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!
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 on a rolling basis, so apply immediately.
Many of you are already familiar with iSPIRT and its activities; this is your chance to join this volunteer movement. So take some time to review the programmes listed and watch the videos, not just the current ones but also the previous ones, to better understand the journey. Also, please read the Playground Coda and the Volunteer Handbook.
Are there tools we can help build to solve privacy issues, or what kind of packets will help get the internet to remote parts of India? Do you have a better solution to some pressing matters discussed in the videos? Then, you need to apply. Some legacy options and some new options are also available.
Is there some project that strikes your fancy, some part that calls out to you, and you know you can do it? To apply, click this link and follow the process.
I am reminding you again that the deadline is December 20th, 2024.
A journey with iSPIRT is also about the journey with yourself.
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 for India!
In any culture where people have performed well in achieving a goal, that culture has encouraged training one’s mind. Mental performance therefore is key.
For example, Americans athletes do well at the Olympics. If you look at American culture, it champions working hard, winning, and training your mind to focus on winning.
You have the Japanese concept of Ikigai, where purpose gives you a reason to live a long, happy life. The authors who wrote a book on Ikigai shares a Japanese proverb that says, “Only staying active will make you want to live a hundred years”.
Or let’s take the theory of Flow. It’s a state of mind where we are so immersed in the joy of our work “that nothing else seems to matter”. In a state of flow the mind is trained to focus and enjoy a task, even the challenges that come with it. As iSPIRT volunteer Rinka Singh says his best work happens when he is having fun framing questions and thinking through challenging problems.
So, what of our culture do you think can help us train our minds to be disciplined and dedicated? And can teach us to enjoy our work even in tough times? Here are some examples iSPIRT volunteers shared at the meeting:
After all the culture we have grown up in has cultivated some great skills in us. To give you real life examples, look at the artist who is capable of creating exquisite, complex Rangoli designs or take the Indian programmer who is a whiz with math and logic.
Or take the Bhagavad Gita teaching us not to be attached to an outcome but simply focus on doing your tasks well. The less resources your mind spends obsessing about an outcome, the more time and focus your mind has to work on completing tasks really well. In addition, when you are not attached to an outcome, your mind can deal with failure much better. It becomes easier to retrain your mind to learn from failures and simply try again.
As iSPIRT volunteer Girish Elchuri says, “no greed, no glory” is the basic theme of thinking beyond self. It helps to expand your view beyond you to help find good solutions that can benefit those around you.
Or for example take how Indian culture also values family time, food and meditation or prayer. These could potentially create a better balanced healthy mind that can focus longer, and is less prone to burnout and depression.
iSPIRTer Shoaib Ahmed believes the powerful action of placing palms together and greeting each other Namaste is truly us saying, ‘the divinity in me recognizes the divinity in you’. This invisible force of divinity running through us all connects us and lays a sound foundation for Indian product builders to collaborate at a soul level.
Referring to the Bhagavad Gita, iSPIRTer Sharad Sharma reasoned that the essence of Gita is having confusion in your life and that having confusion in your life is not a bad thing, as long as you can take a step back to look at it philosophically and figure out the answer. What Indians are good at is reframing the problem. Gita is about reframing the problem and saying ‘don’t look at it the way it looks to you now. Let me tell you an alternative way of looking at the problem and that alternative way will help the answer to reveal itself.’
“Indians succeed because we can reframe the question at a higher level of abstraction and find answers, which to me is R&D. We can be the best R&D nation in the world”, is Sharad’s learning from what he has learned from the Gita.
iSPIRT’s Hari Subramanian feels the one core part of India’s culture over the centuries has been to question and constantly learn, seek knowledge. Hari feels this ability to question will propel India’s current generation of young builders to make us a Product Nation.
As Hari puts it, “The essence of Gita is, you are born to do something. Do that and don’t be tied down to what the outcome may be. Do what you are born to do, day in, day out and excellence will follow.”
To conclude, we have a golden opportunity to change India for the better by combining the ethos of US, Japan, and India. Let’s not miss it.
Let us take the YOLO spirit of the US. Let us learn from Japan that doing your tasks well means to master it. Then let us embrace the Indian principle of not worrying about the outcome but only focusing on your work and allowing excellence to follow. If we combine all this maybe magic can happen.
