AIR spotlight summary: Global Entrepreneurship Summit
Context:
Global Entrepreneurship Summit recently held in Hyderabad. It is an important step in deepening the ties between India and US. New US ambassador to India said, security relations between the two countries will reinforce each other to make this kind of interaction more meaningful.
Many leading entrepreneurs attended the Summit which testifies massive importance given to it. Interestingly the theme of the Summit is about Women Empowerment.
What does this Summit mean for India?
India is now fastest moving economy bearing few quarters. Now India’s participation in the global economy is also increasing. India is rated as a bright spot in the global economic system that is recognised by various Global agencies like IMF. Projections have been positive for India for several quarters.
This summit becomes more significant as participation from Women side is also present and Theme of the summit itself – women First and Prosperity for All– also symbolises the importance given to the summit.
The summit acted as a platform to bring together entrepreneurs, investors, educators, government officials and start-up ecosystem supporters.
Summit presented a unique opportunity to present and establish meaningful participation and innovative entrepreneurs discuss their ideas.
This summit is also helpful for women to take their ideas to the next level as problems faced by women entrepreneurs are different from their male counterparts.
The sectors which are focussed also are complementary with the women enterprises like healthcare and life sciences which is very much in sync with the women entrepreneurship.
Disconnect between university and industry linkages
The major problems that the economy now facing is disconnect between university and industry linkages. There is a mismatch to promote an R&D activity. This is important that Science and entrepreneurship are connected for the practical purposes. What you do in the lab you must be able to commercialise as a business. In this context, Summit had it significance.
Emphasis was given to digital technology, energy and healthcare
Many start-ups that women have started which applies digital technology to the issues like mental health, counselling, medical transcription and most of other biomedical applications.
There are many projections that more than 6 billion people will own smartphone by 2020. This needs innovative financial technology to thrive with the growing user base. At this juncture the Summit has become more significant to showcase recent government’s move to digitalize our economy which is in very much sync with global trends.
Interestingly 52.5 % invitees are women and they came from 19 countries including Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia.
Unique opportunity for the India-US relationship
This was also a unique opportunity for the India-US relationship. Because the fact that the summit is happening in India at a time when US has a new president and also at a time when new models of cooperation between US and India are being sought.
There are lot of complementarities and increasing business synergies between US and Indian economy. US, the largest and India is the fastest economy in the present world.. Our global trade is also increasing. India’s participation in Trade with US is also on the rise.
This summit provided a platform to exchange ideas and to strengthen our economic and business relationship.
This summit is helpful to revisit the Indo-US relationship which has been in a kind of hold over a period of time.
It was meant to create an enabling ecosystem where entrepreneurs can innovate, forge global partnerships and grow. Altogether this summit is going to represent Indian women in international system of Trade and best practices and for Indians to learn from it.
At the same time, we have lot of things to showcase to the world; our country is improving in many global charts like Ease of doing business and Global Competitiveness index, Global logistics index. Our participation in global partnerships is also increasing. So India’s picture at the global level is looking attractive. Every time, when entrepreneurs are finding their growth partners then India is one of the lucrative partners.
