Backed By Government’s Conducive Policies, Indian Startup Ecosystem To Outpace Others: Ravi Shankar Prasad

The central government’s conducive startup policies have created a favourable investment climate for startups in the country, averred Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, while speaking at the National Stock Exchange of India’s Tech Conclave.

The Minister stated, “India’s startup ecosystem may not be as old as that of some developed economies of the world but as a powerhouse of IT and IT-enabled services we are steadily outpacing all of them. This transformation also provides an opportunity to all our young entrepreneurs, who should look to develop solutions to problems that the common man faces.”

“They should innovate to deliver health solutions to the poor, to provide clean drinking water to the marginalised and to provide education to all – that’s when we will succeed as Team India. At its end, the Government of India is providing a conducive policy environment and a favourable investment climate to ensure the success of the startup movement in India,” he added.

According to a NASSCOM report, India is currently home to over 5,000-5,200 tech startups and in fact, is the third largest startup ecosystem in the world.

As per Inc42 DataLabs, “Since 2014, Indian tech startups have raised over $32.2 Bn across 3,048 deals. Interestingly, out of the total funding, about 42% of the funding was raised in 2017 alone.”

Speaking of how conducive capital market can further help startups Vikram Limaye, MD and CEO, NSE said, “The next wave of startups funding requirements should be channelised through the Indian capital market. As the torchbearers of Indian capital market, NSE is taking the government’s initiative forward, with the NSE Tech Conclave.”

He added, “NSE is committed to supporting innovation by providing a robust fundraising ecosystem. NSE cannot only address startups funding requirements across phases but also allow mature startups to unlock value and scale their businesses.”

According to NSE, this year has been an exceptional year for the primary markets with public offerings of over $11.2 Bn across 37 IPOs on the mainboard platform. Out of which, close to 70% was in the form of exits by private equity investors.

As Inc42 DataLabs suggests, investments per startup have increased manifolds. The VC funding is not evenly balanced but the “top 2% investments dictate the rest 98% of the funding made in 2017.”

To its credit, in the last two-three years, the central government, along with some state governments, have taken a series of initiatives such as establishing Fund of Funds, incubation and innovation centres and angel tax relaxation for both startups as well as angel investors.

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