This is the 4th blog in a series of blogs describing and signifying the importance of DPI for AI, a privacy-preserving techno-legal framework for AI data collaboration. Readers are encouraged to first go over the earlier blogs for better understanding and continuity.
We are at the cusp of history with regard to how AI advancements are unfolding and the potential to build a man-machine society of the future economically, socially, and politically. There is a great opportunity to understand and deliver on potentially breakthrough business and societal use cases while developing and advancing foundational capabilities that can adapt to new ideas and challenges in the future. The major startups in Silicon Valley and big techs are focused first on bringing the advancements of AI to first-world problems – optimized and trained for their contexts. However, we know that first world’s solutions may not work in diverse and unstructured contexts in the rest of the world – may not even for all sections of the developed world.
Let’s address the elephant in the room – what are the critical ingredients that an AI ecosystem needs to succeed – Data, enabling regulatory framework, talent, computing, capital, and a large market. In this open house
we make a case that India is the place that excels in all these dimensions, making it literally a no-brainer whether you are an investor, a researcher, an AI startup, or a product company to come and do it in India for your own success.
India has one of the most vibrant, diverse, and eager markets in the world, making it a treasure chest of diverse data at scale, which is vital for AI models. While much of this data happens to be proprietary, the DPI for AI data collaboration framework makes it available in an easy and privacy-preserving way to innovators in India. Literally, no other country has such a scale and game plan for training data. One may ask that diversity and scale are indeed India’s strengths but where is the data? Isn’t most of our data with the US-based platforms? In this context, there are three types of Data:
a. Public Data, b. Non-Personal Data (NPD), and c. Proprietary Datasets.
Let’s look at health. India has far more proprietary datasets than the US. It is just frozen in the current setup. Unfreezing this will give us a play in AI. This is exactly what DPI for AI is doing – in a privacy-preserving manner. In the US, health data platforms like those of Apple and Google are entering into agreements with big hospital chains – to supplement their user health data that comes from wearables. How do we better that? This is the US Big Tech-oriented approach – not exactly an ecosystem approach. Democratic unfreezing of health data with hospitals is the key today. DPI for AI would do that even for all – small or big, developers or researchers! We have continental-scale data with more diversity than any other nation. We need a unique way to unlock them to enable the entire ecosystem, not just big corporations. If we can do that, and we think we can via DPI for AI, we will have AI winners from India.
Combine this with India’s forward looking regulatory thought process that balances Regulation for AI and Regulation of AI in a unique way that encourages innovation without compromising on individual privacy and other potential harms of the technology. The diversity and scale of the Indian market act like a forcing function for innovators to think of robustness, safety, and efficiency from the very start which is critical for the innovations in AI to actually result in financial and societal benefits at scale. There are more engineers and scientists of Indian origin who are both creating AI models or developing innovative applications around AI models. Given our demographic dividend, this is one of our strengths for decades to come. Capital and Compute are clearly not our strong points, but capital literally follows the opportunity. Given India’s position of strength on data, regulation, market, and talent, capital is finding its way to India!
So, what are you all waiting for? India welcomes you with continental scale data with a lightweight but safe regulatory regime and talent like no place else to come build, invest, and innovate in India. India has done it in the past in various sectors, and it is strongly positioned to do it again in AI. Let’s do this together. We are just getting started, and, as always, are very eager for your feedback, suggestions, and participation in this journey!
This is the third in a series of blogs describing the structure and importance of Digital Public Infrastructure for Artificial Intelligence (DPI for AI), a privacy-preserving techno-legal framework for data and AI model building collaborations. Readers are encouraged to go over the first and second blogs for better understanding and continuity.
The techno-legal framework of DEPA, elaborated upon in the earlier blogs, provides the foundations. From multiple discussions and history, it is clear that building and growing a vibrant AI economy that can create a product nation in India, requires a regulatory framework. This regulatory structure will serve as the legal partner to the technology aspect and work hand in hand with it. Upon this reliable techno-legal foundation will the ecosystem and global product companies from India be materialized.
‘Data Empowerment And Protection Architecture’ – or DEPA’s – worldview of ‘regulation for AI’, rather than the more conventional ‘Regulation of AI’ espoused by US, EU and so on sets DEPA apart and drives India towards an AI product nation with a global footprint.
