By Aakarsh Rastogi
Edited by Madhavi Roy
A confluence of a number of factors like the increasing business opportunities in India, the change in the attitude of youth from job-seekers to job-makers, and better and greater sources of Angel funding indicate that the start-up culture has started developing in India very fast. Growing start-ups in India can be considered of three types. The Innovation Makers, they bring something that no one has even thought about before. The Change Makers, they bring a positive change in an existing idea. Its just like adding a new flavour to a cooked dish. The Continuers, they start the same business that is already flourishing or existing. They dont add anything new. The Start-up culture is growing its roots in India, but still, whatever may be the type, it is facing a bucket full of challenges.
The Indian Government is not very flexible in adapting to the growing start-up environment. The Government is a major creator of an entrepreneurial environment and the promoter of entrepreneurial thinking and initiatives. But, the Governments role is not enough to provide ease of doing business to the Seed firms. Lack of funding also stands acts as a demon to a start-up, which obviously needs funds to give it a kick-start. Although there are many Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists in India, but still they are not easily accessible by each and every kind of start-up. They also face workforce problems initially because of low availability of funds, however, this milestone is crossed by hiring unpaid interns now-a-days. But, it also poses a problem because of the no pay-no gain belief. The main deficit faced by those start-ups, which have been established by under-graduate or graduate students, is in mentoring. They are capable enough to conceive an idea and give it a valuable shape, but they lag behind in managing and pushing it further. But, the efforts of these young entrepreneurs must be encouraged as many undergraduate students own start-ups today!
Challenges are not the only issue about start-ups. Start-ups are also open and very receptive to a bunch of opportunities. Now, what these opportunities really are depends much upon the founders of the start-up, because they are the ones who can create, exploit and enjoy these opportunities. Initially, all the start-ups go through a phase of silent existence, that is, they enjoy no popularity. This problem is easily tackled by the young entrepreneurs through various opportunities available inside their campus only. Word-of-mouth promotion works the best for them. But, whatever be the case, we cant find a handful of exciting opportunities in the business environment for Seed firms. They need to resort to opportunities created and developed by themselves. A recent and live example can be seen in the health sector innovation start-ups. The emerging concept of transforming healthcare into e-healthcare is a brilliant example of creating a pool of opportunities to tap.
The initiative by the people and the young to create a start-up environment in the Indian Business Ecosystem is bringing changes in the existing environment gradually. To promote them, and reduce the hardships of these start-ups, the Government and the Angel Investors need to realize that, These start-ups of today will be the lead GDP contributors of tomorrow if brought up with due consideration and importance. Instead of spending the entire amount kept for the development of the Industry Sector in the budget on the development of the prosperous firms, a good proportion should also be accounted for driving the start-ups to the next level, to the level of competition-givers instead of competition-sufferers.
Aakarsh Rastogi is a second year student pursuing B.Com (H) from Shri Ram Colege Of Commerce, University of Delhi, Delhi. He has interest in both English and Hindi Literature. He used to write articles in his leisure time by observing things and activities around him. Aakarsh is a person of reserved nature with a belief, Talk Less,Work More, Be a Silent Killer. Also, He has been Elected as the President of Hindi Sahitya Sabha, SRCC for the session 2014-15.