DEFlogs

The current debate around banning social media for children under 16 has been framed as a question of freedom. It ...

Museum of Digital Society | 5th March 2026 A group of 72 students from DGSEA (Duraisamy Generous Social Education Association), ...

THE PARADOX OF DIGITAL PROGRESS The 21st century's digital revolution has created a profound paradox. While urban centers debate on ...

At the CDAC Public Forum combined with the fome Symposium, the session “AI in Crisis – What Next?” examined the ...

The Townhall with Mr. Amandeep Singh Gill, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Special Envoy for Digital and Emerging Technologies, held at ...

Artificial Intelligence (AI), a technology that collects, classifies, and identifies patterns in data to perform tasks that are usually done ...

Until a few months back, Kalawati, a housewife from rural Ajmer, would mostly watch videos and reels on her son’s ...

In rural India, women have never been just caregivers—they have always been the backbone of their communities, the ‘silenced’ architects ...

The role of women in care work and reproductive labour has been discussed extensively in popular media and critical feminist ...

The Digital Swaraj Fellowship concluded its first Cohort 2023-2024 with a reflective three-day workshop from July 1-3, 2024, marking a ...

The Digital Swaraj Fellowship is a well-conceived program that applies the philosophy of Swaraj (meaning ‘self-governance’) to digital innovation in ...

Osama has been a good friend, guide, mentor, and a well-wisher to me for the last nine years. He is ...

As the first cohort of Digital Swaraj Fellowship comes to an end, reflecting on the whole journey has been a ...

There is a considerable difference in the consumption of digital information between rural and urban India. The access to the ...

This piece narrates my journey from being a resident of the Ziro Valley to a source of information and knowledge ...

Ruben is serving as the Center Coordinator at the Wireless for Community (W4C) Center in Vodarevu in Chirala, a coastal ...

“This is the spot that gets a signal. Apart from this the entire village and in fact the entire island ...

“Arrey yaar! Network aa hi nahi raha hai! (oh man there is no network)” groaned Saurabh, my colleague as we ...

The joy of skywatching is never limited to young children. A sense of humility and wonder sets in effortlessly when ...

STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) subjects not only fosters innovative thinking and serves as a foundation on which ...

I left for Jasidih, Jharkhand on 5th of February for training for Digital Didis’ who are going to work in ...

A few miles away from a town that is famously recognized for donkeys, Barabanki, one can glide to the rhythmic ...

Pammi Shukla is a Digital Sarthak training and mentoring Women Entrepreneurs of Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh. She shares about her experience, ...

Rekha Kumari is a Digital Sarthak training and mentoring Women Entrepreneurs of Ramgarh, Jharkhand sharing her story, “I have heard ...

Babli from Nuh, Haryana shares her story, “I come from a social setting where people are riddled with the mentality ...

Aarti is a Woman Entrepreneur from Bharatpur, Rajasthan who shares,“Imagine being locked up in a room for years and having ...

Neesha is one of the Women Entrepreneurs from Bharatpur, Rajasthan who trained under Digital Sarthak program and she shares her ...

“The trip to Assam was one of a kind and also it was my first visit to the state of ...

India level Civil Society Consultation to contribute to the campaign of United Nation's ‘Global Digital Compact’ with the presence of ...

Seven years later, on the 16th of December 2002, the Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) was established to connect and empower ...

“Chal chal, saanp seedi khelte hain (come come let’s play snakes and ladders)” said Saleem (name changed), an 8-year-old to ...

Critical thinking skills are much valued in the current world and often enables the new generation to question the relevance ...

Samarth SoochnaPreneur program, where rural people who are differently abled are trained to be digital entrepreneurs, has become successful on ...

A privileged few to whom information is available at the tip of their fingers take access to information for granted ...

With changing times, Chanderi is now better recognized for the popular fabric that the town has been weaving for years, ...

Sustainable living is not something that exists only in the urban dictionary. The Digital Didi program has allowed us to ...

Many SoochnaPreneurs across India have eventually found ways to help their communities grow in bigger ways. The training that skillfully ...

STEM has been the talk of many interventions in the education field and here is an excerpt from a DEF ...

SoochnaPreneur program is one of the unique programs launched by DEF which always brings surprising elements into the sphere of ...

Homelessness is a worldwide problem and government agencies and civil society organisations have come up with various initiatives to suppress ...

