News Analysis India

Tag: Startups

  • Startups In India Grew Over 300 Times In 10 Years, Says Union Minister Jitendra Singh |

    New Delhi: From just about 350 startups in 2014, their number in India grew over 300 times in the past ten years after Narendra Modi took over as the Prime Minister, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said on Sunday.

    He said the country today has the 3rd largest startup ecosystem globally and is home to the fastest-growing unicorns. “For the first time in the history of independent India, Modi as PM made a painstaking and conscious effort to educate the youth of this country that employment is not confined only to a government job and he has promoted new avenues of livelihood which may be more lucrative than a government job,” Singh, the Minister of State for Personnel.

    From just about 350 startups in the year 2014, startups in India grew over 300 times in ten years after Narendra Modi took over as the Prime Minister, he said. Singh further said, PM Modi unleashed India’s space research by opening up the hitherto conservative and secluded sector.

    “India has literally reached for the moon and beyond with the twin feats of Chardyaan-3 and Aditya L1 solar mission in the last year alone,” he added. Singh said, the number of space startups has gone up from a single digit to three digits in just about four years since the space sector was opened up to the private sector.

    PM Modi’s out-of-the-box decisions have given a push to different sectors including space, railways, roads, infrastructure and electronics-communication, and which has posted India’s economy from 11th rank to 5th largest economy and is now on the verge of occupying third rank, the Union minister said.

    Singh said, in 2014, when PM Modi took over, India stood as the world’s tenth-largest economy. “In less than ten years, we jumped to 5th position. Hopefully this year it will emerge as the 4th largest economy and during PM Modi’s 3rd term, India will be the world’s 3rd largest economy, marching on to become the no 1 economy by 2047,” he added.

    India of 2024 is ready to take a giant leap, backed by its scientific acumen and technological prowess, Singh said. the 

    Singh said, that youth is the centre of focus of the Modi government through empowerment of the “Amrit-Peedhi”. “The common citizen believes that India can become the world’s leading economy under the leadership of PM Modi because of the outreach he commands across the world and the common people also feel confident under the government headed by Narendra Modi,” he said.

  • Treasury management and startups

    In the current dynamics, role of treasury operations have become a lot more crucial and wasn’t required this much ever.

    Against the backdrop of the challenges and uncertainty of the current business environment, the picture that emerges is of level-headed stewardship of company funds and the preservation of capital. The role of treasury, which primarily focuses on the planning for, and management of, cash needs of a business, includes the internal processes and external banking relationships that facilitate that cash management. The responsibility for these financial processes includes the management of the financial risks a company is exposed to, from counter party risk to market risk.

    Although small companies don’t typically have a formal treasury department, VC-backed firms in particular require effective cash management for rapid paced growth. These functions still occur but are often taken on by accounting & payroll teams. How relevant and crucial is treasury management for these VC funded, high-growth startups?  

    Treasury function and organisation

    Treasury function must focus its efforts to support the business model of the specific company and ensure that Treasury strengthens and protects the ability of that company to move forward. Every company has a different level of requirements, branching out from its business model.

    A very small team with probably one or two members has a very crucial role to play in the rapid expansion at the company. The group’s responsibility includes the :•    Forecasting of cash needs and•    Taking the friction out of payments by managing the banking portal•    Ensuring reasonable yield from deposits.•    The primary goal of the treasury function is risk management and the preservation of capital.

    I remember one of the treasury guys saying this this to me: “As a treasurer, you don’t get promoted for increasing yield, but you do get fired if you lose capital.”

    The advantage of having a more formal treasury function is the ability to assess best practices through the treasury lens, understanding what can be done to strengthen, preserve and protect a company’s capital.

    As a high-growth startup , you’re probably going to have more money in the bank, and investing the money is important. The more access you have to capital, the more ways you have to grow the balance sheet and grow the company.

    Cash Management and Banking Relationships

    As economy becomes challenging, cash management becomes critical. I believe this is especially important at small companies. You need to manage cash flow on a day-to-day basis, moving money around as needed. It’s not just a matter of today’s cash position but also the forecast for cash. Now may be the time to start using tools like real-time payment systems for accounting automation and payroll.

    Chasing Yield

    In terms of maximizing yield on deposits, explore beyond Current Accounts and Bank FDs. There are products available which invest money in government securities and money market funds and are fully liquid. Your funds are available in a day or two max. Focus on getting the maximum yield on your money.

    Liquidity is king and you need to have access to capital when you’re running a business. Preserving capital ranks higher than increasing yield , as said “Return of capital is important than Return on capital “. Bottom line is that Treasury is there to support , not to be an asset manager.

    For a large company, earning an extra few hundred thousand rupees might not be worth the extra work and potential risk, while for a smaller company, that amount could cover the salary of a critical resource or their marketing budget for the whole month.  

    Having a formal treasury team in an organization is a luxury enjoyed by larger companies. Smaller companies must still perform many of the same functions of a treasury department using both internal and external resources who will have other competing responsibilities. Adopting a “treasury lens” can help a company think differently about the processes, risks, and opportunities associated with ensuring that a company’s cash needs are met and that investments fit a company’s overall objectives.  

    This is a marketing article and reflects the views of the author alone.

  • Space tech is limit for private sector, startups

    Express News Service

    BENGALURU: Indian private companies in the space technology sector can look forward to playing an active role in India’s space industry and significantly increase its share in the $440 billion global space sector from its present 2 per cent. This was the message at the International Space Conference, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CI I ) virtually on Monday. Pawan Goenka, recently appointed Chairman-Designate, Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN–SPACe), set a target of achieving 10 percent of the global space market share, and pointed out that India’s private investment in the startup ecosystem in this sector was about $22 million.

