Do you think now is the right time for entrepreneurs and start-ups?

There is no bad time to start up; only wrong plans at the wrong time can deter you from thinking otherwise. The basic intermediaries you would need are legal, financial and mentorship entities which ensure the resources are allocated to the correct firm. With India slowly moving from being a ‘developing’ to a ‘developed’ economy, these gaps in intermediaries are beginning to dwindle which in turn has also proven to be the ideal business models. In short, no time is a bad time to do business but the nature of the business you do – the start-up you initiate – needs to keep evolving with time. With the motivation levels in start-ups observed during our recently concluded event, Start-O-Sphere, it is the best time for people to start-up as intermediaries in support of the burgeoning idea pool.

“India is not simply emerging, it has emerged”, said Barack Obama at a recent Joint Session of the Indian Parliament in New Delhi. A bigger chunk of this pie of growth and success belongs to the growing start-up culture in the country. Despite the volatility, uncertainty and complexity that surround the space, investors and aspiring entrepreneurs still can’t wait to cash in on it– with Rs 15,600 crores being pumped into start-ups in the first half of 2015 alone. It is, however, interesting to note that it is not only the increased funds flowing into the industry but the increased ease of access to funds that is the primary growth driver here.

India’s diversity offers entrepreneurs opportunities for differentiated product and services. And the IT revolution has helped create an excellent talent pool that is contributing to this. The whole ecosystem around entrepreneurship has evolved significantly in the last decade.

In the present context, the trend is that most of the tech start-ups are making little money due to the low margins and high competition (in general). One of our guests commented during our entrepreneurship summit, Start-o-Sphere, that such a model simply transfers capital from the investors to the consumers. The sustainability of this model is, therefore, questionable. What we need right now for this to work is that people come up with ventures to support the current eco-system by engaging in development of the needful infrastructure and fill the institutional voids to facilitate all-round development of the ecosystem. Thereby setting-up a virtuous cycle. The good news is the increasingly supportive policy and regulatory framework that is in the talks. Hence, I believe, the time has really never been better for entrepreneurs to get their feet wet than now.