--- layout: default title: "Centre for Internet and Society: Annual Report 2011–12" description: "A narrative account of the Centre for Internet and Society's annual report for the year 1 April 2011 to 31 March 2012, covering its research, advocacy, events, teaching, publications, and organisational details." permalink: /cis/annual-report-2011-12/ categories: [Centre for Internet and Society] created: 2026-05-05 --- The **Annual Report 2011–12** of the [Centre for Internet and Society](/cis/) (CIS) documents the organisation's work for the financial year from 1 April 2011 to 31 March 2012. It marked CIS's fourth full year of operation since its founding in July 2008, and the report captures an organisation operating at a larger organisational scale, publishing major collaborative reports, producing and screening a documentary film, concluding a three-year research series on the histories of the internet in India, and attracting substantial press coverage in both national and international outlets. The report is organised into eight thematic sections: Accessibility, Access to Knowledge, Openness, Internet Governance, Telecom, Digital Natives, Researchers at Work, and a section on the Pathways to Higher Education project. It also includes a Credibility Alliance Norms Compliance section, which provides organisational and financial data including board composition, staff list, salary distribution, and details of partners and donors. ## Contents 1. [Accessibility](#accessibility) 2. [Access to Knowledge](#access-to-knowledge) 3. [Openness](#openness) 4. [Internet Governance](#internet-governance) 5. [Telecom](#telecom) 6. [Digital Natives](#digital-natives) 7. [Researchers at Work](#researchers-at-work) 8. [Pathways to Higher Education](#pathways-to-higher-education) 9. [Media Coverage](#media-coverage) 10. [Organisation and Governance](#organisation-and-governance) 11. [Full Report](#full-report) ## Accessibility CIS grounded its accessibility work in the recognition that an estimated 70 million persons with disabilities in India could not participate fully in the information society, because most web, mobile, banking, and telecommunications interfaces remained non-compliant with accessibility standards. The programme built on several years of prior work and produced a notable volume of research outputs during the year. ### Key Research and Publications G3ict and CIS published a new, improved edition of *Web Accessibility Policy Making: An International Perspective*, with support from the Hans Foundation. The Foreword was written by Axel Leblois, Executive Director of G3ict. The report covered web accessibility policy-making in 14 countries and the European Union, with contributions from Prashanth Ramadas, Asma Tajuddin, G. Aravind, Katie Riesner, Sucharita Narasimhan, Bama Balakrishnan, and Nirmita Narasimhan. The *e-Accessibility Policy Handbook for Persons with Disabilities*, a joint publication of ITU, G3ict, and CIS supported by the Hans Foundation, was translated into Russian by the United Nations Information Centre, Moscow, making it available to a new audience of policy-makers and regulators. G3ict and CIS, in cooperation with the Hans Foundation, published *Universal Service for Persons with Disabilities: A Global Survey of Policy Interventions and Good Practices*. The book contains four chapters and a foreword by Axel Leblois, with contributions from Deepti Bharthur, Axel Leblois, and Nirmita Narasimhan. It examined the evolution of the Universal Service Fund (USF) concept and showcased countries leveraging USF mechanisms to fund accessibility and assistive technology projects. CIS prepared the joint ITU–G3ict report *Making Mobile Phones and Services Accessible for Persons with Disabilities*, with contributions from Deepti Bharthur, Lakshmi Haridas, Axel Leblois, Pranav Lal, Peter Looms, Nirmita Narasimhan, Roopakshi Pathania, Deva Prasad, Mukesh Sharma, and Susan Schorr. The research identified and promoted effective mobile solutions benefiting persons with disabilities and contained eleven chapters, a bibliography, and a glossary. G3ict also updated its 2009 comparative review of web and electronic accessibility policies, now titled *Accessibility Policy Making: Revised Edition 2011*, to reflect new developments in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, including the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010. ### Journal Articles and Publications Nirmita Narasimhan contributed