Column by Founder Director

You are here:

Home
Column by Founder Director

om-150x150 Osama Manzar is the Founder-Director of Digital Empowerment Foundation and Chair of Manthan and mBillionth Awards. He is member, advisory board, at Alliance for Affordable Internet and has co-authored NetCh@kra–15 Years of Internet in India and Internet Economy of India. He tweets @osamamanzar. Manzar’s complete bio can be read here.

Blogs Mint Hindustan Gaon Connection Others

Has BharatNet fulfilled its end task of providing functional internet?

The status of the BharatNet project and the government’s claims need to be taken with a large dose of salt

How digital tools can help in the preservation of our languages

This article was first published by Mint on April 27, 2018. There are close to 7,100 living languages in the world but as many as 90% of them are spoken by less than 100,000 people in the world, according to Ethnologue, an annual publication on world languages. In India, where there are more than 780…

Introducing infotech in early years of education

We need quality infrastructure to truly allow institutions to leverage information and communication technology (ICT) in education

Are we ready for a paradigm shift in communication?

We are moving towards a time where a script would no more be the medium of dependency for literacy or governance or even communication

Schools need space for digital makers

It’s time we put an end to an education system that produces passive consumers of textbook information, and rekindle the knowledge system that produces inquisitive minds, active innovators and conscious citizens

The questionable foundation of Aadhaar

Mandatory linking of the public distribution system to Aadhaar has made access to some basic needs, especially ration, even more difficult for some

Hate speech and the role of social media

To truly prevent incidents of hate speech online, there is a need for a massive campaign that sensitizes people towards media consumption and helps them differentiate between free speech and hate speech

Are we aiming for Digital India or Archival India?

Our government websites are just an archive of digital formats of printed pieces of information. Their character hasn’t changed, neither has their appearance

Are kids safe online?

Collective efforts must be put in place to protect children from the negative effects of the internet

Internet giants vs innovation

A world where a few companies control the way we live is a frightening one. These companies have already asserted their dominance—zero net neutrality will only give them monopoly status

Bullet trains can wait, let’s get bullet internet

We have a long way to cover before we can make quality internet connectivity a reality in this nation that envisions a Digital India

A 15-year journey to bridge the digital divide

It has been 15 years since we took an oath to work with the poorest of the poor in rural India to fight information poverty

Is Digital India inclusive?

Concrete and long-term efforts are required to include specially-abled persons under the National Digital Literacy Mission

The internet is for everyone

Females make up for almost 50% of the world population; yet the proportion of women using the internet is 12% lower than the proportion of men using the internet worldwide

Proxy routes to connectivity

Blocking communication channels as part of shutdowns will only push people to find alternative ways of resistance, dissent and communication: the crux of a democracy

Death by data

The death of the tribal girl Santoshi Kumari, 11, in Jharkhand was caused not due to lack of availability of food, but due to the lack of access to available food

India’s not-yet digital postmen

While all of the post offices in India are supposed to have internet (and be digitized by the end of the year), internet connectivity is non-functional at several units

Let’s make rural India smart, one app at a time

With the government gung-ho about a Digital India and Smart India, here are a few apps that it can develop to bring in accountability, transparency, efficiency

Hasuri: The path to a smart village

Dilip Tripathi, a businessman from Lucknow, used his personal savings of Rs20 lakh to transform Hasuri Ausanpur into Digital Hasuri

At the crossroads of inclusion and exclusion

For more than three-fourths of the population that is yet to be connected, the information superhighway is a long and winding road

Privacy and the Indian culture

India has neither looked at communication nor information as ‘private’. There is also little understanding of private life in India.

Information agents with social capital

Equipped with MeraApp, which comes with information on government schemes, the SoochnaPreneurs serve their community with information and digital services

Preserving our vanishing tribes, their heritage, language and wisdom

Internet has a lot to offer to tribes living in forests, as rural connectivity can ensure better access to government schemes, entitlements and rights

Real-time digital reporting of toilets can bring girls to school

Use of a simple smartphone can ensure equitable access to facilities, challenging patriarchal insensitivity and facilitating gender equality

4.1 million jobs that can change India

It is time for India to restructure itself in order to offer skills and jobs of the future—a future where jobs aren’t only a source of income but also to create a peaceful, information-rich society

Dealing with e-waste

There is a need for electronics consumers to become conscious users of their gadgets, and for the govt to take a more proactive role in ensuring that e-waste is recycled under proper international guidelines

What is the future of jobs?

This article was first published in the Mint on July 26, 2017. Early life on the planet was self-sustainable, that is how nature and humans coexisted. If someone needed shelter, they built a home with resources indigenously available to them. If someone was hungry, they hunted for food in their vicinity. Over a period of…

Women use technology as a genuine tool

When women hold technology in their hands, they never fail to do wonders

The excluded remain excluded

The situation of daily-wage earners, Dalits, Adivasis, minorities, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, transgenders has not improved over the years

A gutsy woman on e-drive

Provided with scooters equipped with a tablet and a mobile hotspot to offer digital literacy and digital services, women can be mentored to become entrepreneurs

For more information, please mail us at info@defindia.org