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Volunteer Hero: Amit Ranjan

“That will never work!”

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

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Asserting my Maven code-of-ethics and being a Proud Maven at iSPIRT

I am Pallav Nadhani from FusionCharts. Like my fellow entrepreneurs, who dream of making India as a Product Nation and building a great ecosystem together, I found my calling answered with iSPIRT Playbook round-tables. I volunteered to become a Maven so I could share, learn and disseminate the best-practices I had learnt in my entrepreneurial Journey, with other fellow entrepreneurs.

maven-code-of-ethics

Playbook enabled many of us to learn from each other’s successes and mistakes. It was an exciting opportunity to meet incredible and passionate entrepreneurs, and help them in whatever way we can, and also learn from them. I found that there were many like-minded Mavens, who were already helping many start-up founders (attendees), in a completely self-less way by paying-it-forward and not expecting anything in return – and there was a clear blueprint that I could follow. I felt honored to be a part of this iSPIRT Maven-community.

However, during the course of this journey, an unexpected event happened. A couple of attendees, across different playbook sessions, came up to me and asked what we (or iSPIRT) were expecting in return. Baffled by the question at first, I asked them what they meant. Their answer took me by surprise – they mentioned that at a few other similar forums, which they had attended, the equivalent of Mavens had asked for (free) equity along with a senior designation (typically Director or above), in exchange of the knowledge and network connections they were enabling to help such startups. Initially, I thought this could be fair, as different members of the ecosystem may have different operating protocols, but it turned to a point where our actions, which had no such intentions of getting anything in return, were also painted with a similar stroke of doubt. And I realized that this question was not just asked about me, but also some other contributors to iSPIRT.

I was giving completely selflessly, and so were many other Maven’s that I knew, within the iSPIRT community. We never had any intentions of gaining anything, or to further our own self-interest in anyway. However, the attendees assumed, that I as a Maven, would also do such demands in the future. That day, I felt victimized by this system, as my integrity and good intentions were being questioned.

For a few days, I pondered over this conundrum, and I reached out to Sharad and other Fellows in the iSPIRT community. During those conversations I proposed that the best way is either to set a clear protocol of expectations (from Maven’s side) or to not allow attendees to assume. We needed to Sign a Code-of-Ethics and resolve this conflict once and for all. Once we pledge that we will not breach the Maven-Code-of-Ethics, it would not compromise our own integrity in the eyes of the System or other people in the System. So, with the help of the iSPIRT Fellow-Council, we decided to draft the Maven Code-of-Ethics and I have signed it & abide it.

Maven Code of Ethics

As an iSPIRT Maven, I facilitate PlaybookRTs and Bootcamps. This is part of my pay-it-forward commitment to make India a Product Nation. At no point in time, I expect any payback for this from any participating startups in any form including advisory or sweat equity. My selfless contribution is for a cause larger than myself. I hope to set an example so that the entrepreneurs that I touch also embrace the pay-it-forward spirit.

Along with me the other maven who have signed the Code of Ethics are: Avlesh Singh (WebEngage), Aneesh Reddy (Capillary Techonologies), Amit Ranjan (Ex-Slideshare), Amit Somani (Prime Venture Partners), Girish Mathrubootham (Freshdesk), Jay Pullur (Pramati), Paras Chopra (Wingify), Pravin Jhadav(Servify), Rushabh Mehta(ERPnext), Sanjay Shah(Zapty), Samir Palnitkar (Shopsocially), Suresh Sambandam (KiSSFLOW), Shankar Maruwada (EkStep), Shanmugam Nagarajan (24[7] Inc), Sridhar Ranganathan (CrediBase).