Tea gardens of West Bengal spread mostly over the northern part of the state near sub-Himalayan hills and adjacent terrain ...

The success stories of SoochnaPreneurs, Digital Sarthaks and Samarth SoochnaPreneurs continue to grow in quantity and quality as they are ...

In recent years, the notion of rural development has evolved; converging itself to governance and digital inclusion. The aim is ...

The Digital Empowerment Foundation has always believed in a bottom up approach. All our programs are developed with consultation with ...

The Digital Empowerment Foundation presented its work at the Tenth Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning hosted by Commonwealth of Learning ...

When Indians termed ‘inspirational’ the story of a girl who climbed up a hill for a signal to access online ...

The Internet came to India in 1995 and it brought a host of opportunities for this rising economy and developing ...

I have not worn anything other than handloom clothings for the last 20 years or perhaps even more. Except for ...

Kalapuri collaborates with roughly 150 female artisans in the thriving village of Yalgud, some 30 kilometres from Kolhapur, to create ...

A Financial Education and Counselling (FEC) team has been formed consisting of a consortium of four partners namely DEF along ...

The Covid-19 pandemic has forced everything to go online and this has restricted the movement of people in the workplace ...

Digital Empowerment Foundation has been working towards connecting the unconnected and bridging the digital divide for the last 20 years ...

“Those who don’t have education behind them don’t have anything” said Mushtaq Hussain, a resident of Tinda Mohalla, Dal Lake ...

“What is this?” I asked, looking at a feature phone hanging next to the man sitting in a meat shop ...

“There is no Ola or Uber here sir, try to book through Jugnoo” said Naseer, our host in Srinagar. We ...

Assam has been providing India and the rest of the world with high quality tea for the last 150 years ...

Risk Communication and Community Engagement is a program that Digital Empowerment Foundation has been doing with the support of UNICEF ...

Disappearing acts are quite popular among the magicians, but when the act is heading towards becoming quite literal, threatening an ...

SoochnaPreneur is an initiative of Digital Empowerment Foundation to create digital women entrepreneurs who provide access to vital information to ...

Globalisation has normalised cross country movement to a large extent adding an explorative value addition to the cultural exchange that ...

Here are a few stories from the women entrepreneurs who are being trained in digital tools in the district of ...

Last December, on the 20th foundation day of Digital Empowerment Foundation, a panel was organized to discuss “opportunities and challenges ...

While some parts of the world complain about being spoiled for choice, it is heartening to see some other parts ...

For any project to see its full potential, community mobilization plays an integral role as the purpose of the schemes ...

Women empowerment plays a pivotal role in the overall development of any country besides positively impacting the day to day ...

It seems like 20 years is a long journey. Someone asked me what after 20 years, I feel like changing ...

What is the government’s perspective on digitization? I am sure all of you are aware that our national government has ...

The digital services received through the Internet are both a communication channel and a marketplace. In a way, it can ...

Many lost education and job opportunities as life inclined towards the online mode during the Covid-19 pandemic. Covid related information ...

I have been working at Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) for the last 10 years under various programs and now I ...

“If I don’t understand something I just ask Sushma and without hesitating she comes immediately and helps me” said Anita ...

Parwada in Visakhapatnam is an industrial area; consequently, talks of industrial safety measures and fire hazards are frequent among its ...

I have been travelling to Smartpur’s locations across the ten districts in India and this is a travelogue of my ...

On 11th Feb, 2022 I got an opportunity to visit the Smartpur centre in Nuh. The primary vision of the ...

On the occasion of International Women’s day, Kaithwalya Hub Centre in Ghazipur district held an elaborate celebration to commemorate its ...

On International Women’s Day, beyond the long conversations on women’s rights, never ending debate on gender equality vs equity, testimonials ...

Since the establishment of a DEF Centre at Vikrampur two years ago, we have worked tirelessly to organise activities and ...

Early that morning around 8 am we started from Pondicherry to visit our RCCE (Risk Communication Community Engagement) volunteers in ...

At the onset of the pandemic in 2020, nobody could have foreseen how long it would last, how quickly it ...

The internet is an incredibly powerful tool and its importance in today’s world cannot be exaggerated. Information about all the ...

It is not uncommon to associate big cities with the ideas of ever increasing employment opportunities and a sense of ...

“These kids don’t have access to digital devices, I have been trying to support these 8 families here by raising ...

