'Law for Innovative Technologies' (LawforIT) is 'TechEdicts' now

We have moved to substack now. We resolve to write with better focus, more consistency and 100X relevant tech-policy content, to please the taste of tech-policy addicts.

In 2018, I started writing and collating my perspectives on random issues that lie at the intersection of technology and public policy. That was the time of explosive evolution of technology with Jio internet expansion and Indian government’s ‘Digital India’ mission. That was also the time when general masses were introduced with the important role of public policy in shapeshifting the technological advancements for welfare of people.

A roster of public policy professionals and organisations played a crucial role in evoking thoughts of people regarding tech-policy issues - Hon’ble Justice B.N. Srikrishna, Dr. Arghya Sengupta, Dr. Prashant Reddy, Ex Machina , Vrinda Bhandari, MediaNama , Gautam Bhatia, Software Freedom Law Centre, Centre for Internet and Society, Change for IT, Apar Gupta, Smrithi Parasheera, Akriti Gaur and so many expert folks. The era was also comprised of successive landmark decisions from the Indian Apex Court on issue of fundamental right to privacy, UIDAI and Mass Surveillance, right to internet, etc.

I wrote about ‘history of GDPR’ - I along with several of readers (that I never expected will find my blog ) really found the topic worth reading. Some of them were kind enough to leave their feedback That was the exact moment, when my confidence piqued for writing more. Then, there are my friends and parents who out of love for me or genuinely (I don’t know), liked my writings and encouraged me to write more. Special mentions here to Nirbhay and Ujjwal.

Surrounded with so many interesting bits to give my two cents on, I started writing on what I found interesting and relevant in respect of tech-policy. With every reading of an academic journal or blog covering some random gray area in the landscape of technology and rule of law, I had an opinion that I wrote and published for general public to read. This gave a flair to my interest in writing as well as constructing opinion regarding several tech-policy issues. This is how I have been able to form ‘Law for Innovative Technologies’ (LawforIT). LawforIT is a set of 68 blogs that I have written since 2018 i.e., the date of ‘General Data Protection Rules’ (GDPR) coming into the effect.

The blog writing not only helped me in consistently building up my writing skills and breaking the construct of shyness behind which I’d kept my stances, but also helped me in getting invaluable opportunities. I got the opportunity to meet Nikhil Pahwa, who is the editor-in-chief/ founder of Medianama (a news portal dedicated to tech-policy updates). I can confidently say that he is the most passionate folk when it comes to Indian tech-policy landscape. I met him in an event and readily shown him my blogs, and he was gracious enough to immediately offer me an opportunity to write and learn more of tech-policy writings under the banner of ‘Medianama’.

I also learned the value of patience and consistent efforts. These two values helped me in inculcating the discipline required to write more detailed academic writings with deeper and investigative research. I wrote certain academic papers and got the opportunity to contribute to the literature developing around several tech-policy issues. I felt extremely elated when I got informed that one of my writings discussing data governance frameworks of SE-Asia countries had been cited by an eminent professor Graham Greenleaf in his research. With time more number of such news, including my paper on Indian government’s surveillance programs being a recommended reading in one of the African Universities, kept me encouraging to write more.

Now, this is TechEdict - Today, I am taking a step ahead to be more regular with what I have started as a hobby. I want to be more consistent, like Mr. Nikhil Pahwa and Mr. Rahul Matthan whose work has inspired me throughout, with respect to my efforts to simplify the tech-policy issues for general readers. This is also a contribution to making digitalization of India more inclusive. This is also an effort to create an informed public conversation around tech-policy issues that matter for public interests. To be in trend and more connected with the community of readers, I have shifted all the tech-policy edicts written as part of LawforIT to substack under a new name ‘TechEdicts’. Here, I hope new blogpost will be able to make TechEdicts a forum of discussion for all the folks who are tech-policy addicts.