About the Organization

The Problem

Dominant approaches to digital technologies are steeped in ideologies of market fundamentalism and have displaced the cornerstone ethics of participation, social justice, and gender equality.

How We're Different

At IT for Change, we believe that progressive development sector actors must come together to influence the techno-social structures that are redefining our societies. We seek to build bridges across different sectors to strive towards a digital society that is equitable.

What We Do

Our work, straddling Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Tech and Digital Economy, the Digital Public Sphere, Feminist Digitality, Education and Technology, and more, pushes the boundaries of theory and practice to explore new horizons for development justice.

IT for Change Team Members

A Note from the Directors

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair."

― Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

The past year was an intense and contradictory period.

At the start, it seemed as if the chink in Big Tech’s armor had been finally exposed – with many leading digital corporations suffering a critical reversal of fortunes. However, later developments, especially the generative AI leap, belied these hopes. The long-term trajectory of the digital revolution seems more likely to entrench the tech leviathans, condemning the majority of the world to an uncertain and precarious future. The wherewithal to generate data-based intelligence is heavily concentrated in private hands, with four transnational digital corporations controlling 67% of the world’s cloud computing facilities. A continued lack of democratic arrangements to govern the essential infrastructure of the 21st century means we are nowhere close to unlocking the social value of data and the digital commons. The tragicomedy of Twitter’s painful transition to ‘X’ is, in fact, a grim reminder of the deep-rooted flaws in the digital economy. As we traverse into the metaverse, a new world of simulation and sensory experience awaits us; but extended reality is nowhere close to utopia.

Amidst this gloom, hope flickers – in the efforts of people’s movements, civil society groups from the Global South, and transnational alliances that have taken up the good fight against Big Tech. Public pressure has led to legislative change in many countries to rein in the excesses of digital corporate power. The need for guardrails to prevent harm from emerging data and AI innovation systems is reasonably well understood in public discourse today. Solutionism and multistakeholderism in digital policy spaces have come under the scanner, pointing to the inevitable corporate capture wrapped in glib ‘tech for SDGs’ language. The UN Secretary-General’s office has initiated a process of consultations to evolve an intergovernmental agreement on an open, free, and secure digital future for all – the Global Digital Compact. A groundswell is emerging with respect to the imperative to address the global governance deficits in the digital paradigm.

In this flux, our discourse and practice have seen impact in four critical areas. We have challenged the dominant digital architectural paradigm, re-making tech through a disavowal of extractive and colonial innovation; we have expanded the lexicon of tech for development, re-centering community participation in and ownership of digital and data infrastructures; we have brought individual and structural aspects of equity and justice together, re-imagining rights for our emerging digital condition; and by centering a Southern epistemic on digitality that draws from the wisdom of people’s movements in policy spaces, we are re-claiming the narrative.

Working in a field where rapid change is the only constant means embracing agility even as we stay true to abiding values and faith in community. From serving as a voice of the South in global, regional, and national policy spaces to actively building up the next generation of digital justice champions and leveraging successes and setbacks in the wider institutional space with alacrity, we believe we have moved the needle.

We invite you to delve into our annual report, which captures the high points of this journey. Our stories are not ours alone. We share our myriad victories and struggles with our allies, partners, and comrades.

Our Impact

1

Re-making Tech

Digital innovation ecosystems have been captured by transnational digital corporations, as a result of which a narrow, profit imperative has overtaken public interest. In our work, we have attempted to challenge the dominant digital paradigm, identifying the building blocks of a sustainable, people-first strategy for digitalization that is led from the South. Our multi-pronged strategies include research on digital public infrastructure and data rights, policy engagement to center feminist perspectives in platform regulation, and public-community models for AI in education.

We developed a people-centric vision of digitalization in India.

With critical civil society constituencies in India, we have been able to take forward the idea of ‘right digitalization’ – moving from a negative agenda towards a positive vision.

