India now hosts the third largest startup ecosystem in the world, stated Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Speaking at his keynote at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, PM Modi was quoted by news agency Asian News International as saying, "Today India has become world's 3rd largest startup ecosystem. Even in tier-2 and 3 cities of India startups have come up. Our startups have started investing at global scale. I invite global investors to benefit from our startup ecosystem."
During his keynote, PM Modi revealed compelling statistics to attract more investors towards doing business in India, while also touching upon the importance of India and Saudi Arabia's diplomatic relationship over the years. Among the multiple ventures undertaken by the Indian government at the juncture of technology and industries, PM Modi touched upon the road ahead for the Skill India initiative, stating that India plans to equip and train 400 million individuals with specialised skills, thereby promoting no dearth of skilled talents to attract more industries towards India.
India recently reported a significant climb upward in the World Bank's list of the 'ease of doing business', climbing 23 places to rank 77th in 2019. Over the past two years, India has been reported to have climbed 53 notches in the list. However, it is important to consider that the ranking improvement does not empirically reflect upon a nation's prevailing economy, and is instead based on improvements observed under select metrics across 10 different regulatory areas. It is also independent of industries such as the startup ecosystem, which PM Modi reflected upon during his keynote.
In terms of the Indian startup ecosystem, a recent Nikkei Asian Review report stated a steady rise of investment from Japanese stakeholders in non-Japanese startups, which has seemingly increased by over 2x in the past three years. According to statistics, India has steadily ranked among the top of startup ecosystems receiving fundings, with startups such as Ola and RedDoorz receiving sizeable funding from Japanese venture capital giants SoftBank Group and Rakuten, respectively. This is only one of the areas where the Indian startup ecosystem is attracting investments, as it maintains a positive outlook during a bleak phase of growth in the Indian economy.
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