The Good Future Leader
The Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan that roughly translates as the self-reliant India campaign, has several facets to it. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi first announced this mission in May 2020, it was an articulation of India’s strategy for self-reliance. But in effect, the seed for this movement had been sown much earlier, when the Make in India initiative was launched in 2014. Make in India was defined as a programme that encouraged companies to develop, manufacture and assemble products in India and incentivise dedicated investments into manufacturing. Its biggest impact was on Indian startups. Young Indian entrepreneurs were bravely breaking out of the salaried culture stereotype to venture into finding new solutions, for a new India.
We, at BW Businessworld, also celebrated this spirit and embarked on several initiatives that we felt galvanised and celebrated these young entrepreneurs. Over the years, many startups have turned into Unicorns, many can no longer be placed in a ‘startup’ category even as they relentlessly nurse the spirit that pushes them forward, and many are still reinventing themselves to find their niche. They are dogged in their vision and firm in their actions. The last year will perhaps, go down in history as the year that birthed the most Unicorns in India. This year began with the expectation that the record will be broken repeatedly to create more such successful businesses in India that will make a mark on the global platform to bring to life the Atmanirbhar Bharat ambition.
Once in a while, there are stories that make us pause and reflect. The Paytm post IPO upheaval could be seen as one. It is described as a case of what happens when overvaluation goes wrong. I would still bucket this as a company-level problem. To my mind, the graver concern is people. The startup sector is the most driven by people, the entrepreneurs. Its greatest strength is also its biggest vulnerability.
What happened at BharatPe is an example. I was also disappointed in the way edtech player Lido Learning handled the distress that led to its shutdown. The platform’s backers included names like Ronnie Screwvala and Mukesh Bansal, indicating that something about it must have been right. An extreme decision such as this is not easy, but Lido’s real failure was in not communicating its situation to its employees and leaving their questions unanswered. In a business that relies on people, working and valuing them is most important. That is the success mantra of Make in India, which will eventually translate into Atmanirbhar Bharat.
In this issue, we have celebrated 40 young entrepreneurs who are exactly on this journey to take India to greater heights by following their pursuits in problem-solving for India and to make a wider impact. Among their biggest assets are their leadership skills, evident in the way they have planned and run their businesses. This is the lot for whom the sky is the limit.
