NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant has stated that this year, the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) scheme will look to select 1,000 schools. They will receive a grant of about $31K (INR 20 Lakh) each. The money will be utilised to set up tinkering labs to foster innovation, as per a recent report. The repo…
Tag: Bhavish Aggarwal
Budget has clear focus on Digital India, skilling: Start-ups
Hailing the Budget as progressive, unicorns and startups said the proposals have a clear focus on ‘Digital India’ and skilling. The attention to affordable housing and greater employment in rural areas are the right interventions to build a more equitable society, they said. “Th…
Rural start-up market: What they should learn from grown start-ups
A few weeks ago, the founder of Flipkart suggested the government find ways to curb foreign rivals. Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos, whose firm he aped, met Donald Trump and pitched he was “super excited about the possibilities this could be an innovation administration”. The difference in the public stanc…
How India’s top start-ups are expected to perform in 2017
2016 was a year of rationalisation for Indian startup sector as most big investors spent cautiously unlike in 2014 and 2015 when it saw a new high in terms of irrational investments. In 2016, companies in sectors such as food-tech and hyperlocal logistics who were sustaining operations on externa…
Level playing field for Indian & foreign start-ups: Karnataka IT Minister
Karnataka IT Minister Priyank Kharge said the government provides equal opportunity to all startups, and there is a level playing field for Indian and foreign startups alike. Commenting on the lack of a level playing field for Indian startups, Kharge said, “Nothing is preventing any Indian startu…
Booming Indian start-up industry fails to fill policy void
More than 120 startups have been created by former employees of online shopping portal Flipkart and 36 by ex-employees of its subsidiary Myntra, according to the Tracxn database. The Flipkart economy of 156 startups is a microcosm of the local ecommerce ecosystem that has bloomed in less than 10 …
Free markets are important for every economy: SoftBank MD
Free markets are important for every economy as it allows consumers to have enough choices and the only thing required in a country is to have a level playing field, said Deep Nishar, Managing Director, SoftBank Group. He also added that Indians should not be worried about other people ‘eating ou…
Start-up Inc split over Sachin Bansal, Bhavish Aggarwal’s call for ‘protectionist’ policies
US-based Amazon and Uber kept a conspicuous silence on Thursday after the poster boys of Indian Internet entrepreneurship — Flipkart Chairman Sachin Bansal and Ola Chief Executive Officer Bhavish Aggarwal — joined forces to make a strong pitch for policies that will favour homegrown companies. So…
Indian start-up ecosystem lucky to have Ratan Tata’s support: Ola Founder
Mumbai: Amid the corporate war raging within Tata Sons, which has also highlighted Ratan Tata’s work as angel investor in startups after his earlier retirement in 2012, startup founders have come out in strong support of the Tata scion. Ratan Tata-funded cab aggregator Ola founder Bhavish A…
Ola may raise up to Rs 2k cr from Softbank
Home-grown taxi-aggregator Ola may raise up to USD 250-300 million (Rs 1,700-2,000 crore) from Japan’s Softbank. The company plans to raise around USD 500 million in a fresh funding round led by the bank. According to the report, SoftBank is leading the new round and the first tranche will close …