For instance, we worked with digital rights groups and grassroots organizations like the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) to evolve a vision of people-first digital policy approaches in critical domains such as education, health, agriculture, and social security with the intent of influencing policy trajectories at the national level. We were successful in inputting this thinking into the Government of India’s IDEA initiative for agriculture and the AgriStack data exchange. We have been invited by the office of the Chief Knowledge Officer, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, on multiple occasions to provide expert inputs into the design of a farmer-centric AgriStack to deploy open government data in the agriculture sector for equitable outcomes that privilege marginal and small farmers, rather than a corporate-controlled farming paradigm.

In another instance, when invited by NITI Aayog, the Government of India’s nodal planning and visioning body, to provide expert comments on their report, ‘India’s Booming Gig and Platform Economy - Perspectives and Recommendations on the Future of Work’, we took the opportunity to co-convene a roundtable. The event helped crystallize and channel diverse perspectives on platformization and the future of work(ers) from Indian academia and civil society, reflecting evidence from research and practice by several organizations.

People in a meeting

We are happy to report that we have been able to share the deliberations and recommendations from this consultation with NITI Aayog to feed into a ‘Platform India’ roadmap of the government.

We also provided advisory inputs to the EdTech Plan developed by the Telangana SCERT, an apex academic body of the state of Telangana that is responsible for the state’s curricular policy.

Filler

In May 2022, at the Multi-Stakeholder Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for the SDGs, Anita Gurumurthy supported the curation of the thematic session, ‘Global Digital Public Goods, Digitalization, Artificial Intelligence, and Connecting the World by 2030’, in her capacity as a member of the 10-Member Group of High-level Representatives on STI for the SDGs appointed by the UN Secretary-General.

We also developed a policy brief charting a roadmap for public digital infrastructure development in the Global South, which was published as a chapter in the UN Inter-Agency Task Team on STI for the SDG’s report for the Forum.

During Indonesia’s G20 presidency, Parminder Jeet Singh represented us at the Policy Dialogue Forum – a space for civil society (C20) and government working groups to meet and deliberate upon policy outcomes. His contribution on ‘Data Flows with Rights’ helped push the envelope on a new data governance framework for cross-border data flows, incorporating civil and political rights of data privacy and security, economic rights over data, and collective data rights. The policy brief saw 300+ downloads from our website.

We championed the right to digital infrastructure and data rights in global innovation roadmaps.

Cross Border Data Flows

We mainstreamed feminist perspectives on platform regulation.

With InternetLab, we co-organized a virtual roundtable in April 2022, bringing together scholars and thinkers to re-imagine social media governance from a feminist perspective. Acknowledging that viral hate in algorithmically mediated environments requires fresh thinking on free speech theories, the effort charted a fresh, feminist approach to platform regulation.

We were able to leverage these insights and co-shape UNESCO’s ‘Guidelines for Regulating Digital Platforms to Safeguard Freedom of Expression and Access to Information’. The Guidelines reflect our assertion that platforms must be held accountable not only for the impact of their content moderation function on freedom of speech and access to information, but also for the impact of their content curation function.

We also participated in deliberations of the Working Group on the Pluralism of Information in Curation and Indexation Algorithms convened by the Forum on Information and Democracy, where we stressed the need to go beyond a choice-centric approach and make platform recommender systems sensitive-by-design to diversity and plurality of content. We are pleased to see our contributions reflected in the report from the group, which came out in February 2023. The report also voiced our concern that platform recommender systems can hinder individual autonomy and have a long-term impact on the ability of users from marginal social locations in exercising their voice.

 

 

Feminist Perspectives on Social Media Governance

We initiated a unique public AI program in education.

The state of Kerala in India uses a digital multimedia library to augment English language learning in its public education system – the E Language Lab. Teachers and education officials of the Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE) unit felt that it would be very useful to develop an AI tool for oral assessments that could be linked to the Lab, in order to enhance the effectiveness of focused classroom interventions.

In collaboration with the Regional Institute of English, South India, we conducted a longitudinal impact study of the English Language Lab, which helped us identify potential use cases for the AI assessment tool. We demonstrated a Free and Open Source (FOSS) ‘speech-to-text’ AI use-case that can potentially assist teachers with assessments. This year, we will proceed to a formal proof of concept phase covering six schools in three districts.

