How Rajasthan DigiFest X TiE Global Summit Is Rewiring India’s Startup Geography

India’s startup narrative has broken free from the glass towers of its metro cities. As the next wave of innovation unfolded, a significant drift to heartland India became imperative in the last couple of years. 

Rajasthan, a state traditionally known for its heritage and tourism, turned up to lead the shift, rapidly emerging as a hub of digital entrepreneurship. 

With more than 53 Mn internet users, including 26 Mn in rural areas, Rajasthan’s internet penetration has reached 65%, sending out a clear image of how rapidly it has  been digitising the populace. The push for connectivity has brought more than 9,000 gram panchayats online through over 10,000 Wi-Fi hotspots. 

The state’s iStart initiative has successfully fostered a robust startup ecosystem, now supporting over 7,200 startups. This rapid growth has generated significant economic and social benefits, including the creation of more than 42,500 jobs and the facilitation of over INR 1,000 Cr in investments. 

Notably, the programme has achieved broad sectoral reach—spanning fintech, e-commerce, cleantech, edtech, and healthcare—with 2,600+ of these ventures being led by women. This strong momentum is sustained by supportive policies and infrastructure that enable young companies to build and scale.

Jaipur did play the primary hub of this digital transformation, but the impact has started resonating with the entrepreneurial pulse beating aloud from Tier II cities like Jodhpur and Udaipur. Jodhpur, in particular, has seen a surge in tech startups, especially across the IT and ecommerce sectors, marking a pivotal decentralisation of the state’s startup ecosystem. 

This vibrant, bustling ecosystem makes Rajasthan a perfect fertile ground to host the Rajasthan DigiFest X TiE Global Summit 2026, where ideas bloom into reality. 

To get an insight into the making of this summit and gain clarity in understanding Rajasthan’s tech ambition, Inc42 caught up with veteran technocrat Dr Ajay Data, who is the founder-president of TiE Rajasthan and the key organising force behind the summit. 

Dr Data, who has scaled deeptech ventures from a Tier- II city himself, brings a rare perspective on what it takes to build a globally relevant startup from smaller Indian cities. In a candid interaction, he explained the strategy behind curating the summit, the global congregation, the speaker lineup, and the precise targeting of patient capital for TGS100 startups. 

He also shared insights on leveraging the TiE global network for cross-border deals and the ethical imperatives of the AI revolution. He ended the conversation with suggestions for the next generation of Indian founders to shape an inclusive digital future. 

Here are the edited excerpts from the conversation with Dr Data:

Inc42: You are often referred to as the ‘Father of Internet in Rajasthan’ for bringing the first private ISP to the state in 1999. It’s been over two-and-a-half decades. What are your biggest lessons in pioneering a technology market that you carry into your leadership roles at TiE and the Data Group?

Ajay Data: Launching the first private Internet Service Provider (ISP) in Rajasthan in 1999 taught me one fundamental truth – if you wait for the perfect condition, innovation never happens. When we brought internet connectivity to the state, there was no ecosystem and no talent pool. Even owning a personal computer was luxury. There was no playbook, only conviction and persistence.

Three lessons have stayed with me since. First, courage precedes capability. You must take the leap long before the market looks ready. Second, build for people, not trends. Real adoption happens only when technology solves everyday problems. And, third, ecosystems grow when leaders remove friction. My role at TiE and Data Group is shaped by this belief – empower, enable and then ensure that entrepreneurs can rise.

Inc42: As a charter member for over 25 years and the founder-president of TiE Rajasthan, you have seen the evolution of the Indian startup ecosystem. What is the single most important shift in the founder mindset that TiE has helped instil in India over the past two decades?

Ajay Data: The biggest shift TiE has enabled is the move from isolation to collaboration. Earlier, founders were hesitant to share ideas, learnings or failures. TiE helped instill a culture where openness, mentorship and community support are not signs of weakness but pillars of long-term success. TiE also removed friction between stakeholders and brought organisations together to work towards a larger purpose.

This collaborative mindset is the real engine behind India’s startup surge.

Inc42: Moving on to your successful experience in building an over INR 2,000 Cr group from a Tier II city. What have been the biggest challenges and unexploited opportunities for founders launching deeptech or B2B companies outside the major metro hubs?

Ajay Data: The biggest misconception is that innovation only happens in metros. Tier II and Tier III cities actually offer three underused advantages. 

