Startups – Dutch Uncles

One Class One Channel to Erase the Lines of Digital Divide

Shalmoli Sarkar — Thu, 10 Feb 2022 08:30:15 +0000

The pandemic has been a fillip to the edtech industry. Edtech platforms getting on in an acquisition conquest, fund flows, and increase in enrollment of online programmes are major indicators of the industry reaping profits and have made education more accessible and quality-oriented. But, has the edtech wave reached the lower socio-economic strata? The glaring statistics can precisely answer the above question. A national sample survey by ICRIER and LIRNEasia, a think tank focusing on digital policy finds that only 20 percent of school children in India had access to remote education during the pandemic, of whom only half participated in live online lessons.
Lack of internet access, gadgets, and unfamiliarity with virtual tools has created the divide of digital education in India. According to a study by Azim Premji Foundation, approximately 60 percent of the school children’s education in India is affected due to no access to online learning. Lack of access to online learning has further led to an increase in dropout of children from school. A report by Unified District Information System for Education finds that around 15 crore children are currently out of the education system. The numbers for school girls dropping out are even more distressing as 10 million girls are on the verge of dropping out as found by the National Right to Education Forum.

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According to a study by Azim Premji Foundation, approximately 60 percent of the school children’s education in India is affected due to no access to online learning.

One Class One Channel: Making education accessible to all

Factors such as poor connectivity, unavailability of gadgets, and lack of digital learning in vernacular have kept students away from formal learning in times of pandemic. In the union budget 2022, the government has taken some concrete measures to provide quality education to students through multiple platforms. The measures include fibre-based internet connection to every village by 2022 and expand the One Class, One Channel’ programme to cover 200 DTH channels and grades 1-12. In addition to this, the government wants to open digital university to provide quality education to students from weaker socio-economic backgrounds to pursue higher studies without incurring huge costs or hardship.

What edtech platforms should relook?

Providing educational content in vernacular languages is a highly untapped market for edtech. The medium of teaching on edtech platforms being English has prevented the edtech players from serving the students of rural India. With the government now taking steps for a robust internet network edtech platforms should develop and provide educational content in vernacular language. Further, with the development of the digital university and channel programmes the edtech players with their vernacular education content can partner with several state governments and India’s largest socially responsible corporations.

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Extramarks and Arsenal: The Edtech Platform’s Plan of Expanding Globally

Shalmoli Sarkar — Wed, 09 Feb 2022 12:35:11 +0000

The edtech progression in India has disrupted the traditional tuition businesses in India with its lectures with alluring images and videos and is now eyeing a new domain of edtech in sports.
To expand user base the edtech companies have taken the conventional route of becoming sponsors for cricket tournaments, printing their logos on the front side of the jersey and prize sponsorers for various school quiz competitions, but Extramarks – by striking a strategic partnership with one of world’s leading football club Arsenal is exploring new ways to expand its offerings and user base globally.
Recently, Extramarks has announced its partnership with Arsenal Football Club to become its exclusive official learning partner in India, South Africa, Indonesia, and the Middle East markets. This new agreement will enable Extramarks to combine football and education to drive awareness of its offerings and attract new-age learners by introducing grassroots-level learning programmes, football workshops, meet and greets with the players, and other exclusive competitions and experiences in partnership with Arsenal to bolster engagement with its flagship schools and learners. This edtech company will also have access to Arsenal’s wide array of digital, social, and logistical assets, including Arsenal imagery, club-certified coaches, and access to the club’s London Colney Training Centre to support learning opportunities at all levels. With this association, Extramarks aims to provide a wholesome learning experience both on-field and in the classrooms. In addition to this, the edtech platform will revamp its brand identity to be a provider of 360-degree learning solutions for in-school and at-home learning.

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Extramarks has announced its partnership with Arsenal Football Club to become its exclusive official learning partner in India, South Africa, Indonesia, and the Middle East markets.

Extramarks and Arsenal: A healthy combination

Restricted to homes for over a year and a half, and studying through gadgets and digital devices is making kids glued to the screens which in turn is making them devoid of co-curricular activities and the joys of playing outside. Sports intervention in academics is necessary for enhancing the overall personality of a child. By introducing grassroots-level learning programmes, football workshops and expert sessions Extramarks will be encouraging students to understand the importance of exercise, nutrition, and healthy lifestyle from professionals and find some good, healthy role models to emulate, and who knows Arsenal’s next budding football talent might be from India.
As the students saw school doors shut for 1.5 yrs the physical education period or sports period has vanished from the syllabus. This is where Extramarks’s sports offerings will differ from other edtech platforms that currently provide digital learning solutions for academics. It will also help the platform scale its business globally as with this association it will be serving in markets where football is a popular sport.

