India's leading startup founders met Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, in a closed-door roundtable, to present opportunities and issues aimed at bolstering the country's startup ecosystem.
The interaction, organised by the New Delhi-based industry body, Startup Policy Forum (SPF) on April 24, followed Goyal's recent comments where he questioned whether startups building consumer apps were driving innovation.
Among the key proposals discussed were efforts to bring back skilled global tech talent, boost impact of the government's Fund of Funds, and promote deeptech innovation.
The founders also called for the creation of a pooled capital vehicle led by entrepreneurs, greater emphasis on efficiency and quality over scale, and steps to ease business operations -- including the process of 'flipping' companies back to India from overseas. The additional proposals focused on simplifying mergers and demergers, expanding the startup movement to smaller towns, increasing government support for global expansion, and attracting more investment in the ecosystem. The broader goal is to position India as a leading global innovation hub.
The closed-door roundtable was organised under the aegis of SPF's flagship initiative, Startup Baithak, anchored around charting the next chapter of India's startup growth story.
"As a founder and a member of the Startup Policy Forum, I wanted to bring up one key question: how can we attract and retain world-class talent in India? For any startup or industry to thrive, three things are critical -- talent, talent, and talent," said Ritesh Agarwal, founder and chief executive officer of hospitality technology firm Oyo.
Agarwal raised two key suggestions. First, he asked how India could attract global talent -- such as PhDs, physicists, and data science experts -- to drive innovation. Second, he emphasised the need to make the Indian startup ecosystem more appealing to its own highly skilled professionals by simplifying policies around employee stock ownership plans.
"I am glad to share that the minister addressed both these points, offering insights on how the Startup Policy Forum can collaborate with the government to draft specific policies that can create a more conducive environment for attracting talent," said Agarwal.
Amit Jain, CEO, and co-founder of auto tech solutions firm CarDekho, said Goyal demonstrated a strong grasp of all the issues raised, addressing 20 key points from the discussion and summarising them effectively across diverse industries.
"What I look forward to post this (meeting) is a task force formation for each industry so we can move India forward together," said Jain.
Aloke Bajpai, chairman, managing director, and Group CEO of travel tech firm ixigo said Goyal listened to all the suggestions and shared what he expects from the ecosystem and what the government is looking to do in terms of ease of doing business and the new fund of funds.
Shashank ND, the cofounder, and CEO of healthcare tech firm Practo, said he was struck by Goyal's focus on creating an international expansion playbook for startups. He noted that Goyal emphasized how Indian startups could take their products and services to new markets, and how the government could play a role in making it easier for them to establish and grow globally.
"I must also add that he laid a lot of calm to the needs of startups regarding reverse flipping back to India,' said Shashank. "There is an asymmetry between innovation and regulation. This is one thing we wanted to get solved, which we discussed in the meeting," said Anirudh Sharma, CEO of Digantara, the space tech company. Shruti Aggarwal, co-founder of fintech platform Stashfin, said markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India has been a strong regulator, but she highlighted the need for certain policy changes or clarifications specific to the fintech sector.
Peerzada Abrar/Business Standard
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