India is now increasingly seen as a destination for innovation and digital transformation mainly due to some of its recently launched initiatives like ‘Startup India’ and ‘Digital India’, American entrepreneurs and venture capitalists from the Mid-West have said.
“India is now being viewed increasingly as a destination for innovation and digital transformation,” said Bala Palamadai, president of TiE Midwest and founder-CEO of Bizofit during a meeting of TiE Midwest Chapter, PTI reported.
The consul general of India in Chicago, Ausaf Sayeed, said the ambitious ‘Startup India’ program launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi aims to fill gaps in the economy for the growth and development of startups and to boost digital entrepreneurship at the grassroots. “’Startup India’ has brought lots of positivity among the entrepreneurs in India and as of now India has the third largest number of startups globally,” he said.
Neeru Arora, chief information officer and chief knowledge officer at Aon Corporation, elaborated the role of her organization in promoting entrepreneurship. India is home to the third largest number of technology driven startups in the world, with the US and the UK occupying the top two positions, according to a report. The study, done by Assocham in association with Thought Arbitrage Research Institute, also revealed that Bengaluru is host to the largest share of technology startups in the country, followed by Delhi NCR and Mumbai, while Hyderabad and Chennai are also quite popular among budding tech entrepreneurs.
“In the technology driven startups, India has moved up to third position with the US occupying the top position with more than 47,000 and the UK with over 4,500.
Among Top Five
“India’s tech startups numbered around 4,200 up to 2015,” the report pointed out. In terms of total number of startups, comprising both tech and non-tech areas, India again figured among the five largest hosts in the world, along with China (10,000 each). The US occupies the top slot with 83,000 startups.
IT hub Bengaluru is host to 26% of domestic tech startups, followed by Delhi NCR (23%) and Mumbai (17%). In the ‘catching up’ category were Hyderabad (8%), Chennai and Pune (6% each).
“The disruptive innovation in technology and process is creating newer Indian startups and foreign investors, including some of the well-known venture capital funds, are showing immense interest in these startups,” Assocham President Sunil Kanoria said.
The awareness that a startup is a vehicle of rapid growth through technological disruption and innovation, has to spread across the economy, the report said. Otherwise, if any small traditional business is treated as a startup, then the ecosystem will never develop properly, it added.
The study recommended that synergizing ‘Startup India’ with ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India’ initiatives has the potential to expand the domestic ecosystem for new entrepreneurs.
