March 17-21, 2026
Balaji Parthasarathy presented select findings from the Fairwork India project in the paper “The spatial organization of digital platform work and algorithmic management: “Human in the loop” across hub-based and non-hub based platforms in India”, at the session “Platform Labor: The Geographies, Economies and Inequalities under Algorithmic Management and Big data”, during the American Association of Geographers Annual Conference in San Francisco, 17-21 March, 2026. Also presenting their papers at the session were former Fairwork India researchers Raktima Kalita and Kanikka Sersia. Their papers were titled, “Towards a spatial understanding of emotional labour in platform work”, and “When the black box is open: Platform economy and everyday coding practices”, respectively.
Balaji Parthasarathy and V Sridhar have been awarded a grant for their proposal, Furthering Submarine Cable Supply Chains: An Australia-India Framework for Manufacturing, Installation, and Repair Security, under the Australia-India Cyber and Critical Technology Partnership. The Australian leadership will be provided by Dr Samuel Bashfield, of the Australia India Institute (University of Melbourne), and the La Trobe Centre for Global Security, La Trobe University.
Submarine cable networks carry approximately 99% of global internet traffic and form the backbone of the Indo-Pacific’s digital infrastructure. However, supply chains for cable manufacturing, laying, and repair face critical vulnerabilities: vendor concentration, limited manufacturing diversity, constrained repair capacity, and geopolitical risks. These vulnerabilities threaten network resilience and digital connectivity across the region, with direct impact on island nations and developing economies.
This project addresses three urgent questions: (1) What are the specific supply chain vulnerabilities affecting submarine cable networks in the Indo-Pacific? (2) How can Australia and India cooperatively diversify dependencies in cable manufacturing, deployment, and maintenance? (3) What policy frameworks and industry partnerships can strengthen regional supply chain resilience?
The project will run between February 2026 and July 2027. It will include participation from Indian Ocean and Pacific Islands experts, building on the successful AICCTP-funded Australia-India Cable Dialogue 2025. Outputs include research publications, a 1.5 Track dialogue in India, and a policy framework for regional supply chain cooperation that will inform government decision-making and industry practice across the Indo-Pacific.
Sridhar, V. (1 Mar-31 Oct, 2026). Network Usage Fee on OTT Large Traffic Generators: Modeling and Analysis. International Economic Relations (ICRIER) and Vodafone Idea Centre for Telecom (InViCT) for INR 8,25,000.
Sanghasri Mukhopadhyay: Advanced Research Grant (ARG) for Mathematical Research Impact Centric Support (MATRICS) – ANRF. Topic: hp-Adaptive Galerkin Framework for Structured Population Dynamics: Theory, Error Estimates, and Applications to Age-Space PDEs