IVCA Conclave 2024: Start-ups need to succeed in areas where they have struggled to add value, says DPIIT Secy

The government would like to see start-ups succeed in areas where they have struggled to add value, particularly tech enablement in agriculture, energy transition, and climate tech, said Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh on Tuesday.
 
"Addressing the problems in these sectors can create positive externalities for the economy, and we would love to see unicorns emerge out of those spaces," he said while speaking to Business Today Editor Sourav Majumdar at the IVCA (Indian Venture and Alternate Capital Association) Conclave 2024 in Mumbai.  

IVCA is a not-for-profit industry body promoting the alternate capital industry and fostering an investing ecosystem in India.

Singh also said that start-ups have largely used venture capital from abroad for funding but the government would prefer they start using other avenues, including the offshore sort of financing framework that the Centre has set up in GIFT City."In terms of other elements of ensuring access to public funds through IPOs, liberalisation in that area is also coming. I would say that we'll probably see some good movement there, hopefully right after the elections," he said.  

On the measures taken by the government and DPIIT in promoting the startup ecosystem, the secratery said, "DPIIT has played a minor role in it. Many of you present here and most of all the innovators in our country have played a major role. We tried to encourage this ecosystem and facilitate it through a combination of schemes of funding like fund of funds, seed fund schemes."

Singh said that the department has tried to create an enabling environment in areas like IPR, where it has kept the compliance burden low when it comes to startups applying for patents. "We’ve tried to create a special runway in government procurement for startups. We have also tried to encourage states to sort of compete with each other and build up an enabling environment for startups by creating a state-wise ranking system"

The secretary also spoke about the government's role in the digital ecosystem and said they have invested heavily, almost on an unparalleled scale, both in physical infrastructure – in roads, rails, and bridges – and digital infrastructure, including the payment system and the Digital Stack.

"But there are other elements, which are perhaps sometimes lost sight of. These include the GST network, the GSTN, which is finally converting India into a single national market. We also have similar digital platforms in logistics, called the Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP) and the Logistics Data Bank (LDB), all of which provide access to the private sector and provide them with the opportunity to build good use cases out of that data to improve their efficiency," he said.

"So, the most important and well-known example is UPI; 46% of the world’s real-time digital transactions are now taking place in India which is a huge number. But there are other areas that are going to follow. The other area related to DPIIT is an area of e-commerce, where we are supporting the Open Network for Digital Commerce, which is trying to democratise the e-commerce set-up in the country by creating a non-platform-centric open network where buyer and seller apps can sort of interface with full visibility for the consumer and provide access to SMBs across the country."

Singh said that the data shows that 43 per cent of the startups do have at least one woman on their board of directors, "which shows some involvement and leadership in the startup ecosystem".