What if technology was designed not to manage communities, but to strengthen their voice and agency? In this episode of the Water Data Podcast, Professor Aaditeshwar Seth of IIT Delhi joins host Veena Srinivasan. Aaditeshwar is the co-founder of Gram Vaani and one of the key people behind CoreStack, a digital public infrastructure for commons, resilience, and equity. In this episode, Aaditeshwar traces his journey from computer science and rural communication networks to building participatory tools for communities, civil society organisations, researchers, and governments. The conversation begins with his journey with Gram Vaani, a voice-based platform that enables rural communities to share local information, raise grievances, and strengthen public accountability. From there, the episode moves into CoreStack, a shared technology and data ecosystem that brings together geospatial datasets, landscape indicators, planning tools, and community-facing applications. Aaditeshwar explains how tools like Know Your Landscape and Commons Connect can help planners, local facilitators, and communities understand drought risk, groundwater stress, land use change, water bodies, and other landscape-level challenges. At the heart of the episode is a larger question: who gains power when data and technology enter environmental decision-making? Veena and Aaditeshwar discuss why technology is not neutral, why data should support rather than replace community agency, and how digital tools can help people collectively govern shared resources such as water, forests, land, and biodiversity. The conversation also explores micro-watersheds, landscape stewards, MGNREGA-linked planning, PRADAN’s work with Commons Connect and Yuktdhara, and the challenge of sustaining open digital public infrastructure over time. The Water Data Podcast is a talk show on the science, systems, and stories of water, hosted by Veena Srinivasan. For all references and further readings related to the episode, visit https://welllabs.org/wdp-aaditeshwar-seth/ Subscribe to The Water Data Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and catch video episodes on the WELL Labs YouTube channel @welllabs. Subscription links: Youtube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Audible, Castbox, and wherever you get your podcasts! Recording by Vraj Acharya, Nanditha Gogate and Nabina Chakraborty. Video editing by Srisabari Varaguna Pandian. Graphics and artwork by Aparna Nambiar and Kanishka Goyal. Audio mixing and mastering by Vijay Doiphode. Podcast production and management by Nabina Chakraborty and Pavan Srinath.