How does one envisage the form and function of ‘Regulation for AI’? In this open house, we have a dialog between technology and legal sides of the approach to explain the significant facets.
In a nutshell, ‘Regulation for AI’ will focus on
what standards the AI models need to adhere to
define a lightweight but foolproof path for getting there for startups as well as the big players
provide an environment which deals with many of the compliance and safety aspects ab initio
define ways to remove hurdles from the innovator’s paths
In contrast, ‘Regulation of AI’ deals with what AI models cannot be and do and the tests and conditions that they have to pass depending on the risk classes that they are placed into. This is akin to certification processes in many fields such as pharma, transportation and so on which impose heavy cost burdens, especially on new innovators. For instance, many pharma companies which develop potentially good drug candidates run out of steam trying to meet the clinical trial conditions. Very often they are unable to find a valid and sizeable sample population to test their products as a part of the mandatory certification process.
The current standards in the new Regulation of AI in the US, EU and so on leave many aspects such as the risk model classification process undefined, leading to regulatory uncertainty. This also works against investment driven innovation and consequent growth of the ecosystem in multiple ways.
The path to value both for the economy and the users, lies in the power of the data being projected into the universe of applications. These applications will be powered by the AI models in addition to other algorithmic engines. The earlier blogs already addressed the need and the way for data to make their way into models.
For the models to exhibit their power, we must make sure they are reliable and used widely. This requires the AI models be accessible and available and most importantly, ‘do no harm’ when they are applied, through mistakes, misuse or malfeasance. In addition to this, humans or their agents must not be allowed to harm the markets and users through monopoly control of the AI models. Large scale monopolistic control of these models which have global use and relevance can lead to situations which are beyond national or international legislation to control or curb.
In the DEPA model, this benign, and in most ways, benevolent environment is created by a concinnous combination of technology and legal principles. Having analyzed the technological aspects of data privacy in the earlier blogs in this chain, here we will talk about the regulations implemented via a Self-Regulatory Organization – the SRO.
Though not fully fleshed out, the SRO provides functions such as registration and roles to participants such as TDP (Training Data Provider), TDC (Training Data Consumer) and CCRP (Confidential Clean Room Provider). Many of these functions have been implemented in part to support the tech stack that we have released with respect to the CCR (Ref: DEPA Open House #1). This tech stack currently supports registration and allows the interactions between participants to be mediated via electronic contracts (the technological counterpart of legal contracts).
The technology that validates the models through pre-deployment analysis based on complex adaptive system models is under development and is based on diverse research efforts across the world. This technology is designed for measuring the positive and negative impact of use of these models on societies at small and large scale and in short and long timescales.
‘Complex adaptive system models’ are dynamic models which can capture agents with their state information and the multiple feedback loops which determine the changes in the system at different scales, sometimes simultaneously. The large number of components and the many kinds of feedback loops with their dynamic nature are what make these models complex and adaptive. These models, while still in their infancy in many ways, are critical to the question of understanding the AI models’ impact on societies.
The SRO guides and supports the ecosystem players in building and deploying their models in a safe and secure way with lightweight regulatory ceilings so that large product companies in many fields like finance, healthcare, and education can grow and reach a happy consumer base. This is key to growing the ecosystem and connecting it to other parts of the India stack.
We envisage leveraging the current legal system in terms of the different Acts (DPDP, IT Act, Copyright etc.) and models of Data Protection through CDO ( Chief Data Office) and CGO ( Grievance Office) in companies in India in defining the SRO’s role and features further.
The regulatory model also looks at the question of data ownership and copyright issues, especially in the context of Generative AI. We require large foundation models independent of the ‘Big Tech’ to fight potential monopolies. These models should be reflective of the local diversity to serve as reliable engines in the context of India. We need these models built and deployed locally, to be able to play a role as a product nation without being subverted or subjugated in our cyberspace strategies.
To light up the AI sky with these many ‘fireflies’ in different parts of India, infrastructure for compute as well as market access is needed. The SRO creates policies that are not restrictive or protective but promotes participation and value realization. The data players, compute providers, market creators and users need to be able to play with each other in a safe space. Sufficient protection of copyright and creative invention will be provided via existing IP law to incentivize participation while not restricting to the point of killing innovation – this is the balance that the regulatory framework of SRO strives to reach.
