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!
June 27 – International MSME Day Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are the unsung heroes of India’s economy. Employing over 11 crore people and contributing nearly 30% to the country’s GDP, MSMEs are not just businesses – they are drivers of innovation, inclusion, and local development. On this MSME Day, we celebrate their resilience …
Continue reading “Empowering India’s Growth Engines: The Critical Role of Credit for MSMEs”
The Open Credit Enablement Network (OCEN) post its initial pilot deployment and continuous upgrades and improvements has seen growing participation across the ecosystem. OCEN’s transition from its early stages into the growth phase is now reflecting in its growing volumes and addition of new ecosystem partners. Monthly Progress Report: With the start of the new …
The volumes and traction on Open Credit Enablement Network (OCEN) continues to grow month on month. The growing trajectory highlights OCEN’s ability to streamline and democratise credit access for MSMEs by leveraging digital public infrastructure and fostering collaboration among lenders, agents, and technology providers. Here is a snapshot of the OCEN ecosystem’s key updates for …
Continue reading “OCEN: Credit Access for MSMEs continues to grow”
The Open Credit Enablement Network (OCEN) is steadily progressing from its early stages into a more robust growth phase. With its current ecosystem participants, OCEN has started facilitating smoother credit delivery to MSMEs. At the same time, numerous other players are integrating into the protocol and developing specialized loan offerings tailored to the needs of …
Continue reading “OCEN: Advancing Digital Public Infrastructure for MSME Credit Access”
There is a need for a continuous conversation about the best way to shape the future of Indian cities. This conversation will take place across multiple cities, with learnings from each other. Therefore, it is proposed to hold an ‘Imagining Indian Cities’ Workshop annually in different Indian places. The first of those took place in …
Continue reading “Imagining Indian Cities: #1 ‘Creative Bangalore’”
The Open Credit Enablement Network (OCEN) built on open network principles, unbundles MSME lending into specialized components, creating an ecosystem where different entities excel in one specific part of the lending process. These specialized entities focus on various tasks such as sourcing, distribution, identity verification, underwriting, capital arrangement, and collections. The result? A seamless, scalable …
Continue reading “OCEN: Enabling Credit for MSMEs with Digital Public Infrastructure”
iSPIRT Foundation, a technology think-and-do tank, believes India’s hard problems can be solved only by leveraging public technology for private innovation. iSPIRT, as a think-and-do-tank, pioneered the concept of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) Industry watched and waited to see if this budget will have bold, strategic announcements with long-term vision, aiming for Viksit Bharat 2047. …
Continue reading “A Budget with Good Intentions but lacks drive to realize Viksit Bharat & EODB”
To succeed at AI, we need a whole-of-nation approach involving deep-tech startups, enabling industrial policy and pre-commercial publicly-funded research. When the Biden Administration released its AI Diffusion Executive Order a few weeks back restricting GPUs to countries, it became clear that having strategic autonomy in AI was of paramount importance to India. Just being the …
In the evolving landscape of financial inclusion and digital lending, India has introduced several innovative frameworks designed to streamline access to credit, enhance transparency, and create seamless financial ecosystems. Among these, the Unified Lending Interface (ULI), Open Credit Enablement Network (OCEN), and Account Aggregator (AA) stand out as key initiatives aimed at modernizing the way …
Continue reading “Comparing Key Frameworks in the Digital Lending ecosystem: ULI, OCEN, and AA”
This workshop was organized by the Indian think tank iSPIRT Foundation, French Embassy in India, Consulate General of France in Bangalore, and La French Tech in India, based on the following principles: Results:
Thank you so much for your patience… Many of you asked when the volunteer programme would be available to apply, and here we are again. We do have some changes, though, so please pay attention. This application process will be available only for the next couple of months and close by December 20th, 2024. It’s …
Continue reading “8th Open House Session- Ballon Volunteers”
A gathering of iSPIRT volunteers in Bangalore turned into an interesting discussion: How does India become a Product Nation by espousing values that are inherent and ingrained in us as Indians? Here are some answers from that meeting. We hope this gets you thinking on how to draw inspiration from familiar cultural concepts while building …
This 2024 Budget coming post-election has aroused the most curiosity since the budget of 2014. It is for two reasons that this 2024 Budget is significant as we work towards a Product Nation: Reason 1 is for this budget’s Innovation and related public spending on private innovation and Reason 2 is for the next-generation reforms …
Continue reading “Budget 2024 – Empowering Startups and MSMEs, and Doubling Down on DPIs and R&D”
In this insightful dialogue, Sagar Parikh engages with Deepak Sharma to explore the transformative potential of cash flow lending for Indian MSMEs. Deepak underscores the significance of democratizing credit access through short-tenor and small-ticket loans, especially for micro-enterprises that comprise 99% of the MSME sector in India. Drawing from his rich experience in banking and …
OCEN is an initiative to unbundle lending and enable the creation of specialized entities, each specialized at one part of the job. Therefore, we envision the future of lending to be a partnership between multiple firms individually focused on sourcing/distribution, identity verification, underwriting, capital arrangement, recollections, etc. The entities like marketplaces who have high business-connect …