What does PM Narendra Modi’s Start-up India, Stand-up India mean for the community?

MUMBAI, INDIA: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mention on Start-up India Stand-up India provided a further boost to the already booming start-up ecosystem in the country.

PM’s Start-up India, Stand-up India—a step in the right direction:

Vikram Ramchand, Founder and Chief Innovation Officer, Makemyreturns.com, opines that the PM’s statement on Start-up India, Stand-up India is a positive step.

Ramchand feels that the PM understands the true potential a start-up can be achieved if it has easier access to funds in order to run operations.

Sandeep Aggarwal Founder & CEO, Droom, believes that if India provides strong support to start-ups and entrepreneurs, the country in next one decade can generate $200 billion in new wealth from digital economy alone and perhaps another $300 billion to $500 billion from all other industries.

"I believe that we need strong infrastructure, policy, tax, capital, perception support and liberal/simple/progressive corporate structures (eg listings on NASDAQ) from government and we can generate tens of millions new jobs and $200bn in new wealth in digital economy alone in next 5 to 10 years in this country, " he remarks.

The history:

And why should the Indian start-ups not demand for more? A glance at the world history firms-up the belief that the community can be a great contributor to a nation’s GDP.

So if one has to start looking at it from the time the industrial revolution started in Europe in 1750s and the rise of the USA post World War 1, it was driven primarily by the strong start-up culture, innovators and entrepreneurs.

The US continued to promote different industries and innovations at a governmental, policy and priority/strategy level, and supported start-ups and entrepreneurs. Take for instance the car industry from 1920 to 1980, silicon industry from 1965 to 2000, software from 1980 to 2000, Internet from 1995 to until now, solar/renewable energy from 2005 on and so on.

India can take a cue from these developments, and the PM’s Start-up India, Stand-up India rhetoric could not have come at a better time.

Some ground action also required:

At home, while the start-up community welcomed the rhetoric, it also mentioned that the government should start concrete action on the ground for the start-ups to flourish.

According to Ankit Jain, CEO & Founder, MyOperator, "The focus on building start-ups from India is unprecedented. This will boost the whole start-up ecosystem like never before. We hope to see some concrete actions on ground."

Aggarwal opines, "Another thing government can do to help is not to kill what is already working in start-up ecosystem and build strong Internet infrastructure. India is an entrepreneurial country vis-à-vis the West but suffers due to lack of infrastructure, a corporate environment and policy."

Agenda Digital India:

The start-ups firmly believe that they can play a pivotal role in PM Modi’s pet project for a Digital India.

Rohit Raghav, Co-Founder, Phone Warrior, laments that Indians face plenty of challenges all the time and people closest to these challenges are not Fortune 500 giants but common yet enterprising Indians. and Ankush Gera, CEO, Junglee Games asserts that whether it is helping producers sell their wares or removing inefficiencies in economy or creating tech winners for the future, Indian start-ups can play a pivotal role in PM's vision for India.

Skills and employment:

Neeraj Jain, co-founder & CEO, Zopper and Harman Singh, CEO & Founder, WizIQ, say, If you think about it, encouraging start-ups is the easiest way to solve many problems of the country like unemployment, economic growth and making people lives better. Everytime a start-up succeeds; it solves a big problem and creates lots of job opportunities. It is encouraging that our PM is supporting entrepreneurship and I totally agree that start-ups will help India stand up.

As Nitin Gupta, CEO and co-Founder, Payu India, puts it, the new announcement will encourage more entrepreneurs to come forward and contribute towards a start-up lead India.

Krishna Lakamsani, CEO, iPay Tech India, adds that if the Central Government should create start-up and entrepreneurship schools as part of national skills development by taking help from available groups like ispirit , TIE, Angel Groups ,incubators and

accelerators, the program would be more successful.

According to these entrepreneurs if the environment is right, Stanford, Harvard and MIT would scout for talent in the country.

You must recall:

With this, his initiative of Make in India will see higher growth trajectory. More importantly, his actions match his intentions as earlier this year during the budget speech; this government had also carved out Rs 1,000 crore funds to support the growth of technology based start-ups in India.

CIOL is also of the view that with government support and world-class infrastructure, start-ups can fuel our GDP from the current 5 percent to double digits.

The fact that the PM is encompassing people from all walks of life in his vision for start-ups and passing the baton to all bank branches to take forward this vision is a major step towards promoting the spirit of entrepreneurship.

What do you think?