iSPIRT works to transform India into a hub for new generation software products, by addressing crucial government policy, creating market catalysts and grow the maturity of product entrepreneurs. Welcome to the Official Insights!
Author: ProductNation Network
ProductNation has been set up by a team of enthusiasts who have created a platform for entrepreneurs, employees and indeed, onlookers to share ideas, ask questions and gain knowledge about various dimensions of the software product business.
In an era of evolving financial landscapes, the realm of lending is witnessing a significant shift—from the traditional collateral-based approach to the more contemporary cash flow lending model facilitated by OCEN (Open Credit Enablement Network). Recently, we hosted UGro Capital in an insightful conversation with Shachindra Nath, shedding light on this transformative paradigm in lending and delving into its profound implications.
Points discussed:
Transitioning from Collateral to Cash Flow Lending
OCEN plays a pivotal role in revolutionising MSME lending in India. This innovative open network is specifically designed to serve those new to credit, employing an omni-channel approach that democratises and simplifies access to lending.
Currently, the market lacks a scalable and profitable model for short-term, low-value MSME loans – a significant gap that OCEN has adeptly filled with itsGeM-SAHAY pilots.
Amidst the confusion and excitement surrounding OCEN versus ONDC, and the broader impact of open networks in the lending sphere, this blog aims to provide clarity and insight. Let’s dive in and explore these transformative developments.
🔀 OCEN or ONDC: Which is better for short tenure MSME lending?
There’s much debate about which lending framework potential partners should explore. Rahul Mathur (Associate Director, InsuranceDekho) captures this perfectly in his tweet, presented as a checklist below:
🗣️ “Turns out, the focus in lending for ONDC v/s OCEN is very different (see the
image below)
(1) 💰Type of loan: Type 1 personal loan v/s Type 4 MSME loan
(2) 🔎GTM: Online v/s Omni-channel (assisted)
(3) 🙇Persona: Eligible for credit v/s New to credit
(4) 🌟Objective: Bring credit to point of commerce v/s Democratize credit access
To summarize, there are some good reasons why ONDC has launched loans
independently of the OCEN network.
Over time, OCEN will expand to include further lending use-cases & products.
And, at that point, ONDC <> OCEN interoperability would make sense.”
Clearly, OCEN is the undisputed option for short tenure, low ticket size lending for new to credit MSMEs. Over time the lending use cases will be expanded to service the traditional form of loans.
OCEN and ONDC, while both operating in the lending space, are tailored for very different use cases and audiences. While they may overlap in some cases, the larger ecosystem benefits from introduction of newer networks. In the end, it’s all about solving the most challenging problems 🙂
Let’s further understand how OCEN addresses the MSME lending problem in India.
📈 OCEN makes small ticket size lending a reality
OCEN’s primary goal is to make short-term lending profitable. Something which we’ve achieved in our pilots with the Government e-Marketplace, through the GeM-SAHAY app.
One of our volunteers explains the economics in this blog post:Evaluating the short term lending opportunity, where he shows how lenders can earn 2.2x higher revenue with the same capital through the adoption of the OCEN framework.
The significant 2.2x increase in revenue is attributed to the introduction of a crucial role known as the borrower’s agent. These agents not only reduce the cost of servicing a loan but also heighten accountability within the system.
Borrower’s Agents (BAs) assume a variety of roles traditionally outsourced by lenders, BAs function as data providers, collections agents, escrow account managers, and product providers.
By integrating these services and cohesively binding the network, BAs enable lenders to efficiently service low-cost loans even in remote areas. In performing these four key roles, the borrower’s agent emerges as the cornerstone of the open network, vital for its effective operation.
The role of borrower’s agent has been discussed in depth in one of our open house sessions:
OCEN is changing the game by making even the tiniest loans worthwhile for both the lender and the borrower.
🌐 Efficacy of Open networks and streamlining the lending process
Some people we’ve spoken to, worry that open networks will lead to the commodification of lending, which, in turn, is bad for the overall market. However, this couldn’t be farther from the truth 🙂.
OCEN streamlines the lending process by introducing roles such as the borrower’s agent, KYC agents, and collection partners. These roles combine to create a bundle that lenders can easily integrate into their processes to start lending.