What lies ahead for edtech startups associating with sports clubs?

By launching sports learning programmes in association with sports clubs for students the tech companies are benefited from a huge potential of expansion, become a product differentiator offering co-curricular lessons other than academic, inculcate the importance of healthy lifestyle and making school children understand that sport can be a career option and not just a hobby.

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Impressing Venture Capitalists? Lessons to learn from Bicycle Startup 91

Shalmoli Sarkar — Tue, 08 Feb 2022 08:37:42 +0000

A certain animosity exists in the relationship between venture capitalists and small Indian businesses when the latter begins its hunt for funds. In addition to it, if the business is in the manufacturing space then receiving funds from venture capitalists is a herculean task.

Left with no other funding sources, the small businesses in the manufacturing space rely heavily on bank credit.The VCs generally turn a deaf ear to the funding requests unless the small manufacturing company becomes a ‘product’ company as they are not interested in a simple manufacturing firm.

In an interview, Marc Andreessen founder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz came up with an interesting revelation about the odds of a startup receiving funds from venture capital. According to him, there are approximately 4,000 startups a year that are seeking to raise venture capital funding. Out of the 4000 startups, the venture capitalists (VCs) look for 3000 a year where a majority of them come from inbound interest. From 3000, the consideration breaks down to 200 startups, in the end, they decide to invest in 20 startups each year,the lucky 20 startups.

But, a bicycle startup- 91 a small manufacturing firm has been an exception to this. Being a small manufacturing firm it has succeeded in receiving funds from venture capitalists. This also sets an example to other small businesses and startups in the manufacturing space when they pitch for funding to venture capitalists.

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Out of the 4000 startups, the venture capitalists (VC s) look for 3000 a year where a majority of them come from inbound interest.

What did cycle startup 91 do right to get funded by venture capitalists?

Here are the takeaways from the cycle startup 91 about receiving funds from the venture capitalists:

Differentiated product or technology: Small businesses from the manufacturing space should know that a strong product differentiator is the key to attract venture capitalists. Most brands in the Indian manufacturing space assemble parts or outsource half of its product which tends to take away the sheen of being differentiated. 91 manufactures its bicycles in-house that requires hardcore engineering skills and focuses on making the best components to build a lightweight cycle that offers a comfortable ride to users.In the manufacturing space, if the technology is similar to its competitors then chances to get funds to become thin.
Higher entry barriers: While pitching unique selling points to an investor, what encourages them to invest in a business is the difficulty for new or old competitors to foray into the market and replicate a business’s success. If there are low or no barriers to enter then venture capitalists seem reluctant to invest. The major USPs of cycle startup 91 is its low cost of manufacturing and has a manufacturing unit of its own to build cycles for their brand. They also could display their skills of managing the working capital, which produced an impression of a business with clear objectives and goals right from product manufacturing to branding. Having clear objectives and goals sets apart a business and creates high barriers.

Not easily replicable: Most manufacturing businesses focuses on first building the brand and then distribution and product development but then there is no manufacturing that takes place in-house. This kind of approach can be easily replicable by any other player. Whereas 91, took a reverse approach where it focused on product engineering then manufacturing, building distribution, and then branding. Such a model is difficult to replicate by other businesses. These businesses aim to dominate the market by becoming the big fish in a small pond, this trait encourages more venture capitalists to invest in small businesses.

Lastly, venture capitalists are likely to invest in startups that have a growing market. With gyms and fitness centres closed, cycle sales are expected to witness fillip as people are becoming conscious about improving their fitness levels.

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Taskforce for the Animation and Gaming Sector : How Will it Benefit?

Shalmoli Sarkar — Fri, 04 Feb 2022 14:58:43 +0000

After all these years being largely neglected, the union budget 2022 has surprised the animation, visual effects, gaming, and comic (AVGC) sector with its announcement of setting up a promotion task force to recommend ways to employ youth and build the domestic capacity of the AVGC for serving Indian markets and the global demand. This move is highly lauded by the gaming and the animation fraternity. It might seem that the move came all of a sudden, but this space was largely under the government’s growth radar that led The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) in 2020 to announce that it will establish AVGC Centre of Excellence (CoE) to make gamification and animation industry a major export for the country and a wealth generator. Currently, as per the joint report of the confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the BCG, India has less than 10 percent of the global market share in VFX and animation.

