Who we are

Digital India Foundation (DIF) is a not-for-profit think-tank aiming to foster digital inclusion and adoption, and the use of the Internet and related technologies for the developmental process.

Our Mantra:

Research

Technology Inclusion

Digital Literacy

Innovation Incubation

Our Vision

In India, and in the Indian social and socio-economic process, it aims to further and foster discussions on options and opportunities under the rubric of the entire ecosystem formulated by the Indian government and its Digital India programme (the name is coincidental; there is no direct connection between Digital India Foundation and the government programme). Digital India Foundation ambit of interest extends to but doesn’t stop at discussions and debates within the frameworks of Make in India, Smart Cities, Technology Inclusion, Digital Literacy, Participative Governance, Innovation Incubation, Software Product Procurement, E-Business and Disintermediation of Markets. Arvind Gupta, Samir Saran, and Ashok Malik hope DIF will contribute to the transformation of Indian society, and help the public sphere leverage the force-multiplier capacities of technology.

Our Team

ARVIND GUPTA

Head and Co-Founder

Innovation Evangelist, Technology Entrepreneur, and Policy Advisor.

Arvind Gupta is the Head and Co-Founder of Digital India Foundation, a policy think tank working in areas of Digital Inclusion, Smart Cities, Internet Governance, Data Privacy and Cyber Security, and Electronics Manufacturing. He is an Adjunct Professor at IIT-BHU, teaching “Data and Digital Economy”.

He has over 27 years of industry experience, having worked in diverse sectors in a variety of leadership, policy, and entrepreneurial profiles in India and Silicon Valley, USA. He has considerable experience in Consumer Internet, Digital Media, Payment Systems, Analytics, and Data Economy. He has been on the Global FinTech top list of Influencers and is also a Member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Futures Council on Digital Economy & Society and an OECD Expert Member of Global Value Chains. He has been awarded the Eisenhower Global Fellowship for Innovation for the year 2014.
He has been awarded the Dataquest Pathbreaker of the Year award and the Distinguished Centenary Alumni award from IIT-BHU.
In his last role, he was the CEO of MyGov, an initiative of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, to Empower the Citizens of India with Participative Governance and Digitally communicate Schemes and Policies to all Indians.
He led the Digital, Social Media, and Communication Campaign for PM Narendra Modi, which resulted in PM Modi creating electoral history and achieving its Mission 272+ in the 2014 Elections.
He is a Member of the Founder’s Circle of Spirit, which has worked extensively on the “IndiaStack”. He is one of the thought leaders in implementing DBT throughout India. He is an active member of TiE, NASSCOM, and a Founder Member of iSPiRT. He also co-founded startups such as amplify.ai, ApnaPay, and Ideaswall amongst others. Mr. Gupta is also a frequent speaker at various industry and Global forums. He is visiting faculty at IIT, Management Schools, and Innovation Forums and has published many articles on #DigitalEconomy, Value of Data, #GovTech in leading papers of India, Harvard Business Review, and World Economic Forum.
Mr. Gupta graduated with a degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from IIT-BHU, Varanasi. He has a Master’s in Computer Science and an MBA (Finance & Marketing) from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.

Aakash Guglani

Senior Manager

Aakash Guglani works in the areas of technology policy, regulation of AI, digital transformation, private equity, startup ecosystem and internet-related technologies. He has made policy presentations to senior leadership teams at World Bank, Gates Foundation, Pepsico CXOs, Publicis Groupe, NITI Aayog etc. He has moderated a panel of European experts on navigating trust and risk at the RAID tech conference and spoken about the digital divide at policy conferences of the Asian Network and Asian Development Bank, ISB, ORF and the T20 group of G20. He was one of the emerging leaders at the QUAD conference in Melbourne and contributed to The La Trobe Asia Brief. He is part of India-EU leaders’ exchange programme supported by the European Union. He has presented working papers at Oxford University’s Department of International Development and taught digital economy courses at the University of Delhi’s Hindu College. He has contributed to ThePrint, Valdai Club, and PressTV and co-authored with Arvind Gupta the Indian contribution in the The Palgrave Handbook of Malicious Use of AI and Psychological Security. He is a Young India Fellow and Liberal Studies postgraduate from Ashoka University and Management Studies graduate from University of Delhi.

