Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi hosted a roundtable interaction with representatives of Venture Capital and Private Equity Funds at Lok Kalyan Marg today.
It has been the constant endeavour of the Prime Minister to boost the investment climate of the country. Over the past seven years, the government has undertaken multiple key initiatives in this regard. The discussion in the meeting happened on similar lines, while also illustrating how the Prime Minister is interacting personally with industry leaders to gather inputs ahead of the next budget.
Prime Minister sought suggestions towards improving Ease of Doing Business in India, attracting more capital and furthering the reform process in the country. He appreciated the practical suggestions received from the representatives and said the government is committed towards working to resolve the issues and challenges highlighted. He discussed the efforts undertaken by the government to bring in more reforms, future potential of initiatives like PM GatiShakti, and steps taken to reduce the unnecessary compliance burden. He also mentioned the innovation happening in India at the grassroot level and the boost to the startup ecosystem.
The Venture Capital and Private Equity Fund representatives praised the Prime Minister for his leadership which has been a prime driving force behind the massive boost to the investment climate in the country. Praising the initiatives taken to boost the Startup ecosystem in the country, Mr. Siddarth Pai termed the Prime Minister as the ‘Startup Prime Minister’.
The Venture Capital and Private Equity Fund representatives also talked about the entrepreneurial potential of the country, and how it can be leveraged so that our startups can attain global scale. Mr. Prashant Prakash highlighted the opportunities that are present in the Agri startups. Mr. Rajan Anandan suggested working towards making India the global hub in education by leveraging technology. Mr. Shantanu Nalavadi praised the reforms undertaken by the country in the last 7 years especially the step to set up the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). Mr. Amit Dalmia said that India is among the best performing geographies for the Blackstone (funds) globally. Mr. Vipul Roongta praised the policy initiatives that have been taken by the government, in the Housing sector especially in the Affordable housing segment. The representatives also discussed the opportunities that are emerging because of India’s exemplary climate commitments including the ones in the sphere of energy transitions. They also gave inputs about areas like FinTech and Financial Management, Software as a Service (Saas) etc. They also praised the Prime Minister’s vision of making India a 5 trillion economy.
The interaction was attended by Mr. Prashant Prakash from Accel, Mr. Rajan Anandan from Sequoia, Mr. Gopal Srinivasan from TVS Capitals, Ms Renuka Ramnath from Multiples, Mr. Munish Verma from Softbank, Mr. Sandeep Naik from General Atlantic, Mr. Manish Kejriwal from Kedaara Capital, Mr. Ashley Menezes from Chrys, Mr. Srini Sriniwasan from Kotak Alternate Assets, Mr. Shantanu Nalavadi from India Resurgent, Mr. Siddarth Pai from 3one4, Mr. Vineet Rai from Aavishkar, Ms Shweta Jalan from Advent, Mr. Amit Dalmia from Blackstone, Mr. Vipul Roongta from HDFC, Mr. Ankur Gupta from Brookfield, Mr. Mukul Arora from Elevation, Mr. Sehraj Singh from Prosus, Mr. Ranjit Shah from Gaja Capital, Mr. Sunil Goyal from Yournest and Mr. Padmanabh Sinha from NIIF. Union Finance Minister, MoS Finance, Officials of PMO and Finance Ministry were also present in the interaction.