Newer and smaller lenders will benefit from the transparency and scale offered by open networks.
Closed network auctions, which are common today, see lenders bidding down for loans. However, their lack of transparency and scale often results in low profitability.
Open networks, on the other hand, provide scale and transparency that leads to low cost of servicing, more borrowers to choose from, and reliability in the system through a borrower’s agent.
Larger lenders benefit from the low cost of servicing a loan that comes with open networks
Larger lenders will benefit from open networks as it provides the technical chops of a borrower’s agent. BAs can help with KYC, collections and other parts of servicing a loan while absorbing some of the costs.
We’ve seen such effects before, with the introduction of Aadhaar and UPI, where KYC and collections became far cheaper enabling large lenders to facilitate smaller ticket size loans.
In conclusion
Through OCEN, the potential to unlock a ~$300 billion credit market in India becomes a tangible reality. This is demonstrated by the increased revenue potential and the introduction of the borrower’s agent role, enhancing loan servicing efficiency and accountability.
Moreover, OCEN’s streamlined lending process benefits the entire market, by offering scalability and cost-effectiveness to both emerging and established lenders.
Thus, embracing OCEN is not just a choice but a strategic direction for expanding market possibilities and empowering both lenders and borrowers in the dynamic credit landscape of India.
This is the 2nd blog in a series of blogs describing and signifying the importance of DPI for AI, a privacy-preserving techno-legal framework for AI data collaboration. Readers are encouraged to first go over the 1st blog for better understanding and continuity.
What is unique about the techno-legal framework in DPI for AI is that it allows for data collaboration without compromising on data privacy. Now let’s put this in perspective of Indian enterprises and users. This framework can potentially revolutionize the entire ecosystem to slingshot India towards an AI product nation where we are not just using AI models developed within India but exporting the same. What is the biggest roadblock in this dream? In this open house (https://bit.ly/DEPA-2), we make a case that privileged access to data from Indian contexts is not only necessary to develop AI-based systems that are much more relatable to Indians but in fact, gives Indian innovators a distinct advantage over much larger and better funded big tech companies from the west.
Let’s get started. Clearly, there is a race to build larger and larger AI models these days trained on as much training data as possible. Most training data used in the models is publicly available on the web. Given that Indian enterprises are quite behind in this race, it is unlikely that we will catch up by simply following their footsteps. But what many folks outside of AI research circles often miss is that there has been credible research that shows that access to even relatively small amounts of contextual data can drastically reduce the data and compute requirements to achieve the same level of performance.
This sounds great, right, but (there is always a but!) much of this Indian context data is not in one place and is hidden behind numerous government and corporate walls. What makes the situation worse is most of these data silos are enterprises of traditional nature and are not the typical centers of innovation, at least for modern technologies like AI. This is a fertile ground for DPI for AI. The three core concepts of DPI for AI ensure that this data sitting in silos can be seamlessly (thanks to digital contracts) and democratically shared with innovators around India in a privacy-preserving manner (thanks to differential privacy). The innovators also do not need to worry one bit about the confidentiality of their IP (thanks to confidential computing). The techno-legal framework makes it super easy for anyone to abide by the privacy regulations without sweat. This will keep them safe from future litigations as long as they follow easy-to-follow guidelines provided in the framework. This is what we refer to as the unfreezing of data markets in this Open House. This unfreezing is critical for our innovators to get easy access to contextual data to give them a much-needed leg up against the Western onslaught in the field of AI. This is India’s moment to leapfrog in the field of AI as we have done in so many domains (payments, identity, internet, etc.). Given the enormity of the goal and the need to get it right, we seek participation from folks from varied expertise and backgrounds. Please share your feedback here
In the last decade, we’ve seen an extraordinary explosion in the volume of data that we, as a species, generate. The possibilities that this data-driven era unlocks are mind-boggling. Large language models, trained on vast datasets, are already capable of performing a wide array of tasks, from text completion to image generation and understanding. The potential applications of AI, especially for societal problems, are limitless. However, lurking in the shadows are significant concerns such as security and privacy, abuse and mis-information, fairness and bias.
