Innovation will keep heads above the water
Ajay Kela, President and CEO, Wadhwani Foundation expresses his views in an Innovation and Startup focused article in Business India, June 2020 issue. Says, Ajay Kela, “The Indian startup ecosystem continues to be the 3rd largest in the world with an estimated base of ~50,000 startups, growing at the rate of 7-8K per year and with a current $55Bn+ cumulative valuation. Till recently global investors have been showing avid interest esp. due to the government initiatives towards ‘ease of doing business’. For instance, the focus on the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) has encouraged asset reconstruction companies like CDPQ from Canada and Encore Capital from the US to invest in India” while pointing at the key trend of entrepreneurship becoming mainstream not only in leading cities but also in Tier-2 towns like Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Kanpur, Chandigarh, Coimbatore, etc (although Bangalore, Delhi-NCR and Mumbai still comprise 55-58 per cent of start-ups).
He goes on to add, “Come to think of it that we have Ola for Uber, Gaana for Spotify, OYO Rooms for Airbnb and Flipkart for Amazon but where are the meta-level startups for the next Google or Facebook or Twitter to come of India? Top-notch technical talent and greater investment in R&D is the need of the hour”.