Indian startups and investors form Atmanirbhar Digital India Foundation

In order to break the dominance of foreign internet giants like Google and Facebook, a group of Indian startups and investors have joined hands to form a new alliance named Atmanirbhar Digital India Foundation (ADIF). The  said body hopes to also advise the government and sector regulators on legal and policy frameworks needed to further grow the digital economy.

ADIF's formation comes as a follow up of the furore over Google's billing policy in India which demanded a 30 per cent share of in-app purchase amounts. ADIF has been set up as a Trust that will work for Indian companies for a level playing field and its members currently include venture firm.

While Google delayed the implementation of the policy in India, it led to local internet firms joining forces against the BigTech firms. The billing issue reached the government after which the competition regulator CCI opened a probe against the billing policy and its alleged partial treatment of its payments unit Google Pay.

ADIF has been set up as a Trust that will work for Indian companies for a level playing field and its members currently include venture firm India Quotient founding partners of ADIF  are Anand Lunia, Murugavel Janakiraman of Matrimony, Ritesh Mallik, founder of Innov8 Coworking, Sairee Chahal of Sheroes among others. Later, founders of large desi internet firms are expected to join the group, it is understood.

“The idea is to get the process started. We will focus on Indian startups that are run by Indian founders. For example, a fully foriegn domiciled firm with no real Indian involved in decision making won’t be part of this. We are finalising these definitions. Member onboarding will start now and there will be elections to appoint formal positions in the Trust," a member of the ADIF said.