Fellowship
A free, one-month fellowship for students. Pick a track, do real work, and get it reviewed by a real person before you're certified for it.
The three tracks
Track A
For: CS / security students
What you'll build: an open-source validator for one real Indian government ID format, PAN, Passport, Driving License, or Voter ID/EPIC.
What you'll ship: a public GitHub repo with a working validate() function, cited format documentation, and a real test suite.
Track B
For: Law / GRC students
What you'll build: a structured compliance control entry mapping a real DPDP Act or Rules provision to an actual sector scenario, a CERT-In breach-notification case, children’s data under Section 9, cross-border transfer, and more.
What you'll ship: a real control entry plus a plain-language explainer of what it actually requires.
Track C
For: Open to all
What you'll build: a published, cited article on a real DPDP Act topic, in one of five angles, myth-busting, deadline clarity, decoding a dense provision, risk reality, or framework mapping.
What you'll ship: a 600-900 word article on your own LinkedIn or Medium, reviewed before you publish it.
How it works
Apply to a track.
Get assigned a real, specific piece of work.
Submit it. A real person reviews it, not a bot, not a rubber stamp.
Get certified, once your work is actually approved.
FAQ
Yes. There’s no fee at any point, for anything, including the certificate.
No. A certificate is issued only after your submission is reviewed and approved. If it needs changes first, you’ll get specific feedback and a chance to resubmit.
There’s no fixed turnaround time, a real person reads every submission.
Yes, that’s the point, the work is meant to be genuinely yours to show.
You keep authorship. You grant DPDPA Shield the right to use and adapt the work as part of its platform or public content, the same terms shown in the application form itself.
Yes, each cohort is capped to keep review genuinely thorough.
Apply directly to the track that fits you. Each one links to its own application form.