an article to the IIMB Journal *Enabling Access for Persons with Disabilities to Higher Education and Workplace — Role of ICT and Assistive Technologies*, published on the occasion of the 'never-the-less' conference. She also authored the chapter "The Business Case for Web Accessibility" in a NASSCOM Foundation handbook on web accessibility, and an article titled "Barriers to Access in a Connected World" in the Hans Foundation Annual Review 2011. ### Submissions In December 2011, CIS was one of 27 organisations that sent a joint letter to the Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, requesting that accessibility for persons with disabilities be incorporated within the goals and objectives of the New Telecom Policy 2011. CIS also submitted feedback on ICT policy to the Kerala State Government, on the Treaty for the Blind to the Ministry of Human Resource Development, and contributed to finalising the questionnaire for the world-wide survey on implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) across 147 countries. ### Collaborations The NMEICT book conversion project, run in partnership with IIT Kharagpur, the Daisy Forum of India, and Inclusive Planet, concluded in December 2011. CIS oversaw the conversion of 25 Tamil and 25 Marathi higher education books into Daisy formats, as part of a total project converting approximately 200 books with a budget of approximately ₹53 lakhs. CIS continued as a strategic partner of Inclusive Planet, the community portal for persons with visual and print disabilities. By this reporting period, the platform had grown to over 10,000 members across 125 countries and hosted 25,000 accessible-format materials. ### Events Organised At the invitation of CIS and in cooperation with the ITU-APT Foundation of India, the ITU organised a two-day Tutorial on Audio Visual Media Accessibility at the India International Centre, New Delhi, on 14–15 March 2012. The Tutorial was preceded by the fourth meeting of the Focus Group on Audio Visual Media Accessibility (FG AVA) on 13 March 2012, also hosted by CIS. Sunil Abraham served as Master of Ceremonies on 14 March 2012. ### Events Participated Nirmita Narasimhan participated in the USOF Stakeholders Meeting on Facilitating ICT Access to Persons with Disabilities in Rural Areas in New Delhi on 7 September 2011. She also participated in the Daisy Forum Meeting in Bangalore on 20–21 May 2011, and attended the Lirne Asia event in Colombo from 6 to 8 April 2011, where she made a presentation on accessibility and met with the Sri Lanka regulator. ### Award Nirmita Narasimhan received the NIVH Excellence Award from Justice A.S. Anand (retired), former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, at the National Institute for the Visually Handicapped in Dehradun on 3 December 2011, on the occasion of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. The award ceremony was covered by *The Tribune*. ## Access to Knowledge CIS's Access to Knowledge programme addressed the structural imbalances in intellectual property regimes that harmed creativity, freedom of speech, and access to information, particularly in the Global South. Its work during 2011–12 spanned copyright reform, WIPO advocacy, software patent opposition, and trade agreement analysis. ### Consumers International IP Watchlist Pranesh Prakash prepared the India Report for the *Consumers International IP Watchlist 2011*, published on the A2K Network website. The report found that India's Copyright Act was a relatively balanced instrument that recognised consumer interests through its broad private use exception and compulsory licensing provisions. The report was recognised as the best developing country report by Consumers International. Pranesh Prakash also wrote a detailed article, "Exhaustion: Imports, Exports and the Doctrine of First Sale in Indian Copyright Law," published in *Manupatra Intellectual Property Reports*, February 2011, Volume 1, Part 2, pp. 149–160. ### WIPO Forums As an accredited NGO at WIPO, CIS was a negotiator at Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) meetings. The 22nd session was held from 15 to 24 June 2011, and the 23rd session from 22 November to 2 December 2011. Pranesh Prakash attended both sessions, delivered CIS's statements, and made them available in print. At the 23rd session, he delivered a statement on the new proposal by South Africa and Mexico (SCCR/23/6) on a treaty for broadcasters. In conjunction with the