Minister Suresh Prabhu Releases Inc42’s ‘The State of Indian Startup Ecosystem 2018’ Report

Inc42‘s flagship event — The Ecosystem Summit — kicked off in the presence of the who’s who of the startup community with the launch of ‘The State Of Indian Startup Ecosystem 2018’ report by Minister of Commerce and Industry and Civil Aviation Suresh Prabhu.

M&S Partners director Hiro Mashito, Aarin Capital chairman TV Mohandas Pai, and Inc42 co-founders Vaibhav Vardhan and Pooja Sareen were also present at the launch of the flagship report.

‘The State Of Indian Startup Ecosystem 2018’ report is a go-to guide on the ecosystem. It captures the essence of Inc42‘s five years of experience of and expertise in the ecosystem, aimed at enabling strategic decision-making in governance, investments, growth, and other core aspects. It is also an indicator of things to come.

“When Silicon Valley was born, they didn’t say ‘we will first create an ecosystem, and then the startups will come’. It happened at the same time. When somebody had a need for finance, an ecosystem for finance was created. When startups needed a legal assistance, the legal ecosystem was created. The ecosystem is a function that happens because there is a need,” Prabhu said.

“Startups and the ecosystem are like twins who are born at the same time but grow in a different way. India has startups and the ecosystem itself will become like new startups that can get business because of startups, but the ecosystem will also foster new startups. Therefore, it becomes very important to know the state of the ecosystem. If you know the baseline on which we stand today, we can always bring in improvement and the government is willing to support,” he added.

According to the Inc42 ‘The State Of Indian Startup Ecosystem 2018’, India currently has more than 49,000+ startups, 1500+ investors, 250+ incubators, and 26 unicorns. The country is among the three largest startup ecosystems in the world in terms of its size, reach, and impact.

The minister informed that the government has been holding a series of round-tables with regulators from different sectors to enable the startup ecosystem.

“We told them that you cannot regulate new startups with old regulation because old regulation was created with the system to deal with the system which was before. Regulation should be such that it allows new ideas to come to the fore. We have done that, and to the great extent, it has helped,” Prabhu said.

According to the minister, the government is calling top global funds on December 7 this year to Goa for a round-table discussion to discuss investment in Indian startups.

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