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Chai pe charcha: Rahul Gandhi meets CEOs of tech start-ups

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Sonal Desai
New Update
Rahul Gandhi

MUMBAI, INDIA: Besides VCs, angel investors and the PM, there’s someone else who is taking a keen interest in the affairs of the tech start-ups.

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On the day Prime Minister Narendra Modi was busy addressing India about his Digital India initiative, CXOs of influential e-commerce firms and start-ups, were hobnobbing with Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi at the latter’s Tuglak Lane residence.

During the meeting, Gandhi appreciated the contribution of these e-commerce and start-up firms, for 1. generating employment and 2. fearlessly facing the might of large industries.

“We had been thinking that he (Gandhi) is only doing Bundelkhand and farmers, but this was a complete extreme,” said Praveen Chakravarty, Angel Investor and Co-founder, Mumbai Angels. Chakravarty, who one of the participants said Gandhi was very engaged and asked excellent questions, and showed a side of himself that was well-versed with the start-up ecosystem, not just in India but also globally.

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Other CXOs present at the meeting represented Snapdeal, Ola, Nswipe, Practo, Micromax, Billdesk and Zipdial.

ToI reported that the CXOs expressed concerns about the wrong perception new-age companies are drawing as disruptors of traditional businesses, and also lamented red tapism they have to face at several levels and overall lack of awareness among policymakers about the sector at large.

With the Monsoon Session of the Parliament scheduled only two weeks from now, Gandhi discussed the challenges and concerns of the e-commerce firms and start-ups, and promised to raise those with the respective policymakers.

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