Third World Network, CIS conducted an *Analysis of the WIPO Treaty for the Print Disabled*, distributing the analysis to delegates from 20 different countries. ### Events Organised CIS organised a lecture by Prof. Shyamkrishna Balganesh from the University of Pennsylvania, titled *Gandhi, Freedom and the Dilemmas of Copyright*, at CIS Bangalore on 30 January 2012. CIS also co-organised a screening of the film *Partners in Crime* by Paromita Vohra at the Srimiti Nandan Cultural Centre, Bangalore on 9 September 2011, with Vikalp@Smriti Nandan as a co-organiser. ### Events Participated Pranesh Prakash participated in the Consumers International Global Meeting in Kuala Lumpur from 7 to 10 March 2012, speaking on UN Consumer Guidelines. He spoke at the Expert Meeting on Freedom of Expression and Intellectual Property Rights at the Free Word Centre, London on 18 November 2011, organised by ARTICLE 19, where nineteen international scholars and human rights activists gathered to examine the relationship between IP and freedom of expression. Both Sunil Abraham and Pranesh Prakash participated in the Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest at American University, Washington College of Law, Washington D.C., from 25 to 27 August 2011, speaking in the session on Enforcement & the Internet. Pranesh Prakash also spoke at the *Rethinking Intellectual Property and Development after 15 Years of TRIPS* conference at IIFT, New Delhi on 28–29 April 2011, and at *Publishing Next 2011* in Margao, Goa on 16–17 September 2011. ## Openness CIS's openness work covered open government data, open access to scholarly literature and to law, Wikipedia and open content, free and open source software, and open standards. ### Open Government Data The Transparency and Accountability Initiative (TAI) had granted ₹8,96,000 to CIS to produce the *Open Government Data Study in India*, written by Glover Wright, Pranesh Prakash, Sunil Abraham, and Nishant Shah. The report was featured on the TAI website in May 2011. A second version, updated by Nisha Thompson (an intern from Columbia University), was subsequently sent for peer review. The updated version added new case studies, examined the potential of the proposed National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy, and analysed open data at the city and panchayat level. CIS also contributed a chapter on Open Government Data to the TAI book *Opening Government: A Guide to Best Practice in Transparency, Accountability and Civic Engagement across the Public Sector*. Sunil Abraham spoke at the *3rd Canadian Science Policy Conference* in Ottawa from 16 to 18 November 2011, on the Global Implications of Open and Inclusive Innovation. He also spoke at the Workshop on Biodiversity Informatics at the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment, Bangalore on 25 November 2011, on open data in the scientific realm. A Geekup on Open Data was hosted at CIS Bangalore on 25 January 2012, with Hapee de Groot from the Netherlands giving a lecture. ### Open Access to Scholarly Literature A first draft of *Open Access to Scholarly Literature in India* by Prof. Subbiah Arunachalam and Madhan Muthu was circulated for peer review. The report surveyed scholarly and scientific publication in India and provided a detailed history of the open access movement in India. It observed that Indian science had "low but increasing research productivity helped by increasing investments on R&D, and low but moderately improving visibility," and recommended that all publicly funded research in India should be made open access. CIS, in partnership with the Electronic Publishing Trust for Development, organised the inaugural EPT Award for Open Access in the Developing World function at the Sambasivan Auditorium, M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai on 14 February 2012. The award was presented to Dr. Francis Jayakanth from the National Centre of Science Information, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Prof. M.S. Swaminathan, Prof. Subbiah Arunachalam, Prof. G. Baskaran, and Prof. K. Mangala Sunder participated in the ceremony. ### Open Access to Law CIS, in partnership with the South African Legal Information Institute and LexUM, Montreal, and funded by the Open Society Institute and the International Development Research Centre, completed the *Free Access to Law: Is it Here to Stay? Good Practices Handbook*. CIS oversaw case studies from India, Hong Kong, Indonesia, and