With innovation and research, India has the right ecosystem for startups

With increasing number of creative and innovative design hubs and research centres being set up, former Department of Investment Policy and Promotion (DIPP) Secretary Ajay Shankar feels that this phenomenon is providing the right ecosystem for startups. "Many creative and innovative design hubs and research centres are being set up in the country. This is creating the right ecosystem for startups and incubation centres," Shankar said at the CII Manufacturing Summit in Mumbai.

This ecosystem is also right for angel investors and venture capitals, he added. DIPP has been mandated to run Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious 'startup mission' to provide the ecosystem focused on manufacturing, by tying up with the 'Make in India' programme. After DIPP was given the mandate for the startup mission, it has held consultations with various stakeholders IITs, IIMs, e-commerce majors such as Flipkart and Snapdeal, as well as incubators and mentors. He further said India does not feature in the global market for conventional labour intensive manufacturing, which is a tragedy.

"Around 100 million manufacturing jobs are expected to move out of China due to declining profitability to border countries. So far they have not entered India. But now we have to also build a strategy and create a robust ecosystem so as to capture at least 50 per cent of these jobs. We are well on track to achieve our target of generating 100 million jobs by 2022", Shankar said. He, however, emphasised that to succeed in this mission of creating 100 million jobs, there is a need to succeed in 'Make in India' programme and create value for the country.

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