NaMo to meet 200 startup entrepreneurs today

Entrepreneurs on a one-on-one with Modi today

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet more than 200 startup entrepreneurs on Thursday. Matters concerning job creations, income growth and innovation will be discussed in this meeting. This session has been organised by federal policy think tank NITI Aayog.

This interactive session by PM Modi is aimed to forge a partnership between the government and young entrepreneurs from different sectors of the economy to drive growth. This was stated by a NITI Aayog official.

The PM is expected to spend about two-and-a-half hours with the entrepreneurs and chief executives with matters pertaining to digital economy, health and nutrition, travel and tourism, hospitality, financial sector reforms, sustainable growth, education and skill development.

Several entrepreneurs discussed a lot of issues like making the economy less cash dependent. They have been divided into a group of 35-40 members based on the core ideas on which they will work.

Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and chief executive of online payments firm Paytm said that it was encouraging to see new-age entrepreneurs being sought to solve key problems facing the country.

“I am confident that this initiative will result in some concrete solutions, and also prove to be an enabler to thousands of budding start-ups,” said Sharma, who is expected to attend the event.

Aashish Dhawan, founder and chairman of Central Square Foundation; Ananth Narayanan, chief executive of Myntra; Hari Menon, founder and chief executive of Bigbasket; Deepak Garg, chief executive of Rivigo; Naveen Tiwari, chief executive of Inmobi; Alok Bansal, co-founder and chief financial officer of Policy Bazaar; and Ritesh Agarwal, founder and chief executive at OYO Rooms are among those expected to attend the event, according to people with knowledge about the event.

“It’s a fantastic initiative. As an online brand, we would really like to streamline digital payments for consumers so that adoption to digital payment modes is faster and even becomes the economically preferred payment method,” said Ashish Goel, founder and chief executive of Urban Ladder, an online furniture retailer. Goel is expected to attend the event on Thursday.

“The effort is to increase jobs in private sector given the limitation of government to absorb more people. The PM has been trying to increase innovations at the ground level where we have seen a major lacuna for past few years,” said NR Bhanumurthy, professor at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP).

“Demand for credit by startups is not as high as corporate entities, while they are more labour intensive. Nurturing these startups helps in their growth into larger industrial houses,” added Bhanumurthy.

Do you think such interactive sessions by the government would benefit the startup space in the long run?

Do share with us.

Source: Livemint