Drawing upon ideas of risk-based categorization of models (such as in the EU AI Act) and regulatory models (including punitive and compensatory measures) proportional to them, the models in India Stack will be easily compatible with international standards, as well as a universal or global standard, should an organization such as a UN agency define it. This makes global market reach of AI models and products built in India, an easier target to achieve.
We conjecture that these different aspects of DEPA will release the data from its silos. AI models will proliferate with multiple players profiting from infrastructure, model building, and exporting them to the world. Many applications will be built which will be used both in India (as part of the India Stack) and the world. It is through these models and applications that the latent potential and knowledge in the vast stores of data in India will be realized.
This is the 2nd blog in a series of blogs describing and signifying the importance of DPI for AI, a privacy-preserving techno-legal framework for AI data collaboration. Readers are encouraged to first go over the 1st blog for better understanding and continuity.
What is unique about the techno-legal framework in DPI for AI is that it allows for data collaboration without compromising on data privacy. Now let’s put this in perspective of Indian enterprises and users. This framework can potentially revolutionize the entire ecosystem to slingshot India towards an AI product nation where we are not just using AI models developed within India but exporting the same. What is the biggest roadblock in this dream? In this open house (https://bit.ly/DEPA-2), we make a case that privileged access to data from Indian contexts is not only necessary to develop AI-based systems that are much more relatable to Indians but in fact, gives Indian innovators a distinct advantage over much larger and better funded big tech companies from the west.
Let’s get started. Clearly, there is a race to build larger and larger AI models these days trained on as much training data as possible. Most training data used in the models is publicly available on the web. Given that Indian enterprises are quite behind in this race, it is unlikely that we will catch up by simply following their footsteps. But what many folks outside of AI research circles often miss is that there has been credible research that shows that access to even relatively small amounts of contextual data can drastically reduce the data and compute requirements to achieve the same level of performance.
This sounds great, right, but (there is always a but!) much of this Indian context data is not in one place and is hidden behind numerous government and corporate walls. What makes the situation worse is most of these data silos are enterprises of traditional nature and are not the typical centers of innovation, at least for modern technologies like AI. This is a fertile ground for DPI for AI. The three core concepts of DPI for AI ensure that this data sitting in silos can be seamlessly (thanks to digital contracts) and democratically shared with innovators around India in a privacy-preserving manner (thanks to differential privacy). The innovators also do not need to worry one bit about the confidentiality of their IP (thanks to confidential computing). The techno-legal framework makes it super easy for anyone to abide by the privacy regulations without sweat. This will keep them safe from future litigations as long as they follow easy-to-follow guidelines provided in the framework. This is what we refer to as the unfreezing of data markets in this Open House. This unfreezing is critical for our innovators to get easy access to contextual data to give them a much-needed leg up against the Western onslaught in the field of AI. This is India’s moment to leapfrog in the field of AI as we have done in so many domains (payments, identity, internet, etc.). Given the enormity of the goal and the need to get it right, we seek participation from folks from varied expertise and backgrounds. Please share your feedback here
The Pradhan Mantri Wifi Access Network Interface (PM WANI) was launched in December 2020. It received a great initial reception, but the enthusiasm died over time. Several reasons have been cited, including a lack of a vibrant ecosystem, lack of profitability, limited business models, etc. In addition, a belief also crept up over time that India did not need PM-WANI as existing telcos would step in and provide universal connectivity in the country. At the same time, several stand-alone solutions have been provided from various quarters to jumpstart the ecosystem.
iSPIRT has taken a long hard look at PM-WANI. It has identified the causes for the multiple issues plaguing the system and attempted to solve the problem holistically. This Open House Session presents our analysis of the issues in PM-WANI and a path forward. It argues for an integrative approach, considering all stakeholders’ concerns. We believe that PM-WANI can fulfil its mission of providing universal connectivity to a large unconnected part of our population.
P.S: Prof. Nilesh Gupta and Prof. Himanshu Tyagi are faculty members at the Indian Institute of Management Nagpur and Indian Institute of Science, respectively, and they also represent their views as independent researchers on the topic.
In the rapidly evolving landscape of the AI economy, the choices made today will reverberate for generations. As custodians of India’s future, we must recognize the urgency of embracing AI as a lynchpin of economic growth. The time to act is now!
