Vivatech, one of the largest digital and start-up events is a global tech event which saw attendance by European leaders like the President of France ‘Emmanuel Macron’, the Prime Minister of Spain Pedro Sanchez as well as a number of European MPs. Prime Minister Modi delivered the keynote address as the ‘Guest of Honour’ at the fifth edition of Vivatech which occurred between the 16th-19th June 2021. Vivatech is one Europe’s largest digital and start-up events which sees participation from global technology innovators and start-up leaders. Prime Minister Modi delivered the keynote address via video conferencing.
Takeaways for start-ups
The Government has issued open invitations for foreign investors in Indian start-ups that foster talent, cater to a thriving market, belong to a robust ecosystem and are open for new opportunities.
Modi placed India’s tech-talent pool on an international podium and highlighted how Indian tech solutions created by the youth of the country are deployed for critical use cases across the world.
He also put forward the vast digital market in India. He stated that the Indian mobile phone consumer base and the Internet user base currently stands at 1.18 B and 775 M respectively which are numbers greater than the population of several nations. Further, the Prime Minister stated that Data Consumption and Social Media consumption in India is the highest from a global standpoint. He said data usage is the cheapest here than anywhere else in the world. He also went on to invite participants into this market which he called ‘diverse and extensive’.
The Indian start-up community was called upon to address the current global challenges through a collective spirit and a human centric approach. Start-ups were called to take the lead, especially the youngsters within the community. The advantage they enjoyed of not being burdened from their past is set to assist them in bringing about global transformation. Start-ups have been called upon to explore sectors like healthcare, eco-friendly technology like waste recycling, agriculture, and new-age learning tools (ed-tech start-ups can rise to the occasion)
India was presented as an open society and economy to the attendees of the Vivatech summit. It was also presented as a nation committed to the international system. It was stressed during the keynote address that ‘partnerships’ are exceptionally important to India. Digital partnerships especially between Indian start-ups and European nations is a key priority to India. On a final note, new technology was called upon to serve a large purpose and humanity in general, especially through these partnerships.
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The Government has issued open invitations for foreign investors in Indian start-ups that foster talent, cater to a thriving market, belong to a robust ecosystem and are open for new opportunities.
What’s in it for me?
The Prime Minister’s keynote address clearly shows that the Indian Government is aware of the immense contributions of the start-up community in India. The fact that he upheld the growing number of unicorns in India and the role they have played in delivering first response during the pandemic outbreak is reassurance that Indian start-ups have an open field to innovate.
By inviting European nations to invest in Indian technology companies, the Prime Minister has given the green signal for the enterprise tech sector in India. Despite a crushing second wave, the Government is strongly focused on everything done right by the start-up community in extending aid and closing the gap in the shortage of medical infrastructure.