Animation and gaming – a wealth generator

China is the undisputed leader of the gaming world, but we cannot deny the booming Indian market as well. Over the past few years, global game publishers have gone beyond the Chinese market to outsource animation technology from the Indian game development firms to reduce costs and meet the game launch deadlines. The global game projects have been driving the demand for skilled professionals for game development in India, not forgetting the contribution of lockdowns and mobility restrictions.
Besides, low labour cost what makes India an excellent market for outsourcing animation technology is its vast base of English-speaking workforce. Understanding the English language is a prerequisite in the industry to lip-sync the animated media to the audio dialogue. It is a skill that the Indian workforce possesses in abundance. Karnataka, especially Bangalore the startup capital of India has witnessed the entry of many global gaming majors who have tapped into India’s talent pool for offshore production. The Karnataka AVGC Policy 2017-2022 aims to develop Karnataka into a leading global AVGC hub in terms of export revenues, projects, and employment by strengthening the ecosystem.

To talk about the demand in the domestic market, India is showing a high level of appetite in animation and VFX content to power immersive experiences such as augmented reality and virtual reality especially in edtech. Films, web series, and gamers are enthusiastic about creating immersive and engaging visual effects, and realistic animation. The opening theme of Hansal Mehta’s ‘The Scam 1992’ makes it quite evident about the creativity the animation and VFX industry has added. Besides, the availability of low-cost internet access, penetration of mobile devices along the growing popularity of streaming video and playing games is giving impetus to the development of animation and VFX content.

India is a young country with two-thirds of it under the age of 35 which makes the country adequate with millennial consumption and therefore is poised to become the world’s leading market for gaming. A study from BCG says that there are around 300 million people who play games on mobile. According to the BCG-Sequoia India report, 2021the Indian gaming industry is generating $1.5 billion in revenue and is expected to become triple by $5 billion by 2025.

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According to the BCG-Sequoia India report, 2021the Indian gaming industry is generating $1.5 billion in revenue and is expected to become triple by $5 billion by 2025.

Gaming will become mainstream in 2022

Online gaming is soon to become a mainstream form of entertainment, with more gamers birthing from tier-II and III cities. According to a study by Mobile Premier League, small towns have more than 100% to up to 200% growth in online gamers, which talks about its booming market in India. With the task force announcement by the union budget, the gaming ecosystem will open new avenues of employment for gamers, IT, and computer engineers. In addition to this, the online gaming ecosystem will evolve into various business models, Non-fungible token (NFT) virtual avatars, in-game items/rewards, etc, and expect more online gamers to shift from free-to-play to paying-to-play, in-game purchases, and skill gaming. This will drive industry players to develop new games for users based on traditional games and Indian themes and establish a strong presence with a foothold in the domestic and global market.

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Union Budget 2022: How Much has it Favoured the Startups

Shalmoli Sarkar — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 09:37:18 +0000

1st February is a significant day where the eyes of every business owner are glued to the screens, to understand how the union budget favours them. On 1st February 2022, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the nation’s second paperless union budget. As India is on the cusp of technological advancement, this year’s union budget proves this further. Let us understand the startup-friendly new initiatives and policies brought by the union budget 2022 for India’s startup ecosystem.

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According to a KPMG report, the gaming sector in India will become $ 3.9 billion by 2025.

New initiatives and policies introduced by the union budget 2022

Drone Shakti: The union budget has welcomed the usage of drones particularly in agriculture where the drones will play a role in crop assessment, digitisation of land records, spraying of insecticides, and nutrients. The startups will be promoted to facilitate drone-as-a-service through varied applications. In ITIs across India, the required courses for drone skilling will be undertaken. The government recognises geospatial systems and drones as the sunshine sector as they have immense potential to assist sustainable development at scale and modernise the industry and will simultaneously create employment opportunities for youth.

A boost to gaming and animation: A pause on outdoor activities in the pandemic has made individuals especially the GenZ inclination towards gaming. According to a KPMG report, the gaming sector in India will become $ 3.9 billion by 2025. The union budget this year has realised the potential in animation, visual effects, gaming, and comic sector to an open task force to build domestic capacity for serving both national and global markets.

Prioritising mental health: Recognising mental health a priority, the Finance Minister has announced a National Tele Mental Health programme to give better access to quality mental health counselling and care services. This initiative will include a network of 23 tele-mental health centres of excellence, with NIMHANS being the nodal centre and the International Institute of Information Technology-Bangalore (IIITB) providing technical support. The platform will provide counselling and care using standard, evidence-based, culturally appropriate tools and will enhance access to quality, standardised and free 24 X 7 mental health services to people. It will help to connect various mental health care services, the health, and wellness centres under Ayushman Bharat as well as with the e-Sanjeevani system.

The battery swapping policy for EV: Finance Minister has announced to roll out a new EV policy on battery swapping with interoperability standards. With this new battery swapping policy owners of electric vehicles will be able to exchange their drained batteries with charged ones at designated stations easing the use of such vehicles and reducing the time to charge. Due to the space constraints in urban areas for setting up charging stations, a battery swapping policy is introduced that will encourage several businesses and startups in the private sector to come up with innovative business models for ‘ battery or energy as a service. This policy will help in managing the space for the expansion of EV charging infrastructure.

