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I'm on my trip to London and have been witness to the startup scene here which is quite vibrant. While the city has a significant portion of large businesses and banks, the startup ecosystem is just taking off, with rapid growth the just the last few years. Yes, the startups space in London isn't that advanced but is certainly flourishing.
Some of the first tech startups to be based in the city - Dopplr, Last.fm, Tinker.it, TweetDeck, Berg, Fotango, weartical.com, Songkick and more have now grown up, having raised several rounds of funding. Their success has attracted several more startups. There are apparently over 200 tech startups based in the "Tech City" part of London alone! The growth of new startups emerging from this part of the world is amazing, and is something we can learn from.
Government Intervention
The one thing that has made a big difference is the will of the government to make London as a center of startups and entrepreneurs. UK Trade and Information (UKTI) has done a remarkable job of transforming London over the last few years to make it more friendly for startups and entrepreneurs to set up base here.
Tech City
A key part of the government's initiatives were setting up a "Tech City" in East London. Broadly, Tech City is a cluster of startups and tech companies in close proximity, designed to encourage the free flow of ideas which are so important to a startup ecosystem. In 2011, Google setup shop in Tech City, and now acts as a facilitator of the ecosystem by organizing hackathons, speaker series, training workshops etc... at its companies. More importantly, it provides a working space for new startups!
"Startup Visa"
Familiar Problems
Overall, there's a lot here that India can learn from, especially on how the government and the private sector can actually collaborate to promote entrepreneurship and startups, and actively build an ecosystem, instead of just waiting for it to happen!