First, high-quality talent with high loyalty. Retention is significantly higher in these cities. Second, lower cost of experimentation. A startup can stretch its runway by 2 to 3 times. And, third, proximity to real industry problems. Manufacturing, logistics, agriculture — these sectors sit outside metros, and they are in need of deeptech solutions.

The primary challenge remains market access. But digital infrastructure, AI tools, government initiatives such as Digital India and Startup India, and national-level platforms like TGS are dramatically shrinking this gap.

 Inc42: How does the ongoing AI revolution, Large Language Models (LLMs), more specifically, interact with your vision of a multilingual and universally accessible internet for the next billion users in India?

Ajay Data: AI, especially LLMs, is finally enabling what we dreamt of two decades back: a barrier-free, language-neutral internet. Of course, Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs) by the government and EAI by Made in India email solutions like Xgenplus have already created the core infrastructure for a truly multilingual digital backbone.

With universal acceptance of domains and email, we unlocked the digital identity. Now, with AI, we can unlock digital participation for every Indian, regardless of script or literacy.

LLMs can translate, explain, summarise and personalise information in any Indian language at scale. This is how India’s next billion users will truly come online.

Inc42: You recently authored a book, ZENITH: Mastering AI for Everyday Life and Work. For the average Indian startup, what is the most immediate and critical challenge posed by AI adoption that they must address ethically to ensure long-term, sustainable growth?

Ajay Data: ZENITH is a handbook for New India, where every person can think bigger, work smarter and achieve more using AI. It teaches you how to rise with technology, not be replaced by it. And when it comes to AI adoption, the biggest challenge is responsible data use.

Every startup wants to use AI, but very few have a framework for data privacy, model transparency, and safeguarding against hallucinations.

Ethical AI is not a luxury – it is a survival requirement. Startups must build trust by ensuring their AI systems are accurate, explainable and bias-free before they scale. 

Inc42: The Rajasthan DigiFest X TiE Global Summit is a massive networking opportunity. Beyond the formal pitching and speaker sessions, what is the vision and mission behind hosting this mega event? 

Ajay Data: The true mission is to build connection, credibility, and confidence for entrepreneurs.

TGS brings founders, investors, policymakers and mentors together in one place, creating an environment where ideas find partners, startups find capital, and leaders exchange wisdom without barriers.

This year’s theme of ‘Technology, Growth, and Sustainability’ reflects our belief that innovation must not only be profitable but also scalable and responsible.

Inc42: TiE operates 63 chapters across 16 nations. How does it specifically serve as the primary mechanism for facilitating inter-chapter learning, resource sharing, and cross-border deals for charter members and entrepreneurs?

Ajay Data: TGS acts as the central intelligence hub of TiE. It enables chapters to share playbooks, mentorship models, sector insights and investor networks.

Participants at TGS gain opportunities for giving back to the ecosystem, gaining access to global deals, listening to thought leaders on a futuristic world, exploring cross-market expansion opportunities, and building long-term relationships with leaders across continents.

No other platform in the TiE network creates this density of meaningful interaction.

Inc42: What is the organising committee’s strategic focus this year regarding the type of capital — be it patient capital, impact funds or specific global VC funds — they are prioritising to attract for the TGS100 startups? 

Ajay Data: We are deliberately curating a balanced mix of patient capital for deeptech and frontier innovation, impact funds for sustainability-led models, global VC funds with strong networks in SaaS, AI, mobility and enterprise tech.

Our goal is simple: to match the right founder with the right fund philosophy so that scaling becomes inevitable.

Inc42: Hosting the 10th TGS is a significant feat for TiE Rajasthan. What is the single most important legacy or strategic capability you hope the Jaipur chapter and the wider Rajasthani startup ecosystem gain from successfully executing a summit of this global scale?

Ajay Data: I want Jaipur to emerge as the permanent gateway between India’s heartland and global innovation. Jaipur can truly become a new startup destination and even AI capital of India.

If TGS gives our founders stronger confidence, better networks and greater access to global investors, then we will be able to build a capability that lasts for decades. 

This summit should demonstrate that Rajasthan is not a spectator in India’s startup story, it is a contributor. 

Inc42: Given your extensive mentoring experience, if you had to distill your philosophy into a single guiding principle for a young founder starting their first technology company today, what would that principle be?

Ajay Data: Build for trust, not for valuation. If users trust your product, customers trust your service, and investors trust your intent, the company will compound naturally. Technology can be copied. Capital can shift. But trust is the only real moat a young founder can build from day one.