This year the union budget has focused on sunrise sectors and has introduced supportive policies for AI, Geospatial Systems and Drones, Genomics and Pharmaceuticals, etc. which will aid in sustainable development at a larger scale. Also, a tax holiday for a year will be helpful for upcoming startups and will provide a much-needed boost.

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What Does a Young Indian Startup Want from the Union Budget 2022

Shalmoli Sarkar — Wed, 02 Feb 2022 08:50:03 +0000

Home to more than 61400 startups and 14,000 startups recognised alone in 2021 by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), India stands right next to US and China to become the world’s third-largest startup hub. As technology and internet access becomes available to the masses, more businesses and startups are birthing intending to disrupt conventional practices and make our lives simpler. The past two years of the pandemic have laid a rough patch for the homegrown businesses and startups, and to make these businesses afloat the government had announced a slew of measures to support them. The parliamentary standing committee’s announcement of the stimulus package to revive the startup industry fell inadequate as the measures adopted were more of loan offering that proved to be beneficial for the long term and did not contribute to improving the cash flow for immediate relief. The second covid wave has left the startup industry bleeding, therefore, the industry from the current budget is expecting startup-friendly policies, tax relaxations to enable spending on innovation and ease of doing business. Here is a list of expectations that the young Indian startups want from the union budget 2022.

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14,000 startups were recognised in 2021 by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).

Expectation of young entrepreneurs from the union budget 2022

Here are some of them

Alternative MDR or Reintroduce MDR: To democratise digital payment for the masses, the government has abolished MDR which is a fee for fintech and banks for using their platforms for the transaction. But, this is seeming a hard pill to swallow for entrepreneurs, since the abolishment is said to hurt the revenues of homegrown payment service providers. It either expects the union budget to reintroduce MDR or bring an alternative to it.
Easy and fast processes: Startup founders are expecting hassle-free loan disbursements, automation of tax and compliance, paperless approvals, and incentives to adopt digital banking practices.
Alleviate taxes: For startups and businesses in the manufacturing space, many businesses face weekly power shutdowns. With the price of diesel shooting cost of energy consumption is becoming expensive thereby, increasing the cost of manufacturing. The entrepreneurs are expecting the government to relook at the state level and central taxes.
Simplifying GST compliance: Startups want GST compliance to be hassle-free and more simplified which will enable more online sellers and small businesses to leverage the potential of e-commerce and contribute to India’s digital economy.
EV startups want tax reduction: As the government is increasingly emphasising electric vehicles and building green energy solutions. The EV startup founders are optimistic that the government will announce new initiatives to encourage local EV manufacturing, facilitate easy finance, and develop an innovative EV ecosystem. For consumers to smoothly adapt to EV, the startups want the GST of 5 percent applied on EV to be reduced to 2 percent.

The above are the expectations that India’s startup ecosystem is expecting from the union budget 2022. Simplifying the compliances and relaxation of taxes and reducing the tax slab etc, will create a conducive environment for doing business for startups.

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Stepping Stones To Thrive In The New Era Of Innovation And Entrepreneurship

Abhilash Bapanasha — Sun, 22 Aug 2021 05:35:12 +0000

Innovation is the key factor impacting the business world and is increasingly catalysed by the omni-presence of the internet. The concept of entrepreneurship is steadily adapting and changing to meet the demands of the new technological dawn and the economic cycle. It is a lemon and lemonade theory today, which focuses on adapting a new age skillset with entrepreneurial skills for resilience. In order to elucidate the relevance of new age skills in this new era of entrepreneurship, Dr. Nancy Juneja was the speaker for MentorED, our weekly live 45-minute workshop where industry veterans share their knowledge and experience and discuss topics that are apt and relevant to the start-up and small business fraternity.

Dr. Nancy Juneja is an Educationist, highly acclaimed Success Coach and Leadership Mentor with more than fifteen years of experience. Sought out by numerous Educational Institutes, Corporates & Industries, she has been mentoring entrepreneurs, youths, corporate employees, coaching start-ups and providing quality skill education to the individuals and communities. Her initiative, MENTORx School of learning is all focused to inspire youth to lead a purpose driven life.

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Entrepreneurship has always been about versatility. Talking about the challenges, it is seeing the opportunity before anyone else.

