'Phenomenal time' to be an entrepreneur in India, says Softbank VP Nikesh Arora

Doing business in India is not easy but the growing pace ofinnovation and the government bringing in policies to foster the start-upculture are making it a phenomenal time to be an entrepreneur, SoftbankVice President NikeshArora today said.

Speaking at the TiECon Delhi 2015, the India-born executive said SoftBankitself is optimistic about India and has invested here, despite the challenges.

"It is a phenomenal time to be an entrepreneur because the pace ofinnovation is only increasing, the ability to innovate is becoming more andmore mass market. It's becoming an opportunity for each one of us. There isoptimism and the opportunity in front of us is phenomenal but the question isare you ready? Do you have the risk appetite to be an entrepreneur in thismarket?" Arora said.

He added that environment here is ready much like that in SiliconValley. Silicon Valley in the US is known to be testbed for latesttechnology and is home to thousands of entrepreneurs.

"I too have eternal optimism and that is the reason we have invested inIndia. You have to be an optimist to invest in India. You move two steps aheadand few steps back, that's alright, that's called risk management," hesaid.

Stating that he understood it is difficult doing business in India, the formerGoogle executive said the situation in the country has changed post the newleadership taking over.

"In the last 10-15 years, when have you had a situation where theleadership of the country standing up and saying let's create a start upculture. That hasn't happened in the history of India...(there are) differentsectors, different policy initiatives. I think it's great. Sometimes just thatdirectional hint from the top creates a much better, easier environment for usto operate. I know doing business in India is not that easy, but if you guys(entrepreneurs) can execute it here, you can execute it anywhere," hesaid.

Last year, SoftBank, which has invested in e-commerce firm Snapdeal and Taxiaggregator Ola had announced to invest nearly $10 billion (around Rs 60,000crore) in India over the next few years.