Brands of India: DPIIT's Anil Agrawal lauds YourStory's initiative to enable and grow India's D2C ecosystem

“Yahi samay hai, sahi samay hai (This is the time, the right time). Give wings to your aspirations and do everything you want to achieve your dreams.”

Quoting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s August 15, 2021 speech and lauding YourStory's initiative to power the growth of India's digital-first-consumer brands, Anil Agrawal, Additional Secretary at Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), on Friday unveiled YourStory’s Brands of India property at a special launch event hosted virtually.

Featuring ecosystem stakeholders, prominent leaders, brand builders, D2C startups, investors, corporates, and policymakers, Brands of India aims to discover, build, and enable the growth of India’s D2C ecosystem.

“In the last six to seven years, we have launched initiatives such as Digital India, Startup India, and now we’re in the process of doing more for the startup ecosystem... This initiative by YourStory is absolutely timely and there could not have been a better time for India to launch and promote its own consumer brands,” Anil Agrawal told Shradha Sharma, Founder and CEO, YourStory.

He further stated that with the proliferation of digital infrastructure, Indian brands now have the capability and opportunity to reach places even in the remotest part of the country.

“The internet population in India is expected to reach 900 million. We have a huge population that is born with the internet. They have different attitudes, capabilities, and learn things in different ways. This is a huge enabler,” he said.

Anil Agrawal highlighted that today only 10 percent of the Indian population understands English. So, to cater to the rural population, one needs to cater to them in their own language. With 13 scripts and 22 Indian languages, brands can’t service local consumers only in the English language. 

“The Government is taking initiatives to support digitalisation in local languages. You need three things: Information, education and entertainment -- all these needs to be in their own local language to build your brand for the rural population,” he said, adding that the focus is also on taking homegrown digital-first consumer brands global.

“We have tremendous focus on taking our brands global. We want to see Indian brands capturing the US, Russian, and Southeast Asian markets. But it will require a lot of initiatives on our part to build out such brands with global standards. The launch of the ‘Brands of India’ property is one such attempt and we are happy to see YourStory at the forefront of enabling India’s D2C ecosystem,” he added.

YourStory's Brands of India will power a slew of initiatives to fuel its mission of helping daring entrepreneurs create an additional 500 Brands of India in the next three years and enable existing brands to grow their business to $100 million from $10 million.

YourStory has consistently delivered impact to entrepreneurs, startups, investors, enterprises, and the entire ecosystem over the last 13 years. It is now also placing a much larger focus on scaling its impact with every property it has built as well as the ones it is in the process of building for the near future.

The initiatives under YourStory's Brands of India property include: 

• Brands of India Summit: A flagship summit to bring together brands, leaders, experts and the government to define the future of India's D2C brands
• 500 Challenger Brands of India: Discover, showcase, and amplify high potential emerging D2C brands
• Small Business Survey: Survey of D2C brands and startups to identify challenges and invite recommendations for policy and regulatory changes 
• The Brand Accelerator: 100 handpicked brands that will be supported by YourStory’s network from incubation to scale 
• Digital property focused on 'Brands of India’: Media property showcasing stories of brands, entrepreneurs, customers, and brand builders
• Content=led campaigns: Customised campaigns focused on promoting ecosystem partners and brand builders

Brand Builders and Co-Creators of YourStory's Brands of India property will have the opportunity to:

• Discover 500 D2C emerging brands of India
• Gain access to and visibility of 500 emerging D2C Brands of India
• Amplify stories of the 500 D2C Brands of India
• Participate in the country’s biggest D2C event: Brands of India Summit
• Reports: Feature in quarterly and annual reports and coffee table books
• Introduce policy recommendations based on research and feedback from the industry
• Conduct cohort-based workshops for D2C Brands
• Feature in infomercials and commercials of select D2C brands
• Gain reach, impressions, and visibility to 100 million users

Brands of India is a YourStory initiative to catalyse the growth of India's D2C economy. The initiative will bring together D2C ecosystem stakeholders, including brand builders, D2C startups, investors, corporates, and policymakers, to discover, build, and help daring entrepreneurs create an additional 500 Brands of India in the next three years. To know more about this initiative and the D2C ecosystem, visit brandsofindia.yourstory.com