Digital Futures Lab
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Digital Futures Lab (DFL) is an India-based technology-policy research organization founded by Urvashi Aneja in 2021. It studies how technology affects rights, institutions and the distribution of benefits and harms. Its stated approach combines social-science research, foresight and public engagement, with particular attention to India and the perspectives of the Majority World.[1]
Organization and approach
DFL identifies Goa as its base and lists researchers with backgrounds in law, political science, sociology and technology. Its institutional account emphasizes democratic participation, feminist values and the need to examine structural inequalities. It aims to connect research with policy, institutional capacity and public discussion rather than treating technical performance as the only measure of a system's value.[1]
Its website lists past and present partners across government, civil society, philanthropy, academia and industry. A partnership listing alone does not establish a donation, the amount of funding or control over a publication. Project acknowledgments identify collaborators more specifically.[1][2]
AI adoption in courts
AI for Justice, published in February 2026, examines adoption in India's judiciary. The report addresses institutional readiness alongside risks from inaccurate outputs, inadequate data, privacy failures and bias. It considers how the judicial task, the type of proceeding and the circumstances of litigants affect the risks of a proposed use.[3]
The authors propose assessment tools, questions for vendors, post-adoption monitoring and contractual safeguards for data and accountability. They also call for stronger technical capacity within courts. Their discussion distinguishes institutional procurement from individual use of generative tools in research and drafting. The report offers guidance and proposed safeguards; it is not itself a court rule or proof that all Indian courts use the same technologies or procedures.[3]
Gender and contextual safety
DFL's February 2026 brief on AI safety and gender was developed with the Gender x Digital Hub, an initiative of LEAD at Krea University. It groups potential harms into economic exclusion; threats to physical safety and personal control; sociocultural harms; and political harms. It argues that general technical tests may miss the ways systems affect women and gender minorities in specific social and linguistic settings.[4]
Recommendations include context-sensitive evaluation data, gender-specific screening, community evaluation, incident reporting and stronger capacity to respond to AI-enabled abuse. The authors describe the work as an initial scoping exercise based on desk research and expert consultation, acknowledging limited systematic evidence specific to India. Its taxonomy is therefore a proposed framework for further investigation and governance, not a measured prevalence estimate for every harm it identifies.[4]
Open-source AI as a policy choice
Advancing Open Source AI in India, also published in February 2026, examines openness as a possible means of improving adaptability, affordability and public oversight. It distinguishes access to data, code and model weights instead of treating a system as simply open or closed. The brief connects those design choices to competition and the ability of public institutions and local developers to adapt technology.[2]
The analysis also recognizes risks and institutional limits, presenting openness as a set of tradeoffs. It reports using interviews and workshops with officials, developers, civic-technology organizations and academics. The publication was jointly produced with FAIR Forward, implemented by GIZ and funded by Germany's BMZ, NASSCOM and the IndiaAI Mission. Joint publication establishes collaboration on this document; it does not make the brief a binding government directive.[2]
Selected contributions
- AI for Justice (February 2026): court readiness, procurement and safeguards.[3]
- AI Safety & Gender in India (February 2026): contextual harms and evaluation proposals.[4]
- Advancing Open Source AI in India (February 2026): degrees of openness and policy tradeoffs.[2]
Related articles
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Digital Futures Lab, About Us. Accessed September 12, 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Aarushi Gupta and colleagues, Advancing Open Source AI in India, February 2026. Accessed September 12, 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Dona Mathew and colleagues, AI for Justice: Ethical, Fair and Robust Adoption in India’s Courts, February 2026. Accessed September 12, 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Aarushi Gupta, Anushka Jain and Urvashi Aneja, AI Safety & Gender in India, February 2026. Accessed September 12, 2026.