Sonia runs a Community Information Resource Center (CIRC) in Vitchanthangal village, Kanchipuram district. She helps her customers gain access to ...

The “3rd WiFi India Virtual Summit” was organized by Broadband India Forum (BIF) on 22nd January, 2022. Following the decision ...

“Digital Rights Explored: Local Rights, Global Perspective”, is a podcast series hosted by Media and Information Literacy Expert Network (MILEN) ...

This travelog is about traveling by road, day and night, with people to publicly talk to the government in Rajasthan ...

Digital Empowerment Foundation’s journey of 19 years, since 2002, has shown how they have taken a community driven approach in ...

With over half of India’s population unconnected to the Internet, the country is divided into haves and have nots. People ...

As the world is turning more digital every passing day, the problem of e-waste also increases. The increasing use of ...

Despite being considered a cornerstone of democracies, media, has also played an active role in stoking ethnic killings, and genocide ...

Osama Manzar travels by road through the coasts of Chirala in Andhra Pradesh and makes visits to several digital interventions ...

The Access (In)Equality Index [AEI] of OP Jindal Global University, 2021 puts a sharper and timely light on growing inequality ...

When the lockdown was first imposed in March 2020 and everything was shut down, rural and remote India was the ...

The Legatum Center at MIT has been conducting research on Innovation-driven enterprises (IDE) that are unlocking significant business and societal ...

It's interesting that we must share and narrate this story with so many friends throughout time. It is hard to ...

Chouttupal is a one hour drive from Hyderabad on the Hyderabad-Vijayawada highway. Jagdish, Digital Empowerment Foundation's project officer in Chouttupal ...

The COVID-19 pandemic led to the nationwide lockdown in March 2020. The millions of migrants living in cities lost their ...

Jakhopur is a small village near Tijara. As one enters the village one can often be welcomed by camels with ...

Digital Empowerment Foundation has been working in the district of Barabanki for the last seven years. With one hub center ...

Over the past years India has seen some of the most adverse fallouts of online misinformation. Whether it is the ...

India enacted Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IT Rules, 2021) on 25 May 2021 ...

In June 2021, Research and Advocacy division of DEF along with Osama Manzar (Founder-Director of DEF) the Projects division organized ...

British Council and Digital Empowerment Foundation [DEF] started a flagship programme by the name English and Digital for Girls’ Education ...

Arif was from a very small but highly populated village called Tain. The village is a part of one of the most underdeveloped areas ...

The second wave of Covid-19 has shattered the healthcare system, which was already wounded since the first wave brought by ...

The times are difficult for all of us, someone is losing their life, and someone is losing their job and ...

When people successfully become adept at Twitter, it can help them to make connections with people they would not have ...

Cricket in India is a religion as it is repeatedly said by commentators, experts and fans. Indian men’s cricket team ...

WhatsApp temporarily stores the media and messages of its users on its servers and this is done to increase the ...

Ericsson, in its Mobility Report for June 2020 states that in the year 2019, Indians have used about 12 GB ...

Thirty years since the invention of Internet there are still regions without any connectivity. There are still villages that don’t ...

If you are a regular, avid (even if sadly an unsubscribed) user of Spotify, you must be tired of listening ...

The year 2020 is coming to an end, fore most part of the year many of us stayed locked inside ...

The Social Dilemma is an American docudrama movie directed by Emmy Award winning director Jeff Orlowski. The movie talks about ...

With all its pros and cons, social media has been proved to be successful in creating a democratic space in ...

Have you ever been part of an award night? No, Neither I. I never really got to attend those Sahara ...

Every human being is an ensemble of multiple pieces of unique information and data points, almost like a machine. The ...

If one would recall the times when features phones were new, wireless Internet a rarity and text messages chargeable, there ...

Social stigma, cultural differences, linguistic diversity, traditional practices, localised community believes & practices -- all of them are hallmarks of ...

The digital revolution, especially the rise and pervasiveness of mobiles and smart phones powered by apps, have given new meaning ...

About five kilometres from Tamil Nadu’s Musiri, a famous weaver cluster, is a small village in the district of Trichy ...

Osama Manzar Founder and Director of DEF spoke with Nashim Hashmi who was associated with Digital Empowerment Foundation as a ...

“I used to attend Award functions organised by Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) where innovators from across the world participated. There ...

