In a world where countries are marked by a competitive edge in certain sectors in the export markets, India is often marked by its expertise in the IT outsourcing industry where it is the world leader and has a competitive edge unlike any other country in the world. However, whilst this excellent technical expertise has been well-deployed for the purposes of servicing the technical and software needs of clients overseas in North America and Europe, the needs of Bharat’s own markets have been woefully underserved to the point where the Indian market of over 130 crore and counting, hasn’t even been explored properly, with the needs of the customers having been fulfilled by foreign product companies like Google, Adobe, Twitter etc. It is in this context that the importance of the ISPIRT Foundation is realized.

 

ISPIRT Foundation is a not-for-profit organization engaged in assisting both the public and private sectors in creating essential digital public infrastructure and startups engaged in utilizing them to populate Indian digital markets with products and services tailored to our needs. Established in 2013, it is a volunteer-driven organization which is involved in advisory and supportive roles by lending its expertise to the building of India’s own digital tech stacks designed to solve its problems.

 

 ISPIRT designs its initiatives keeping this goal and objectives in mind, to partner with the Government, startup partners and its own volunteers. It attempts to build a symbiotic relationship with NASSCOM and provides policy recommendations to the effect of ensuring stay-in-India for Indian startups and helping to craft a National Policy for Software Products. It runs two major initiatives apart from advising the government for entrepreneurs – PolicyHacks, and PolicySpeaks.

 

PolicyHacks is a guidance and advisory service to provide research and analysis in evolving public policy in the software industry and simplify existing policies for young entrepreneurs. PolicySpeaks on the other hand, is  a structured program organizing events in various forms such as google hangouts, blogs and Q&A sessions to enlighten the public about various initiatives that are taking place in this sector from eminent speakers on various policy and technical challenges and to learn how to capitalize on these opportunities. 

 

There are many ways to contact and engage with iSPIRT foundation. One of the ways outlined is to be a ‘Voyager’, which would provide access to market catalysts, learning sessions, workshops and roundtable discussions for entrepreneurs and participants that are chosen from a final waitlist. One can also engage as a Fellow, where one will have the opportunity to work as various experienced practitioners and professionals from the technology industry. One can engage as a Maven who are trusted experts who pass knowledge to others in a pay-forward model in small intimate learning sessions that iSPIRT has pioneered.One can also engage as a Saarthi who are impassioned volunteers bringing iSPIRT initiatives to their community. We also have the opportunity to be a donor to the organization. 

 

The iSPIRT Foundation also runs the ProductNation Blog which provides the latest updates from the startup and Digital India sector, exploring the sector from various perspectives along with producing working papers that research the sector in order to document it and promote innovation and creativity in developing solutions for Indian technology markets. It is accessible at this link – https://pn.ispirt.in/ . The iSPIRT Foundation is based out of Koramangala, Bengaluru, Karnataka and can be reached out on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.  There is als a newsletter that can be subscribed to, available on its website – https://ispirt.in/ and people willing to volunteer can do so by filling out the form available on its website.

 

Exciting times are ahead in the technology sector in India and changes in digital policy and startup policies can only mean that the sector is ready for an exponential takeoff. The confluence of Digital India, Make In India, StartUp India and the iSpirit Foundation promises heady days ahead for all of us. 

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