These concerns have led to stringent data protection laws worldwide, such as the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California’s Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and the European AI Act. India has recently joined this global privacy protection movement with the Data Protection and Privacy Act of 2023 (DPDP Act). These laws emphasize the importance of individuals’ right to privacy and the need for real-time, granular, and specific consent when sharing personal data.
In parallel with privacy laws, India has also adopted a techno-legal approach for data sharing, led by the Data Empowerment and Protection Architecture (DEPA). This new-age digital infrastructure introduces a streamlined and compliant approach to consent-driven data sharing.
Today, we are taking the next step in this journey by extending DEPA to support training of AI models in accordance with responsible AI principles. This new digital public infrastructure, which we call DEPA for Training, is designed to address critical scenarios such as detecting fraud using datasets from multiple banks, helping with tracking and diagnosis of diseases, all without compromising the privacy of data principals.
DEPA for Training is founded on three core concepts, digital contracts, confidential clean rooms, and differential privacy. Digital contracts backed by transparent contract services make it simpler for organizations to share datasets and collaborate by recording data sharing agreements transparently. Confidential clean rooms ensure data security and privacy by processing datasets and training models in hardware protected secure environments. Differential privacy further fortifies this approach, allowing AI models to learn from data without risking individuals’ privacy. You can find more details how these concepts come together to create an open and fair ecosystem at https://depa.world.
DEPA for Training represents the first step towards a more responsible and secure AI landscape, where data privacy and technological advancement can thrive side by side. We believe that collaboration and feedback from experts, stakeholders, and the wider community are essential in shaping the future of this approach. Please share your feedback here
📢Calling all lenders to understand how a short tenor loan can become both an effective and profitable business opportunity under OCEN 4.0. 🔑📈
If you are a lender looking for the next big opportunity in lending to the thousands of MSMEs currently unable to access loans, then don’t miss this introduction to OCEN 4.0. 💡
Here we deep-dive into how a new underwriting model enabled by OCEN 4.0 makes it viable and profitable to provide loans to MSMEs traditionally considered unfavourable candidates for loans given the associated high delinquency rates. Our OCEN pilots show, in some cases, it is even possible to create short tenor loans that are twice as profitable as long tenor loans. 🌟🚀🚀
📢Calling all loan agents keen to understand the OCEN 4.0 business opportunity. 🔑📈
OCEN 4.0 introduces a new and powerful role – the Borrowers Agent(BA). If you are looking to play a pivotal role in the MSME lending ecosystem without lending from your own balance sheet, this new role of a BA may be what you want to understand really well. 💡
The BA role is critical to the OCEN story. In this session, we deep-dive on what this role entails, why it is the linchpin of the OCEN 4.0 model, how BAs enable lenders to go remote, and how this role wields a lot of power. We also talk through how to get started, possible business models for BAs and what to focus on to be a successful Borrowers Agent. 🌟🚀🚀
📢👷🧑💻Calling all TSPs and participants eager to dive into OCEN 4.0 APIs.
If you are wanting to understand the tech, the APIs and get started on building for OCEN 4.0, our second open house on OCEN 4.0 is here for you !! 💡
In this session, we do a deep-dive on the architecture, the loan journey on OCEN 4.0 components, the APIs in the OCEN spec and share how you can build for a participant by mocking the APIs of the other. 📝🔑🧑💻
The Pradhan Mantri Wifi Access Network Interface (PM WANI) was launched in December 2020. It received a great initial reception, but the enthusiasm died over time. Several reasons have been cited, including a lack of a vibrant ecosystem, lack of profitability, limited business models, etc. In addition, a belief also crept up over time that India did not need PM-WANI as existing telcos would step in and provide universal connectivity in the country. At the same time, several stand-alone solutions have been provided from various quarters to jumpstart the ecosystem.
iSPIRT has taken a long hard look at PM-WANI. It has identified the causes for the multiple issues plaguing the system and attempted to solve the problem holistically. This Open House Session presents our analysis of the issues in PM-WANI and a path forward. It argues for an integrative approach, considering all stakeholders’ concerns. We believe that PM-WANI can fulfil its mission of providing universal connectivity to a large unconnected part of our population.
