It appears that India’s tech promise to rival China isn’t going according to plan, and it has been labelled by some as a complete shambles. One of the main roots of the issue of why everything has fallen apart lies in India’s startup ecosystem, where many faults are to blame.
Take a closer look right here at where and when it all started going wrong for India.
Why is India’s tech promise to rival China collapsing?
India’s promise to create web-based companies to rival some of China’s biggest companies, like Tencent and Alibaba, has not gone according to the plan. To begin with, the initiative attracted several major global investments from Tiger Global and SoftBank, and money was flooding in.
According to reports released by Venture Tracker (an Indian data tracker), $4 billion was put into the program, comprising around 300 separate contracts, but it has all had very little effect.
The entire startup ecosystem in India is now facing difficult questions on things like expensive acquisitions, financial accountability and discipline, rash valuations, and whether investors overvalued India’s total addressable market (aka TAM).
People losing their jobs has sky-rocketed in the past few months, and public listings have been delayed. Operations have been scaled back, and hardly any new startup backing funds are available to take the tech promise to the next level.
The Enforcement Directorate (the crime-fighting task force in India) even raided one of the BYJU’s in Bengaluru buildings after they were suspected of breaking the rules set out by the Foreign Exchange Management Act. In the raid, incriminating documents are said to have been seized.
Are other tech industries, like the online casino industry, affected?
Today’s best iGaming companies that operate in India are not licensed by the Indian government, and they are controlled by foreign companies who operate from outside of Indian borders, so they have not been affected, and business continues to grow for these companies.
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They are controlled by some of the most trusted names from the iGaming industry, and they are packed with over 1,000 games from several of the industry’s most innovative providers.
What have been some of India’s biggest technological achievements?
Since India won its independence in 1947, the nation has made several major technological contributions. In 1950, India’s Planning Commission established a clear five-year plan to develop key areas within the country, such as infrastructure, education, science, and agriculture.
Heavy investment was also put into scientific and industrial research. They also had the Green Revolution, which mainly focused on agricultural research.
Other milestones in India’s achievements include contributions to DNA fingerprinting, the Chandrayaan-I mission to the moon, creating a Polio-free India, and developing Aryabhatta – India’s first satellite that was put into space in 1975.
They also developed their first strategic missile – ASNI, in 1989. The country also embarked on its first-ever interplanetary mission in 2023 with the launch of MOM (Mars Orbiter Mission, which is also known as Mangalyaan).
Will India bounce back from the recent setbacks and continue pushing forward with startups?
Based on India‘s rich history of not wanting to fall behind in terms of its scientific and technological capabilities, the nation will no doubt continue to innovate in whichever way it can.
Despite the recent setbacks and the initial vision not going according to the plan, we will likely see more startups continue to pop up over the coming decade. The country remains one of the largest in the world for startup ecosystems.
At the time of writing, the 10 major sectors that have the best startup ecosystems are the following:
- Green technology
- Agriculture
- IT services
- Technology hardware
- Food & beverages
- Finance technology
- Professional and commercial services
- Education
- Healthcare & life sciences
India’s unyielding pursuit for global recognition: A technological revolution in the making
India will always strive to seek global recognition. They are constantly looking for new ways to innovate and will steadily push forward and continue to develop all these major sectors.
They have a thriving younger population who are skilled in many areas and keen to take the country forward on the global stage. We must closely monitor the situation to see how India’s technological revolution will progress over the coming decade.
They may have fallen behind on their promise to rival China, but they will surely bounce back and demonstrate to the world how serious they are about competing with other major global powerhouses, just like they always have done.
