The internet in India turns 30— and we’re going back to where it all began. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO8pnOiP6Fg EDGE, a new podcast by the Museum of Digital Society × Digital Empowerment Foundation, kicks off with Episode 1 (1995–2000).
In this episode, Osama Manzar takes us back to the days of dial-up sounds, floppy disks, early newsrooms going online, and a time when the internet felt like pure magic. From curiosity and trust to the first moments of borderless connection, this is the story of how India met the web.
Comment: Around 30 years before that we had the SITE, the Instructional TV experiment at PIJ, which alongwith the B & W TV stations at Mumbai and Delhi promised programming which were developmental, Amchi Mati Amchi Mansa, Adult Education on TV, etc. Even today we have several opportunities for young people to make use of the digital for empowerment, yet they prder to go with the Corporate led algorythms
This is the story of people we barely know exist: they are the world’s uncontacted Indigenous groups. A stark warning, issued by Survival International, an NGO: these little-known and little-understood people may vanish within a decade. In its first global inventory of uncontacted people, possibly the most accurate count yet, identifies at least 196 groups in 10 countries across South America, Asia and the Pacific, including India. The report, Uncontacted Indigenous Peoples at the Edge of Survival, is unequivocal: more than 96 per cent of these groups face life-threatening danger from extractive industries. What is unfolding is not a natural decline but a slow-motion annihilation, driven by profit, state power and global indifference.
December 2025
The Physical copy of this article is available in CED clippings file "L12"
Whose Economy Is it, Anyway? Privatisation, Monopolies and Budget Speak https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C5lOpEHGaw The names of Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani have come up a lot during elections particularly as opposition parties have alleged that increasing privatisation and wealth concentration in the hands of a few billionaires has been at the expense of larger public. But what has been the impact of such policies?
Is privatisation in India today truly about broad-based economic dynamism or is it fostering market concentration and monopolisation across key sectors—from airlines and ports to energy, telecom, and banking? What will be the consequences for employment, labour rights, credit access, and affordability in an unequal economy marked by rising household debt? And what can we expect from the upcoming budget? Surajit Mazumdar, Professor, Center for Economic Studies and Planning,
Jawaharlal Nehru University; Aditi Mehta, former IAS Officer and Amitanshu Verma, Researcher, Centre for Financial Accountability.