P.S: Prof. Nilesh Gupta and Prof. Himanshu Tyagi are faculty members at the Indian Institute of Management Nagpur and Indian Institute of Science, respectively, and they also represent their views as independent researchers on the topic.
In the rapidly evolving landscape of the AI economy, the choices made today will reverberate for generations. As custodians of India’s future, we must recognize the urgency of embracing AI as a lynchpin of economic growth. The time to act is now!
In an era characterized by relentless technological advancement, a nation’s economic growth trajectory hinges on its ability to harness the power of artificial intelligence (AI). Goldman Sachs reported that generative AI could raise global GDP by 7%. By 2030, this AI driven Intelligence Economy might add $15.7tn of new economic value as per PWC research.
With its burgeoning tech industry, diverse and large data pool and remarkable human capital, India stands at the precipice of an economic transformation that could either propel it to global leadership or condemn it to follow in the wake of other trailblazers. As political decision-makers, the imperative to recognize and seize this opportunity cannot be overstated in view of India’s bid to become one of the top 3 economies of the world. The availability of the DEPA Training Cycle and the DPDP Bill passage through the Parliament open the door to immediate and strategic action via the creation of a large AI economy.
I. The AI Imperative for Global Competitiveness:
India’s demographic dividend of 900mn+ people is no secret but must be coupled with technological prowess to ensure a multiplier effect for sustained growth. As global economies increasingly pivot towards AI-driven industries, overlooking this shift risks consigning India to a secondary role on the global stage. To maintain competitiveness, India must embrace AI not merely as a tool but as the very foundation of its economic strategy going forward. It must ensure that it is not just a consumer of AI but a critical creator of AI. In fact, it must aim to emerge as one of the 3 AI superpowers in the world.
II. Safe AI Leadership Depends on Data
India’s DEPA Training makes privacy-preserving collaboration between Training Dataset Providers and Modelers (called Training Dataset Consumers) possible at a large scale, which is a critical element in AI journey. The DEPA system does not rely on hard-to-implement enforcement of legal covenants around Anonymized Datasets, as is the case in countries like the US, where AI companies are fighting constant litigation. Instead, it depends on computational privacy guarantees in the use of aggregated datasets. This is core to enabling safe AI systems, built with reliable and traceable access to datasets. Then, it can be deployed quickly with human alignment that India can provide with its billion plus users. As India begins to unlock continental-scale datasets using this system, it will give rise to a vibrant ecosystem of AI Modelers. This dataset advantage in AI is not to be underestimated. By focusing on early Safe AI adoption, India can secure a foothold in these sectors, attracting global investment and cementing its position as an innovation hub whose AI innovations would be adopted by societies around the world.
III. Addressing Socioeconomic Disparities: Remote AI driven workflows & 5G
Harnessing AI’s potential can also serve as a powerful tool to address India’s socioeconomic disparities. AI-driven solutions can optimize resource allocation, improve public service delivery, reduce cost of access and create job opportunities across urban and rural areas. With massive 5G rollout, the possibility of digital global work aided by AI is here. It can dramatically bring income opportunity to rural and smaller cities, if we can bring in Indic language AI tools, which lower the bar for participating in the global workflows. By proactively leveraging AI to bridge gaps and enhance productivity, India’s leadership can demonstrate a commitment to inclusive growth and lay the foundation for a more equitable society. All the while reducing strains of growing urbanization, which might be disastrous for its overburdened large cities.
IV. The Gameplan for AI Leadership: Missing piece of compute clusters
DEPA Training will safely and responsibly unlock the collaboration between India Training Dataset Providers and Modelers. We have the talent already and the market scale to do Reinforcement Learning with Humans in the Loop. What we lack is tensor-scale computing enabled for Industry, startups, academia and Govt itself. The Government of India must address this by enabling the creation of many, not one, tensor-scale GPU cloud providers. There are many ways to do this: Challenge Grants, Viability-gap funding for cloud providers, and Matching-grants for Modelers. We favor the Matching Grants method for effectiveness, transparency, and competition. In addition, we must seek to create AI on the edge compute ecosystem for a strategic future.
