The India School on Internet Governance (inSIG) was founded in 2016, when inSIG2016 was convened in Oct-Nov 2016 at IIIT Hyderabad, immediately prior to the ICANN57 meeting held at the same city. The event had 44 participants from 9 countries and 22 speakers from 12 countries. The second edition of inSIG was held in October 2017 at Technopark, Trivandrum, which brought together 88 participants, including 63 Fellows from 5 countries, 15 Speakers from 6 countries. The third edition, held in New Delhi in Oct 2018, brought together about 90 participants. The fourth edition was conducted at Kolkata, West Bengal, during 15-17 Nov 2019, where over 70 participants from India and abroad took part.

Given the global pandemic, inSIG2020 was organized as a virtual event, hosted by ISOC Mumbai Chapter. The event was conducted over three days (7-10 Oct 2020), with a Day 0 event on 3 Oct 2020.

The 2021 edition of inSIG was organized as a virtual event, with a Fellows meet-n-greet on 14 Nov 2021 and the main sessions during 19-21 Oct 2021. The host chapter was Chennai.

After two years of virtual editions, inSIG2022 is scheduled to be organized as a face-to-face event during 25-28 Sep 2022. The seventh edition is hosted by ISOC Hyderabad Chapter and is to be held in the International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Hyderabad.

The objectives of inSIG are:

  • Impart formal training on Internet Governance to participants so as to prepare them for engagement in global Internet Governance processes. To this end, the programme content is a balanced mix of global IG topics, regional topics and India-specific topics (in the approximate ratio of 60:10:30);
  • Nucleate a community of Internet Governance professionals in India through alumni;
  • Introduce to participants some of the global experts in Internet Governance as speakers in the program;
  • Provide networking opportunities for participants; and
  • Provide an international setting for participants through a mix of domestic and international participants, making inSIG a national-regional SIG.

inSIG2020 builds on the vision and design of the first four editions and aims to build a community of IG professionals in India as well as in the broader South Asia region of Asia-Pacific, who can effectively participate in global Internet Governance processes. The event is also a forum to discuss topical issues of specific relevance to India. Given the global pandemic, this edition will be virtual. We hope to be able to learn from the first virtual edition to plan for virtual or hybrid versions for the future.

The first edition of inSIG was organized jointly by ISOC India Trivandrum and ISOC India Delhi Chapters in 2016. This group was joined by Kolkata (2018), Mumbai (2019) and Chennai (from 2021). ISOC India Hyderabad chapter joined the Organizing Team in 2021.