In brief, the session had the following takeaways:

Scaling the stages of economic cycle
How to have an entrepreneurial mind
How digital economy has opened worldwide opportunities to succeed
New age skillset for ushering the new era
The entrepreneur mindset

The Entrepreneurial Mindset

Change being the only constant, for an entrepreneur too it is indispensable to evolve with circumstances. Be it economic adversity or one owing to the pandemic, there are new age skills that define the sustenance to thrive in this era of entrepreneurship. According to Dr. Nancy Juneja, “An entrepreneur identifies opportunity in every situation. He is the person with a vision, an audacious tech leader successful in bringing brilliant ideas to the market, an initiator who creates something new every moment and converts it into a business idea and the whole process as we gloriously call as entrepreneurship.” While it is important to survive, but more importantly it is necessary to thrive.

The digital transformation has been happening in a very rapid form for several years now but the COVID era reinstated it as the new norm. It is vital for each entrepreneur to believe in the notion that opportunity lies in the middle of difficulty. Innovation emerges as the norm and needs to be aligned according to the stages of the economic cycle. Thereafter, she listed the stages as – Boom (or the period of expansion with the rate of growth rising at a faster rate), Early Recession or Slowdown, Full Recession, Depression and Recovery.

The mentor touched upon the issues of the Indian economy and focussed on the skill sets that can make any entrepreneur bounce back and move ahead. “Entrepreneurship has always been about versatility. Talking about the challenges, it is seeing the opportunity before anyone else. It is much more in today’s world apart from critical thinking, effective communication, analysing your mindset, your patience and persistence. Being a digital entrepreneur, the empathy and the motive of value creation along with the social responsibility – there is much more which is needed in the long run.”

The indispensable skillsets that define an entrepreneur

From her own experience in being in the entrepreneurship arena for more than eighteen years, she urged on evolving and being a learning person throughout. It is the learning curve that defines the skill set. “It is moving ahead, continuously learning and unlearning to learn which is a powerful reminder given to each and everyone. Be it any number of years you are into the business – you need to be learning, testing, sharing, collaborating and in this mode, you need to think upon something to apply and discard.”

Decision making in the entrepreneurship journey is a paramount skill because a present approach determines the course of action in the future. Again, it is also important to stay calm in crisis and lead the team through the challenges. Dr. Juneja listed four means to achieve it –

Having an outsider approach to a problem
Remembering past obstacles that have been successfully overcome
Focusing on what can be done to get started
Keeping oneself motivated and entertained

Also, as exemplary as it stands, it is vital to prioritise team work by coordinating among different departments.

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The thumb rule is to innovate or evaporate. That is how it goes in today's world. It was the scenario earlier too but now we need to be ready. If option A is not working, we need to be ready with option B and so on and so forth.

Critical thinking – the route to sail through any adversity

The mentor then talked about critical thinking that allows one to develop intellectually and to make hard decisions as per the need of the hour. “Even if you feel that the circumstances are not in favour, you can manipulate the present and you can focus upon the future, it is all binding up your team and encouraging them. Being an entrepreneur is taking everyone along and focusing upon your goal. The thumb rule is to innovate or evaporate. That is how it goes in today’s world. It was the scenario earlier too but now we need to be ready. If option A is not working, we need to be ready with the option B and so on and so forth.”

Added to this is the introspection to ask oneself some questions like – Should I have a more agile supply chain? Can we make manufacturing more competitive in higher cost environments? How can supply chains pivot fast yet still be robust and resilient to the next disruption? Can I shift my supply chain to a new geography without huge cost or risk? Well, for all of these questions, digital transformation comes as the single loudest means to proceed.

An interactive session

During the Q&A session, viewers from YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter took the opportunity to seek advice on various concepts and business challenges. Dr. Juneja addressed questions with her experiential insights. Topics varied from steps to revive business in the pandemic, techniques to make businesses processes more efficient, action points to solve challenges in rural, semi urban areas while pursuing digital avenues and upskilling with the new age entrepreneurial skills. Dr. Juneja’s guidance reflected her firsthand experience of working closely with entrepreneurs and giving a glimpse of her role as Vice President of the National Child and Women Development Council.

Thus, as the mentor elucidated through her informative presentation, the only option for an entrepreneur is to either innovate or evaporate. In a nutshell, it is all about developing the entrepreneurial mindset with a renewed perspective of creating your idea from the current problem and nourishing it gradually.

Watch the complete video on YouTube to know more of all the skillsets shared by the mentor in her presentation.

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Independent India’s Business History

Aakash Sharma — Sun, 15 Aug 2021 05:35:08 +0000

From the reassuring certainty of the five-year plans and liberalisation to the sweeping economic policies such as Make in India, Goods and Service Tax, Digital India and much more, the 75 years of independent India’s history have been marked by events that reveal a young nation in search of an effective development model.

