Speakers: 2nd Law and Liberty Conference

Theme: Perspectives on Liberty in a Digitised India

Allen and Overy Hall, NLSIU Bangalore
24 Nov 2017

Panel One – Digitising Governance and Public Service Delivery
Digital modes of governance are under adoption at an unprecedented scale. The e-Kranti initiative of National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) has outlaid the digitization of over 44 public service delivery verticals at Centre and State level and development of Common Service Centres across the country. Such e-governance initiatives have developed a range of digital interfaces, from websites to mobile applications and bio-metric enabled Smart Cards. Experiments independently and in collaboration with corporate and NGOs, such as ITC's e-Choupal, Gyandoot in Madhya Pradesh, Aksh Broadband in Rajasthan, IRCTC, and Passport Seva, have successfully developed and tested intranet portals for a range of functions, from produce procurement to facilitating Government to Citizen (G2C) digitised service delivery.
PANELISTS
Nehaa Choudhari, Public Policy Lead, TRA
	Nehaa leads TRA's technology and innovation focused public policy practice. Her practice is focused on representing the interests of start-ups in technology law and policy making in the country in critical areas including crypto-currency, data protection and privacy, among others. Nehaa has significant technology law and policy work experience, both, in India and in the United States. She has previously worked with the Centre for Internet and Society, India, a leading think tank on internet policy in the country. She was the only civil society representative from India to participate in international treaty negotiations at the World Intellectual Property Organization ("WIPO"). She has been on several expert committees of the Indian government specifically around India's negotiations and strategy at the WIPO, and other aspects of domestic intellectual property law.  In the United States, she has worked with the world renowned Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University. She advised clients on the use of algorithms in the criminal justice process in the United States, and, on free speech in international law, and 6 other countries. She also worked on a book - reevaluating the relationship between law, regulation, governance and technology.
Shankkar Aiyyar, Journalist and Author
	Shankkar Aiyar is a prominent India-based journalist, analyst and author. His path-breaking book Accidental India: A History of the Nation's Passage through Crisis and Change has fetched him national acclaim as a public intellectual. The book establishes that India's transformation is not the result of foresight but the serendipitous consequences of major crises that had to be resolved at any cost. Aiyar, 53, specialises in the interface of economics and politics. He has authored a study on India's Socio-Economic Fault Lines, his investigation on 25 years of political corruption, Smoking Guns, is part of an anthology on Indian journalism. He has been a Wolfson Chevening Fellow at Cambridge University where he studied the Lifecycles of Emerging Economies. A columnist, empanelled expert on television, Aiyar is invited to decode India's political economy for audiences at home and abroad. Aiyar is currently working on demography, emigration and implications for the next economy.
Alok Prasanna Kumar, Senior Resident Fellow, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy
	Alok Prasanna Kumar is Senior Resident Fellow at the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy. He heads the Bengaluru office of Vidhi and has previously practised as an advocate at the Supreme Court of India and other courts in Delhi.

Panel Two - Regulatory Frameworks for Aggregators and Sharing Economy
The need for revisiting principles framing regulations is accentuated by the emergence of aggregators and sharing economy in India, and its exponential growth in on-demand transport, crowd-funding, and hospitality sectors. The sharing economy radically transforms the conventional definitional tenets of labour, establishments, services, and the consumer-provider relationship by developing peer-to-peer sharing, dynamic pricing, and service ownership. With the growing relevance of sharing economy in fostering skill development and micro-entrepreneurship, an agile, enabling framework that balances consumer protection with ease of doing business is requisite
PANELISTS
Naveen Thayyil, Assistant Professor, Law and Public Policy, IIT Delhi
	Naveen is Assistant Professor in Law and Public Policy with Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. His research and teaching interests lies in the interstices of Legal and Democratic theory, and STS (Science, Technology and Society). He is Masters in Law from SOAS University, London and Ph.D. in Law from Tilburg University.
Ranjana Menon, South Policy Lead, Uber (Public Policy and Government Relations)
	Ranjana is leading Public Policy and Government Relations at Uber for Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Previously, she was Senior Associate at World Resources Institute. She holds Masters in Economics from Hyderabad Central University.
Prof. Rahul Singh, Associate Professor, NLSIU
	Rahul Singh is currently Assistant Professor of Law at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore (NLSIU). He teaches Competition Law & Policy, Regulation, WTO and Jurisprudence. He has also lectured as a visiting professor at numerous other places, including University of California at Berkeley (USA), University of Florida Levin College of Law (USA), Harvard University (USA), Deakin University (Australia), and the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (India).
Chetan Nagendra, Partner, AZB & Partners
	Chetan is Partner at AZB & Partners dealing in matters pertaining to Foreign Direct Investment and Exchange Controls in India; Regulatory frameworks for E-Commerce, Smartphones (content, devices and applications), Single-Brand Retail and Local Manufacturing especially in the tech sector, Telecom, Financial Services etc. He is a corporate lawyer with more than 15 years of experience across Asia, India, UK, US and the Caribbean. He has relevant sectoral experience including in E-Commerce, Healthcare, AI, Digital Advertising, Digital Publishing, Food Tech, Gaming, Education, Med Tech, Logistics, Beverages, Finance and Payments, Enterprise Tech, Transport and Hotel Aggregators, Content and Video Streaming, Mobile Apps and many others.