the Philippines. The project outputs included a research methodology guide, an environmental scan report, a collection of case studies, and the handbook summarising nine "Good Practices" for emerging free access to law initiatives drawn from eleven countries across Africa and Asia. ### Critical Point of View and Wikipedia CIS and the Institute of Network Cultures published *Critical Point of View: A Wikipedia Reader*, edited by Geert Lovink and Nathaniel Tkacz. The reader drew from three conferences — held in Bangalore (January 2010), Amsterdam (March 2010), and Leipzig (September 2010) — and collected original research on wiki theory, bots, encyclopaedic knowledge, and the politics of agency and exclusion in Wikipedia. CIS, in association with the Wikimedia Foundation, produced the documentary film *People are Knowledge — Experimenting with Oral Citations on Wikipedia*. The project was undertaken by Wikimedia Foundation Advisory Board Member Achal Prabhala to explore alternate methods of citation in languages where published materials were scarce. The film was directed by New Delhi-based filmmaker Priya Sen, with shooting in South Africa handled by Zen Marie. By the time of the report, the film had been viewed 3,828 times on Vimeo. Monthly Wikipedia meet-ups continued to be hosted at CIS from April 2011 to March 2012, with twelve meetings held on: 10 April, 8 May, 12 June, 10 July, 14 August, 11 September, 23 October, 13 November, 11 December 2011, 15 January, 12 February, and 11 March 2012. ### Free and Open Source Software CIS organised a free Arduino workshop for beginners at its Bangalore office on 3 March 2012. Sunil Abraham participated in the IGF workshop on *The Impact of Regulation: FOSS and Enterprise* in Nairobi on 28 September 2011. CIS submitted comments on the Technical Standards for the Interoperability Framework for E-Governance (Phase II), on the draft National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy, and on the draft National Policy on ICT in School Education. ## Internet Governance CIS's internet governance work in 2011–12 was the broadest of all its programme areas, covering privacy, freedom of expression, the Unique Identification (UID) project, intermediary liability, and multi-stakeholder governance processes at the national and international level. ### Privacy CIS, in partnership with Privacy International (UK) and Society in Action Group, Gurgaon, ran a two-year research and advocacy project on privacy in Asia. Prashant Iyengar and Elonnai Hickok were the principal researchers. Draft chapters of *Privacy in India* were produced, covering the Country Report, Telecommunication and Internet Privacy, E-Governance Identity and Privacy, Finance and Privacy, Health and Privacy, and Transparency and Privacy. The project organised themed workshops on privacy across the country in Kolkata, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Chennai, and Guwahati, and concluded with the High Level Privacy Conclave and the All India Privacy Symposium in Delhi. At the High Level Privacy Conclave, Sunil Abraham was a Conclave Advisor and moderated the session on Internet and Privacy; Malavika Jayaram moderated the panel on National Security and Privacy; and Elonnai Hickok spoke in the session "The Way Forward." A public conference titled *Privacy Matters* was held at the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai on 21 January 2012. Pranesh Prakash was appointed to a Small Group of Experts under the Chairmanship of Justice A.P. Shah, Former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, to identify privacy issues and prepare a paper facilitating the drafting of a comprehensive Privacy Bill for India. CIS also submitted specific recommendations and comments on the Right to Privacy Bill, 2010, introduced in the Rajya Sabha by Rajeev Chandrashekhar. ### UID CIS submitted seven open letters to the Parliamentary Finance Committee on the Unique Identification (UID) project, covering the SCOSTA standard, the centralised database, biometrics, budget, operational design, transactions, and deduplication. The seventh letter, *A Note on the Deduplication of Unique Identifiers* by Hans Varghese Matthews, examined replies received in response to a Right to Information application filed by Sahana Sarkar on 30 June 2011 to the Central Public Information Officer of the UIDAI. ### Intermediary Liability and Freedom of Expression In partnership with Google, CIS initiated the **Google Policy