India is a unique place with myriad mother tongues and a variety of cultures and tradition. The most basic fact about India that is genuinely boosting startups here is that it’s still a developing country, unlike USA, UK, Australia and many more alike. In the already developed western world, things have reached a saturation level as they have conquered almost every possible domains. Contrary to this, in a place like India, people have not yet developed the easiest solution to all the existing problems. So there are opportunities for scores of new, innovative and mind blowing things that can be done.
India is an amazingly young country, a nation full of talent and an urge in the youngsters to do something that could be applied to a billion people someday. Age is NO criteria here! Even the Indian government isn’t just yawning and yearning sheepishly. It’s working equally hard to pat on the back of every Entrepreneur, with its initiatives like Startup India and Digital India Campaign. Since the Modi led government assumed power in 2014, a lot of similar campaigns have been initiated to contribute towards the growth of the Indian Economy by putting the talent of the Nation into some use for nation. One of the initiatives by the Government, the “Make in India” campaign has been outstandingly advantageous for the country where the aspiring engineers of our Nation have been given great powers. And these techies haven’t disappoint the Nation so far!
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One of the most heard about product that it has come up with is a Noida-based smartphone based on Android platform, worth as cheap as ₹251. The idea is to provide every Indian with an Android phone, and thereby, an access to Internet. Now this would mean marginal jump of internet users who can use every application that makes sense to them and add a lot of ease to their day-to-day job. In a nutshell, this ensures that nobody is left behind in making India completely connected. However we cannot call it a successful attempt as soon after its launch it sparked controversies and the project is probably an epic fail!
One of the major advantages that India provides is the huge market it has on offer. With a population of over 1 billion, India will provide with enough customers for a good, innovative product. Additionally, it would be getting skilled techies, magnificient workforce, every possible domain of crowd ranging from people living in slum to the ‘elitest’ class of people living in bungalows. In all probability, this is inevitably expected to be the scenario after an year or so. So it provides for opportunities in all product categories and in all price ranges.
Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi in his historical Independence Day speech galvanised the entire Nation into action. In the wake of his emphatic announcements of Skill India movement and the ‘Make in India’ campaign that has far reaching impact on the Indian ecosystem, several states were studied and their maturity in encouraging startups. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his recent financial budget appeared very promising for young entrepreneurs with ₹10000 crores startup fund distributed in four equal latches of four years among several other things. The emerging development and several other local initiatives are expected to make both ends meet against all odds. Again, not all of the 29 states and 7 Union territories are at an equal level in terms of encouraging entrepreneurship.
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The initiatives taken by the Karnataka government in this regard is really helpful for emerging startups. First of all, it is encouraging entrepreneurship in education through NAIN, short for New Age Incubation Period. And then, it is fostering strong partnerships between the R&D institutions and industries. And the startups that qualify the eligibility conditions in the State would be entitled to receive incentives. The goals of the State are pretty clear.
- The State shall stimulate the growth of 20,000 tech-based startups by the end of 2020 and create eighteen lakhs employments in the sector.
- A sort of Contingent Fund worth ₹2000 crores would be leveraged upon startups through government interventions alone.
- The State has a target to generate at least 25 Innovative Technology solutions with social impact in the sectors like Health care, Food security, Education for all and other such noble stuffs.
The vision is very clear. To create a world class startup ecosystem in the State through strategic investment and policy interventions. Similarly, the government of Kerala has decided to give 1% of the state’s budget(nearly ₹500 crore) to the nascent startups of the state.
Even the government of West Bengal has made a tie up with the premium institute IIM-Calcutta for training officials to go over each district to educate and assist the aspiring entrepreneurs with everything they need to start their venture. Business reality shows like “Egiye Bangla” in collaboration with IIM-Calcutta is providing a great platform for aspiring entrepreneurs and budding startups where panelists listen to the business ideas of participants coming from all across the state, ask pertinent questions, create some relevant dimensions to think upon taking several other constraints and situations. In the end they encourage them by saying “Egiye jaao” (meaning Go Ahead) with a thumbs up!
Pune and Mumbai from Maharashtra, then cities in Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Delhi NCR are taking measures and instituting programs on similar lines to build similar ecosystem in order to suffice the big IT conglomerates and the startup climate there. Places like Mumbai and Delhi NCR are in the lead by huge margin as of now.
Innovation is contagious. The whole Nation is on board now!
There’s a home for opportunities here. If you are aspiring to do a startup, if you have a plan ready, then grab the chance. Start now. Because if you don’t do it, someone else will!