As we celebrate Indian Independence from British colonial rule, let us delve into the history of Independent India’s business ecosystem and financial world and see which events shaped the course of our nation’s economy.

Highlights of business since Independence till date

Starting from 1947, the Central Legislative Assembly, a precursor to the contemporary Indian Parliament, enacted the Industrial Disputes Act to govern organised industrial labour. In 1949, the Reserve Bank of India – RBI- previously a shareholders’ bank, was nationalised and was made the central bank.

The year 1950 marked a genuinely Indian legislative era in which the Parliament made the laws. In 1950, the Planning Commission was constituted as a central planning body, and in 1951, the government presented the First Five-Year Plan. In this decade itself, in 1956, the Industrial Policy Resolution was passed by the Indian Parliament, marking the beginning of the Licence Raj.

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The First Five-Year Plan was based on the Harrod-Domar economic growth model and focused on the primary sector activities like agriculture, mining, fishing, forestry, dairy, etc., dependent on using natural resources.

The 1960s were the real test for the young nation of India. After independence, wars, poverty, illiteracy, and other serious problems were ailing the country. In 1965, the Green Revolution was initiated to combat India’s food crisis, and farmers were given high yielding seeds to produce wheat and essential crops for the masses. Further, in 1968, the Foreign Investment Board was established.

Fast forward two decades, in 1985, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi kicked off significant tax reforms with V.P. Singh as finance minister. In 1986, S&P BSE Sensex, India’s first equity index, was launched. And the following year, India’s first debit card was introduced by Citi Bank, the first ATM installed in Mumbai by HSBC.

Before and after liberalisation

The 1990s were a critical time for the Indian economy and the nation as a whole. As the closed economy showed signs of decadence, brokers and License Raj monopolies plagued the system. In 1991, the balance of payments crisis hit India. The critical situation meant that the Indian foreign exchange reserves could have marginally afforded three weeks’ worth of imports.

The pressure, in turn, paved the path for the liberalisation of the Indian economy. Thus, in 1991, Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and then Finance Minister Dr Manmohan Singh-led budget ushered in the era of liberalisation. This structural reform opened the Indian economy to participation from foreign entities in its industries, including state-owned enterprises.

In the new millennium, India also participated in the global tech boom. Many Indian companies like Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Wipro, among others, reaped the benefits of the tech boom. And start-ups like Shaadi.com, Make My Trip and others were born from the ‘dot.com‘ era.

In recent years, economic policies by PM Modi and his government are being made with the focus on making India a manufacturing hub of the world and campaigns like Make in India, Digital India, Start-up India, etc., are the key contributors towards that goal.

Start-up and India before Independence and now

India has always been an entrepreneurial country. Barely 300 years ago, India had a 25 per cent share of the global GDP. Colonisation kept the country away from the Industrial Revolution, reducing that share to 2 percent of global GDP in 1947.

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The Swadeshi Movement and the revival of domestic products and production processes helped restore the indigenous Indian Start-up ecosystem.

Modern entrepreneurs are trying to understand today’s youth’s everyday problems and solve them in the best possible way. Massive funding, consolidation activities, and a growing domestic market have altered the start-up culture in the last decade.

SMEs and India

The Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) segment has emerged as a crucial sector of the Indian economy, contributing significantly to exports, innovation, employment generation, and inclusive growth. SMEs are the backbone of the socio-economic development of India.

The joy of being an independent country and the benefits of being a republic

Freedom does incredible wonders, and it is rightly applicable to the Indian small business and start-up ecosystem. The economic liberalisation, technological advances, more accessible resources, knowledge pool, massive funding, emerging global standards, thriving domestic markets, and reduced communication gap over the years have boosted the Indian economy on the shoulders of small businesses.

This has been possible because of the liberty of decision making that let the Indian governments and stakeholders keep the Indian interest at the centre. Independence and freedom have allowed India to undergo a metamorphosis to re-make a nation after hundreds of years of oppression.

India’s start-up and small business bringing the Indian economy to the world map

The conducive economic environment that took decades to make has promoted entrepreneurs to take up new ventures and turn them into reality. Start-ups are heading the country’s economic growth even when the overall situation seems grim, and the pandemic is making matters worse.

SMEs and start-ups are employing youth and talent that otherwise goes wasted in an economic downturn like India currently faces. Indeed, the employment opportunities and emphasis on regional development encouraged by entrepreneurship have put the Indian economy on the world map – it has been possible due to small businesses and start-up’s initiations.

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What Does It Take To Create An Investor Ready Pitch Deck?