Filler
Student speaking into a computer

This is an ambitious undertaking that seeks to evolve a unique public-community partnership for AI development in the education sector, centering the larger public interest and furthering progressive educational aims, rather than procuring proprietary ed-tech from vendors. The Language Lab is an excellent example of public sector software innovation, and our impact study concluded that it has had a significant impact on students’ English communicative skills. Since the Lab itself is licensed under FOSS, it can freely be used by other state governments as well.

2

Re-centering Community

The promise of digital technologies for development can be realized only when technological affordances and social practices intersect in specific cultures of use that benefit marginalized communities. In our work with adolescent girls, rural women’s collectives, and students from marginalized backgrounds in the public education system, our in-depth knowledge of techno-social grammars has catalyzed communities of practice that further individual and collective empowerment.

We enabled adolescent girls to engage confidently with digital media.

The pandemic resulted in a spike in the marriage of underage girls in Karnataka, with a large proportion of families being unable to take care of their daughters’ basic needs and safety. Through our program, Hosa Hejje, Hosa Dishe (H2HD - New Steps, New Directions), we explored tech-enabled empowerment strategies that can enable adolescent girls to successfully realize their right to education and self-determination, and avoid succumbing to familial and community pressure for early marriage.

Recognizing the value of systemic support, we entered into a formal collaboration with the Government of Karnataka’s Department of Primary and Secondary Education to set up in-school safe spaces, or Kishori Clubs. The Kishori Clubs are facilitated by female teachers trained by the H2HD team, to transact a digital media-based curriculum, specifically designed keeping in mind the needs of adolescent girls. The program directly engages with 673 adolescent girls, and indirectly covers 11,440 girls through active engagement with teachers and parents.

 

Kishori Adda

H2HD AT A GLANCE

146+ Kishori Clubs
45+ Resources created in the form of modules, help sheets, DSTs, and flip books.

We designed and implemented a path-breaking inclusive education program.

Inclusive education approaches in the classroom have become more critical than ever, as the prevalence of learning difficulties in children has aggravated due to pandemic-triggered school closures. To address this imperative, we designed and deployed a year-long program (April 2022 to March 2023) for students in classes VI-IX studying in South Bengaluru government and government-aided schools in the domains of language, science and mathematics. We focused on differentiated instruction in collaboration with the teachers – incorporating multilevel, multilingual, multimodal, and multisensory resources and pedagogies, leveraging FOSS learning tools such as PhET, GeoGebra, and TuxMath. The endline assessment of the program showed significant improvement in learning outcomes among program participants.

Inclusive Education Feedback

We strengthened local information and knowledge cultures to support women’s claims-making.

Our field center, Prakriye, runs seven internet-enabled community information centers in partnership with local women’s collectives, facilitating their access to public information, welfare entitlements, and public services in over 60 villages in rural Mysuru, Karnataka. In the village of Tumbasoge, during a session on women’s rights, the sakhi (young woman infomediary associated with the information center) spoke to the women about the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employee Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme under which one is entitled to 100 days of work, and a daily wage of INR 309 (USD 4). After hearing this, one of the women participants exclaimed, “I had no idea about the job card (eligibility document for the scheme).” Meanwhile, another participant added, “I have a job card, but did not know its benefits. I thought this was just like any other [identity] card.” The scheme also guarantees men and women equal pay.

Inspired by the discussion, within a week, nine women collectively went to apply for a job card at the information center. There, they also learnt about the free bus pass, which allows women to travel up to 40 kilometers for free in the state, and about first-aid kits available for job cardholders. “We came here to apply for a job card, but also applied for the bus pass and got first-aid kits. These are beneficial for us daily-wage workers. We should visit the center more often to gain benefits that are meant for us,” one of the participants said.

3

Re-imagining Rights

The mainstream digital rights discourse tends to frame rights in individualistic terms, ignoring the interplay between individual freedoms and social structures that shape choice. Our work attempts to re-imagine human rights as both individual and collective affordances, freedoms that obtain from both enhanced autonomy and capabilities that improve life-chances. This year, we pushed for an expanded idea of data rights beyond individual privacy in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) policy debates on corporate due diligence; urged workers’ organizations and policymakers to account for data rights in the platform workplace; and exhorted civil society groups at the 67th UN Commission on the Status of Women (UN CSW67) to move beyond demands for inclusion towards an agenda of structural change that paves the way for systemic responses to equity and diversity.

