Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday suggested building a new platform to “promote new-age businesses” in India. Goyal addressing a CII event said that India needs to build a new “platform with like-minded countries and trusted partners to promote new-age businesses in India,” as they would “change the fortune of India.” Goyal’s speech largely centred around startups, promoting entrepreneurship and focusing on “the funding of potential new businesses, through government support or banking,” he added. The government currently runs a Rs 10,000 crore Fund of Funds for startups, approved in 2016, to back startups. As per the government data, SIDBI, which manages the fund, has committed Rs 3123.20 crore to 47 SEBI registered AIFs as of November 21, 2019, and Rs 2,669.83 crore was invested in 279 startups.
Goyal said that the “real startup entrepreneur with ideas is PM Narendra Modi” for suggesting bidding solar projects along railway tracks that will lower power cost, bring business investment and make Railways eco-friendly. Modi had earlier reportedly suggested use of railway land to set-up solar panels and generating solar power. Goyal further urged India Inc leaders to provide mentorship to young businesses and entrepreneurs “I would appeal to them to allocate quality time for this. It will really encourage the youngsters,” he said. The minister also urged colleges to look at entrepreneurship or other courses around new-age businesses. “We can also look at more vocational training & assessment process to see what is in the young person’s mind.”
Even as India continued to better its Ease of Doing Business ranking, the startup ecosystem is far behind others when it comes to the quality of startups along with the quantity and business environment. As per the global innovation mapping and research company StartupBlink, India slipped from 17th position in 2019 to 23rd this year out of 100 countries and was ranked even behind emerging ecosystems such as Estonia, Lithuania, Brazil, Denmark etc. Nonetheless, Goyal urged “all (to) work together to truly make India the innovation hub. We have a huge startup ecosystem. India just had a rank improvement from 52 to 48 in the Global Innovation Index.”
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