In an era characterized by relentless technological advancement, a nation’s economic growth trajectory hinges on its ability to harness the power of artificial intelligence (AI). Goldman Sachs reported that generative AI could raise global GDP by 7%. By 2030, this AI driven Intelligence Economy might add $15.7tn of new economic value as per PWC research.
With its burgeoning tech industry, diverse and large data pool and remarkable human capital, India stands at the precipice of an economic transformation that could either propel it to global leadership or condemn it to follow in the wake of other trailblazers. As political decision-makers, the imperative to recognize and seize this opportunity cannot be overstated in view of India’s bid to become one of the top 3 economies of the world. The availability of the DEPA Training Cycle and the DPDP Bill passage through the Parliament open the door to immediate and strategic action via the creation of a large AI economy.
I. The AI Imperative for Global Competitiveness:
India’s demographic dividend of 900mn+ people is no secret but must be coupled with technological prowess to ensure a multiplier effect for sustained growth. As global economies increasingly pivot towards AI-driven industries, overlooking this shift risks consigning India to a secondary role on the global stage. To maintain competitiveness, India must embrace AI not merely as a tool but as the very foundation of its economic strategy going forward. It must ensure that it is not just a consumer of AI but a critical creator of AI. In fact, it must aim to emerge as one of the 3 AI superpowers in the world.
II. Safe AI Leadership Depends on Data
India’s DEPA Training makes privacy-preserving collaboration between Training Dataset Providers and Modelers (called Training Dataset Consumers) possible at a large scale, which is a critical element in AI journey. The DEPA system does not rely on hard-to-implement enforcement of legal covenants around Anonymized Datasets, as is the case in countries like the US, where AI companies are fighting constant litigation. Instead, it depends on computational privacy guarantees in the use of aggregated datasets. This is core to enabling safe AI systems, built with reliable and traceable access to datasets. Then, it can be deployed quickly with human alignment that India can provide with its billion plus users. As India begins to unlock continental-scale datasets using this system, it will give rise to a vibrant ecosystem of AI Modelers. This dataset advantage in AI is not to be underestimated. By focusing on early Safe AI adoption, India can secure a foothold in these sectors, attracting global investment and cementing its position as an innovation hub whose AI innovations would be adopted by societies around the world.
III. Addressing Socioeconomic Disparities: Remote AI driven workflows & 5G
Harnessing AI’s potential can also serve as a powerful tool to address India’s socioeconomic disparities. AI-driven solutions can optimize resource allocation, improve public service delivery, reduce cost of access and create job opportunities across urban and rural areas. With massive 5G rollout, the possibility of digital global work aided by AI is here. It can dramatically bring income opportunity to rural and smaller cities, if we can bring in Indic language AI tools, which lower the bar for participating in the global workflows. By proactively leveraging AI to bridge gaps and enhance productivity, India’s leadership can demonstrate a commitment to inclusive growth and lay the foundation for a more equitable society. All the while reducing strains of growing urbanization, which might be disastrous for its overburdened large cities.
IV. The Gameplan for AI Leadership: Missing piece of compute clusters
DEPA Training will safely and responsibly unlock the collaboration between India Training Dataset Providers and Modelers. We have the talent already and the market scale to do Reinforcement Learning with Humans in the Loop. What we lack is tensor-scale computing enabled for Industry, startups, academia and Govt itself. The Government of India must address this by enabling the creation of many, not one, tensor-scale GPU cloud providers. There are many ways to do this: Challenge Grants, Viability-gap funding for cloud providers, and Matching-grants for Modelers. We favor the Matching Grants method for effectiveness, transparency, and competition. In addition, we must seek to create AI on the edge compute ecosystem for a strategic future.
V. Collaborative Diplomacy and Global Alliances:
AI does not recognize national borders, and collaboration is key to advancing the field. At the same time, we must recognize that Nvidia H100 boards are already on the US Export Control List for China. The US might leverage its muscle further at some time in the future. We must therefore have a strategic perspective in making our aggregate AI capability and datasets available to others based on a principle of reciprocity. We must build careful alliances with a broad set of players in US, EU and Asia that will accelerate India’s AI capabilities but also position the nation as a global AI thought leader.
