ISPIRT

Indian Software Products Industry Round Table (iSPIRT), is a think tank for the Indian software products industry.[1][2]

iSPIRT
FormationFebruary 4, 2013 (2013-02-04)
PurposeThink tank
Region
India
WebsiteOfficial website

History

iSPIRT was officially launched on 4 February 2013 though preparatory work has been done over the preceding year.[3] It was founded as an offshoot of NASSCOM.[4] Around June 2017, some key members quit iSPIRT after co-founder Sharad Sharma, who was associated with an emphasis on Aadhaar and India Stack, admitted to online trolling of anti-Aadhaar advocates, leading to dissent and resignations among those concerned with the organisation governance and direction.[5]

Activities

The think tank claims its aim is to help software product companies with policies, playbooks and market catalysts, describing its three pillars as:[6]

  1. Policy - converting ideas into policy proposals to take to government stakeholders
  2. Playbooks - converting conversations into playbooks for product entrepreneurs
  3. Market Catalysts - converting actions of self-help communities into market catalysts for the Software Product Industry.

India Stack

iSPIRT has been involved in promoting India Stack applications[7] and has been acknowledged by the United States Agency for International Development for initiating the project.[8]

Concerns and controversies

There have been concerns with the arguably close links between India Stack, Aadhaar, India's personal digital identity system, and the Government; with legal researcher Usha Ramaanthan explaining "The same people who worked within the government to set the framework for Aadhaar went on to create products in the private sector to harness its commercial potential – a clear case of conflict of interest.".[4] Furthermore in 2017, iSPIRT's Sharad Sharma admitted to anonymous trolling of Aadhaar critics.[9][4]

Rohin Dharmakumar, writing for The Ken, claimed of iSPIRT - "In two short years, they built a world-class example of a volunteer-driven industry think tank with hundreds of passionate volunteers" only for "Today, India Stack is the dominant gene in iSPIRT. And iSPIRT’s original mission seems a relic".[10]

References
  1. "iSpirt a think tank: founders- Business News". www.businesstoday.in. Archived from the original on 4 April 2019. Retrieved 10 May 2019.
  2. Bahl, Manish. "iSPIRT: Why India's new software think tank will struggle". ComputerworldUK. Archived from the original on 11 May 2019. Retrieved 11 May 2019.
  3. "How we built iSPIRT from scratch, with nothing except a lot of spirit. #iSPIRTturns4". www.ispirt.in. Archived from the original on 10 December 2017. Retrieved 12 May 2019.
  4. Venkataramakrishnan, Rohan (23 May 2019). "Co-founder of UIDAI-associated outfit admits to anonymously trolling Aadhaar critics on Twitter". Retrieved 12 May 2019.
  5. Peermohamed, Alnoor (3 June 2017). "iSPIRT sees dissent rising after Sharad Sharma's lax treatment". Business Standard. Archived from the original on 10 February 2019. Retrieved 7 July 2019.
  6. "iSPIRT : What do we do". www.ispirt.in. Archived from the original on 16 August 2017. Retrieved 16 August 2017.
  7. "iSPIRT to host 'Build on India Stack' contest". 4 August 2017. Archived from the original on 6 September 2017. Retrieved 11 May 2019 – via The Economic Times.
  8. "PARTNERSHIP FOR A DIGITAL, INCLUSIVE ECONOMY IN INDIA | India | U.S. Agency for International Development". www.usaid.gov. 7 November 2016. Archived from the original on 31 May 2019.
  9. Thomas, Anu (23 May 2017). "iSpirt's Sharad Sharma admits to trolling Aadhaar critics, apologizes". The Economic Times (India). Archived from the original on 6 June 2017. Retrieved 12 May 2019.
  10. "Platform ambitions: The story of how iSpirt lost its true north | The Ken". the-ken.com. Archived from the original on 6 July 2019.


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