India’s Startup Diplomacy: How India is Exporting its Startup Playbook to the SCO

When India launched its Startup India initiative in 2016, the vision was clear: to transform the nation into a land of job creators rather than job seekers. What began as a domestic policy push has, within a few years, evolved into something much bigger — a tool of diplomacy, regional integration, and global influence.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), an intergovernmental grouping of eight major nations including India, China, Russia, and Central Asian states, has become the stage where India’s startup diplomacy is playing out in full force. Under India’s leadership, startups are no longer just about innovation within national borders — they are about building trust, boosting cooperation, and exporting entrepreneurial know-how across an entire region.

From Samarkand to New Delhi: India’s Startup Push at SCO

India assumed the Chairmanship of the SCO Council of Heads of State in September 2022, and one of its landmark contributions has been the creation of the Special Working Group on Startups and Innovation (SWG). This was an Indian proposal, first mooted in 2020, to cement startups as a new pillar of cooperation among SCO member states.

In the years since, India has hosted three editions of the SCO Startup Forum (2020, 2021, and 2023), held preparatory seminars, and organized mentorship series. What stands out is the strategic shift from virtual gatherings during the pandemic to the first-ever physical SCO Startup Forum in April 2023 in New Delhi, where delegations from multiple countries saw India’s startup ecosystem in action — including a visit to IIT Delhi’s Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT).

This progression signals India’s intent: not just to showcase startups, but to embed them in the very fabric of international relations.

Ambassadors, Observers, and Dialogue Partners: Building a Wider Circle

India’s startup diplomacy is not limited to the eight SCO members. In May 2022, ambassadors and delegations from 15 countries, including Observer States and Dialogue Partners, gathered at the Startup India office to explore cross-border startup engagements.

The conversations went beyond rhetoric.

• Iran highlighted its Innovation Factories model.

• Uzbekistan presented the growing role of its Tashkent IT Park.

• Kazakhstan shared learnings from its tax provisions and Astana Hub.

Each of these insights reflected how India is curating a knowledge-exchange platform, where nations are not only learning from India’s playbook but also pooling their best practices. The presence of ambassadors underscored a critical fact: startups are no longer just economic drivers — they are instruments of diplomacy and trust-building.

Helping Startups Scale Across Borders

Through SCO forums and mentorship programmes, Indian initiatives are actively helping startups from Central Asia, Russia, and China to grow and scale.

• The SCO Startup Forums of 2020 and 2021 together saw more than 250 startups from across member states showcase their innovations.

• These included sectors ranging from emerging tech and IoT in Russia, to state-backed incubators in China, and entrepreneurship support programs in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

• India ensured these forums were not mere exhibitions — startups were provided pitch opportunities before international juries, cross-border incubation access, and pathways for scaling through social innovation partnerships.

Knowledge-sharing workshops hosted by Indian startup leaders such as Pocket Aces, BankBazaar, and Bellatrix Aerospace, as well as global giants like Microsoft for Startups and CISCO LaunchPad, helped early-stage founders from SCO countries learn the fundamentals of building billion-dollar businesses, scaling internationally, and accessing venture capital.

In addition, the 3-month “Starting Up” mentorship series (2022) gave startups from across SCO more than 100 hours of direct mentorship, covering everything from building business models to going global.

Startup India as Soft Power

By leveraging its ecosystem — the third-largest in the world — India has managed to position Startup India as a soft power tool. This is evident in three ways:

1. Policy Export: India’s frameworks for incubation, taxation, and funding incentives are being studied by peers in Central Asia and beyond.

2. Capacity Building: SCO founders are being trained by Indian experts, creating a ripple effect across the region.

3. Ecosystem Branding: India is increasingly viewed not just as a participant but as a leader of innovation diplomacy.

As ambassadors themselves acknowledged during their engagement with Startup India, startups are now seen as engines for job creation, foreign investment, and global competitiveness — all values that align directly with SCO’s mandate of peace, stability, and economic growth.

For decades, India’s role in international forums was largely seen through the prism of security, energy, or trade. Now, by putting startups and innovation at the heart of its SCO agenda, India is redefining its global engagement strategy.

This has implications far beyond SCO. If India can succeed in creating a startup bridge across this bloc — which together represents 40% of the world’s population and nearly a quarter of global GDP — it will have established startups as a legitimate and powerful tool of global diplomacy.

The Road Ahead

As India continues to chair SCO startup initiatives, the task is two-fold:

• To ensure that startups from smaller economies like Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan are integrated into global value chains.

• To build trust and collaboration even with strategic competitors like China, using innovation as neutral ground for cooperation.

The first-ever physical SCO Startup Forum in New Delhi already set the tone, with delegates, government officials, private players, and startups networking over incubation visits and brainstorming dinners. The focus now is on sustaining this momentum, and ensuring that India’s startup diplomacy not only scales businesses but also strengthens geopolitical partnerships.

In just a few years, India has turned Startup India from a domestic mission into a global brand of influence. By embedding entrepreneurship in the SCO agenda, welcoming ambassadors into its ecosystem, and helping startups across borders to scale, India is proving that innovation can be a language of diplomacy as powerful as trade or defense.

Startup diplomacy is now India’s newest export — one that may define its role in the global order for years to come.