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 […]

Almost everything in the tangible world has a location attached. In the future Data Economy, map information is going to be one very important piece of information. The Government of India announced a policy and new guidelines of using Mapping and relaxed the Policymaking it simple enough, aiming at unbundling the economic value across all […]

Wi-Fi Access Network Interface (WANI) that was envisaged by TRAI Consultation papers has become a reality as Government approved it as PM WANI, on 9th December 2020, for exponential proliferation of public Wi-Fi networks. PM WANI will make it possible millions of Wi-Fi hotspots to emerge across the country, giving easy access to internet to […]

The new guidelines on Other Service Provider (OSP) issued by DOT on 5th November is one big step taken by Government of India under leadership of Prime Minister Modi in Ease of Doing business for IT and ITeS sector. You can find the DOT publication here https://dot.gov.in/sites/default/files/2020_11_05%20OSP%20CS.pdf  iSPIRT Organised a Panel discussion in PolicyHacks to […]

Subsequent to announcement of the Software product policy there was an expectation in Software product industry that Government of India will make sweeping reforms to promote this Industry. In this regard we bring to your attention two below regulations that create hurdle in ease of doing business very specifically for Software product trade. SOFTEX forms […]

Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman announced stimulus to help economic revival in wake of COVID-19. Out of these measure a major portion was announced for businesses in MSMEs category. Some of the important measures announced and that may directly benefit MSMEs in Software product eco-system are as given below. Collateral free loan of Rs 3 lakh […]

National Policy on Software Product provides for creating a HS Code under Strategy item 1 for “Promoting Software Products Business Ecosystem” The tax regime will be demarcated for ‘Software Products’ from ‘Software Services’, by providing clearly defined HS Code for the “Software products (intangible goods)” delivered through any medium; physically or online using internet (to […]

Shri Rajiv Kumar Joint Secretary in-charge of National Policy on Software Products (NPSP 2019) and Senior Director Dr. A K Garg met 20 SaaS companies founders and leader in Chennai on 13th March 2019. At meeting it was discussed that NPSP announced by Government of India on 28th February will soon create a National Software Product […]

It is a moment of delight at iSPIRT to see Govt. of India setting its focus on “Software Product”, with the announcement of National Policy on Software Products by government of India on 28th February 2019. The policy framed by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is aimed to sustain India as a global […]

Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) has put up a new set of draft rules for the IT Act, and is inviting feedback. The draft rules mostly relates to governing violations on social media. The Draft is given at: http://meity.gov.in/content/comments-suggestions-invited-draft-%E2%80%9C-information-technology-intermediary-guidelines It contains a link to the new rules: http://meity.gov.in/writereaddata/files/Draft_Intermediary_Amendment_24122018.pdf This PolicyHacks recording was done […]

iSPIRT has been actively engaged in pursuing the favourable policy for the Cloud Telephony sector in Telecom Industry, an amalgamation of the various IT and Communications technologies. National Digital Communication Policy has been announced recently and it is encouraging to see the announcements in the policy on some common issues to do with Startup ecosystem […]

Data protection and privacy have been a topic of hot debates and discussion in recent times in India. It had become extremely important as India is progressing to a be a “Digital economy” to address this issues relating to the use of personal data. iSPIRT has been in forefront of developing Consent Framework and called […]

The government of India had announced a Preferred Market Access (PMA) policy for Cyber Security products through an order notifying the Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India). MeitY shall be the nodal Ministry to monitor and administer this PMA policy. The policy announcement is given at link given here.  Public Procurement (Preference to Make […]

Here are concerns and curiosity about European Union General Data Protection Regime (GDPR) and there is a related issue in India being covered under Data Empowerment and Protection Architecture (DEPA) layer of India Stack being vigorously followed at iSPIRT. iSPIRT organised a Policy Hacks session on these issues with Supratim Chakraborty (Data Privacy and Protection […]

GST regime has brought a new dimension to treatment of Indirect taxation in Exports. Prior to GST era, the export invoice had no Indirect tax mentions. So also, the indirect tax returns had nothing to do with Exports. After GST implementation, to make the GST truly value added and consumption-based tax a concept of Zero-Rate […]

Every year we have two events in financial year end which attracts every one right from Industry, Agriculture to common man of this country. These are annual budget of Govt. of India and preceding the budget the Economic survey. The Chief economic adviser who keeps an eye on the Economy of the country round the […]

iSPIRT has taken up a checklist of issues to be resolved for helping Startups stop relocating themselves abroad and stay in India, popularly called as Stay-In-India Checklist. These were taken up with Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) under Ministry of Commerce, Government of India. DIPP is also the administrative department for Startup India […]

The GST was welcomed by all as a revolutionary measure. We had covered one earlier topic, “How GST will work for software exporters”. There have been many changes in last few weeks before GST was launched in the IGST law. Please note that “GST law” treats Software as “Service”. Hence, there may be a mention […]

‘SaaS’ can drive the future of Indian IT Industry both in International trade as well as domestic front. With changing dynamics in Software sector globally, ‘SaaS’ can help India remain a Software power house. iSPIRT has been following ‘SaaS’ industry growth from this perspective. The realization that there are several policy hurdles for ‘SaaS’ industry […]

GST council has yesterday cleared all the bills required to implement the GST. Finance minister wants to kick-start from July 1 2017. This can be easily achieved is the model laws can be enacted in the current session of parliament. The GST is therefore set become a reality from the second quarter of the current […]

