Suresh Prabhu Calls For Larger Participation Of Start-Ups In Core Sectors

India’s Sherpa at G20 and former Union minister for railways, commerce, and civil aviation Suresh Prabhu said that more significant participation of new-age companies is required in core sectors for faster economic growth of the country.

Speaking at Zetwerk Dialogues -- a public advocacy program aimed at raising awareness about opportunities in India's manufacturing, infrastructure, and supply chain ecosystem -- Prabhu emphasized providing new-age companies a level playing field for them to contribute to the growth of the country. His recommendations included creating a process-driven transparent mechanism that can facilitate an enabling environment for the new-age companies.

“Start-ups are breaking away from the past. Regulations, if not always, are based on what has happened in the past. So, you are regulating the past while the start-up ecosystem is breaking away from the past. Therefore, that’s a problem. Regulations are necessary but don’t bring them based on old ideas but by interacting with the start-ups and understanding what they are trying to achieve. Companies may be new or old, but if they can conform to these standards of regulations, it can guarantee that the outcome is not compromised. You cannot guarantee outcomes only because the company is old; that can happen with new companies even better. The new companies should not be debarred from being real participants in the process only because they lack the experience. We have to change that mindset and work on it.,” Prabhu said to a question on how new-age companies could access business opportunities within the government.

The former Union Minister emphasized the need for a transparent, participatory, and rule-based regime for start-ups and legacy companies to drive innovations and futuristic technologies.

He said that new-age companies operating in the space have a crucial role in enabling this and encouraged the work that Zetwerk is doing towards creating a common ancillary system and establishing a common standard for the manufacturing ecosystem.

Adding to the discussion, Srinath Ramakkrushnan, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer, Zetwerk said, “Our business model focuses on strengthening the manufacturing ecosystem and creating a robust ‘Make in India’ supply chain. By tapping into the country’s existing capacity and capabilities, we intend to create a strong manufacturing network that not just boosts the MSME ecosystem of the country but can deliver projects in a time bound, reliable and efficient manner. With PLIs adding to the support from the government, we look forward to the next phase of evolutionary growth for the sector.”

Prabhu added that the Indian economy’s rate of growth would get accelerated with India’s vaccination drive picking up pace, which will revive businesses and, in turn the overall economy.

“The economy will come into a positive rate of growth from the next quarter itself. There is contemporary as well as empirical evidence that recovery has been faster after every pandemic. There are socio-economic reasons to believe that spending will start, consumption will go up and the production cycle will re-start. Vaccination in India has started in a big way and very soon I think a good part of India’s population will be fully vaccinated and with that the economic recovery will happen much faster. The fiscal 2021-22 should certainly be positive and there are visible signs of that already,” Prabhu added

Prabhu also identified the key sectors -- Healthcare, Logistics, Agriculture and Infrastructure -- that would see recovery faster than the others.