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!
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.
Budget 2023 – Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) the ‘Mantra’ for New India
iSPIRT Foundation, a technology think-and-do tank, believes that India’s hard problems can be solved only by leveraging public technology for private innovation. iSPIRT as a think tank pioneered the Digital Public infrastructure (DPIs)
India is at the cusp of what could be the most exciting quarter century of its post-independence existence, referred to as ‘Amrit Kaal’ by the Economic Survey yesterday and today in the Budget speech. The Economic Survey also mentioned that GDP could be boosted by 1% by Digital Public Infrastructure (DPIs), where India is stealing a March on the world for sure.
The second testimony to the important contribution of DPIs to the economy comes in the budget speech today when the finance minister stated, “India’s rising global profile is because of several accomplishments: unique world class digital public infrastructure, e.g., Aadhaar, Co-Win and UPI” in the forefront.
Development of DPIs, Stay-in-India Checklist (for Ease of Doing business of Startups), and a ‘jugalbandi’ between public technology and private innovation, through techno-legal regulations, are central to iSPIRT’s work in an attempt to build Product Nation.
The union budget 2023, brings in cheer to see attempts on the following:
Digital Public Infrastructure: The resolve to deepen the DPI and the belief in their role in economic growth. India Stack to build the DPIs has become central to the thought process. Taking the queue ahead the budget 2023 announced the development of DPI for Agriculture, which will be an open source, OpenAPI digital public good, to build inclusive farmer-centric solutions, credit & insurance, farm inputs market intelligence. An Agriculture Accelerator Fund has been announced to promote Agritech start-ups.
Vigyan Infrastructure: efforts to boost R&D, though limited to some sectors right now. Notable among these are – It encourages private sector R&D teams for encouraging collaborative research and innovation in select ICMR labs in the PPP model
One hundred labs for developing applications using 5G services will be set up in engineering institutions.
Center of Excellence for AI for “Make AI in India and Make AI work for India
MSMEs funding& growth is part of the budget thought process, which may lead to the use of another DPI called Open Credit Enablement Networks (OCEN) for enabling MSME funding.
The importance of Ease of doing business is reflected in some announcements like using PAN as a Common digital identifier and entity DigiLocker for MSMEs.
Wanting to keep the startup revolution going is reflected in the intent to use Startups to build technology in multiple sectors and also use the policy for a new India.
However, beneath all the euphoria, some chronic issues remained to be addressed. The disappointment is on the Stay-in-India checklist (a list of Ease of doing business issues for Startups) to stop startups from slipping from India, which has not been addressed. The checklist is being continuously pursued by iSPIRT and is much needed to provide a competitive edge for India to refrain startups from leaving her jurisdiction.
Overall it’s heartening to see the vision statement in budget, “Our vision for the Amrit Kaal includes technology-driven and knowledge-based economy”.
About iSPIRT Foundation – We are a non-profit think-and-do tank that builds public goods for Indian product startups to thrive and grow. iSPIRT aims to do for Indian startups what DARPA or Stanford did in Silicon Valley. iSPIRT builds four types of public goods – technology building blocks (aka India stack), startup-friendly policies, market access programs like M&A Connect and Playbooks that codify scarce tacit knowledge for product entrepreneurs of India.
Senior policymakers met to discuss data empowerment approaches that ensure privacy and encourage innovation
The digitalization of economies, particularly in critical sectors such as health, mobility, energy, and finance, has seen significant generation of data. The ubiquity of data should lead to greater user-centric innovation, while preserving the trust that users have in an open, secure, and safe internet. This is among the foremost goals of policymakers and regulators today.
Governments have adopted or are in the process of introducing legislation to provide a foundation for robust data governance. Their policy goals can be complemented and advanced with the help of common, open, and interoperable protocols that increase the choice of digital services available to a user and enhance user privacy. By implementing technical protocols that reflect privacy principles, a ‘techno-legal’ approach to data governance brings transparency and accountability to the way in which data is shared, thus empowering the user.
The global and seamless nature of the internet, and growing interdependence among digital economies calls for cooperation among like-minded partners on data empowerment. As part of a consultative process, a collective of senior policymakers met virtually for the first time on August 31, 2021.
Key participants at the meeting included:
Ms. Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice President for A Europe Fit for the Digital Age and Competition, European Commission
Mr. Nikolai Astrup, Minister for Local Government and Modernisation, Norway
Dr. Agustin Carstens, General Manager, Bank for International Settlements, Switzerland
Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Vice-Chairman, NITI Aayog, India
Senior officials from Rwanda, Japan, France, and Australia also participated and made brief remarks in the meeting.
Participants at the meeting affirmed the importance of reinforcing the twin policy goals of privacy and data-driven innovation through open, interoperable technical protocols. They also underscored the need to reach out to more like-minded countries, and promote an inclusive and sustained dialogue on data empowerment.
Building on the previous Balloon Volunteering Open House Sessions, we will give a flavour of available volunteering opportunities in the Technology space.
In the fourth Session, we have Dr Pramod Varma, Chief Architect of Aadhaar and IndiaStack, giving you an insight into what it takes to volunteer in iSPIRT. He describes our design principles for building digital public infrastructure and gives you a peek into the thought process of an architect in iSPIRT. Finally, he breaks down how we are redefining the approach towards solving societal problems. We are playground builders. We orchestrate or create a playground so that market players can bring out an array of solutions.
iSPIRT is addressing solvability. We have a multi-decade horizon as a mission-oriented volunteer-based Think-and-Do-Tank.
As part of this session, we have some of our volunteers explaining the technical challenges you can embrace as new volunteers at iSPIRT Foundation. The problems that we are tackling require a thought process that is new and innovative. We use cutting-edge technology.
In addition to the new technical volunteering options outlined in this session, other policy-related and ecosystem-building volunteer options also exist. Apply now on https://volunteers.ispirt.in.
How do you build using Lego Blocks? Watch the recording to learn more.