V. Collaborative Diplomacy and Global Alliances:
AI does not recognize national borders, and collaboration is key to advancing the field. At the same time, we must recognize that Nvidia H100 boards are already on the US Export Control List for China. The US might leverage its muscle further at some time in the future. We must therefore have a strategic perspective in making our aggregate AI capability and datasets available to others based on a principle of reciprocity. We must build careful alliances with a broad set of players in US, EU and Asia that will accelerate India’s AI capabilities but also position the nation as a global AI thought leader.
VI. The Consequences of Inaction:
The consequences of neglecting AI’s potential are dire. India risks becoming a mere consumer of AI technologies, ceding economic leadership to countries that have embraced AI as a strategic priority. China, our neighbor, has famously vowed to be the sole AI superpower by 2030. This passivity could lead to missed opportunities, economic stagnation, and a loss of global influence. It may even result in India failing to breach the top 3 economies, , as we might have to buy both oil and artificial brains, draining our resources for welfare schemes for our large population. That could risk demographic disaster instead of demographic dividend.
Conclusion: We need to act now!
In the rapidly evolving landscape of the AI economy, the choices made today will reverberate for generations. As custodians of India’s future, we must recognize the urgency of embracing AI as a lynchpin of economic growth. The time to act is now! We must catalyze innovation, ensure global competitiveness, and create a prosperous future where India’s leadership is defined not by its past but by its capacity to shape the AI-powered future world decisively.
Sharad Sherma is co-founder of iSPIRT Foundation. Umankant Soni is the Chairman AI foundry, General Partner ART Venture Fund.
We’re thrilled to unveil OCEN 4.0, the latest advancement in our Open Credit Enablement Network protocol, revolutionizing cash flow-based MSME lending. 🌟
OCEN 4.0 represents a significant leap forward from our ongoing GeM SAHAY and GST SAHAY pilots. In this iteration, along with updated API specifications, we have also added the OCEN Registry, Product Network and rules, specialized participant roles and much more. All these features help us unlock cash-flow-based lending to match the scale, complexity and needs of Bharat. 🔑📈
Check out our introductory open house session on OCEN 4.0
🔍 More details? The API and documentation of OCEN 4.0 are publicly available at http://ocen.dev and will be updated with FAQs from the open house sessions.
🔮 What’s next? Yes, a lot is happening. We have more open house sessions coming out in the following weeks. We are also actively onboarding Wave 1 partners for OCEN 4.0.
❓Questions? Submit your questions here. 📩Contact? Reach the OCEN 4.0 team at contact@ocen.dev
Please note: The blog post is authored by our volunteers, Aravind R andSagar Parikh.
The passage of the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2023 (DPDP) by the Lok Sabha is significant in more ways than one. The Bill aims to enforce and promote lawful usage of digital personal data and stipulates how organisations and individuals should navigate privacy rights and handle personal data.
Creating effective mechanisms to enable data governance has become one of the top priorities for countries around the world. The challenge for policymakers is designing legal and regulatory frameworks that clearly lay down the rights of data principals and obligations for data fiduciaries.
The Digital Data Protection Bill is a much-needed step in this direction, taken after months of deliberations and discussions. Such normative frameworks are critical to secure regulatory certainty for enterprises. However, innovative technical measures are required to support their operationalisation.
In the past couple of years, India has made significant strides in adopting a techno-legal approach to data governance. Through this approach, India is building technical infrastructure for authorising access to datasets that embed privacy and security principles in its design.
Data also lies at the heart of AI innovations that can address significant global challenges. India’s unique techno-legal approach to data governance is applicable across the life cycle of machine learning systems. It complements the country’s ambition of supporting its growing AI start-up ecosystem while providing privacy guarantees.
As part of India Stack, the Data Empowerment and Protection Architecture (DEPA) launch in 2017 was India’s paradigm-defining moment for the inference cycle of the machine learning life cycle. It proposed the setting up of Consent Managers (CMs), also known as Account Aggregators in the financial sector.