Fellowship Programme**, with Rishabh Dara selected as Fellow. His report, *Intermediary Liability in India: Chilling Effects on Free Expression on the Internet 2011*, examined whether the criteria and procedure for website takedowns under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules led to a chilling effect on online free expression. Takedown notices were sent to seven prominent intermediaries. Six of the seven over-complied with the notices, despite apparent flaws in them. CIS organised a closed-door meeting with the Global Network Initiative in New Delhi on 5 March 2012 on issues of freedom of expression, privacy, national security, and law enforcement. A public event, *Free Speech Online in India under Attack?*, was held at CIS Bangalore on 21 December 2011, with Achal Prabhala, Anja Kovacs, and Lawrence Liang as speakers and Sunil Abraham as moderator. ### Internet Governance Forum The sixth annual IGF was held at the UN office in Nairobi, Kenya from 27 to 30 September 2011. CIS organised two workshops: *Use of Digital Technologies for Civic Engagement and Political Change: Lessons Learned and Way Forward* and *Open Spectrum for Development in the Context of the Digital Migration*. CIS was also registered as a remote IGF hub for following the webcast and participating live. ### Policy Submissions CIS submitted comments to the Ministry of Information Technology on the National Policy of Information Technology, the Draft Electronic Delivery of Services Bill, 2011, and the Draft National Policy on Electronics. Sunil Abraham advised the Government of Iraq on the co-existence of e-governance frameworks with existing laws and policies, and the Government of Tajikistan on ICT in development. ### Events at CIS A selection of public lectures and events at CIS during the year: - *Climate Change and Controversy Mapping* (IISc, Bangalore, 19–21 March 2012): Prof. Bruno Latour, Dean for Research at Sciences Po, Paris, gave a lecture at this three-day workshop organised by CIS in collaboration with IISc. - *Cartonama Workshop* (CIS, 2–3 March 2012): An intensive, hands-on training on location-based services, organised by HasGeek in partnership with CIS, with Schuyler Erle and Mikel Maron as speakers. - *GeekUp with Erica Hagen* (CIS, 1 March 2012): Erica Hagen of the GroundTruth Initiative spoke on "From Information to Empowerment." - *Whose Data is it Anyway?* (CIS, 24 January 2012): A public lecture by Siddharth Hande and Hapee de Groot, organised by Tactical Tech and CIS. - *Exposing Data: Art Slash Activism* (CIS, 28 November 2011): A public discussion organised by Tactical Tech and CIS, with Ward Smith, Stephanie Hankey, Marek Tuszinsky, Ayisha Abraham, and Zainab Bawa as speakers. - *Droidcon India* (MLR Convention Centre, Bangalore, 18–19 November 2011): The first Android conference in Bangalore, organised by Droidcon.com, MobileMonday Bangalore, Medianama, and CIS. - *The 2nd IJLT-CIS Lecture Series* (NLSIU, Nagarbhavi, Bangalore, 21–22 May 2011): Organised by the Indian Journal of Law and Technology and CIS on the theme of Emerging Issues in Privacy Law. - *Internet Surveillance Policy: "…the second time as farce?"* (TERI, Bangalore, 27 June 2011): A public lecture by Caspar Bowden. - *Privacy By Design* (CIS, 16 April 2011): An open space workshop on privacy in technological systems. ## Telecom CIS's telecom work during 2011–12 focused on spectrum policy and rural broadband access. ### Key Research Satyen Gupta, Sunil Abraham, and Yelena Gyulkhandanyan produced *Unlicensed Spectrum — Policy Brief for Government of India NTP '11*, funded by Ford Foundation. The report recommended unlicensed spectrum to the Government of India based on recent developments in wireless technology, community needs, and international best practices. It covered unlicensed spectrum policies at the ITU and EU, a survey of international best practices, innovations in unlicensed spectrum bands, the impact on rural broadband and mass media, and policy recommendations for NTP '11. CIS also submitted comments on the Department of Telecom's draft New Telecom Policy, offering specific recommendations on spectrum management, de-licensing of additional spectrum, licensing, convergence, value-added services, and accessibility for persons with disabilities. ### The CIS Lab CIS created an internal laboratory filled with digital artefacts — from large multinational corporations, individual hobbies, academic researchers, NGOs, and activists — to build a community of practice around internet and mobile technologies in the social sector. The lab hosted theme-based exhibitions, workshops, presentations, films, and training sessions to engage students, academics, NGO managers, policy-makers, and corporate leaders. ### Columns by Shyam Ponappa Shyam Ponappa, Distinguished Fellow at CIS and a columnist with *Business Standard*, published a series of articles mirrored on the CIS website, covering topics including telecom reform, the 2G Supreme Court judgment, India's economic trajectory, and lessons from Fukushima: - *Learning from Fukushima* (25 April 2011) - *Reviving Growth* (21 September 2011) - *Facing up to Moral Hazard* (6 October 2011) - *Telecom Path-Breaker?* (3 November 2011) - *Healing Self-Inflicted Wounds* (1 December 2011) - *Reversing India's Downward Trajectory* (5 January 2012) - *The 2G Supreme Court Judgment 1* (1 March 2012) - *The 2G Supreme Court Judgment 2* (4 March 2012) ### Events CIS organised a two-day Telecom Training Course at its Bangalore office on 4–5 August 2011, covering telecommunications basics, licensing and regulatory aspects, and standardisation forums. Satyen Gupta, Sunil Abraham, and Nirmita Narasimhan participated. Yelena Gyulkhandanyan attended the Convergence India 2012 conference in New Delhi from 21 to 23 March 2012. ## Digital Natives The Digital Natives programme concluded its three-year knowledge inquiry in 2011–12 with the publication of a four-book collective and continued the *Links in the Chain* newsletter series and a video contest. ### Four-Book Collective CIS and Hivos consolidated their three-year inquiry into youth, technology, and social change in a four-book collective titled *Digital AlterNatives with a Cause?*, edited by Fieke Jansen and Nishant Shah. The collective addressed critical questions about theory and practice around "digital revolutions" in a post-MENA world, working with multiple vocabularies to produce dialogues between digital natives, academic scholars, practitioners, development agencies, and corporate structures. The book launch was held at the Museum for Communication, The Hague, on 16 September 2011, co-organised with Hivos. A review of the collective by Maarten van den Berg was published in *The Broker* on 19 September 2011. ### Peer-Reviewed Articles Nishant Shah and Fieke Jansen published a peer-reviewed paper, "Between the Stirrup and the Ground: Relocating Digital Activism," in *Democracy & Society* (Center for Democracy and Civil Society, Volume 8, Issue 2, Summer 2011). The paper drew on the Digital Natives research project and argued that understanding digital activism required examining the recalibrated relationships between the state and citizens through the prism of technology and agency. ### Newsletter and Video Contest Issues of the bi-monthly newsletter *Links in the Chain* published during 2011–12 included: Volume VI (Write-shop), Volume VII (Digital Dinosaurs), Volume VIII Issues I–IV covering Social Media, Internet Governance, Analog Relics in the Digital Age, and Decoding Web Groups, and Volume IX Issues 1 and 2 covering Digital Art and Piracy, Privacy and the Wiki Way of Web. The Digital Natives Video Contest, co-organised by Hivos and CIS, offered grand prizes of EUR 500 each to the top five winners. The jury prizes went to John Musila (Kenya) and Marie Jude Bendiola (Singapore). Jury members included Shashwati Talukdar, Leon Tan, Jeroen van Loon, Becky Band Jain, and Namita A. Malhotra. ### Teaching Nishant Shah taught or lectured on Digital Natives themes at the following institutions during the year: - Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (22–25 April 2011): Lecture on 'Governance of Technologies' to FPM students. - University of Amsterdam, Netherlands (2 May 2011): Postgraduate module on Digital Natives with a Cause? research. - Dutch Art Institute, Arnhem (19–20 May 2011): Module on 'Cyborg Identities' and a public lecture on 'Everyday Cyborgs'. - Christ University, Bangalore: Lecture on 'Emerging Fields of Internet and Society', organised by Christ University and UGC. - SECT Summer School, Hawaii (1–11 August 2011): Faculty member at the Seminar for Experimental Critical Theory, University of California Irvine and University of Mano'a. - Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai (24–27 August 2011): Four-day course on 'Digital Slacktivism: Technologies and Politics of Change'. - University of California, Los Angeles (9 March 