MeitY Startup Summit 2019
Panel Discussion on Technology Start-ups: Innovation forSocio-Economic growth
Panelists:
Sh. Gopalakrishnan S., Joint Secretary, MeitY
Sh. Saurabh Srivastava, Chairman, TiE (Delhi Chapter)
Sh. Guru Bhat, VP & GM (Technology), PayPal
Sh. Deepinder Goyal, Founder, Zomato
Sh. Vish Sahasranamam, CEO, Forge Accelerator
PanelDiscussion on National Policy on Software Products (NPSP): Software Sector upthe Value Chain
Panelists:
Sh. Rajiv Kumar, Joint Secretary, MeitY
Prof Rajat Moona, Director, IIT-Bhilai
Sh. Vishnu R Dusad, Managing Director, Nucleus Software
Sh. Kunal Upadhyay, CEO, CIIE, IIM Ahmedabad
Sh. Kesavardhanan Jayaraman, Founder & CTO, K7 Computing
Sh. Atul Batra, CTO, Manthan
Sh. Chetan Krisnaswamy, Director, Public Policy, India and South Asia, Google (Session Moderator)
Hon’ble MEIT Interaction with Tech Entrepreneurs
Interaction with:
Ms. Debjani Ghosh, President, NASSCOM
Sh. Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder & CEO, PayTM
Sh. Kunal Bahl, Co-Founder & CEO, Snapdeal
Sh. Sharad Sharma, Co-Founder, iSPIRT
Sh. Arun Jain, Chairman & MD, Intellect Design
Ms. Nivruti Rai, Country Head, Intel
Ms. Shradha Sharma, Founder & CEO, Your Story (Session Moderator)
Panel discussion on Technology Startups: Innovation for Socio-Economic growth
Sh. Gopalkrishnan S (Joint Secretary, MeitY): Talked about the need for ideas to move from the lab to market and suggested that startups need to work on social models especially in tier 2 and tier 3 cities.
Sh. Saurabh Srivastava (Chairman, TiE Delhi): Suggested that we need to make special provisions to include women in the startup ecosystem.
Sh. Deepinder Goyal (Founder, Zomato): Stated that the young entrepreneurs want to solve problems but they do not know the direction to follow. The new-age entrepreneurs have the hunger to solve problems, for which a direction in the form of mentorship is required.
Sh. Guru Bhat (GM, Paypal): Commented on the improved perception of working in a startup and compared it with that of an MNC. He joked that the perception of someone who used to work in a startup 9 years ago, was such that no father would have preferred to allow his daughter to marry with someone working in a startup. Paypal has been working on providing incubation opportunities to the startups and believes positively in other such initiatives to help in startup acceleration.
Sh. Vish Sahasranamam (CEO, Forge Accelerator): Focused on the path of learning and indulging the spirit of entrepreneurship in academic pursuit. Their organization has launched a formal course (Post Graduate Diploma in Management), focused on entrepreneurship. He suggested putting the focus on hardware after the much popular software produce in India. After Make in India, he suggested to put focus on make for India.
Panel discussion on National Policy on Software products (NPSP)
Sh. Rajat Moona (Director, IIT-Bhilai): Stated that students with sharp technological understanding struggle with the business aspect of software building. Proposed that relevant knowledge may be included in the academic curriculum. Suggested that competitions encourage students to work on innovative ideas.
Sh. Vishnu Dusad (MD, Nucleus Software): Appreciated the policy of software products and suggested to roll out updates speedily.
Sh. Kunal Upadhyay (CEO, CIIE – IIM Ahmedabad): Focused on Deep tech and the associated use-cases. India can utilize massive data since the associated demographics is supportive. India needs to create data sets, in healthcare, education as it’s the key to creating innovative solutions. 10,000 startups which Meity envisages to create would be easy to create if the government provided the datasets through which startups can be built.
Sh. Atul Batra (CTO, Manthan): Because there was Stanford, Silicon Valley emerged. Emphasized that India needs to focus on R&D, like every other good economy in the world. Just like the silicon valleys and Berkley’s of the world, there is a need for massive funding by key industry players into academia.
Sh. Rajiv Kumar (Joint Secretary, MeitY): Focused on Startup Acceleration programs and the policy level implementation to push the same.
MEIT interaction with Tech Entrepreneurs
Ms. Debjani Ghosh (President, NASSCOM): Appreciated MeitY for organizing awards for women entrepreneurs. Emphasized the young labor resource of India and compared it with that of Japan and the USA.
Sh. Kunal Bahl (Co-Founder & CEO, Snapdeal): Commented that availability of capital has become easy now and further stated that the digital payment ecosystem has helped his company save the commissions and generate more revenue. The government has given more visibility to startups and entrepreneurs.
Sh. Sharad Sharma (Co-Founder, iSPIRT): Appreciated the national policy on software products (NPSP) but stated his worry about the migration of startups to countries like Singapore and the USA after getting traction. Gave the example of Thailand and Korea and how Korean companies made a name for themselves; motivated the audience to make India nurture businesses to become like Korean companies.
Sh. Arun Jain (Chairman & MD, Intellect Design): Focused on the need to emphasize on patents and IP; and the need to include design thinking in academics.
Ms. Nivruti Rai (Country Head, INTEL): Ideas create value when put to use. Between 2008-16, the US increased its number of International patents by 3%, China increased its IP generation by 700X and India by 100X. Out of all the patents filed by India only 30% were done by women. IP value needs to be highlighted as ideas create value and value, in turn, creates a product. The response time for a patent application in the US is 2 years and is 4.5 years in India. She also stated that technologies like AI and ML will not take the jobs away but rather will create a new set of jobs.