KEY MILESTONES

• Shaped national policy on fairer platform marketplaces: We responded to public consultations on the draft Digital Competition Bill, urging a regulatory framework grounded in evidence and transparency that empowers the Competition Commission to act effectively.
• Drove global civil society action against corporate capture:  We joined a global civil society campaign addressing the corporate capture of the multilateral system. At the UN Summit of the Future in September 2024, we co-organized a press conference with the People’s Working Group on Multistakeholderism titled, ‘Who Gets to Define the Future?: The UN’s Summit of the Future as a Mechanism for Corporate Capture’. Our intervention highlighted Big Tech’s growing power and the global governance deficits in digital capitalism.
• Challenged corporate power and monopolies: Through the Global Anti-Monopoly Convening and the Digital Merger Watch network, we questioned the concentration of financial and infrastructural power in Big Tech. Alongside a coalition of civil society organizations, we submitted an input to the European Competition Commission, urging an investigation of the Nvidia/Run:ai merger, citing risks of reinforcing monopolistic control over the global semiconductor supply chain.

  KEY MILESTONES

• Influenced global AI governance at the UN: We contributed two cutting-edge inputs to the UN AI Advisory Body’s report on a new global governance framework for AI. One highlighted the shortcomings of the current Intellectual Property Rights regime in enabling fair and democratic AI and data innovation. The other called for integrating a critical gender equality perspective into global AI governance frameworks.
• Advanced sectoral pathways to data justice: Through the Data Justice Research Project, a multi-partner initiative, we are working on co-developing a pro-South, sector-specific vision for data justice. Engaging with civil society actors and people’s movements across health, biodiversity, food, and open data sectors, the project is documenting concrete economic, social, and cultural rights (ESCR) violations arising from digitalization and datafication.
• Set the global agenda on AI-related risks: We responded rapidly to key policy discussions on safeguarding against data and AI harms. We provided expert inputs to the OECD Global Partnership on AI report on fostering substantive equality in AI innovation ecosystems.
  • We also responded to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) call for inputs on its thematic report, ‘The Use of Artificial Intelligence and the UNGPs’. Our joint submission with the Global Digital Justice Forum highlighted critical human rights risks from AI procurement and deployment by states and businesses across sectors, including law enforcement, welfare, and health.

  KEY MILESTONES

• Led a Gender-Responsive Information Integrity Agenda at G20 Brazil: To counter misogyny, gendered disinformation, and incitement of violence, we co-authored the T20 Policy Brief, ‘Gendering the G20 Information Integrity Agenda’. The brief calls for legal recognition of gendered disinformation and gender-based hate speech. It also outlines key elements of a model platform regulation framework, including techno-design changes.
• Furthered democratic integrity agenda in the digital public sphere: We contributed to the OECD Draft Recommendations on Information Integrity, advocating for the highest standards aligned with democratic values of equality, liberty, solidarity, and verity/public reason.

Through the UNESCO Internet for Trust Knowledge Community, we submitted comments on the ‘UN Framework for Human Rights Risk Assessment (HRRA) in the Context of Online Safety of Critical Voices’. Our inputs emphasized mapping the links between social media business models and the spread of viral disinformation that threatens human rights defenders, particularly women and gender minorities.

  KEY MILESTONES

• Strengthened the audio stories program: The ‘Karnataka Language Education through Audio Stories Program’ (K-LEAP) trained teachers to integrate audio stories into classroom practice through techno-pedagogy workshops across six districts. Workshops addressed the needs of Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu medium government primary school teachers, who often have limited professional development opportunities in Karnataka.
  • We also launched the ‘Jharkhand Language Education through Audio Stories Program’ (J-LEAP) in Early Childhood Education, in partnership with Collectives for Integrated Livelihood Initiatives (CInI). This marked LEAP’s expansion to Jharkhand, supporting Mundari, a prominent tribal language.
• Propagated digital literacy in schools: This year, our digital literacy work culminated in the ‘Digital Picture Story Creation program’ at a Bengaluru school, where parents and teachers saw students confidently speak in English and present digital artifacts they had created on school computers. The Technology Integration for Equitable Education (TIEE) project also expanded beyond Bengaluru to the Mysuru district, reaching rural, socio-economically disadvantaged blocks in HD Kote and Hunsuru, in partnership with the Mysuru District Institute for Education and Training (DIET).
• Collaborated with the Karnataka State Education Department: The Department of State Education Research and Training (DSERT), Karnataka, invited us to guide research projects across multiple educational areas. We contributed to tool design, data collection, analysis, and report preparation. Our capacity-building workshops with DIETs provided hands-on experience for participants, strengthening local research and implementation skills.
• Expanded into social science pedagogies: We launched the Social Science through Information Technology in Education (SOSITE) project in partnership with Avehi Abacus, marking our strategic expansion into social science teaching, building on prior work in language and math education.
  • Our Director and Lead for Education and Technology, Gurumurthy Kasinathan, contributed to four Task Force reports commissioned by the Karnataka State Education Policy Commission, covering Right to Education, Adult Education and Lifelong Learning, Curriculum Framework, and Teachers’ Qualifications and Working Conditions. He also reviewed the Task Force report on the Structure of School Education, addressing enrollment, retention, and educational attainment challenges for socially and economically disadvantaged groups. The Commission’s report has been submitted to the Government of Karnataka.
• Strengthened knowledge-creation: We presented two papers: ‘Formal vs. Substantive Activity-Based Learning – A Tale of Two School Events’ and ‘Supporting Inclusion in Government School Through  Universal Design for English Language Teaching’—at the 14th Annual International Conference of the Comparative Education Society of India (CESI) in Chandigarh. We also participated in a panel discussion, ‘EdTech – Looking Beyond the Hype’, examining meaningful technology integration in education.
• Empowered teachers with technology: Through ongoing collaboration with pre-service teacher education institutions, we offered customized versions of our EdTech Integrated learning program. Aligned with National Curriculum Framework themes of ‘Connecting and Learning and Creating and Learning’, the course enhances student-teachers’ ability to integrate technology effectively into their teaching practice.

