Talk by Venkat Ananth, Senior Assistant Editor, Economic Times, on Inside India’s Digital Political Wars

The Center for Information Technology and Public Policy (CITAPP)

International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIITB)

organized a talk titled

Inside India’s Digital Political Wars

Venkat Ananth

Senior Assistant Editor, Economic Times

3:30 pm – 5:00 pm on 16th April 2019 (Tuesday)

Venue: Room #310, IIITB campus

26/C, Electronic City, Hosur Road, Bangalore

About the talk:: In the last twenty four months, digital platforms have emerged not only as an important source of information, but also play an integral role in political campaigns. India is no different. Together with WhatsApp and Facebook, Indian political parties have seen products that help them reach the grassroots of Indian democracy – the voter and the booth-level worker. But how exactly does this happen?

Speaker Bio: Venkat Ananth is a senior assistant editor with The Economic Times, based in Bengaluru. He writes deeply-reported and well-researched stories at the intersection of technology and policy, with a focus on digital platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp. Prior to The Economic Times, he was a staff writer with The Ken, where he wrote on similar subjects. He originally hails from Mumbai, and last year moved to Bengaluru after spending seven years in Delhi. His most recent work for the Economic Times is available here.

CITAPP at IIIT Bangalore is an interdisciplinary think-tank set-up to focus on the policy challenges and the organizational demands made by technological innovation. Of particular interest to the Centre is how technological advances, along with institutional changes that harness the legitimacy and the powers of bureaucracies and market, address the needs of underserved communities.