STARTUPS BACK ON MAHARASHTRA’S AGENDA, ASSURES FADNAVIS!

Startups are more than a passion for Devendra Fadnavis. They mean a commitment for the man behind Maharashtra’s start-up success. With him back in the saddle, the state has finally a government that knows how to move ahead for startup ecosystem and is keen, too. This article captures his remarks in January 2023 and also re-visites his thoughts during the Start up week 2022. Finally, Maharashtra has start-ups back on its agenda.

(India Input team)

“India has unimaginably leap frogged in Startup sector, ranking No 2 and in the next two years, India could be world’s No. 1 and leading start up ecosystem having maximum number of Startups”, predicted Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis at a national conference ‘Amritkaal’ in Nagpur on January 7th, to educate investors.

Shri Fadnavis also sought to define a startup as a wonder where one can grow in no time, unconventionally enough! And so true!

At Startup week in 2022

‘Here’s a challenge I throw at you. Find solutions to help Maharashtra, to tide over challenges. I shall keep supporting you,’ says Devendra Fadnavis, the man behind Maharashtra’s Start up success and a rare politician who personifies the vision behind making Maharashtra the giant state in Startup India. So, when Devendra Fadnavis, as Deputy CM of the state, rose to address on the occasion of the start-up week in 2022, everyone who matters in the entire start-up ecosystem had all ears.

Today, if Maharashtra accounts to one fourth of India’s unicorn success, the visionary policy devised by experts during his tenure as the state’s chief minister gets the credit. Startups are credited for creating more than 7.5 lac jobs across the nation.

As the man, who provided the much necessary futuristic vision and supportive leadership during his tenure as Maharashtra’s CM between 2014 and 2019 – to shape up Maharashtra as the nation’s Start-up capital, Devendra Fadnavis defines a Startup simply as, an innovative solution for the ease of governance and ease of living. And he sums up that, for the start-up ecosystem, even the sky is not the limit.

Here’s a brief catch up of what Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis said last year about the roadmap ahead, in Mumbai on Sunday 16th October, during the occasion of Startup week 2022..

India’s startup capital

Maharashtra is India’s startup capital. We take pride in this fact.
Out of registered eighty thousand start-ups in India, Maharashtra has fifteen thousand startups. Twenty five Unicorns out of first hundred unicorns are from Maharashtra. India witnessed forty two unicorns in the last one year. Eleven, out of these, are from Maharashtra.

Maharashtra’s Startup policy

I must thank Dr Mashelkar ji for authoring the best startup policy for the state of Maharashtra in 2018. It helped us in forming an ecosystem for the startup and that has largely benefited people, especially the youth. If you don’t give preference or special treatment to the startups, they will die. This policy created a dedicated fund to finance the startups and also a very robust incubation policy to nurture and make the startups marketable, scalable and many such startups which were benefited by our policy are now transforming into unicorns.

We organised a Hackathon. We identified a few challenges in the governance in different departments. When we threw challenges before the young minds, they came out with such beautiful solutions that we were also amazed. We want to do that again.

I would advise our chief secretary to identify critical problems in governance and in the reach especially to the rural, hilly or tribal areas. Then throw the challenge again to the young innovative minds to find solutions. Practical and scalable solutions would be employed in the governance.

5G & startups : the way ahead

The Trillion dollar economy would be based on the most important pillar called innovation. Our Prime minister Shri Narendra Modi ji has been driving the entire innovation ecosystem from the front. And the way our young population is responding to this is transforming us. We were late by around two years and we were embracing 3G when the world was ushering in 4G. But, it is only due to our PM Modi Ji’s vision and planning that 5G technology could be rolled out so ahead of schedule and with the world. I am sure, India would be the first to roll out 6G as in India we have already begun preparing for it.

5G has opened an entire new ecosystem and an entire new space for startups. Especially in the social sectors like education and healthcare, we can actually transform the way we are operating.

In Maharashtra, not many MBBS doctors are willing to go to the far flung, remote areas. There are only a few doctors who are charged with social outlook and they go there. The only solution is we carry these areas to the doctor’s through technology.

I throw this to you. Using 5G network create a usable scalable model. Create a universal and easier solution of an insurance model that doesn’t overlap across different departments, reaches the person and we get value for the money.

Our fiber network has reached nearly ninety five per cent of our villages through Bharatnet and Mahanet infrastructure.

The goal of a five trillion dollar economy for India and one trillion dollar economy for Maharashtra can be achieved much earlier than we anticipate.

Agriculture is one sector where we need a lot of innovation. We entered in an MOU with the world economic forum and we started using drone technology in six districts for mapping the entire crop cycle. But we want a solution because due to climate change and changing weather conditions, there is crop damage. Right now we are assessing such crop damage cases by way of human intervention. We are looking for precise assessment of damage through technology. This can be linked to our crop insurance system for precise monitoring, assessment of data and payment to the respective accounts. This would enable not just better governance and ease of living but saving lot of funds that can be utilized for better.

Indiainput.com hopes that under his passionate leadership, Maharashtra will have the best ecosystem for startups in India.

For more on the Government of India’s initiatives and updates on startups, you may click the official website: https://www.startupindia.gov.in/