Shivank Singh Chauhan

Manager

At the Digital India Foundation, Shivank Singh Chauhan is deeply immersed in policy formulation, navigating the intricacies of India’s digital landscape. He offers strategic insights on areas like identity systems and payments and collaborates with global stakeholders to ensure India’s digital policies are both relevant and impactful. His expertise, grounded in a STEM foundation, allows for a harmonious blend of technical knowledge and policy acumen. Beyond this, Shivank co-founded Project Statecraft, a youth-driven think tank dedicated to crafting policies that address global challenges. Similarly, his advisory role with YuWaah (UNICEF Generation Unlimited) is a testament to his commitment to empowering the youth through informed policymaking, ensuring their voices are central in shaping the future.

Tanya Gupta

Senior Policy Associate

Tanya is dedicated to policy analysis in the digital regulatory landscape. With a background in development studies, she takes an interdisciplinary approach to inform and shape policies. Her interests include promoting digital inclusion, navigating state and global regulatory frameworks, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity measures.
She has a strong academic foundation in political science from Miranda House, University of Delhi and has gained practical experience working as a Research Associate to a Member of Legislative Assembly of Madhya Pradesh, which has enriched her understanding of governance and policy implementation.

FELLOWS

Vasudha Thirani

Vasudha was a Senior Policy Advisor with DIF from 2017-2019.

Vasudha Thirani

Vasudha was a Senior Policy Advisor with DIF from 2017-2019. Her key engagements were in the fields of data privacy, combatting fake news and collaborating with the tech start-up community. She was part of the World Economic Forum’s Working Committee for ‘Mitigating Risks in the Innovation Economy’ and has been published by the WEF on the Value of Data. Vasudha currently works with Arisaig Partners, an emerging markets focussed fund, as a Research Analyst. She studied Economics and History at the National University of Singapore and is a Young India Fellow from Ashoka University.

Abhijeet Tipnis

Abhijeet Tipnis is the CEO of ThinQable Ltd; a company focused on helping.

Abhijeet Tipnis

Abhijeet Tipnis is the CEO of ThinQable Ltd; a company focused on helping Governments worldwide provide digital GovTech experience to their citizens and bringing Governments and citizens closer. He has over 20 years of Global experience working in the IT consulting and services industry, supporting technology transformation in the Government and Manufacturing sector. As part of this journey, he has worked with industry-leading Tech transformation organizations like Atos, TCS, and HCL Technologies. Abhijeet has been a big advocate of citizen enablement and believes in creating platforms that will serve as a public good and act as a catalyst in job creation by enabling start-up ecosystems. His engagements in GovTech include providing advisory services in Banking, National ID, Citizen Benefit System, Citizen to Government engagement Platform in emerging markets across the Middle East, Asia Pacific, and LATAM countries. In the manufacturing space, he has had deep involvement in helping the manufacturing industry adopt the industry 4.0 approach and help them create the required ecosystem to support the transformation initiative. Abhijeet has a Master’s in Business Administration from Anglia Ruskin, UK, and a Master’s in Economics from Madurai Kamaraj University, India.

Pranav Obhrai

Pranav Obhrai has been associated with Digital India Foundation since 2016.

Pranav Obhrai

Pranav Obhrai has been associated with Digital India Foundation since 2016. He completed his under-graduation from SRCC, University of Delhi and MBA from Indian School of Business (ISB). He has worked in multiple startups such as Uber, Amplify.ai and Triller besides his consulting experience at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) He is extremely passionate about public policy’s impact on the digital economy. He has a great experience-backed understanding of intersection of startups-policy-governance.

Khushboo Savita

Khushboo is a Women’s Studies post graduate from Tata Institute of Social.

Khushboo Savita

Khushboo is a Women’s Studies post graduate from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad with passion in Social Development and Public Policy.