Sharad Sharma, founder of iSPIRT and a key player in India's digital innovation, dives into the future of India's digital landscape. He discusses the rise of UPI, its transformative effect on transactions, and the necessity for strategic autonomy in tech. Sharma highlights the challenges of maintaining first-mover advantages and critiques reliance on foreign payment systems. He also underscores the importance of collaboration in building effective AI ecosystems and the need for robust regulatory frameworks to secure India’s leadership in global technology.
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insights INSIGHT
Technology Power
Technology power supplements economic and military power.
Nations need strategic autonomy in technology to avoid becoming trade or tech colonies.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Rajini's Intraday Loan
In 2012, iSPIRT envisioned enabling street vendors like Rajini to access intraday loans.
This vision led to the development of India Stack and the democratization of digital transactions.
insights INSIGHT
DPI's Origin
The term "DPI" (Digital Public Infrastructure) originated in a 2022 Indian government press release.
DPI is now a recognized category brand, though often misunderstood as synonymous with open source or government tech.
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In this episode of The Neon Show, we have Sharad Sharma, founder of iSPIRT, the technology think tank behind India Stack, Health Stack, and other digital public goods.
If you want to understand where India’s digital space is headed, how AI can shape its future, and why strategic autonomy is critical, this episode is a must-watch!
0:00 – Introduction 03:12 – India’s aim to prevent digital colonization 05:00 – Democratising digital infrastructure 07:09 – UPI’s 2012 vision: intraday loan for Rajni 12:50 – The origin of ‘DPI’ & misconceptions in India 14:46 – Can India keep its first-mover advantage in DPI? 16:15 – How UPI lost to Brazil’s PIX 17:49 – Introduction to MOSIP & DEPA 19:22 – Did UPI fail to detach from government control? 20:33 – The world evaluates DPI with India’s 5 sutras 22:48 – DPI interoperability & India’s global leadership 25:23 – Managing $2-3 billion funding in India’s DPI ecosystem 27:03 – Why India must stay paranoid: The David vs. Goliath mindset 30:09 – Sam Altman doubted India’s AI, now wants in 33:25 – Facebook opposed net neutrality in India, backed it in the U.S. 36:46 – Regulatory Innovations: Cable TV, mutual funds & OTAs 40:19 – Did GST replace 4 tax filings with 36? 44:05 – Does India have a regulatory framework for digital? 51:06 – Scaling 10-100 with help from educational institutions 53:02 – Breaking away from Visa & Mastercard 55:47 – The ‘Stay in India’ checklist to bring back talent 59:58 – Grading India on DPI globalization 01:00:57 – U.S. antitrust battles & how they shaped big tech 01:08:25 – Building India’s AI ecosystem using its data advantage 01:12:50 – Picking India’s battles in AI: healthcare as an opportunity 01:15:00 – Can India build its own AI assistants? 01:17:56 – Why India must update academia & build industrial labs 01:22:18 – DEPA: Enabling Low-Cost Access to Non-Public Data 01:27:55 – UPI was age & color blind, DEPA won’t be 01:31:06 – How will India approach AI regulation? 01:39:05 – Creating ‘landing spots’ for Indian AI talent 01:41:53 – Five key actions for India’s AI success 01:45:01 – Hiring call for India’s AI & DPI visionaries 01:51:55 – Building Co’s for India’s strategic autonomy ---- Hi, I am your host Siddhartha! I have been an entrepreneur from 2012-2017 building two products AddoDoc and Babygogo. After selling my company to SHEROES, I and my partner Nansi decided to start up again. But we felt unequipped in our skillset in 2018 to build a large company. We had known 0-1 journeys from our startups but lacked the experience of building 1-10 journeys.
Hence was born The Neon Show (Earlier 100x Entrepreneur) to learn from founders and investors, the mindset to scale yourself and your company. This quest still keeps us excited even after 5 years and doing 200+ episodes.
We welcome you to our journey to understand what goes behind building a super successful company. Every episode is done with a very selfish motive, that I and Nansi should come out as a better entrepreneur and professional after absorbing the learnings. ---- Check us out on: Website: https://neon.fund/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theneonshoww/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beneon/ Twitter: https://x.com/TheNeonShoww
Connect with Siddhartha on: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siddharthaahluwalia/ Twitter: https://x.com/siddharthaa7 ---- This video is for informational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the individuals quoted and do not constitute professional advice.
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