VI. The Consequences of Inaction:
The consequences of neglecting AI’s potential are dire. India risks becoming a mere consumer of AI technologies, ceding economic leadership to countries that have embraced AI as a strategic priority. China, our neighbor, has famously vowed to be the sole AI superpower by 2030. This passivity could lead to missed opportunities, economic stagnation, and a loss of global influence. It may even result in India failing to breach the top 3 economies, , as we might have to buy both oil and artificial brains, draining our resources for welfare schemes for our large population. That could risk demographic disaster instead of demographic dividend.
Conclusion: We need to act now!
In the rapidly evolving landscape of the AI economy, the choices made today will reverberate for generations. As custodians of India’s future, we must recognize the urgency of embracing AI as a lynchpin of economic growth. The time to act is now! We must catalyze innovation, ensure global competitiveness, and create a prosperous future where India’s leadership is defined not by its past but by its capacity to shape the AI-powered future world decisively.
Sharad Sherma is co-founder of iSPIRT Foundation. Umankant Soni is the Chairman AI foundry, General Partner ART Venture Fund.
The passage of the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2023 (DPDP) by the Lok Sabha is significant in more ways than one. The Bill aims to enforce and promote lawful usage of digital personal data and stipulates how organisations and individuals should navigate privacy rights and handle personal data.
Creating effective mechanisms to enable data governance has become one of the top priorities for countries around the world. The challenge for policymakers is designing legal and regulatory frameworks that clearly lay down the rights of data principals and obligations for data fiduciaries.
The Digital Data Protection Bill is a much-needed step in this direction, taken after months of deliberations and discussions. Such normative frameworks are critical to secure regulatory certainty for enterprises. However, innovative technical measures are required to support their operationalisation.
In the past couple of years, India has made significant strides in adopting a techno-legal approach to data governance. Through this approach, India is building technical infrastructure for authorising access to datasets that embed privacy and security principles in its design.
Data also lies at the heart of AI innovations that can address significant global challenges. India’s unique techno-legal approach to data governance is applicable across the life cycle of machine learning systems. It complements the country’s ambition of supporting its growing AI start-up ecosystem while providing privacy guarantees.
As part of India Stack, the Data Empowerment and Protection Architecture (DEPA) launch in 2017 was India’s paradigm-defining moment for the inference cycle of the machine learning life cycle. It proposed the setting up of Consent Managers (CMs), also known as Account Aggregators in the financial sector.
This approach, also mentioned in the current iteration of the DPDP (Chapter 2, [Sections 7-9]), ensures individuals can exercise control over their data and can provide revocable, granular, auditable, and secure consent for every piece of data using standard Application Programming Interface (APIs). The secured consent artefact records an individual’s consent for the stated purpose. It allows users to transfer their data from those data businesses that hold it to those that have to use it to provide individuals certain services while ensuring purpose limitation. For instance, individuals can share their financial data residing within their banks with potential loan service providers to get the best loan package.
DEPA is India’s attempt at securing a consent-based data-sharing framework. It has facilitated the financial inclusion of millions of its citizens. Eight of India’s largest banks were early adopters of the framework starting in 2021. Currently, 415 entities, including CMs, Financial Information Providers, and Users, participate across various DEPA implementation stages.
However, the training cycle of an AI model demands substantially more data to make accurate predictions in the inference cycle. As such, there is a need for more of such robust technical solutions that disrupt data silos and connect data providers with model developers while providing privacy and security guarantees to individuals who are the real owners of their own data.
With DEPA 2.0, India is already experimenting with a solution inspired by confidential computing called the Confidential Computing Rooms, or CCRs. CCRs are hardware-protected secure computing environments where sensitive data can be accessed in an algorithmically controlled manner for model training.
These algorithms create an environment for data to be used while ensuring compliance with privacy and security guarantees for citizens are upheld and data does not exchange hands. Techniques like differential privacy introduce controlled noise or randomness into the training process to protect individuals’ privacy by making it harder to identify them or extract sensitive information.
To make CCR work, model certifications and e-contracts are essential elements. The model sent to CCR for training has to be certified to ensure it upholds privacy and security guidelines, and the e-contracts are required to facilitate authorized and auditable access to datasets. For example, loan providers can authorise access to a representative sample of the datasets residing with them to model developers via CCR for model training. This arrangement will be facilitated via e-contracts once the CCR verifies the validity of the model certification provided by the modeller.
