India-Qatar Startup Bridge Launched To Grow Two Countries Economic & Trade Ties

Vice President of India M Venkaiah Naidu launched the India-Qatar Startup Bridge at the India-Qatar Business Forum on Sunday (June 5). 

The new initiative will connect the startup ecosystems of India and Qatar and help the economies of both countries flourish. 

While addressing the event, Naidu highlighted the strength of India-Qatar ties and asked to build an enabling environment. He also mentioned that more collaborations should be formed for mutual benefit.

During the meeting, Naidu and Qatar’s prime minister Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani also discussed the growing bilateral ties between the two nations in areas such as trade, investment, economic and security cooperation. 

Naidu further talked about India’s commitment to deepen bilateral cooperation in trade, investment, energy, food security, defence, technology, culture, education, health, media and people-to-people contacts.

The three-day India-Qatar Business Forum is organised by FICCI, CII, ASSOCHAM and Qatar Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Various industrialists from India and Qatar also attended the event.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said that the India-Qatar Business Forum will result in new networking opportunities for trade and investment between both sides. It also said that Qatar’s FDI in India is in excess of $450 Mn and there is great potential for increasing these investments. 

The MEA said that the Invest India and Investment Promotion Agency of Qatar have reached an understanding on cooperation to promote two-way investments between both countries, as shared by the ministry.   

The bilateral trade between the two countries crossed $15 Bn in FY 2021-22. In the past two years, Qatar has invested over $2 Bn into several Indian companies, according to the statement.

India’s Startup Ecosystem 

India presently has over 70,000 startups working in diverse sectors of the country, a massive plunge in the count of startups working in 2014 (300-400 startups were recorded in 2014), according to Jitendra Singh, the Union Minister of State and Commerce. 

In May, India got its 100th unicorn – neobank startup Open that raised $50 Mn from IIFL, Temasek, Tiger Global, and 3one4 Capital. 

According to a report, Indian startups raised $70 Bn in aggregate between 2014 to 2020 while, in the first four months of 2022, the startup ecosystem raised $14.3 Bn in funding that was a 2X rise compared to $7.33 Bn raised by Indian startups in Q1 2021.

In the beginning of 2022, the startup ecosystem saw massive growth however, the sector is plummeting downward owing to a market correction, impending recession, and financial crunch. 

Indian startups are also borning the effects of the Russia war, increased federal interest rates and other geopolitical crises.