About / Contact – Nikhil Pahwa

Featured profiles

Three places to start

TED2016Nikhil Pahwa at TED UniversityTED's account of Nikhil's talk on Net Neutrality and the open Internet.Read the TED account WiredThe Indian web warrior who took on Facebook and wonA profile of Nikhil's work on the open Internet.Read the profile GQ IndiaThe father of India's fight for internet freedomA profile of Nikhil's work on Net Neutrality.Read the profile

Selected talks

Universities and public forums

Talks at GoogleThe Internet Connects 4 Billion Columbia UniversitySaveTheInternet and Net Neutrality Harvard India Conference2016 panel on Net Neutrality

Research and service

Published work and jury roles

Research publication

India: Trailblazer in Tech Emancipation from China, Friedrich Naumann Foundation, 2023.

Jury work

Forbes India 30 Under 30, through 2017
Outlook Magazine OSM Awards
Mozilla Equal Rating Challenge, 2016
Several editions of the mBillionth Awards for mobile innovation in South Asia
Manthan Awards, 2012

Books

Author of a chapter on digital issues in How Liberal is India, with the full authored and cited book record on the Books page.

I am a TED Fellow and an Asia21 Fellow. India Today named me one of its "Indians of Tomorrow". I have been profiled by Forbes, Wired and GQ.

I gave a TED Talk in 2016 and conducted two TED Discovery sessions on "How to build a movement" at the TED Summit in 2019. I led the SaveTheInternet.in campaign for Net Neutrality in 2015 and co-founded the Internet Freedom Foundation.

Writing and journalism

I have written more than 6,000 articles across MediaNama, Reasoned, TechNik and elsewhere. My publication record can also be found on Muck Rack.

Regulatory engagement

I have deposed before India's Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology on Net Neutrality, social media regulation and paid news, and participated in technology policy and telecom consultations with government ministries and TRAI.

Speaking and media

I have spoken at Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, Columbia University, IIT Kanpur, IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, RightsCon, the World Economic Forum, MozFest and TED.

Nikhil Pahwa