This approach, also mentioned in the current iteration of the DPDP (Chapter 2, [Sections 7-9]), ensures individuals can exercise control over their data and can provide revocable, granular, auditable, and secure consent for every piece of data using standard Application Programming Interface (APIs). The secured consent artefact records an individual’s consent for the stated purpose. It allows users to transfer their data from those data businesses that hold it to those that have to use it to provide individuals certain services while ensuring purpose limitation. For instance, individuals can share their financial data residing within their banks with potential loan service providers to get the best loan package.
DEPA is India’s attempt at securing a consent-based data-sharing framework. It has facilitated the financial inclusion of millions of its citizens. Eight of India’s largest banks were early adopters of the framework starting in 2021. Currently, 415 entities, including CMs, Financial Information Providers, and Users, participate across various DEPA implementation stages.
However, the training cycle of an AI model demands substantially more data to make accurate predictions in the inference cycle. As such, there is a need for more of such robust technical solutions that disrupt data silos and connect data providers with model developers while providing privacy and security guarantees to individuals who are the real owners of their own data.
With DEPA 2.0, India is already experimenting with a solution inspired by confidential computing called the Confidential Computing Rooms, or CCRs. CCRs are hardware-protected secure computing environments where sensitive data can be accessed in an algorithmically controlled manner for model training.
These algorithms create an environment for data to be used while ensuring compliance with privacy and security guarantees for citizens are upheld and data does not exchange hands. Techniques like differential privacy introduce controlled noise or randomness into the training process to protect individuals’ privacy by making it harder to identify them or extract sensitive information.
To make CCR work, model certifications and e-contracts are essential elements. The model sent to CCR for training has to be certified to ensure it upholds privacy and security guidelines, and the e-contracts are required to facilitate authorized and auditable access to datasets. For example, loan providers can authorise access to a representative sample of the datasets residing with them to model developers via CCR for model training. This arrangement will be facilitated via e-contracts once the CCR verifies the validity of the model certification provided by the modeller.
India’s significant progress with technical measures that are aligned with domestic legal frameworks provides it with a head start in the AI innovation landscape. Countries all across the globe are struggling to find solutions to facilitate personal data sharing for model development that prioritises security and privacy. Multiple lawsuits have recently been filed against OpenAI across numerous jurisdictions for unlawfully using personal data to train their models.
India’s unique approach to data governance, where both technical and legal frameworks fit like a puzzle and balance the thin line of promoting AI innovation while providing privacy guarantees, is well-positioned to guide global approaches to data governance.
In a quiet and disciplined fashion, over the last six years, India has put the critical techno-legal pieces in place for becoming a significant AI player in the world alongside US and China. Like them, we have continental-scale data and the talent to shape our future. With the passage of the DPDP Bill, we are now one step closer to having modern regulatory tools for effective regulation of AI and regulation for AI.
iSPIRT turned 10 in February this year. We are about rewriting the script of the nation. The past year indicates that some of this has happened with India Stack. The idea of Digital Public Infrastructure, aka DPI, is now part of the national lexicon. It has also become India’s calling card for the world.
Back in 2015, India Stack was a response to possible digital colonization. This risk has been contained.
We have made progress. It is something to be proud of.
But this doesn’t make us a Product Nation.
India has potential. We can be a France instead of Spain, a Korea instead of Thailand. France and Korea have products that the world needs. Spain and Thailand are countries where people work for foreigners.
So, iSPIRT is only halfway there in its mission. We need to remain focused on this unfinished mission. Our next ten years will make India’s true potential come to life.
Can we make it happen? Yes!
We are doubling down. This year will see more public technology from iSPIRT than ever before.
We seek volunteers who can think outside the box and contribute their unique perspectives for this unprecedented journey. Volunteering is very different from a job. Hence, having the right mindset and approach is essential.
To volunteer for iSPIRT, kindly fill the form located at the bottom of the volunteer page available at this link. Join us as we build on our decade-long journey and welcome the next chapter of iSPIRT’s story.
We are thrilled to announce that Open Credit Enablement Network (OCEN) has been conferred with the prestigious Digidhan 2021-22 award for their Special contribution to the promotion of Digital Payments. The award ceremony was held recently in New Delhi, organized by the Ministry of IT and Electronics, and was handed over to Sagar Parikh, the OCEN lead at iSPIRT, by the Honourable Union Minister, Mr Ashwini Vaishnav.
