The Indian innovation ecosystem is slowly catching up with that of the US, but more needs to be done, argue Tarun Khanna and K Vijay Raghavan.
Over the past three years, India’s science and technology-focused startup movement has seen steady improvement in quality and in numbers. Today, new Indian companies are becoming pioneers in a range of domains, like computer science, engineering, medicine, drug discovery and agriculture. They are moving smartly beyond their comfort zone of e-commerce ventures.
Policy initiatives that give tax breaks and stimulate intellectual property development are an important impetus for their growth. In addition, the Atal Innovation Mission – the Indian government’s flagship initiative to promote innovation and entrepreneurship – has strengthened the incubators supported by various government science agencies and has also invested in new ones.
There is marked progress on the curation of ideas for entrepreneurs to choose from, mentoring the teams implementing these ideas through early stages, and helping enterprises succeed by navigating the inevitable challenges in a nascent startup ecosystem.
Now one significant lacuna is also getting attention…
