The Indian entrepreneurial spirit has risen remarkably as the country stands third amongst the fastest growing startup countries worldwide. Digitisation is playing a vital role in this scenario and has provided ample opportunities to develop online market. Several flagship programmes like Start Up India campaign aims to create all districts, blocks and panchayats around the country. Atal Innovation Mission including Self-Employment and Talent Utilisation serve as a platform for promotion of world-class innovation hubs, startup businesses and other self-employment activities, particularly in technology driven areas.

These are bringing together academicians, entrepreneurs and researchers to collaborate on concepts that could potentially drive economic growth and encourage more people to become entrepreneurs. With aggressive campaigns for cashless transactions, consumers across both urban and rural India are becoming aware about digitisation. Increase in Internet and digital penetration is certain to unfold opportunities. Not only e-commerce industry, but banking, finance, retail, logistics, rural education, consulting and many other fields will get benefited. Banks are developing simplified tools to maximise online transactions.

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The interesting fact is that women entrepreneurs have started to become more prominent in the innovation economy. Several women-run startups such as LimeRoad, Kaaryah, Zivame, CashKaro, and media tech companies like YourStory and POPxo have become success inspirations. While mentors can act as catalysts and give a right direction, incubators come as great support to keep most of hurdles aside and let one focus on the project. However, the most important driver of entrepreneurial growth is mental fortitude, followed by risk taking capability. Innovative thinking and zeal to improve with trials and errors, start connecting unseen dots that eventually draw a picture.

Major challenge for any startup is raising funds or finding investors. However, the first thought should not be running after investors but to focus on developing a good product with right business plan. They not only keep looking for viable and scalable ideas with low risks but are also in search of right people who have properly done their ground work. If your preparation is adequate, possibilities are that investors can themselves find you.

The second major challenge is getting right set of people to work on your plan. Planning for human resources with needed skills, finance, administration and marketing should all fall into the right place. For startups in technology sector, the major challenge is technology itself. This is evolving in such a rapid pace that companies need to track all the updates and keep on improving the products. For attracting international markets, it’s viable to shift the focus from UK or US to Asian countries. Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines and Malaysian can also be explored for new consumer market.

Conducive environment for entrepreneurs can become more effective if more educational institute, especially those offering technology and management education, start nurturing the thoughts within students that they should try becoming job creators rather than job seekers. Research driven innovations supported by workshops with investors can be effective in propelling industries to lead on the global stage.

The writer is chairman, JIMS, Rohini.