Panel Three – Regulating Data Services and Digital Payments
Support functions of expanding digital literacy and inclusion are also mapped through projects such as the National Optic Fibre Network (NOFN), and ongoing TRAI consultation on provision of Free Data in rural India without violating the bright-line principles set against zero-rating. Additionally, the impetus for a cashless economy is mandated through a separation of payments and banking, and the regulatory frameworks governing the two. This entails a complete digitization of payments and receipts within government, with an eye to increase the reach and incentivizes the usage of digital payments. From autonomy in regulation to legislative revision of Payments and Settlement Systems Act (2007) mandating open access, interoperability, competition and innovation—the role of private entities in facilitating the development and delivery of digital services in governance and exchange is growing exponentially and demanding systemic redesigning of regulatory frameworks and rethinking of the role of the state.
PANELISTS
R V Balasubramaniam Iyer, Vice President, Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited
	At Reliance Jio, Mr. Iyer is defining L&D Strategy. He has launched blended L&D interventions directly and through partners for role holders & functions.Prior to joining Jio, he was in the leading roles at Reliance Communications, HDFC Standard Life Insurance and Amway.
Geeta Gouri, Former Member, Competition Commission of India
	Dr. Geeta Gouri, former Member of the CCI, is an economist with 15 years of experience working as a Regulatory Economist. She served as Member (Economics) at the CCI for 5 years and prior to that as Director (Tariffs) at the Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission. This unique experience gives her the privilege of being perhaps the only economist in India to be associated with the premiering of the two commissions, which ushered competition and markets reforms in the economy. Dr. Gouri has published extensively and delivered lectures on a wide range of subjects; “Pricing for Welfare; Petroleum Products in India”; “Privatization and Public Enterprise: The Asia-Pacific Experience” (edited); “Towards Equity: New Economic Policy and Equity”.
Navneet Hrishikesan, Director and Head of Service Provider Legal - Asia Pacific & Japan, Cisco
	An alumnus of the National Law School of India, Navneet is currently the Legal Director for Cisco's Global Service Provider segment responsible for the Asia-Pacific & Japan region. In his role, Navneet leads a team that manages all legal matters related to Cisco's telecom service provider customers in the Australia/ New Zealand, Japan, ASEAN, Korea and India/ SAARC theatres. He is also a member of the Asia Pacific & Japan- Service Provider management board. Prior to joining Cisco, Navneet was the Head of Legal/ General Counsel for Wipro's Americas Geography based in Boston, MA. In that role, Navneet was a member of its Americas management team and led a team of lawyers advising on all matters arising in the region, including: outsourcing agreements, mergers and acquisitions, customer disputes/ bankruptcy issues, employment matters and regulatory issues (incl. licensing and privacy).
Prof. Chinmayi Arun, Assistant Professor, NLU Delhi
	Chinmayi Arun is an Assistant Professor of Law at National Law University Delhi, where she is also the Executive Director of the Centre for Communication Governance.  She is a member of the Indian Government's multi stakeholder advisory group for the India Internet Governance Forum, a member of UNESCO India's Press Freedom committee and has been a consultant to the Law Commission of India in the past. She is also a Faculty Associate of the Berkman Klein Centre at Harvard University. Chinmayi has studied at the NALSAR University of Law, and London School of Economics and Political Science. At the LSE, she read regulatory theory and new media regulation.
Meenu Chandra, Senior Attorney Manager, IP& DCU Lead (India Region) at Microsoft
	Meenu has been leading initiatives to position Microsoft as thought leader in cyber security while enabling and empowering organizations in understanding issues around cybersecurity. She is working closely with senior leadership including Chairman's office on strategic business, commercial and policy initiatives & government engagements related to cybersecurity, IP protection & related policies. Prior to joining Microsoft, she was working with FICCI and was Joint Director & Team Lead for FICCI cascade. She has Masters in Law with specialization in International Commercial Law from University of Essex.
Samuel Mani, Partner, Mani Chengappa & Mathur
	Samuel Mani is a founding partner of Mani Chengappa & Mathur. Samuel specialises in advising clients on reputation risk, technology, privacy, early stage capital, general commercial transactions, insurance and dispute resolution. Prior to founding the firm, Samuel was the global Head of Legal for Infosys Limited where he had overall responsibility for all legal affairs of the Infosys group with additional responsibility for Infosys' privacy office and its liability insurance program.

For details contact:
Jatin Garg (jatin@ccs.in) or Arushi Vats (arushi@ccs.in)
+91-9915608674 | +91-11-2653 7456; ext.-25