This is an exciting occasion for our indigenous software industry as India’s National Policy on Software Products gets rolled out. This policy offers the perfect framework to bring together the industry, academia and the government to help realise the vision of India as a dominant player in the global software product market. For ease of …
Clipping The Wings Of Angel Tax
2000 startups. 100 meetings. 25 articles. 7 years. 3 WhatsApp groups. 2 whitepapers. 1 unwavering ask: No More Angel Tax. This evening, when we first got to see the circular from DPIIT/CBDT that formalized key recommendations suggested with respect to Angel Tax or section 56(2)(viib), we admit our minds went blank for a moment. …
An Afternoon With Don Norman In Bengaluru
Are you building products for the everyday user? Is it becoming harder and harder to manage complexity while maintaining usability? How do you design a sustainable system for a complex multi-stakeholder environment? How do you teach a user to use your product with good design? How do you reinvent an established business model in light …
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iSPIRT Presents Poster Session & Product Discussion With Don Norman
Don Norman, the pioneer of design in the 21st century, is visiting India. Presenting you with an opportunity to engage with the living legend in a closed-door interaction where you can discuss your solution/product and get unbiased feedback on 20th February 2019 in Bengaluru. We’re looking for solutions in the social space that are building …
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A Platform is in the Eye of the Beholder
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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