2012): Lecture on Digital Natives, participation, and resistance. - University of Southern California, Annenberg School of Communication (8 March 2012): Presentation on 'Questioning the Radical Potential of Citizen Action'. - UC Santa Cruz (5 March 2012): Lecture on 'Digital Natives and the Myth of the Revolution'. ## Researchers at Work The Researchers at Work (RAW) programme reached a significant milestone in 2011–12: five monographs from the first cohort were completed and officially launched at a four-day workshop in Ahmedabad. ### Monographs Launched The five monographs were formally launched at the *Locating Internets: Histories of the Internet(s) in India* Research Training and Curriculum Workshop, held at CEPT University, Ahmedabad from 19 to 22 August 2011. The workshop was chaired by Nishant Shah and Pratyush Shankar, with an expert committee comprising Anja Kovacs, Arun Menon, Asha Achuthan, Ashish Rajadhyaksha, Aparna Balachandran, Namita Malhotra, Nithin Manayath, Nithya Vasudevan, Pratyush Shankar, Rochelle Pinto, and Zainab Bawa. The five published monographs were: - **Porn: Law, Video, Technology** by Namita A. Malhotra (Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore and Pad.ma): Malhotra's monograph examined pornography not as a cultural product but as a meditation on visuality and seeing, the construction of the gaze, technology and bodies in the law, and the interactions between human and filmic bodies. An introduction was written by Maya Ganesh. - **Internet, Society & Space in Indian Cities** by Pratyush Shankar (CEPT University, Ahmedabad): A research inquiry into the making of IT cities and the public planning policies that restructure city spaces in India with the emergence of internet technologies, arguing that cities and cyberspaces exist in a dynamic set of negotiations rather than a simple infrastructure relationship. - **Re:Wiring Bodies** by Asha Achuthan (Centre for Contemporary Studies, IISc, Bangalore): A historical inquiry into the ways gendered bodies are shaped by internet imaginaries in contemporary India, unpacking a pre-history of the internet through science policy, medical health practices, and social sciences theory to understand digital interventions on the body. - **The Last Cultural Mile** by Ashish Rajadhyaksha (Centre for the Study of Culture and Society, Bangalore): A monograph following the career of the "last mile" concept in Indian communications, from its roots in the radio era to its contemporary forms in debates on the Unique Identity project. - **Archives and Access** by Aparna Balachandran (Department of History, University of Delhi) and Rochelle Pinto (Department of English, University of Delhi): A material history of the archive examining Tamil Nadu and Goa state archives, the implications of digitisation for local histories, and the relationship between archivists, the state, and knowledge production. ## Pathways to Higher Education The Pathways to Higher Education project was a collaboration between CIS and the Higher Education Innovation and Research Applications (HEIRA) programme at the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society (CSCS), supported by the Ford Foundation. The project worked with disadvantaged students across nine undergraduate colleges in Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Kerala. Workshops were organised across all three states during the year. In Kerala, workshops were held at Union Christian College, Aluva (8–10 August 2011), Newman College, Thodupuzha (13–15 August 2011), and Farook College, Kozhikode (17–19 August 2011), providing training to approximately 66 students. In Karnataka, workshops were held at St. Aloysius College, Mangalore (28–30 August 2011), Vidhya Vardike First Grade College, Mysore (3–5 September 2011), and Dr. A.V. Baliga College of Arts and Science, Kumta (29 September–1 October 2011). In Maharashtra, workshops were held at St. Xavier's College, Mumbai (23 November 2011), SIES College, Mumbai (24 November 2011), and Ahmednagar College (November 2011). Nishant Shah was the chief co-ordinator for the Karnataka and Maharashtra workshops, with Chetan Chauhan also participating. A third faculty-training and regional facilitators' workshop was organised at CSCS, Bangalore on 8–9 December 2011, jointly executed by HEIRA and CIS with Ford Foundation support. Nishant Shah also participated in the *Mobility Shifts 2011 — An International Future of Learning Summit* at the New