Amitabh Kant's Wake-Up Call to Indian Startups

At the vibrant stage of Startup Mahakumbh 2025, G20 Sherpa and former NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant delivered a powerful and visionary address that struck a chord with India’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Drawing on India’s transformational startup journey and outlining a roadmap for the future, Kant’s speech was a clarion call for bold innovation, sovereign technology development, and responsible entrepreneurship.

Startups as Nation Builders

Kant began by emphasizing the government’s evolving role as an early adopter of innovation, especially in disruptive technologies. He noted that the state must act as the first buyer to validate and scale homegrown innovations. Reflecting on policy breakthroughs in space, geospatial mapping, and drones, he pointed to India’s supportive regulatory environment as a key enabler of innovation.

“When startups innovate and disrupt, the government must be the first buyer,” he said, underscoring the importance of public-private synergy.

The Rise of India’s Startup Ecosystem

India’s startup landscape has undergone a meteoric rise since the launch of the Startup India initiative in 2016. From just 156 startups, the country today boasts over 161,000 registered startups, contributing nearly 4–5% to the GDP. Funding has surged from $5–6 billion to over $155 billion, a testament to India’s thriving innovation ecosystem.

Kant credited this success to policy reforms, ease of doing business, and critical funding mechanisms including the ₹10,000 crore Fund of Funds, Seed Fund Scheme, and Credit Guarantee Scheme, all designed to empower early-stage ventures.

DeepTech: India’s Frontier Opportunity

But for India to lead the world, Kant emphasized, it must own the future of technology—especially in DeepTech, AI, blockchain, big data, green hydrogen, battery storage, and circular economy.

He announced that the government is doubling down on DeepTech with the creation of a dedicated Fund of Funds for DeepTech in the Union Budget 2025. This fund will provide patient capital and encourage venture funds to take risks in high-impact, long-gestation technologies.

“The future lies in India becoming a champion of DeepTech,” Kant declared. “We must build sovereign frontier models based on our own datasets, with no inherent biases.”

AI: India’s Soft Power Advantage

With the global AI race heating up, Kant urged Indian startups to lead with nimble, energy-efficient, and open-source solutions. He cited how Indian companies can leapfrog by developing AI models that are less energy-hungry and optimized for low computing infrastructure—a crucial differentiator in a power-intensive AI world.

He drew parallels with India’s success in fintech and digital infrastructure. From fast payments to stock trading and insurance, India has demonstrated how open-source platforms like UPI and JAM trinity have democratized access for Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.

“India accounts for over 50% of global fast payments today. Our next leap will come from integrating AI into our digital public infrastructure,” he said.

Sovereignty in Tech and Language

Kant emphasized the need for sovereign AI ecosystems, grounded in Indian data, values, and languages. With 22 official languages and countless dialects, India must build multilingual, multimodal AI models that are inclusive and culturally rooted.

Initiatives like Bhashini, which enable form-filling via voice in regional languages, were highlighted as harbingers of the future.

The Clean Tech Imperative

Citing China’s dominance in solar, battery, and EV markets, Kant urged Indian startups to seize the moment in clean tech manufacturing, green hydrogen, and mobility. Established companies, he argued, are often risk-averse. It is the young, bold startups that will drive disruptive innovation.

“The big breakthroughs will not come from the incumbents. They will come from you—the young entrepreneurs of India.”

Governance and Ethics: A Non-Negotiable

In a powerful closing note, Kant reminded the audience that good corporate governance must be at the core of every startup journey. He warned against ignoring ethics and transparency in the rush to scale.

“Good governance, ethical audits, and sound financial practices are what separate lasting institutions from failed ventures. Look at Infosys—it began as a startup, but it scaled with values.”

The Decade of Transformation

Concluding on a visionary note, Amitabh Kant said that future generations should remember this decade as the time when India transitioned from a service-based economy to a global innovation leader.

“India must not become a technological colony of the West. We must build sovereign, culturally rooted, open-source technologies—and we must do more with less, just as ISRO has done.”

The message is loud and clear—India isn’t here to play catch-up. We’re here to lead. From deep tech to green innovation, from AI to space, the runway is ready. Now it’s up to our startups to take off, disrupt, and dominate. Build bold. Build smart. Build with purpose. Because the world is watching—and the future is being built in India.