We brought data justice center-stage in the OECD debate on corporate due diligence frameworks.

OECD meeting participants

This year, we worked closely with members of the global civil society alliance, OECD Watch, to shape inputs into the official public consultations on the revision of the ‘OECD Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct of Multinational Enterprises’. Our recommendations demanded a sharper articulation of digitalization and datafication of value chains in the Guidelines, highlighting the inadequate attention to data harms.

Although the Guidelines did not go much beyond tackling privacy risks, we managed to bring new thinking to the debate – including, about corporate accountability for algorithmic discrimination, exploitation, and exclusion; facilitation and amplification of violence; manipulation of democratic processes; spread of misinformation; risks associated with dual-use technologies, that is technology with both civil and military application; and environmental impacts of technology.

We put workers’ data rights front and center in the gig economy debate.

Platform predicament podcast banner

Some of the critical issues identified by the paper were taken forward through a podcast series titled, ‘Platform Predicament’, launched in December 2022 that featured interviews with labor economy researchers, platform workers, and platform founders. As a result of these efforts, we were approached by the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru, to provide expert input on specific regulatory provisions for algorithmic governance in platform workplaces. This work will directly feed into Karnataka state’s proposed legislation for ride-hailing and food delivery sectors.

In June 2022, we published a cutting-edge analysis of workers’ data rights, making a strong case for on-boarding new risks to decent work in platformized workplaces. While freedom from surveillance is recognized by national and international frameworks, a whole host of data rights, including those implicating algorithmic management of workers, are missing in the debate. We have taken our analysis into capacity-building programs of trade unions such as Public Services International (PSI), our engagement with the ILO, and with national-level organizations and academics working on gig economy regulation in India.

Filler

We galvanized a Declaration on Feminist Digital Justice, taking it to the outcomes of UN CSW67.

Between August 2021 and December 2022, along with Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN), we convened a working group of 36 feminist scholar-practitioners from the Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Africa to deliberate upon and delineate a gender-just digital future. The group’s discussions over the course of several months generated the Declaration of Feminist Digital Justice.

The central pillars of this Declaration are: a digital economy based on social and solidarity enterprise models that equitably distribute data value, a digital society based on reciprocity and solidarity, a digital state grounded in a feminist social contract, and a new democratic digital constitutionalism that furthers the right to development of the peoples of the Global South.

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Feminist Digital Justice

On 6 March 2023, we launched the Declaration at UN CSW67, the first-ever CSW to focus on digital technologies and gender equality as a priority theme, and in just a week, the Declaration received over 1,000 views!

Channeling the spirit of the Declaration, we also contributed an expert paper to the CSW and made numerous inputs to the text of the Outcomes Document, arguing the place of public digital innovation. We underlined how market-led connectivity and design solutions cannot deliver on gender equality unless the innovation ecosystem is imagined as a public good in the first place.

4

Re-claiming the Narrative

Majority world perspectives are under-represented in the trajectories of digital innovation and the leading edge of digital policy discourses. Using our convening power, we joined hands with progressive civil society actors and people’s movements to lead from the South – raising our voice against neo-colonial digital trade policy regimes, bringing the perspective of the 99% on the extractivist Big Tech paradigm to the table, foregrounding a Southern narrative of digital justice in the ongoing negotiations on the UN Global Digital Compact and building advocacy and research capacities of Southern civil society on digital issues.

We put up a powerful resistance to the dominant digital trade agenda.

IPEF Pinkwashing Banner

For a few years now, we have been working actively with civil society actors, researchers, and trade union activists to push back against Big Tech’s efforts to rewrite the rules for the digital economy through its influence in international trade negotiations. Our efforts saw some critical successes this year.

For one, labor groups who engaged with the workshops and sessions we anchored at the UNCTAD eCommerce week 2022, called for a rejection of ‘plurilateral’ initiatives on e-commerce – essentially, an effort by a select group of wealthy nations to circumvent the rules-based processes of the WTO through extra institutional arrangements – in the lead-up to the WTO ministerial. Registering a strong protest against the hegemony of some countries at the WTO’s 12th Ministerial Conference in Geneva, we participated in a much-publicized ‘die-in’ protest.

