallout in the form of self-censorship are slowly but steadily moving from being exceptions to becoming the norm in India. Proof of this downward spiral has been the recent backlash following a tweet from IAS officer Shah Faesal of the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) cadre. The tweet which seemed to…

Anita Gurumurthy was invited to participate in the 2018 United Nations Public Service Forum hosted by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) at Marrakesh, The Kingdom of Morocco from June 21, 2018 to June 23, 2018.The theme of the conference was “Transforming governance to realize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”.…

The US based Multinational Corporation (MNC) Walmart’s acquisition of Flipkart undermines India’s economic and digital sovereignty and the livelihood of millions in India. If the $ 16 billion deal goes…

E-commerce platforms have radically reorganized economic activity, given rise to new structures of intermediation and changed the conception of global trade altogether. And yet structural inequities in opportunities and access between actors in developed and developing nations continue to persist. The possibilities for the Internet to be the…

In March 2018, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights invited all stakeholders to provide input on human rights challenges relating to the right to privacy in the digital age, including on principles, standards and best practices with regard to the promotion and protection of the right to privacy. IT for Change's response calls…

Developing countries need to recognise that in the datafying economy, any step towards creating a level playing field for local platforms must foreground and tackle the question of data in digital trade regimes. Read more in our submission to the Intergovernmental Group of Experts on E-commerce and the Digital Economy on ‘Fostering Development…

Current trajectories of the network-data complex relying on corporate partnerships cast data and intelligence as purely market goods. Investment by state in public data architectures could show the way for new possibilities in this direction. Read more for  Anita Gurumurthy's take on 'data for development partnerships'.

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This document puts forth a research framework for ‘Policy Frameworks for Digital Platforms - Moving from Openness to Inclusion’. It outlines and clarifies the key concepts invoked in this project and offers a broad meta research framework for the project. This framework has been constructed ground-up from a synthesis of the research proposals…

This paper examines the nature of e-governance in India, presents the implications of the changing nature of governance and state-citizen engagement particularly for groups at the margins, and makes suggestions for a digitalisation that strengthens participatory democracy in the country.

The synthesis report of the multi-country research study titled 'the Voice or Chatter project' explores how ICT-mediated citizen engagement can promote democratic governance and amplify citizens’ voices. Digital choices for democracy can empower or disempower citizens; they can present citizens with real alternatives for equality, thereby…