The distinction between whether you are building a platform or a product should be made primarily to align your internal stakeholders to a particular strategic direction, as we learned in the recent iSPIRT round table. [This is a guest post By Ben Merton] “So are we a platform, or are we a product?” I said …
#2 Federated Personal Health Records – The Quest For Use Cases
Last week we wrote about India’s Health Leapfrog and the role of Health Stack in enabling that (you can read it here). Today, we talk about one component of the National Health Stack – Federated Personal Health Records: its design, the role of policy and potential use cases. Overview A federated personal health record refers …
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iSPIRT’s Response to Union Interim Budget 2019
Our policy team tracks the interest of Software product industry INDIA, Bangalore, Feb 1st, 2019 – Proposals for Union budget of 2019 have been announced today by Finance Minister. Being an interim budget not many announcements were expected. Some of the important announcements that may affect the expansion of the economy, in general, owing to …
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SaaS 3.0 – Data, Platforms, and the AI/ML gold rush
An impending recession, the AI/ML gold rush, Data as the new oil, SaaS Explosion… The SaaS landscape is changing rapidly and so are the customer expectations! 18 months ago, I came across a message that India is a premier hub for global B2B SaaS, just like Israel is a hub for cybersecurity. At first, I …
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#1 India’s Health Leapfrog – Towards A Holistic Healthcare Ecosystem
In July 2018, NITI Aayog published a Strategy and Approach document on the National Health Stack. The document underscored the need for Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and laid down the technology framework for implementing the Ayushman Bharat programme which is meant to provide UHC to the bottom 500 million of the country. While the Health …
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Angel Tax Notification: A Step In The Right Direction, But More Needs To Be Done
There have been some notifications which have come out last week, it is heartening to see that the government is trying to solve the matter. However, this is a partial solution to a much larger problem, the CBDT needs to solve for the basic reason behind the cause of Angel Tax (Section 56(2)(viib)) to be able …
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Disciplining The Not So Angelic, Angel Tax
If you are an entrepreneur, investor, or simply interested in the start-up sector, then you already know that Angel Tax is the buzzword right now. Based on a law that was introduced in the 2012 budget by Mr Pranab Mukherjee, the rule aimed to target money laundering through high share premium. But unfortunately, the same …
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Discussion on “The Information Technology [Intermediaries Guidelines (Amendment) Rules] 2018”
Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) has put up a new set of draft rules for the IT Act, and is inviting feedback. The draft rules mostly relates to governing violations on social media. The Draft is given at: http://meity.gov.in/content/comments-suggestions-invited-draft-%E2%80%9C-information-technology-intermediary-guidelines It contains a link to the new rules: http://meity.gov.in/writereaddata/files/Draft_Intermediary_Amendment_24122018.pdf This PolicyHacks recording was done …
Story in Asia Times, on iSPIRT, and Aadhaar
Last week, on Thursday evening, we received an email from Saikat Datta, where he claimed that he had a recording of a conversation, from an iSPIRT meeting, where we discussed various ways to get around the Supreme Court verdict on Aadhaar, along with other allegations. While this recording was unauthorised, and we were in the …
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Obsessive Focus To Product Market Fit – Tricks of the Trade and 5 Case Studies
As we begin 2019, for many startups the big question is – have they reached Product-Market fit or what should they do to reach Product-Market Fit. Market it is! There are 3 important ingredients for making a product – the actual product, the people who build this product and the market for which the product …
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White Paper On The Analysis Of High Share Premium Amongst Startups In India
“High share premium is not the basis of a high valuation but the outcome of valid business decisions. This new whitepaper by our iSPIRT policy experts highlights how share premia is a consequence of valid business decisions, why 56(2)(viib) is only for unaccounted funds and measures to prevent valid companies from being aggrieved by it” …
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What lies beyond the horizon: Digital Sky & the future of drones in India
Drones have been around for a long time, going back as far as World War II. For most of their history, they were considered part of the military arsenal and developed and deployed almost exclusively by the military. However, the past decade has seen a tremendous amount of research and development in the area of …
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White Paper On Section 56(2)(viib) And Section 68 And Its Impact on Startups In India
Angel Tax (Section 56(2)(viib)) has become a cause celebre in Indian startup circles due to its broad-reaching ramifications on all startups raising capital. This paper traces the origin of this section, it’s analysis, impact, how it adversely affects startups. Special mention is also made of the seldom covered Section 68 and it’s used in conjunction …
A Fond Sendoff
Today we are giving a fond sendoff to Praveen Hari and Venky Hariharan as they transition out of full-time volunteering and onto new challenges! This is a bittersweet moment: as excited as we are about their future plans, we can’t help but feel a sense of loss. We will most certainly miss their selfless energy …
My iSPIRT Experience, A Learning Of A Lifetime By Praveen Hari
In 2016, the company I co-founded, Thinkflow, went through a liquidity event. It was a great outcome for all and I was thinking of the next move. It was natural for me to think of starting again. I was wiser, had seed capital and only had to find a problem attractive enough. It looked like …
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