The Centre for Internet and Society is a non-profit research organization that works towards pluralistic, participatory, inclusive, equitable, and democratic rights and governance at the intersection of Internet and Society.
Our programmes are broadly divided into Accessibility, Access to Knowledge, Internet Governance, Telecom, Digital Natives and Researchers at Work. As part of our programmes our work includes policy intervention with different government authorities, monitoring and implementation, technology development, research and resource-building. Our work is relevant to many underlying themes of the summit including tackling inequalities between countries, empowering women and girls and vulnerable groups, fostering innovation and sustainable economic growth, transformation and promoting sustainable consumption and production. Our work aims at shaping of effective multi-stakeholder partnerships in the area of Internet governance and management and strengthening institutions at all levels to promote peaceful and inclusive societies that provide access to justice for all and respecting human rights, including the right to development.

Over the next 5 years we plan to publish reports on topics such as assistive technologies, accessibility of banking and finance, emergency services, accessibility of libraries. As part of our Access to Knowledge (Wikipedia) project we are aiming to grow the Indic Wikipedias as efficient digital public knowledge infrastructures. We also would work towards creating a policy framework that promotes openness and equitable access to knowledge. As part of our Internet Governance programme we work to ensure that human rights such as freedom of expression, association, movement, and the rights to security, privacy, and equality are reflected in Indian and international governance mechanisms and principles.

Our research documents changes in socio-techno-legal policy, as precipitated by changes in technology, in societal values, and in laws. We focus on the optimization of telecom policy and regulation in India in order to ensure greater broadband/internet adoption, with greater emphasis in the rural areas. We also work to create knowledge networks and conduct baseline research related to telecom equipment security, manufacturing and procurement policy in order to facilitate growth of the indigenous industry/ecosystem, conditions, initiate dialogues, and build networks for production and documentation of essential evidence/data for assisting telecom policy reform.
CIS and the Centre for Law and Policy Research are working on a project ?National Resource Kit for Persons with Disabilities?. The project is supported by the Hans Foundation and seeks to bring out a print compilation of all laws/ policies/ programmes/ circulars/ notifications/ orders, etc.
1. Hans Foundation is also supporting us for a project on ?Developing Screen Reader and Text-to-Speech Synthesizer?. We are developing text-to-speech software in 15 Indian languages over a period of two-and-a-half years.
2. International Development Research Centre is funding CIS for a project on ?Pervasive Technologies?. As part of this project we are examining research questions like the relationship between the production/deployment of pervasive technologies and intellectual property, the lessons it holds for the future of both intellectual property and access to knowledge, would it mean for these technologies to be produced and used in an intellectual property regime like that of the European Union, and indeed, would they have any future under the world?s strictest copyright and patent laws, etc.
3. Wikimedia Foundation is funding the Access to Knowledge project from September 2012. We are supporting the growth of Indic language communities and projects by designing community collaborations and partnerships that recruit and cultivate new editors and explore innovative approaches to building projects (e.g. donations of encyclopedias and other useful texts, education partnerships and other institutional partnerships).
4. CIS is working with Privacy International on the Surveillance and Freedom: Global Understandings and Rights Development (SAFEGUARD) project. The SAFEGUARD project is directed at enhancing respect for the right to privacy in developing countries through research and engagement in national, regional and international policy dialogues by developing country researchers.
5. MacArthur Foundation is funding CIS for a project on Free Speech and Expression and Internet Governance. The project aims to research the restrictions placed on freedom of expression online by the Indian government and contribute to studies, reports and policy briefs to feed into the ongoing internet governance debates at the national and international level.
6. In partnership with Hivos Knowledge Programme we are doing a project ?Making Change? new ways of defining, locating, and understanding change in network societies. Having the thought piece 'Whose Change is it Anyway' as an entry point for discussion and reflection, will feature profiles, interviews and responses of change-makers to questions around current mechanisms and practices of change in South Asia and South East Asia. Yes - Annualreportandfinancialreport.zip 1. Sunil Abraham - Indian
2. T. Vishnu Vardhan - Indian
3. Nirmita Narasimhan - Indian
4. Shyam Ponappa - Indian
5. Kavita Philip - Indian
6. Nishant Shah - Indian
7. Vibodh Parthasarathi - Indian
8. Jayna Kothari - Indian
9. Hans Varghese Mathew - Indian
10. Subbiah Arunachalam - Indian
11. Pranesh Prakash - Indian
12. Lawrence Liang - Indian MoAandRulesandReguslationsofSocietyCIS.pdf