  KEY MILESTONES

• Empowering government school Urdu teachers through FOSS and OERs: In collaboration with Bengaluru North District Institute for Education and Training (DIET), we conducted workshops on creating OERs in Urdu for government school teachers. Approximately 75 teachers participated, learning to type in Urdu and translate stories into the language. Notably, over 25 teachers brought their personal laptops to have the Ubuntu Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) custom distribution installed. This workshop was a milestone for us, as it involved working with a cohort of teachers from an often underserved minority community.
• Critically assessed the impact of EdTech: We co-hosted the Critical Studies of Education and Technology (CSET) academic symposium in partnership with the Comparative Education Society of India. The symposium catalyzed the formation of the ‘Critical EdTech India’ community, bringing together educators, scholars, EdTech practitioners, and academics to examine technology in education through a critical, reflective, and ethical lens. The community intends to evaluate EdTech’s impact on equity, access, and policy to shape a more inclusive educational future.
• Examined barriers to language education: Through the action research project ‘Scaling of Teacher Professional Development’, we explored teachers’ challenges with language learning and techno-pedagogy, along with cluster resource persons’ (CRPs) struggles in providing academic support.
  • At the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) conference in Chicago, Illinois, we co-facilitated a workshop titled  ‘Harnessing ICTs to Improve Equity in Teacher Professional Learning Systems’. We shared findings and guided activities demonstrating how framing technology as a resource—not just a product—in TPD is essential to enhance teacher agency.
• Broadened the discourse on AI in education: We participated in a conference of experts on the integration of AI in education, convened by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, in Geneva. Our inputs, in this conference, on the Kerala Public EdTech model, were part of the report to the UN General Assembly, on human rights-based approaches to AI use in education.
• We deepened our engagement with emerging debates on AI in education, co-hosting a hybrid webinar titled  ‘Generative AI in the Classroom – Possibilities and Perils’, in collaboration with the Vakkom Moulavi Foundation Trust (VMFT) and the Comparative Education Society of India (CESI).
• Advocated for democratization of digital resources: At a UNICEF event in Delhi, we moderated a panel on ‘Strengthening Digital Pedagogy to Improve Educational Outcomes’, highlighting the need to move beyond an isolated focus on providing digital devices to students.
• At the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) national conference on ‘Democratizing Digital: Creating Pathways for Impact’ in Mumbai, we delivered a presentation titled “Using Technology to Transform the Landscape of Education.” Our intervention underscored the need to move beyond mere translation of educational resources and instead strengthen teacher agency to co-create contextually grounded and pedagogically meaningful digital content.

  KEY MILESTONES

• Fortified engagement with Kishoris: Our Kishori Clubs—school-level media hubs under Hosa Hejje, Hosa Dishe—now operate in four districts: Mysuru, Chamarajanagara, Kalaburagi, and Raichur, reaching 449 schools and nearly 19,000 students. Building on these awareness initiatives, we ran the social media campaign ‘Hadihareyava Ari Sabalatheye Ninna Guri Abhiyana’ (Understand Adolescence, Empower Yourself), which explored gender dynamics and sexual and reproductive health, reaching close to 14,000 viewers.
• Improved access to information for adolescent girls: At the Prakriye field center, we launched the Kishori Champions program in Mulluru and Jakkalli villages. Through digital storytelling and interactive modules, the program equips 40 adolescent girls (Kishoris) with knowledge on adolescence, gender, patriarchy, and cyber safety, while strengthening their leadership, life skills, and agency.
• Expanded career horizons through digital learning: To provide insights into diverse educational and career pathways beyond the 10th standard, we released the updated ‘Career Guidance for Adolescent Girl Empowerment’ MOOC. As many as 900 adolescents completed the course in the first month alone.