We co-led a feminist campaign with the Third World Network (TWN), PSI, Gender and Trade Coalition, and other groups to call out the pink-washing tactics in the ‘Upskilling Initiative for Women and Girls’ launched as part of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF). Our campaign was a huge success, with our statement receiving 60+ endorsements from organizations globally.

And…we continued to set the agenda on digitalization for the 99%

Since its launch in October 2021, DataSyn, our newsletter covering the impact of the Big Tech business model on people and the planet with a special focus on the Majority World, has been growing from strength to strength. In 2022-23, we published 12 issues with over 68 unique contributors, reaching a global readership base of 18,000+ readers. This year, we focused on a range of topical and slow burn issues, including Big Tech developments, Web 3.0, digital economy regulations, trade and e-commerce, gender in the digital economy, labor rights, food security, fintech, edtech, and more. Our newsletter is now being read in more than 25 countries, reaching strategically placed allies and advocates from various constituencies.

We also brought out our flagship State of Big Tech Compendium in November 2022, featuring 20 key voices from research, advocacy, policy, and civil society, offering their takes on the current digitalization landscape and the way forward. The compendium was widely read and shared, garnering over 7400+ views. It was covered by Lynn Fries from the Global Political Economy, in a short video reaching influential financial/economics news and analysis aggregators.

Some key essays were also cross posted by the Transnational Institute, in its State of Power Report in January 2023. Critically, the State of Big Tech compendium has served as a significant advocacy and knowledge resource and furthered capacity development with our allies and partners.

Check our most read piece from the year, ‘The Nth Rooms and the Ungovernable Digital Bodies’.

Interest piqued? All our past issues to date are available on Substack. Check them out here!

DATASYN AT A GLANCE

12 issues
30+ contributors
2,300+ loyal readers
50% opening rate
10+ countries reached
18,000+ new readers on Bot Populi
30+ articles published
34,500+ article views on Bot Populi
State of Big Tech

We brought Southern frames into the ongoing consultations on the UN Global Digital Compact.

The UN consultations on the proposed Global Digital Compact (GDC) are a critical milestone in international digital cooperation. This year, we brought our networks and partners onto a common platform – the Global Digital Justice Forum – to make a dent in this important process. Through several months of dialogue, deliberation, and consultation with several communities in the Global South, we co-constructed submissions for the UN’s open consultation and deep dive sessions.

In addition, we also co-led a process to evolve a feminist charter of demands from the Global South through consultations with nearly 100 feminist academics, scholar-practitioners, activists, civil society representatives, and trade unionists working closely with the Asia-Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD), Access to Knowledge for Development Center at the American University in Cairo, Research ICT Africa, FES Berlin, and FES Regional Trade Union Project in Latin America and the Caribbean. This charter of demands, released at UN CSW67, generated a buzz, and was the first to have gathered feminist views on the GDC agenda.

We nurtured Southern leadership on digital issues.

Group photo Thailand Institute

Event Highlights

In the past year, we have been involved in key global policy events, convened critical roundtables and institutes, and been part of conferences and webinars to contribute key messages on digital justice in its many forms. Here are some highlights:

Feminist Perspectives on Social Media Governance

Read a curated compendium of essay submissions from participants.

Roundtable on Feminist Perspectives on Social Media Governance

18-21 April 2022

To deepen our understanding of how women's first-order right to participation can be reclaimed in the platformized publics of the internet age, we co-organized a roundtable with InternetLab. The aim of the roundtable was to catalyze a productive debate revolving around the central question: What new imaginaries of social media governance will be adequate to eradicate the unfreedoms arising from misogyny in online communications agora? During the four-day event, we brought together 20 academics, lawyers, digital rights activists, and scholar-practitioners committed to feminist politics, to collectively reflect on, discuss, and debate this question, in order to weave a rich tapestry of perspectives on future directions for social media governance.

IT for Change at UNCTAD eCommerce Week

Know more about our sessions.