The Digidhan Awards recognize and celebrate the outstanding contributions made by individuals and organizations towards promoting and adopting digital payments in India. This year, the award was presented to OCEN for their revolutionary work in creating a standardized digital credit infrastructure that enables lending institutions to access and disburse loans digitally.
OCEN‘s platform acts as a bridge between lenders, borrowers, and other credit infrastructure providers, enabling them to interact with each other in a secure, reliable, and efficient manner. With OCEN, borrowers can easily access credit from multiple lenders, while lenders can easily verify the borrower’s identity, creditworthiness, and other relevant details before disbursing the loan.
The platform’s open architecture and standard APIs make integrating with OCEN easy for other credit infrastructure providers, creating a robust credit ecosystem that benefits all stakeholders. Moreover, OCEN’s platform ensures that all transactions are secure, compliant with regulatory requirements, and protect user privacy.
Speaking at the event, Sagar Parikh said, “We are honoured to receive the Digidhan award for our contribution to the promotion of digital payments. At OCEN, we believe that access to credit is a fundamental right, and our platform is designed to ensure that every Indian can access credit securely and efficiently. We are grateful for this recognition and will continue to work towards our mission of financial inclusion for all.”
The Digidhan award is a testament to OCEN’s commitment to promoting financial inclusion and enabling digital transformation in India’s credit ecosystem. The platform’s standardized infrastructure and open architecture have the potential to revolutionize the lending landscape in India, making it easier for borrowers to access credit and for lenders to disburse loans.
To iSPIRT volunteers, those four words are a rallying cry. Words that make us intrepid souls smile with a quiet confidence and inspire an iron will to get the job done. The best among us turn those words into their life’s work by building systems that serve millions of Indians.
iSPIRT’s best work has been in building digital public goods for India. This work is inevitably anchored by a volunteer who selflessly serves the mission; with a relentlessness and belief that could wring water from stone. Today, we celebrate one such volunteer hero: Amit Ranjan.
He had just sold his startup SlideShare to LinkedIn and had set a high watermark for products built in India for the world. After a successful exit, unlike what many others in his position might have done, Amit took the less travelled path of working within the government. Contrary to what one might imagine, even in his new role, Amit crackled with an energy that promised to single-handedly drag government departments into the future; and his eyes would sparkle as he showed you a demo of what would eventually become one of the pillars of India Stack: DigiLocker.
India Stack was built to enable a presenceless, paperless, and cashless society. Aadhaar and UPI were instrumental in enabling presenceless and cashless transactions. DigiLocker is another piece of the puzzle. Amit rolled up his sleeves, joined MeitY, and architected a national federated data and document network for India’s ~1.5 billion citizens.
Today, DigiLocker functions as an interoperable public-private ecosystem for paperless service delivery by digitizing citizen records and enabling their digital usage. Documents and certificates issued by different government agencies such as Aadhaar, PAN Card, Driving License, and even school and college certificates are available today on DigiLocker. The system Amit helped build has led to increased transparency, reduced bureaucracy, and significant cost savings for both private and public sector organizations.
Nearly 15 crore Indians are already DigiLocker users today, using 5.6 billion documents issued by almost 2,500 issuing entities. The impact is felt even in the mundane daily activities like checking into an airport or showing your driver’s license using DigiLocker during a routine traffic stop. And the system is just getting started.
Those who have worked with Amit in the government (like Abhishek Singh IAS, President & CEO NeGD; MD & CEO Digital India Corporation (DIC); CEO Karmayogi Bharat; at Govt of India) sing his praises the same as us. To quote Mr Singh, “Amit Ranjan is a Hero. I believe that we need to celebrate the Heroes and the teams that go into building these Digital Public Goods”.
Creating impact like this on a national scale through sheer grit and commitment inspires every single iSPIRT volunteer. And that’s why we choose to recognize and celebrate Amit with iSPIRT’s highest commendation; To us, he truly is a “Volunteer Hero”!
By Sharad Sharma, Dr Renuka Garg, Shoaib Ahmed and Pankaj Jaju for Volunteer Fellow Council
iSPIRT is pursuing the Stay-in-India Checklist 2.0 with Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Government of India, targeted to bring Ease of Doing Business for start-ups.
