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Writing

Selected writing

Mostly about technology and the law — data, privacy and regulation — with some constitutional law and arbitration.

TechnologyPrivacyData protectionConstitutionArbitration
Featured · Scroll.in · 2024

Carbolic Smoke Balls and Snake Oil

From an 1892 court case about a smoke ball that promised to cure the flu, to Patanjali — the long history of dubious medicinal advertising, and what the law has done about it.

Read on Scroll.in →

Content Moderation through Co-regulation

The Hindu · 2022 · with Shatakratu Sahu

Why India should let platforms moderate online speech within a legal framework, instead of running it from the centre.

Read on The Hindu →

How the Supreme Court resolves clashes between fundamental rights — and a cleaner framework for doing it.

Read the thesis →

For a Robust Data Protection Regime

The Hindu BusinessLine · 2021 · with Amar Patnaik

The case for a strong, genuinely independent data-protection regime in India.

Read on BusinessLine →

Protecting the Right to Access Vaccines

The Indian Express · 2021 · with Kashish Aneja

Access to vaccines as a right — and what the state owes its people in a pandemic.

Read on The Indian Express →

Unqualified Fair and Equitable Treatment Clause: It's Time to Revamp

IndiaCorpLaw · 2021 · with Ameya Vikram Mishra

After the Cairn award, why India should rewrite the fair-and-equitable-treatment clause in its investment treaties.

Read on IndiaCorpLaw →

Designing the Data Protection Authority as an independent ‘fourth branch’ of the state.

Read on Constitutional Law and Philosophy →

Why data-protection law alone won't fix surveillance — India needs a law for that too.

Read on The Wire →

Privacy, and the machinery India uses to track disease.

Read on Jurist →

India Needs a New Epidemic Control and Management Law

Hindustan Times · 2020 · with Amar Patnaik

Why India's century-old epidemic law needs replacing.

Read on Hindustan Times →

The confusion over which courts supervise arbitrations ‘seated in India’, and how to fix it.

Read on IndiaCorpLaw →

Implement Aarogya Setu, but Only Through Law

The Hindu · 2020 · with Kashish Aneja

Contact-tracing is fine — but put Aarogya Setu on a legal footing first.

Read on The Hindu →

1.3 Billion People. One Virus. How Much Privacy?

The Wire · 2020 · with Kashish Aneja

How much privacy should a billion people give up to fight a virus?

Read on The Wire →