Speakers/Aprabhala

Achal Prabhala is a researcher and writer based in Bangalore, India, whose research work concerns access to knowledge and to medicine. Recent projects include an initiative to collect and publicly archive literary journals from Kenya, Nigeria, India, South Africa, the Middle East and the US; a report to the Indian Government for an overhaul of country's copyright act; essays on piracy and the legal commons; a commission to evaluate Botswana's patent law and medicines registration system; and an evaluatory framework for assessing copyright law and access to knowledge.

From 2004 to 2005, he coordinated a project on access to learning materials in Southern Africa, where (as part of a coalition of diverse groups), they advocated for legal/policy change to make learning materials affordable. He co-authored a report on the state of IP and learning materials in Southern Africa, and made submissions to a number of governmental bodies in the region. Prior to that, he worked on cases around access to medicines in Guyana, South Africa, India. Previous to beginning IP research work, he worked as a journalist.