    This is less than half a percent of investments made in startups in the space sector globally. More investments are needed, he said. IN–SPACe, an organisation under India’s Department of Space (DoS), is a single-window nodal agency to facilitate and regulate space activities in the country.“While the government sector will continue to push frontiers of science and technology, we should have the private sector move aggressively to pursue the space sector,” he said.

    There are a lot of untapped opportunities for Indian companies to supply outside the country. “That is not happening in a big way as yet. We need to understand why and how we can increase that,” he said. There is an interest in the private sector and tech startups in the space sector over the last three to four years.

    “The only way to work increase their share is to set a target, find a strategy, put action plans together, define responsibilities for stakeholders and monitor progress,” said Goenka, who has planned to meet stakeholders over the next few weeks to get a sense of issues that are holding the sector back, and define a timeline for goals set.

    Netherlands, Oz keen to work on Indian space programme

    The Netherlands and Australia have expressed interest in working with the Indian space ecosystem jointly and collaboratively, he said. Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman K Sivan, who is also DoS Secretary, said, “The department (DoS) sees startups as new-age industry partners and the potential future partners who can contribute to space economy. We will enable them to become competitive with other big global players.” After initiating reforms, DoS received 40 applications — mostly from startups — for utilising ISRO’s facilities and each proposal is being looked into. Sivan stressed on the big scope for foreign companies to tie up with Indian firms.

    “Our space FDI (foreign direct investment) policy is getting revised and this will open big opportunities for foreign space companies to invest in India. This will ensure a sustained engagement between Indian and overseas companies which will benefit both,” he said. ISRO Scientific Secretary R Umamaheshwaran, who is also incharge of IN-SPACe activities, said plans are afoot for the Indian industry to play a larger role in satellite communications (Satcom). DoS is finalising policies on Satcom and remote sensing to help the Indian industry further penetrate the space applications domain.

    The Space Activities Bill is going through various departmental reviews, inter-ministerial consultations before being finally tabled in Parliament, Umamaheshwaran said. The private sector was allowed to enter the domain of building of rockets, satellites and providing launch services last year when the government also constituted IN-SPACe under DoS as a separate vertical. Besides, it acts as a link between ISRO and the private sector.

  • Start-ups to drive Indian economy soon, says Defence Minister at Aero India

    By Express News Service
    BENGALURU: The latest version of the Defence Acquisition Procedure 2020 allows start-ups to participate in Make-in-India forums and reserves projects up to Rs 100 crore for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Friday.

    Speaking at the “Start-up Manthan” organised on the last day of three-day Aero India 2021, the Minister said the Indian economy is soon going to be driven by start-ups and the government is acutely conscious of the fact that as they are the latest entrants in the defence manufacturing sector, they require an extra push.

    The government is taking several steps, including opening up the patents and laboratories of DRDO to private industry, setting up of Young Scientists labs in niche technology areas, programmes like iDEX, Defence India Start-up Challenge (DISC) and iDEX4Fauji, he said, adding that 45 MSMEs that participated in Aero India received orders worth Rs 203 crore.

    Singh said the iDEX initiative is a decisive step towards achieving self-reliance and is one of the most effective and well-executed defence start-up ecosystems in the true spirit of Atmanirbhar Bharat. He said 60 winners out of more than 1,200 start-ups and innovators who participated in the Defence India Start-up Challenge (DISC) have received grants of up to Rs 1.5 crore each to build prototypes. He also asked Ministry of Defence officials to consider increasing the finance available to Innovation for Defence Excellence (IDEX) start-ups.

    Stating that Start-Up India was based on three pillars — simplification and handholding, funding and incentives and incubation and industry-academia partnerships — he added that it has created an ecosystem of over 41,000 start-ups, 4.7 lakh jobs and Rs 4,500 crore of investment in 384 start-ups through Fund of Funds Scheme.

    Over 300 start-ups are currently engaged and iDEX 10 start-ups have developed products worth Rs 100 core that were displayed in Aero India 2021, he said, adding that iDEX4Fauji opens up a new window allowing Indian soldiers and service personnel to be recognized and rewarded as innovators.

    He mentioned the innovations done in the field of robotics in maritime applications by Lt. Deepak Suman Kumar and wall penetrating radar by Major Anoop Mishra as examples. The minister handed over certificates of recognition to innovators under iDEX4Fauji and DISC 4 challenges at the event.

  • Embee Software Launches a Series of Dridh Hai Hum Startups Accelerator Workshops

    The Dridh Hai Hum workshops for startups, powered by Embee Software and Microsoft India, aims to empower startups across key stages of their growth journey, right from those at the ideation stage to startups looking to reach the next level in fulfilling their vision. The company also aims to provide technology, support, visibility, and an interactive community experience to the promising startups and entrepreneurs through the series of workshops.

    “Startups have always been hard. Even when you think you are putting in your best, it may not be enough to pull it off. To this end, these workshops are aimed at sharing a platform for startups fraternity to connect with our experts and share their experiences and learnings about challenges they face in scaling their startups and how to overcome them. It is always a great pleasure to interact and engage with Startups founders & technology leaders, so we at Embee are geared up to empower Startups & SMBs in carving their digital transformation journey and will continue to organize such workshops in upcoming months.” Sudhir Kothari- CEO and Managing Director, Embee Software Pvt Ltd.