In a bid to reaffirm its commitment to enable the startup community though programs and support, Facebook held the first edition of its ‘India Startup Day’ in Delhi on October 9. The even saw various startups and leaders of the ecosystem share their insights. Facebook also awarded startups making a considerable impact in their fields through its India Startup Day Awards.
Speaking at a panel discussion on the pace of India’s startup ecosystem and the problems it faces, Srinivas Kollipara, CEO of Hyderabad-based startup engine T-Hub said that while he quality of startups in India is going up, India as a country has unique problems, which gives startups a huge market to focus on.
The panel, moderated by Emeka Afigbo, Head of developer programs at Facebook, also had Meenakshi Jain, Founder of Helper4U, K S Viswanathan, Vice President, Industry Initiatives of Nasscom and Pranay Gupta, co-founder of 91springboard participating.
According to a report in YourStory, the panel also discussed the potential of deep tech for startups and the opportunities and potential it offers for scale. Interestingly, in Telangana, IIIT-Hyderabad’s innovation cell CIE has a huge focus on Deep Tech, with several of its startups working on various aspects in this field.
Another point of discussion was the rising number of women entrepreneurs in the country, thanks to the availability of funds and increased incubators and accelerators in the country. Pranay from 91springboard said that women have a balance of IQ and EQ and this helps them understand what customers really want and create products accordingly.
However, there is still a lot that needs to be done to improve the situation for women. Meenakshi of Helper4U believes that this is th best time for women to take the plunge into entrepreneurship and by empowering one women in the house, you can empower the entire family. However, Meenakshi wants women t be given an equal opportunities. They don’t need to be treated differently, just give them equal opportunities and they will perform, she says.
Adding to this, Srini says that India is a very complex market. “What women in rural India face is not the same as what those urban India face,” YourStory quotes Srinivas as saying, adding that every woman has a different problem.
He further added that, at T-Hub, 25% of its residents are women. “On one had we are proud as it is higher than the industry average while on other hand, we are embarrassed as it is quite low. We are focusing on programs to cover all aspects and improve this number,” he added.