Our efforts gained momentum with DPIIT’s Regulatory Roundtables since August 2022. Reserve Bank of India has further eased the reporting of FDI on the FIRMS portal. The item was on the list of issues that were taken up with RBI through DPIIT.
The new announcement called “Foreign Investment in India – Rationalisation of Reporting” has been announced vide circular no. RBI/2022-23/160 A.P. (DIR Series) Circular No. 22 Dated January 04, 2023. Please visit the RBI site on linked here.
The announcement is expected to further ease the reporting of the foreign direct investment received.
Details of the Reform Measure
In its effort to tout India as an attractive investment destination, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has released the RBI/2022-23/160 A.P. (DIR Series) Circular No. 22 on 4 January 2023, which brings about certain reforms in the reporting process in the Single Master Form (SMF) on the FIRMS portal. The SMF is a form which integrates the reporting structure of various types of foreign investment in India. It has implemented the following changes with respect to reporting in the SMF on the FIRMS portal:
The forms submitted on the portal will now be auto-acknowledged with a time stamp and an auto-generated email will be sent to the applicant. The AD banks will have to verify the same within 5 (five) working days based on the documents uploaded.
The system would automatically identify a delay in reporting if any.
For forms filed with a delay of less than or equal to 3 (three) years, the AD bank will approve the same, subject to the payment of LSF.
The LSF will be computed by the system, and an e-mail will be sent to the applicant and the concerned Regional Office (RO) of the RBI, specifying the amount and the timeline within which the LSF is to be paid to the concerned RO.
Once the LSF amount is realised, the concerned RO will update the status in the FIRMS portal, and the updated status will be communicated to the applicant through a system-generated e-mail, which can also be viewed in the FIRMS portal.
The AD bank will approve the forms filed with a delay greater than three years, subject to the compounding of the contravention. The applicant may thereafter approach the RBI with their application for compounding.
The remarks of the AD Bank for rejection of forms, if any, will be communicated to the applicant through a system-generated e-mail and the same can also be viewed in the FIRMS portal.
The resulting effects of the RBI circular
1. Auto acknowledgement of SMF
While the rationalisation of the reporting process is a welcome move, and the auto acknowledgement of forms will bring comfort to the applicants after filing the form, we are receiving mixed reactions from stakeholders with regard to the verification of the forms submitted by the applicants within the 5 (five) working day window. Given that there are no overarching guidelines on the format of documents required for filing Form FC-GPR and Form FC-TRS, and the format differs from bank to bank, it may be helpful if banks were to consider offering pre-vetting services in relation to reporting for cross-border transactions.
The likely result of an AD bank not approving the form within 5 days will be auto-approval of the form.
The circular is silent on what happens in the event an authorised dealer (Bank) isn’t satisfied with the details. It seems, in such an event, what could have been approved with a few follow-up queries will have to be rejected within the 5-day window, if the queries remain unanswered.
Separately, we also believe that a 5-day window is very short given the complexity that can arise with some filings. Banks and their regulatory teams also usually work only till 5:00 PM (and cannot, in any case, be expected to work 24×7), so if a form is submitted close to or after 5:00 PM, an applicant may already have lost close to a day.
2. Online calculation of late submission fee.
Auto-identification of a delay in reporting and calculation of the late submission fee (LSF) by the system will likely be greatly appreciated by stakeholders. Prior to this reform, if an applicant received an email from the RBI regarding the LSF, the applicant would have to draw a demand draft in favour of the RBI, which would have to be acknowledged by the RBI through email. While the process was efficient and hasn’t changed post the amendment, there have been multiple instances of applicants not having a record of the acknowledgement with them after a few years, either due to: (a) IT policies of the organisation which delete older emails; or (b) due to a change in employees. Now that the concerned RO of the RBI will update the status on the FIRM’s portal (along with the standard email process), the amount will be reconciled and the LSF can be viewed on the portal.
Disclaimer: This blog post is co-written by Tanuvi Thakur of iSPIRT and Sanjay Khan of Khaitan & Co and is meant to inform about a new announcement by the regulator. It should not be considered as advice.
