On Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi led Indian government announced an INR 1,000 crore Start-up India Seed fund to help boost the start-up ecosystem in the country. Along with the announcements, PM Modi also announced a weekly TV show called ‘Start-up Champions’ that will be telecasted on the public service broadcast channel- Doordarshan (DD Channel).
Well, this initiative is taken by the Indian government to ensure that the boosting start-up ecosystem in India does not fall short of capital. PM Modi mentioned in the announcement that this Indian start-up fund worth INR 1,000 crore is to ensure that Start-ups initiate their operations and grow in the Indian economy.
According to a report by Financial Express, during the announcement, Prime Minister Modi also said that moving forward in their initiative to help grow start-up businesses in the country, the government will also help start-ups to raise debt capital by providing a certain guarantee.
In recent times of the COVID-19 outbreak, the Indian economy has taken a huge hit with start-ups and businesses facing severe losses leading to massive unemployment situations in the country. Following the trend of digitisation in India, digital businesses and start-ups started to gain more and more success with high demand from the market which led to global investors eyeing the Indian market for investments.
In the past year of 2020, several start-ups in different sectors became members of the Unicorn Club which means that their valuation exceeded USD 1 billion. Several global investors showed keen interest in the potential market of India which encouraged start-up businesses to take fresh steps in their businesses.
Having said that, the Startup India’s International Summit Prarambh that took place on Saturday acknowledged the rise of the start-up ecosystem in India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi ensured that the government of India is taking important steps to make sure that India’s start-ups don’t fall short of capital in their growth and success.
Furthermore, PM Modi also announced a 12-week TV Show dedicated to Indian start-ups called ‘Startup Champions’. The programme is a one-hour show that will be telecasted 6 pm Sunday on Doordarshan and 9 pm Saturday on DD News and 10 pm Sunday on DD India.
During the announcement, Prime Minister Modi also said that India is trying to build a successful start-up ecosystem in India that is based on the key moto- of the youth, by the youth and for the youth.
As mentioned in a report by Financial Express, PM Modi further mentioned that India’s aim for the next 5 years will be to enable start-ups to become Unicorns i.e., over USD 1 billion valuation to emerge as global giants.
India has become a potential market for investors and start-ups are on their journey to become global businesses. India aims to lead in future technology segment with these funding initiatives, says a market analyst.