Finance minister had announced during budget 2016 that place of effective management (POEM) will determine if a company is resident in India or not. Accordingly, this was notified in Finance ACT 2016 as under. The details of what will determine the place of business rules was not decided in the Finance Act 2016. The POEM […]

Looking deeper in to the budget 2017. [An immediate official iSPIRT response to the budget was issued as a Press release on 1st FEB 2017. It is placed in media section. You can access it here.] Budget can’t be construed as main stream policy making exercise. Yet, the policy analysts and experts, track it with […]

As part of policy hacks, we covered the issue of Convertible notes being recognized by Ministry of Company affairs (MCA) in our earlier blog here. For benefit of users to start, the convertible note has been explained below. What is a convertible note? Convertible notes are debt instruments that converts in to equity, at a […]

Ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) has released the draft of National Policy of Software Product (NPSP) for public consultation. Click here to see the announcement and how to respond to the consultation process. Click here to see the draft pdf document. This blog aims to explain where the draft NPSP policy statement stands […]

What is ECB? External commercial borrowings(ECB) imply borrowing (debt) from a foreign (non-resident) lender. ECB is an attractive financing route as it generally offers access to finance with low rate of interest available from overseas low interest markets. ECBs have been in use by many corporations, PSUS and especially by MNCs setting up operations in […]

RBI relaxes Foreign Venture Capital Investor (FVCI) norms for Startup investment One more announcement to the stay-in-India check list has come from RBI with respect to registered under SEBI (FVCI) Regulations, 2000. RBI has announced amendments to the Foreign Exchange Management (Transfer or Issue of Security by a Person Resident Outside India) Regulations, 2000, notified […]

A recent article by Andy Mukherjee, predicting the end of India’s IT industry has caused lot of commotion. Though, the ‘end’ is an exaggeration, the warning of the ground slipping is not new. The declining growth is owing to the rapid transformation in technology and Software Industry itself, globally. The first Software policy of 1986, […]

Recently GSTN invited application for becoming GSTN Suvidha Provider (GSP) under GSTN for enabling much awaited Goods and Service Tax. GSTN received total 344 applications. CEO GSTN reported in GSP workshop on 25th October that about 98 of these applicants are qualified for further evaluations according to them. The GSP application process, when started created […]

The payment gateway problem in exporting online from India It is not easy for Indian Software product companies to export products online and receive payments in India.  This is true for both the downloadable Software product or Software as a Service (SaaS). Experts say there is no legal or policy hurdle from RBI. Yet, there is friction. An […]

Recurring Billing  – demystified for SaaS companies Abstract For any SaaS Startup with India market focus, the biggest bottleneck today is recurring billing. It is not available as an open, over the counter service from payment gateways. Most startups have to work around to solve this problem. The workaround may be using an expensive international […]

Tax on Services procured from foreign service providers Startups and SMEs in a digital world use many services from across the world. Skype, Google ADwords and hosting services from foreign hosting providers are some examples. So also are the online services of consultants, designers, content writers and developers etc. There is a service tax required that apply on […]

Ease of doing business – Some new additions in Company Incorporation rules Ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) has announced the Companies (Incorporation) Third Amendment Rules,2016. The set of announcements made will replace or change the the Companies (Incorporation) Rules, 2014. There are about 12 changes announced in the notification published at MCA website here. However, the […]

ESOP another Stay-in-India checklist item gets MCA nod Ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) has recently relaxed sweat equity issuance norms for startups. These new relaxations are for limited to Startups recognized by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).  The announcement will immensely help startups. For startups not recognized under DIPP, there is not change. The new […]

This write-up should be read along with the previous blog – The Value Added Service Providers in Cloud Telephony. These blogs help us to accumulate the progressive development in discourse on policy for this segment of Industry. It is important for our common understanding and help Software product industry innovating in telecom sector in general and […]

Industry discussion on response to Consultation Papers by TRAI on Voice Mail/Audiotex/Unified Messaging Services Licence TRAI floated a consultation paper to review the license of Voice Mail/Audiotex/Unified Messaging Services. The consultation paper throws light along with an in-depth analysis of various issues involved. Many call these companies as Cloud telephony companies. Cloud telephony is a […]

In this session we take up another announcement by ministry of corporate affairs on convertible notes. This is a step forward to solving the problem of receiving funds as loan from foreign investors as convertible notes. Sanjay Khan Nagra talks about the issue in the video embedded below. What is a convertible note? Convertible notes […]

In this session on Domestic venture  debt, we talk about a recent announcement by Government of India, that relaxed the provision on raising debt from domestic non-banking sources of funds. Sanjay Khan speaks on the subject in below embedded video. What is the problem, that this new announcement on domestic venture debt solves? Private companies […]

In this session we take up a long pending issue of “Angel Tax”. It has been given partial reprieve recently, under StartupIndia plan. We also discuss how startups can raise money from Angels, without getting trapped in fair market value rule of finance act 2012. Sanjay Khan speaks on the problem, the latest announcement and […]

There are instances, when Software exporting companies operating outside an export oriented scheme (STP, SEZ, EOU etc.) are advised, that there is no need for them to file SOFTEX forms. The young entrepreneurs in Startups, obviously get confused on this. In some cases, companies stopped getting SOFTEX certification done, after complying in past when they […]