India’s significant progress with technical measures that are aligned with domestic legal frameworks provides it with a head start in the AI innovation landscape. Countries all across the globe are struggling to find solutions to facilitate personal data sharing for model development that prioritises security and privacy. Multiple lawsuits have recently been filed against OpenAI across numerous jurisdictions for unlawfully using personal data to train their models.
India’s unique approach to data governance, where both technical and legal frameworks fit like a puzzle and balance the thin line of promoting AI innovation while providing privacy guarantees, is well-positioned to guide global approaches to data governance.
In a quiet and disciplined fashion, over the last six years, India has put the critical techno-legal pieces in place for becoming a significant AI player in the world alongside US and China. Like them, we have continental-scale data and the talent to shape our future. With the passage of the DPDP Bill, we are now one step closer to having modern regulatory tools for effective regulation of AI and regulation for AI.
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.
iSPIRT Foundation welcomes you to the virtual launch of the industry-wide Account Aggregator (AA) ecosystem on September 2, 2021.
This event announces the major financial institutions that have gone live, and demonstrates the powerful use cases of AA. It will be a major milestone for the AA framework for consented data access and sharing in the financial sector.
Time (IST)
Session
Speaker(s)
4:00-4:10 PM
A Regulatory Framework for Account Aggregators and the Path Ahead
Shri M Rajeshwar Rao, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India
4:10-4:30 PM
The Account Aggregator Leapfrog is Here!
– Presentation by Shri Nandan Nilekani, Chairman, RBI Committee on Deepening Digital Payments (2019) and Volunteer, iSPIRT – Workflow demonstration by Shri Siddharth Shetty
4:30-4:35 PM
The Early Builders on AA
Hear from a cross-section of ‘early mover’ CEOs and leaders of major Banks/NBFCs, Account Aggregators, and Technology Service Providers
4:35-4:45 PM
A Global Perspective on India’s Account Aggregator Model
Shri Siddharth Tiwari, Chief Representative for Asia and the Pacific, Bank for International Settlements
4:50-5:35 PM
Fintech Roundtable: Innovating on AA for Improved Financial Services
Panel discussion moderated by Shri Rajesh Bansal, CEO RBI Innovation Hub.
Fireside Chat on the Future of Cross-Sectoral Data Sharing
Moderator: Shri Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog; Panellists: Dr RS Sharma (Chairman, National Health Authority); Shri Ajay Seth, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs and Member, Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC)
5:55-6:00 PM
Designing User Control over Data for India
Hear from current and future Account Aggregators on innovating for control over our personal data
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.
We had our second Open House session on Balloon Volunteering on 14th December over Zoom Conference. Do watch the session video to decide if you would like to explore volunteering with iSPIRT.
Till recently, all our new volunteers (aka Balloon Volunteers) came in through referrals from existing volunteers. Eight weeks back, on 20th Sep, we experimented with an open process in the first Open House session (https://pn.ispirt.in/balloon-volunteering).
We explained the process of Balloon Volunteering and shared a few volunteer challenges. Dozens of people registered. We spoke to each of them and worked with them on the next steps. Three applicants have been accepted as Balloon Volunteers so far. This has given us the confidence to go further in opening up our Balloon Volunteering process.
As you know, iSPIRT is a mission-based non-profit technology think tank. In this second Open House session, we talk about this mission so that you can ask yourself if our cause and theory of change animates you. To understand what volunteers do and how they work, you can read our Volunteer Handbook and Playground Coda. Pointers to these documents are on our new Volunteering page https://volunteers.ispirt.in
If our mission motivates you and volunteering is your passion, see if one of the open volunteering challenges resonates with you. You can then apply using one of the forms on the webpage.
However, keep in mind, volunteering is not for everybody. So, don’t be disheartened if you aren’t able to become a Balloon Volunteer right now. All of us grow with time. Volunteering may be the right thing for you a few years down the line. iSPIRT sticks with hard problems for 20-30 years, so you can be sure that there will be many volunteer opportunities in the future!
We held an impromptu Open Session on Balloon Volunteering on 20th September 2020. Watch the recorded video and presentation below to learn if iSPIRT volunteering is right for you.
This session will cover some of the available volunteer opportunities and tell you how to engage with us.
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 to give a complete long-term solution to Indian Startups.