COVID-19 pandemic has changed the daily routine of people’s lives. On March 25, the government of India announced nationwide lockdown ...

The Covid-19 crisis is expected to have a lasting economic effect on many low-income communities across the country, especially in ...

बिहार के आरा जिले के ललन यादव दिल्ली के वज़ीरपुर में मछली मोहल्ले में रहते हैं. ललन को कोरोना से ...

दिल्ली के इंदिरा विकास कॉलोनी में रहने वाले 32 वर्षीय प्रमोद दास लॉकडाउन की बढ़ती अवधि से चिंतित हैं। प्रमोद ...

बिहार के पश्चिमी चंपारण के पचकहर गांव की 35 वर्षीय मनीषा देवी को राशन कार्ड में संशोधन के लिए आवेदन ...

लिंचिंग जैसी घटनाएं रुकने का नाम नहीं ले रहीं हैं. आये दिन कहीं न कहीं भीड़ किसी को भी पकड़ ...

“मर्ज़ कहीं और है दवा कहीं और ढूंढ रही है सरकार,” यह बात रिहाई मंच के सचिव राजीव यादव ने ...

निष्पक्ष पत्रकारिता किसी भी लोकतंत्र के फलने-फूलने के लिए महत्तपूर्ण है. हाल के दिनों में ये देखा जा रहा है ...

भीड़ के द्वारा हो रही हत्याएं थमने का नाम नहीं ले रही हैं. आए-दिन कहीं न कहीं से हत्या की ...

इंटरनेट ने समाज को अलग-अलग ढंग से बदला है. इंटरनेट ने नए-नए सोशल मीडिया प्लेटफॉर्म को जन्म दिया. सोशल मीडिया ...

It has been more than two years since Manisha Devi, 35, applied for a correction in her ration card, the ...

The article tries to understand the chronology of events that started rumors, fake news and misinformation about COVID-19 that eventually ...

“We need immediate help to ensure our mobiles are working and we can make calls,” said one of the migrant ...

Shivkumari, an Internet Saathi from Rewa, Madhya Pradesh, is currently producing 300 masks per day and is supplying it to ...

An awareness program on Corona Virus was held at Kuruvimalai, Tamil Nadu, on March 14, 2020 under the Health pillar ...

With new cases reported every day, corona virus has disrupted the people’s life globally. The pandemic has had a major ...

It is about a month that the onset of Coronavirus or Covid-19 in India has become prominent. Described a rudimentary ...

Digital Empowerment Foundation’s team in Nuh works closely with the community through the Community Information Resource Center to cater to ...

Not much sets the village of Saidanpur, Barabanki, apart from any other village in India. At least that’s one’s first ...

“Come and sit!” That was the invitation Sharafat Ali made me, when I asked him what he had been learning ...

Almost 27 years ago the World Wide Web rolled out the red carpet for the public without discrimination. Yet, today ...

“There is a crisis of a condition that has happened in our lives as the members of the human society ...

Abhinav Pandya is a SoochnaPreneur (Information Entrepreneur) from Guna, Madhya Pradesh. He has been working on the ground to ensure ...

Prabhu, a 29 year old digital entrepreneur has been working in the district of West Champaran, Bihar, as a DEF ...

Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) through its flagship programme Chanderiyaan has been demonstrating the power of digital intervention to improve the ...

Covid-19 DEFDialogue is a special series initiated by Digital Empowerment Foundation where the Founder & Director Osama Manzar connects with ...

“Essential items have become costlier. Now, getting food is becoming difficult because there is no work or earning,” said Mohammed ...

“We need immediate help to ensure our mobiles are working and we can make calls,” said one of the migrant ...

As public health and safety measures like social distancing and lockdowns demonstrated agile responses like work from home for many ...

Shivkumari, an Internet Saathi from Rewa, Madhya Pradesh, is currently producing 300 masks per day and is supplying it to ...

Social media has seen a surge of sociality in recent times. When social platforms emerged – with a noble pursuit ...

देश की राजधानी या यू कहे की शहरो में बैठ कर डिजिटल इंडिया, केशलेश इंडिया की कल्पना करना या सपना ...

I didn’t know where Deoria was when I first heard that I had to make a trip there. I was ...

One has seen spellbinding visuals of the Little Rann of Kutch in the magazines and the Internet, but nothing prepares ...