School, New York, from 10 to 16 October 2011, sponsored by the MacArthur Foundation and Mozilla, where he spoke on *Digital Outcasts: Social Justice, Technology and Learning in India*. ## Media Coverage CIS was featured approximately 200 times during 2011–12 in national and international press. International coverage included articles and features in the *Wall Street Journal*, *New York Times*, *Washington Post*, *Reuters*, AFP, *IEEE Spectrum*, Voice of America, NPR, *Financial Times* (*beyondbrics*), and outlets in France, Poland, Spain, and Indonesia. National coverage spanned *Times of India*, *Hindustan Times*, *The Hindu*, *Deccan Herald*, *Deccan Chronicle*, *Livemint*, *Economic Times*, *Mail Today*, *FirstPost*, *Tehelka*, *Outlook*, *Indian Express*, NDTV, and CNN-IBN, among others. Key themes in coverage included India's new intermediary guidelines and the censorship controversy, the UID/Aadhaar project and privacy, the SOPA debate, Google Street View in Bangalore, open access to research, social media and political activism, and the 2G Supreme Court judgment. CIS staff published op-eds and columns across several publications: - Sunil Abraham in *Indian Express*, *Deccan Chronicle*, *Business Standard*, *Mail Today*, *Tehelka*, and *Pragati*. - Nishant Shah in *Indian Express* (*Sunday Eye*), *Financial Express*, *Down to Earth*, *GQ India*, *FirstPost*, *Biblio*, and *The Broker*. - Pranesh Prakash in *Indian Express* and *Business Standard*. - Prashant Iyengar in *Tehelka*. ## Organisation and Governance ### Board The members of CIS as on 31 March 2012 were:
Name Position Occupation Area of Competency Monthly Remuneration (₹)
Lawrence Liang Chairman Lawyer IPR Reform 40,000
Subbiah Arunachalam Member Scientist Openness Nil
Vibodh Parthasarathi Member Associate Professor — Nil
Jayna Kothari Member Advocate — Nil
Sunil Abraham President Executive Director IPR Reform 1,58,150
Nishant Shah Treasurer Director, Research Cybercultures 1,07,050
M.K. Narasimha Rao Member Finance Consultant Finance 40,000
### Staff The full-time staff as on 31 March 2012 were: - [Sunil Abraham](/sunil/), Executive Director - Nishant Shah, Director–Research - Nirmita Narasimhan, Programme Manager - Pranesh Prakash, Programme Manager - Prasad Krishna, Publications Manager - Ajoy Kumar C., Administrator - Usha Nandini, Accounts Officer - Velankanni Royson, Office Assistant - Chandhussain, Housekeeper Consultants during the year included Prashant Iyengar, Nisha Thompson, Satyen Gupta, Sonal Makhija, Rahul Cherian, Madhan Muthu, Hans Varghese Matthews, Vinay Aravind, Paranjoy Guhathakurta, Vipul Kharbanda, Krithika Dutta, Narayana Tejas Pande, Vardarajan Adi Narayana, Ravi Kiran Annaswamy, Dilip Sampath, Sharath Chandran, Hasina Hasan, Samuel Tettner, Srinivasu Chakravartula, Gautam John, Shweta Taneja, and Jayashree. Distinguished Fellows included Prof. Subbiah Arunachalam, Lawrence Liang, Shyam Ponappa, and Chanuka Wattegama. Fellows included Dr. Anja Kovacs, Selvam Velmurugan, and Malavika Jayaram. Interns during the year included Elonnai Hickok, Yelena Gyulkhandyan, Natasha Vaz, and Rebecca Schild (all from the University of Toronto), Noopur Rawal (Jawaharlal Nehru University), Shilpa Narani, Sahana Sarkar, and Merlin Oommen (all from Jamia Millia Islamia), Tom Dane (University of Sydney), Deepti Bharthur (University of Hyderabad), Vikram Hegde, Snehashish Ghosh, Deva Prasad, Danish Sheikh, Adrija Das, and Tarun Krishnamurthy (all from National Law School of India University, Bangalore), and Nilofar Ansher (St. Xavier's College, University of Mumbai). ### Finances The three highest monthly remunerations paid to staff were ₹1,58,150, ₹1,07,050, and ₹40,000; the lowest was ₹4,500. Staff as on 31 March 2012 numbered nine full-time employees: seven male and two female. The salary distribution was: below ₹5,000 — one male; ₹5,000–10,000 — one male; ₹10,000–25,000 — one female; ₹25,000–50,000 — three male; ₹50,000–1,00,000 — one female; ₹1,00,000–2,00,000 — two male. The organisation's primary donors were the Kusuma Trust, Hivos, IDRC, Privacy International, and Ford Foundation. The registered office was Centre for Internet and Society, No. 194, 2nd 'C' Cross, Domlur, 2nd Stage, Bangalore 560071. The organisation's bankers were the State Bank of India, Race Course Road Branch, 29/4, Race Course Road, Trade Centre, Bangalore 560001, and its auditors were Nath Associates. ## Full Report

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