Madhulika Srikumar was a 2019 India-U.S. Fellow at New America. Srikumar worked on India-U.S. data sharing for law enforcement and explored the underlying privacy standards for access to electronic data in the two countries. She will also develop a prototype of a digital tool for Indian investigating agencies to send direct requests to U.S. internet companies, incorporating human rights standards of minimization, necessity, and proportionality. With the passing of the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act (CLOUD Act) in April 2017, her project seeks to provide an insight into a potential direct data sharing regime between India and the United States.
Srikumar is an associate fellow and programme coordinator with the Cyber Initiative at Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi. Her previous research on law enforcement access to data has been cited extensively by prominent stakeholders including the expert committee established by the government to draft India's first data protection law. She is currently steering a project in collaboration with Georgia Tech, on the legal hurdles to effective cooperation under Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties.
A lawyer by training, Srikumar regularly authors opinion pieces for leading publications. She also convenes the Foundation’s annual ‘AI For All’ dialogue in Mumbai and leads ORF’s efforts on AI policy and algorithmic bias especially the ways in which machine learning can exacerbate existing gender inequities. Through her research and advocacy, Srikumar seeks to examine how cyber governance in emerging economies can respond to policies scripted predominantly in the West.