In a letter to the Finance Ministry in October 2018, US India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) said iSPIRT's participation in a RBI meeting on data localisation "may" have constituted a conflict of interest. This is especially so because the RBI had asked iSPIRT to provide technical expertise on compliance with data localisation directive to the companies. The meeting was held just days before the localisation mandate kicked in on October 15. USISPF pointed out that iSPIRT is a private association, is not a stakeholder in the consultation, is not empaneled by the RBI, and isn't an official technical advisor to the government or the RBI. The USISPF's letter to the Finance Minsitry, acquired via an RTI application, was dated October 13, 2018. It addressed issues with the the RBI's data localisation mandate, and it's meeting with payments companies on October 10. USISPF had met with the Finance Ministry on October 5 and subsequently participated in the RBI meeting held on October 10. Indian Software Products Industry Round Table, better known as iSPIRT, is a Bangalore-based private think tank. The USISPF raised some "industry concerns" during the meeting and highlighted challenges around the October 15 deadline: 1. RBI asked iSPIRT to advise companies on localisation mandate, placed "great reliance" on iSPIRT inputs: The RBI placed "great reliance" on technical inputs provided by iSPIRT, which was represented by four officials, while the RBI only allowed two representatives for each payments company. iSPIRT is a private organisation, is not a stakeholder in this consultation…