IT for Change at UNCTAD eCommerce Week

25-29 April 2022

At IT for Change, we are constantly working towards building more resilient and inclusive societies to ensure that the Global South benefits from the digital economy and the latest developments in the e-commerce space. To this end, we hosted and participated in an exciting line-up of sessions at the 2022 UNCTAD eCommerce Week. Our sessions covered a wide range of topics ranging from data value in the information economy to designing a global framework for data governance.

is edtech a danger

Tune into the session recording.

Is EdTech a Danger to Education?

23 December 2022

The recent burgeoning of EdTech platforms has necessitated a deeper understanding of the possibilities, benefits, and dangers of EdTech, as well as a critical evaluation of its role in supporting different aspects of teaching-learning. To facilitate a discussion on these issues, we co-organized a webinar in collaboration with TISS, Oxfam India, and the National Coalition on Education Emergency.

Group photo from Institute on Frontiers and Frames for a New Digitality

Know more about the institution.

Institute on Frontiers and Frames for a New Digitality

30 January-3 February 2023

As part of our efforts to transform emerging civil society engagement with digital issues into a lasting global movement for change, we organized a five-day residential institute in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The institute aimed to equip civil society actors with the necessary vocabulary and tools to effectively address the emerging digital landscape and develop strategies for political organization. It brought together 27 participants and 10 + resource persons from over 20 countries.

IT for Change at the 67th UN Commission on the Status of Women (UN CSW67)

Read our submissions to the Commission.

IT for Change at the 67th UN Commission on the Status of Women (UN CSW67)

5-15 March 2023

To expand our work on feminist digitality, we hosted and participated in a diverse lineup of sessions during UN CSW67. These events included conversations with numerous feminist scholars and experts, including the Head of UN Women, the launch of our Declaration of Feminist Digital Justice, and panel discussions on various topics ranging from feminist development policy to a global digital compact for gender justice.

Collaboration Footprint

We have worked alongside, and are associated with 100+ CSOs, academic institutions, union federations, private-sector entities, and government and multilateral bodies across the globe. Here is a glance at our list of collaborations for the year:

Networks

We also anchor, and are closely involved with various policy, advocacy, and research networks on global digital justice issues. Here is a glance at the key networks we are part of:

APRCEM South Asia Working Group

Campaign of Campaigns

Data Governance network (DGN)

Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era

Fair Green and Global Alliance

EdTech Watch

Gender and Trade Coalition

Global Digital Justice Forum

Global Policy Forum

Global Trade Justice Network

Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence

Joint Action Committee Against Foreign Retail and E-commerce (JACAFRE)

Just Net Coalition (JNC)

Make Amazon Pay

National Coalition on Education Emergency (NCEE)

Our World is not for Sale (OWINFS

OECD Watch

People’s Working Group on Multistakeholderism (PWGM)

Platform Cooperativism Consortium

Platform Governance Research Network (PGRN)

RTE ForumRight Digitalisation Network

Transform Health Coalition

Projects & Publications

The Essential IT for Change Resource List: 2022-23

RESEARCH REPORTS

The Future of Work We Seek: A Philanthropic Agenda for Workers and the Digital Economy. Anita Gurumurthy, Deepti Bharthur, and Amay Korjan.

State of Big Tech 2022: Dismantling Digital Enclosures. IT for Change.

Longitudinal Impact Study on the Kerala E-Language Lab. IT for Change in collaboration with the Regional Institute of Education, South India.

FROM THE PRESS

What a Withdrawn Karnataka Memo Seeking Rs 100 from Parents says about Education Funding in India in Scroll. Gurumurthy Kasinathan.

Digital Transformation for Gender Equality: Will ‘Inclusion’ and ‘Diversity’ Alone Get Us There? in Bot Populi. Anita Gurumurthy and Nandini Chami.

JOURNAL ARTICLES

Musk’s Twitter Acquisition: Out of the Frying Pan into the Fire in Economic and Political Weekly. Gurumurthy Kasinathan.

Taming the Intelligent Corporation: Why the Data Paradigm Necessitates a Re-think of Responsible Business Conduct Obligations of MNEs in Multinationales: En finir avec l’impunité? Anita Gurumurthy and Nandini Chami.