Abhilash Bapanasha — Thu, 05 Aug 2021 12:51:27 +0000

A pitch deck is a presentation that helps potential investors learn more about your business. These slides of several presentations help you to tell a compelling story. What the company’s overview is, its vision and mission, team, problem, solution, market opportunity, product, customers, marketing and sales strategy. Our Innerview with Mr. Dilnawaz Khan highlighted his entrepreneurial journey, and during his learning and evolution how he mastered Pitch Decks. Innerview is our weekly live 45-minute motivational and inspirational talk show which features interviews of industry experts who bring forth informative and life experiences and techniques to help shape and gear you up, to succeed.

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You have to think of breaking out the problem into smaller parts and that is an art. The problem is - a lot of first-time entrepreneurs get discouraged when we tell them this - you do not go and solve what will happen on the thousandth day, you start from day zero and slowly build on top of it.

Mr. Dilnawaz Khan is the founder at Codesign Labs and Power Deck. With over 12 years of professional experience across the design, technology, and start-up incubation industry, he is also a Subject Matter Expert on Pitch Decks, Start-up Fundraising and Lean Start-ups. He acts as an Advisor at various academic institutions where he supports them with the creation of an entrepreneurial ecosystem focussing on student entrepreneurship and innovation.

In brief, the session had the following takeaways:

Dos and don’ts for an investor pitch deck
How to create and irresistible and compelling pitch deck for investors
Structuring of an investment pitch, its importance
What to cover and what to ignore
Importance of the start-up pitch deck or slide deck

Here are some excerpts from the interview:

According to you, what should weigh more – the problem or the solution when we create that pitch?

Identifying a great problem is an art, creating a greater solution on top of it is a bigger art. Eventually the goal is to create a business. So, everything is of equal importance. May be five things I can say that an entrepreneur needs to look at – looking at a great problem, creating a world class solution, creating a desirable solution for a feasible or viable business, and last but not the least there has to be some sort of a long term vision to enable all of these and on top of it a great team to execute all of these. So, if you have a great idea, a great problem, a great solution but a bad team, you are in a bad state. But you have a mediocre idea and a mediocre solution but it is a rockstar team behind it, you will be definitely going to kill it.

Are there any errors that you have seen that people can be aware of?

I can point out what are the mistakes first time entrepreneurs commit. You have to think of breaking out the problem into smaller parts and that is an art. The problem is – a lot of first-time entrepreneurs get discouraged when we tell them this – you do not go and solve what will happen on the thousandth day, you start from day zero and slowly build on top of it. Again, regarding solving too many problems at a time, I met some interesting startup founders. A lot of them say that I am thinking of making a startup which is Zomato plus Paytm plus Book my Show and I have no competition at all. Of course, when you look at that particular thing, it will have zero competition. But individually if we look at them, there are vertical leaders to compete with. So, do not try and solve everything. Another big problem is that the motivation to do a startup until and unless they jump into the ecosystem is derived from external sources like funding stories, Pitchers, Silicon Valley and so on and so forth. Do not solve a mammoth problem on day one, start from a small problem and build on top of it. Create a better start of your journey when it comes to beginning the startup game.

As we say that the first impression is the lasting impression, would you like to share any thumb rule?

I think one thing that a lot of investors like is authenticity. There are a lot of things you do not have an answer for. Be authentic, just say ‘I don’t know’ and move on. Always make sure that your communication is crisp, clear, to-the-point. Thirdly, which overall again is a very cliche advice but again very very underestimated is to make sure that you leave a great impression. Make sure people see that you are invested, you have put in time, money and energy. And you have prepared well. So, your deck should be very nice, if not designed well, at least aesthetically nice. Your communication should be well. Your pitch should start on time, end on time. You should be very clear as to what you want to talk about. So, practice enough. As per the industry, you have to make at least a hundred pitches to get your first deal. Make sure that you are invested enough. If not, people will again catch hold of you and they will realise that you are faking and nobody likes fakers.

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On an average, an analyst at a VC firm evaluates five thousand decks in a year, so it is very very important for you as an entrepreneur to figure out the right method and the right mechanism and make it customisable.

Audience Asks:

What do you suggest about connecting to investors for pitching? Which will be better – a live presentation or just mailing the slides?

When you are reaching out to investors, there are multiple methods. Incubators and accelerators are the lowest hanging fruits. If you get selected, the incubator will definitely host a demo day where you get access to investors. If you apply to an accelerator programme, similar things will happen. Another method is reaching out to investors via cold mail – which is hunting them on LinkedIn, reaching out to them, looking for their email IDs, writing to them. If you mean going in front of them and presenting, then every time you will not get that opportunity. So, if you are sending cold emails to investors then make them customised as if they are for that person. Do not spam investors, do not create one fits all, people like customisation. When you are reaching out in that sense, I think mailing slides is perfect – that is a very good method but make sure your slides are crisp, five to seven, maximum ten. Everybody has their own mechanism and it is very very important for you to identify what they like. On an average, an analyst at a VC firm evaluates five thousand decks in a year, so it is very very important for you as an entrepreneur to figure out the right method and the right mechanism and make it customisable.

