Need to have “Startups for Sustainability & for ease of life” across entrepreneurial ecosystems in India

• S.K. Singh
  Entrepreneur and Chief Learning Officer of Gramin Samridhi Foundation
  http://graminsamridhi.in

Entrepreneurial ecosystems with high shares of startups that are active in industries which address the growth and employment through innovation are generally misplaced in terms of priorities from the perspective of Sustainability. Startups are meant to create wealth quickly through innovation and product development. In recent survey it has been found India stands 3rd after USA and UK in getting startup funds but the segments preferred in demand for investment are high technology areas, Electric Vehicles and Social media platforms due to their easy and commensurate Return on Investment (RoI). No doubt Social media has proved to be a transformational vehicle for disseminating information but the amount of energy and attention it has drawn is beyond the proportion of its benefits. The actual benefits of startups will not be achieved unless it touches the life of the common people for Sustainability.

On a global scale, the industries in which startups operate and the degree to which they are able to develop are dependent on their perspective to create wealth quickly to a larger extent. The most celebrated entrepreneurship is in Silicon Valley, which is well-known for its high founding rates and many profit-generating startups. Other famous examples include Tel Aviv, Boston, Cambridge and Berlin where high value startups take place both in terms of technologies and creating wealth. None of these startups, however, evaluate the criterion which are favourable to ‘sustainability’ startups, those startups that can contribute innovative solutions to societal and environmental challenges such as those identified by the United Nations. Bangalore which leads the startups ecosystems in India generally follow the footprint of startups of Silicon Valley and Europe. Of late young Indian entrepreneurs are risk averse and they have taken independent path as per their thinking to create value through innovation and product development.

Indian entrepreneurial echo system took long to realize the benefits of startups and desi companies were not eager to take the risk in 90’s in spite of the abundance opportunities and talent in India and as a result we missed the vehicle to take the leadership in startups and still we follow a model which is risk sensitive. The whole world is passing through a transition and war economy will sooner or later will find a back seat due to demand of sustainability of the common persons with 8.0 billion population looking for sustainability. It is high time Indian entrepreneurs venture into the areas of innovation through startups for developing technologies for ease of life and sustainability of nature. The safety and security of huge structure like bridges and tackling natural disaster need to be addressed in our startups ecosystems.

The prolonged and intense heat in the last summer across the globe remind us to address the issue of global warming by innovating products for decentralized production and operation. Every house should depend on the self-supplied energy needs through renewable energy and need of every farmer to be addressed by innovating small products for farming and cold storage by tapping the potential of renewable energy.

Most of the time Investment in High Technology area fuel war economy as these technologies has a direct bearing to military applications in way or the other. In short term it seems lucrative as it adds value to innovate and enhance the critical technologies but it has an inherent shortcomings of neglecting the technological needs for the sustainability for livelihood and sustainability for nature. In some cases, innovation offshoots from military technologies find some applications to be tweaked for ease of life and sustainability but in general they create a perpetual competition for war economy.

Over a period of time advanced countries will find it hard to sell equipment and ammunition to keep the war economy alive as the priorities to address natural and societal calamities and pandemics like Covid will tilt the attention for startups and Indian entrepreneurs stand a good chance to take a lead in these areas. Gathering and managing Data effectively is one of the significant aspects and newly created startups to address sustainability and environmental challenges can take advantage the available data to their benefits. – Suraj Kumar Singh Gramin Samridhi Foundation