ETSA 2021: India in a formidable place and startups at the forefront of recovery, says Satyan Gajwani

He said that the last two years have been filled with upheaval and uncertainty and as the world goes through enormous upheaval and uncertainty, and high oil prices, India is blessed to have the cushion of over $630 billion of forex reserves.

Gajwani recounted how two years ago, after the pandemic hit India, March 12, 2020, was the day that most of the startups in Bangalore shut their offices. The last two years since then have seen ‘genuine upheaval’ owing to lockdowns and uncertainty.

“Yet through two years of uncertainty, look at where we are today. The Indian digital economy and India as a whole is in an incredibly formidable place,” Gajwani said.

“We’re now the world’s fastest-growing economy. And even as the world goes through enormous upheaval and uncertainty, India is blessed to have over $630 billion of forex reserves insulating us from the geopolitical uncertainty that we see today.”

He said startups have been at the forefront of the recovery from the pandemic. Last year, he said we had 44 unicorns, pushing the total number of these billion-dollar startups to 83 that were worth nearly $300 billion.

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He added that there was a lot of excitement at the grassroots level, too, as evident from the government data. Five years ago there were 733 startups, this data shows, but now this has gone up to 14,000 today.

And many of these are coming out from the smaller towns and cities, indicating how the accessibility of connectivity is fundamentally changing the economy of entrepreneurship.

Not just the number of startups, he also pointed to the new diversity in the startups. “Instead of just consumer companies we’re seeing companies and exciting spaces like artificial intelligence, drone technology, space, technology, clean technology, and much more,” he said adding how the current geopolitical events of the world have also taught us the importance of domestic enterprise.

Gajwani added that more than big valuations, it was the public issuance that grabbed attention. “We hit a new milestone this year, with an unprecedented amount of public issuances, specifically of our startups, they have captured all of our attention.”

He said this will bring transparency and improve governance. “With it comes transparency, comes sunlight on our businesses, and a higher standard that our businesses have to actually meet to become not just high-value companies, but strong, sustainable, healthy companies for our ecosystem,” he said.