Special issue on Digital Technologies and Education in Shiksha Vimarsh. Edited by IT for Change.

EVENT REPORTS

The Digital Ecosystem Opportunity for Indian Agriculture: Making the Right Choices, observations from a workshop. Sakhi Shah and Ranjitha Kumar.

Unlocking the Platform Dividend for the Indian Economy, notes from a policy roundtable on NITI Aayog’s roadmap for an inclusive future of work. IT for Change.

FROM THE DATASYN VAULT

Dismantling Digital Enclosures: Reflections from the State of Big Tech. Deepti Bharthur, Amay Korjan, and Shreeja Sen.

Gender-based Abuse on the Metaverse: The New Internet is Being Coded on a Toxic Palimpsest. Merrin Muhammed Ashraf.

PODCASTS

Platform Predicament: Making Sense of a Datafied Future of Work, hosted by Sonakshi Agarwal.

ADVOCACY STATEMENTS

Statement Rejecting Pinkwashing in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. IT for Change and allies.

NCEE Urges Due Diligence by Government of Andhra Pradesh Before Implementing MoU with BYJUs. IT for Change and allies.

NOTES FROM THE FIELD

What it Takes to Maintain Access to the Digital: Experiences of Adolescent Girls in Rural Mysuru. Nayana Kirasur.

POLICY BRIEFS

Cross-Border ‘Data Flow With Data Rights’. Parminder Jeet Singh.

Innovation to Tackle Gender Inequality: A Back-to-Basics Roadmap. Anita Gurumurthy and Nandini Chami.

Workers’ Data Rights in the Platformized Workplace - A New Frontier for the Labor Agenda. Anita Gurumurthy, Nandini Chami, Sreyan Chatterjee, and Sakhi Shah.

POLICY SUBMISSIONS

Rajkumar, M., Ashraf, M. M., & Gurumurthy, A. (2023). Response from IT for Change to the Draft 2.0 UNESCO Guidelines for Regulating Digital Platforms. IT for Change.

BLOGS

Declaration of Digital Rights and Principles: A Reality Check in Concorde Europe. Anita Gurumurthy.

FORTHCOMING

Forging a Survivor-Centric Approach to Online Gender-Based Violence: A Judicial Resource Guide. IT for Change.

Unskewing the Data Value Chain. IT for Change.

Financial Statements

BALANCE SHEET AS ON 31 MARCH 2023

All amounts are in INR (rounded)

2021-22 Liabilities 2022-23 % of total 2021-22 Assets 2022-23 % of total
31,144,106 Organisation Stabilisation Fund 39,447,696 22 2,799,471 Fixed Assets 2,661,069 1.5
240,000 Corpus Donation 270,000 0 103,374,048 Current Assets, Loans and Advances 175,461,357 98.0
21,680,345 General Fund 26,491,576 15 935,778 Receivables 795,428 0.5
2,799,471 Asset Fund 2,661,069 1
44,638,968 Advance Account 103,719,163 58
6,606,407 Sundry Payables 6,328,350 4
107,109,297 Total 178,917,854 100 107,109,297 Total 178,917,854 100

INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT FOR YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

All amounts are in INR (rounded)

2021-22 Expenditure 2022-23 % of total 2021-22 Income 2022-23 % of total
37,257,090 Personnel Costs 44,152,997 59 51,848,396 Funds Received 64,647,410 86
10,915,101 Operating Costs 15,501,548 21 5,220,667 Interest on Term Deposit & Savings Bank Account 5,385,875 7
3,268,931 Administration Costs 4,397,514 6 1,043,553 Income to the extent of Depreciation transferred from Asset fund 1,167,378 2
1,043,553 Depreciation 1,167,378 2 38,459 Withdrawal from Asset Fund 0 0
4,841,780 Excess of Income over Expenditure 4,811,231 6 2,101,528 Donation 15,975 0
4,841,780 Appropriation towards Organizational Expenses 4,811,231 6 1,888,598 Professional Fee and Other Income 3,559,509 5
27,034 Interest on IT Refund 65,752 0
62,168,235 Total 74,841,899 100 62,168,235 Total 74,841,899 100