Post a controversial meeting with the RBI, United States India Strategic Partnership, a think tank, publicly called out iSPIRT, a Bangalore-based private think tank, and also wrote to the Finance Ministry citing a conflict of interest. The USISPF had 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 think-tank had also pointed out that Reserve Bank of India (RBI) officials had placed “great reliance” on iSPIRT inputs. Held on October 10, 2018, four days before its payments data localisation mandate kicked in, the RBI meeting with payments companies (that were non-compliant with the localisation directive) focused compliance status with the localisation mandate and on issues faced by payments operators. MediaNama has obtained a copy of the minutes of this meeting through RTI (attached below). From the RBI, deputy governor BP Kanungo and chief general manager P Vasudevan were present. NPCI and iSPIRT were also present, although its unspecified who represented the organisations. Kanungo had said the meeting was called "mainly to understand" if payments operators were "encountering any technological glitches or issues hindering implementation of requirements", and that "iSPIRT would help the entities in addressing such issues, if required". iSPIRT representatives said data localisation was "very much technologically feasible" and could be implemented in multiple ways; the entities "should seize this opportunity and benefit from the first mover advantage by redesigning not just storage but…