I sent mails to a lot of incubation centres and investors but there is no response for the mail from them. What do you suggest for contacting better?

Out of every hundred mails, you will just get a response from two people. That is the conversion of cold emailing and we have to admit it. If you have not heard for first time, you have to send a second email, then third and fourth. Your chances of conversion will definitely increase. Most of the incubation centres have a proper enquiry form or a programme where you can apply. But let me tell you the flipside of it. In a lot of cases when a lot of people write to somebody, they write with a sense of entitlement that I am entitled to receive a reply and they do not do an introspection. We have to even introspect ourselves and review what we are sending out to them. There is a possibility that the idea might not be good enough for the incubation centre, or your business is not at the right fit for the incubation centre or you are really early in the game to accept you. So, you have to again find a fine balance between both the things – right approach, evaluating yourself and making improvements in the keeping update – this is a cyclic process, it keeps on going and eventually you will reach there.

The Key to Compelling Pitch Deck

In this way, Mr. Dilnawaz Khan, from his own experience of sitting on both sides of the table – pitcher as well as investor, has elucidated the importance of this visual document providing essential information about your business plan, product or services, fundraising needs and key metrics like valuation, target market and financial goals. However, the success of a pitch deck depends on its storytelling, so as to streamline the informative overview of your company to potential investors, such as venture capitalists or angel investors. It remains the key for acquiring funding.

The post What Does It Take To Create An Investor Ready Pitch Deck? appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

West Bengal’s GIS Mapping of 570 MSME clusters, What This Means?

Vaishali Das — Fri, 30 Jul 2021 03:35:12 +0000

West Bengal, India’s sixth largest state in terms of economic size, is emerging as a leading IT and electronics hub. Being the eastern hub of business and finance sector, the state primarily depends upon agriculture and medium-sized industry. Major industries are located in and around the state capital, Kolkata, mineral-rich areas and Haldia port region. The market of the state varies from tea, sugar, jute to chemicals and fertilizers, giving a wide scope of doing business in the sector.

West Bengal – Ease of Doing Business

There are around 10,000 factories registered in the state. The government has also opened a single window system, Silpa Sathi, to provide all facilitations and handholding support to the investors intending to start a business of operating a business in the state.

The West Bengal Government has brought various industry friendly policies to ensure ease of doing business in the state. Another such initiative is the Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping that has been recently announced by the state government.

What is the GIS Mapping Initiative?

As micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are the key sectors of West Bengal’s economy, the state government initiated a GIS mapping of the existing 570 MSME cluster. Over the past 10 years, the MSME sector has evolved into a crucial contributor to the state’s economy. Earlier there were only 30 MSME clusters. With the constant support of government in the form of facility centers, creating storage facilities and providing necessary machinery and infrastructure the number of MSME cluster has gone up to 570.

The initiative is to assess the availability of infrastructure and skill workers in these industrial facilities and help improve ease of doing business in the state.

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With an aim of creating a GIS-enabled database of industrial areas within the state, the government is moving towards smart logistics planning.

Why West Bengal Government Started This Initiative?

The survey will benefit both the government and industry workers. With the help of the detailed data, which will be collected by the survey, the government will be able to identify the infrastructural gap in the existing clusters. A strategy to strengthen the services among these sectors will become easier for the government.

Along with this, the mapping will also provide the exact location of the existing clusters so that the state can have details of infrastructure, availability of land and skill of labourers working in these industrial areas. Results of this survey will also enable the government in their decision making on how and when to provide help to the clusters.

On the other hand, businessmen will have easy access to all the infrastructure and resources which will help them in setting up their businesses. This is another big opportunity for MSMEs to get government’s support for launching and scaling their business and also to get investment opportunities. For industry workers, it is an opportunity to get more valuable jobs.

What All Sectors Will It Cover?

The GIS mapping survey will majorly cover the MSMEs clusters. It will also include the handloom and khadi sectors. Other sectors that will come under this are furniture, incense sticks, jari clusters, etc. Artisans can easily go to these centers and use machineries installed by the state government.

Insights For Business Owners

With an aim of creating a GIS-enabled database of industrial areas within the state, the government is moving towards smart logistics planning. This kind of survey is beneficial for both the government and artisans.

Business owners can access the data from the official website and can plan their future venture smoothly. They can also get the details of the skilled workers and can have ready-made manpower. As it is a part of e-governance initiative, the state is aiming to give clearances to projects digitally. This will ease-up the long procedure of getting official documents for business setup.

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