Ihita Gangavarapu is a cybersecurity engineer and digital governance strategist working at the intersection of cybersecurity, emerging technologies, and global Internet Governance. Her work consistently focuses on building safer, more inclusive digital ecosystems, while engaging seriously with questions of trust, standardization, and meaningful youth representation in digital policy spaces.
She founded Youth IGF India in 2018 as India’s first dedicated youth-focused Internet governance platform. Over the past eight years, she has built it into a sustained, bottom-up, multistakeholder forum that has engaged more than 5,000 youth through annual national forums, a structured fellowship programme, and year-round capacity-building initiatives, mobilising youth perspectives from India and the wider Global South into regional and global Internet governance discussions. The initiative, recognized within the UN IGF ecosystem, operates through a collaborative governance model designed to ensure balanced stakeholder representation. Under her leadership, Youth IGF India has organised eight national forums across multiple regions, working with partners and supporters including InSIG, MeitY, NIXI, Meta, the Internet Society (ISOC), ICANN, APNIC, IGFSA, and academic institutions such as IIM Bangalore, IIIT Hyderabad, and BITS Goa.
As core part of this model is the fellowship programme she designed and scaled. With around 200 alumni to date, supporting long-term engagement through workshops, policy proposals, speaking opportunities, and capacity-building initiatives, receiving over 500 applications annually and selecting 15–20 fellows per cohort. Fellows have contributed to government consultations, including inputs on the Draft Telecom Bill, and produced research on AI governance, digital safety, and mental health — ensuring that youth-driven insights move beyond capacity building into mainstream policy conversations. The programme collaborates with organisations such as The Dialogue for training and research outputs and engages with Youth IGF initiatives of Germany, Ghana, Nepal, Afghanistan, and the Asia Pacific region to strengthen regional cooperation and Global South collaboration.
Within the broader IGF ecosystem, Ihita has contributed to programme shaping through youth track development for the IGF Global Youth Summit (2020–2025), the youth track at APrIGF, NRI collaborative sessions, thematic working groups on trust, and MAG Open Consultations, where she has actively articulated perspectives into broader IGF programme discussions. She has participated in in-person IGF meetings in Paris, Kyoto, Riyadh, and Norway, and online in IGF Poland, serving as a speaker, organiser, moderator, and rapporteur, with multiple accepted workshop proposals. Her recent contributions include engagement in the WSIS+20 review process and inputs to consultation processes.
Beyond the IGF, she contributes to global governance through advisory and standards roles. She served on the ITU Generation Connect Visionaries Board under Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin, providing strategic guidance on youth participation, supporting implementation of the ITU Youth Strategy, building partnerships for digital cooperation, and advocating meaningful youth engagement by bringing youth-led and Global South viewpoints into technical and policy deliberations. She participated in the ITU World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC) with the Indian delegation, contributing to discussions on IoT and smart cities, disaster preparedness, IPv6 transition, multilingual internet, cybersecurity, and international cooperation. She also represented India at the ITU-D Study Group-2 meeting in Geneva (December 2022), supported by the United States Telecommunications Training Institute (USTTI), contributing to Study Question Q3/2 on securing communication networks and moderating an intergenerational dialogue on youth for digital transformation — marking the first youth participation within ITU-D study meetings.
Her leadership extends to organising large-scale initiatives including the ITU Global Youth Summit in Kigali, Youth IGF India forums, India IGF forums, and the first local APIGA in India. As a global speaker and advocate, she has addressed audiences at United Nations Headquarters (SDG Digital), Mobile World Congress, and the Global Symposium for Regulators, and contributed to the landmark 50 years of the Internet celebration alongside pioneers Vint Cerf and Alan Kay. She serves on the steering committee of the Asia Pacific Youth IGF, is a member of the India IGF Program Committee, and is a designated mentor for ICANN 85 through MeitY.
Ihita works at CloudSEK as Program Manager – Strategic Initiatives, leading cross-functional programmes supporting the company’s digital risk protection and threat intelligence offerings. She holds a Master of Science (MS by Research) in Computer Science and Engineering with research in cybersecurity, is a published author contributing to IoT and Smart City standards, and is a member of National Working Group-20 (NWG-20), corresponding to ITU-T Study Group 20 focused on IoT and smart cities.