Remarkable potential of indian startups

Remarkable potential of indian startups

The remarkable feature of the contenders for the 2020 edition of ET Startup Awards is the advanced technologies employed by the startups and the concentration in areas of healthcare, robotics, space technologies, education and finance. The Indian startup scene is vigorous and no longer a hotbed of me-too companies racing to get some money from venture capital, and inflate valuations. The 30 companies shortlisted all have sound financial models, are impressive in terms of their founders’ credentials and contain some pioneers, for example, in electric propulsion in space using a technology different from pre-existing ones. And several of them already operate across the globe, showing the amazing reach of digital platforms.

While the use of artificial intelligence to analyse X-ray scans and deployment of augmented reality to teach children impress, and the social impact focus of some farm-related enterprises evoke admiration, there is a distressing feature to the startups. They are concentrated in Bengaluru. Of the 30 in contention, half were from that one town.

Gurugram and Mumbai-Pune account for most of the rest, Delhi has a couple, and Chennai has a lone contender.

Three of the companies in consideration have connections to San Francisco. This shows two things. One, Indian startups are, in the main, still not the products of research at institutions of higher education, because few institutions of higher education carry out significant technological research. The few exceptions do not disprove this proposition. The other is the failure of most cities to encourage and nurture a culture of entrepreneurship.

Kolkata has one of the oldest tradition of excellence in higher education. The anti-entrepreneurial stance of the Marxists who ruled the state for 34 years could be blamed for failure of the human resource developed in West Bengal to spawn enterprises. Ten years after the Marxists, the culture has not improved.

Another story is the hesitation of Indian capital to move into the venture space aggressively. They should, because the startups show exciting potential.