While the share capital and share premium limit after the proposed issue of share is till 10 crores and helps startups for their initial fundraising, which is usually in the range of Rs 5-10 Cr. Around 80-85% of the money raised on LetsVenture, AngelList and other platforms by startups is within this range, but the government needs to solve for the remaining 15-20% as startups who are raising further rounds of capital, which is the sign of a growing business, are still exposed to this “angel tax”. Instead, the circular should be amended to state that Section 56(2)(viib) will not apply to capital raises up to Rs 10 Cr every financial year provided that the startups submit the PAN of the investors.
The income criteria of INR 50 lakhs and net worth requirement of INR 2 crores is again a move by the government that requires further consideration for the investing community. Therefore, to further encourage investments by Angels or to introduce new Angels to the ecosystem, there is a need to look towards a reduced income criterion of INR 20 Lakhs or a net worth of INR 1 crore, enabling more investors for a healthier funding environment. We also, need to build a mechanism to facilitate investments by corporates and trusts into the startups.
Most importantly, any startup who has received an assessment order under this section should also be able to for the prescribed remedies and submit this during their appeal. They should not be excluded from this circular since its stated scope is both past and future investments. The CBDT should also state that the tax officers should accept these submissions during the appeals process and take it into consideration during their deliberation.
Section 56(2)(viib) should not apply to any investment below Rs 10 crore received by a startup per year or increase the share premium limit to Rs 25 Crores, from Indian investors provided that the startup has the PAN of the investors
Section 56(2)(viib) should not apply to investors who have registered themselves with DIPP as accredited investors, regardless of the quantum of investment
The threshold stated should be either a minimum income of Rs 25 lakhs or a net worth of at least Rs 1 crore
Any startup who has received an assessment order should be able to seek recourse under this circular during their appeal
Through this circular, the government has reaffirmed its commitment to promoting entrepreneurship and startups in India. With these suggestions, the spectre of the “angel tax” will end up as a footnote in the history of the Indian startup ecosystem.
We look forward to the early resolution of these pending matters. For any suggestions, Do write to us [email protected]
The article is co-authored with Siddarth Pai, Policy Expert – iSPIRT Foundation and Founding Partner – 3one4 Capital.
iSPIRT volunteers are strivers. We seek the good for our nation and our ecosystem. We brainstorm, ideate, experiment, build, and evangelize to fulfill our mission of making India a Product Nation. Every volunteer draws us into an ever-enlarging realm of intellectual possibilities and purposeful engagements.
Take Nikhil Kumar for instance. He stepped up almost two years ago to evangelize UPI and handhold its early adopters. He set out to create winning implementations that would put traditional payment systems to shame. Needless to say, this wasn’t an easy thing to do. There was no template to follow. And, most didn’t believe in the potential of this new breakthrough payment system. But this didn’t faze Nikhil. He had chosen his adventure inside iSPIRT and nothing could hold him back.
Today, UPI is a success story. However, that’s not the full story.
Nikhil showed us how to stay cool under fire, to foster affinity, and skillfully navigate diverse opinions amongst many stakeholders. His all-hands-on-deck work ethic came with an ability to take decisive action when the situation demanded it. He showed that a young volunteer can be a visionary with big plans and the capacity to bring them to life. He has set an example for all of us on how to pay-forward and serve a cause bigger than all of us. All this makes him an iSPIRT Volunteer Hero.
From tomorrow, Nikhil is shifting gears. He is stepping away from being a volunteer-in-residence. He is taking a few months break. After that, he plans to create a startup. This is great news for iSPIRT. While our India Stack and other technology public platforms create possibilities, it is the products and services that create value. We need all elements of a healthy society – sarkar, samaj, bazaar – to come together to solve population scale problems sustainably. So, we wish him all the very best in this new pursuit of excellence.
All shifts require an adjustment. While Nikhil will remain a part-time iSPIRT volunteer working on WANI, he will no longer be the iSPIRT voice on payments for media, policymakers, startups and financial institutions.
Nikhil’s lasting legacy is that he opened up iSPIRT volunteering for talented youngsters under-30s. Today we have more than a dozen young power volunteers. He has helped all of us see the particular gifts that these young volunteers bring to the cause. His spirit will live on!
By Sharad Sharma, Pramod Varma and Sanjay Khan Nagra for Volunteer Fellow Council
