Converting Calamity into Opportunity

58^th Startup Sathi Webinar Series organized by iHub & SSIP on 29th May 2020

Speakers: Padma Shri Saurabh Srivastava, Former Chairman & Co-founder NASSCOM (IIT Kanpur)

Moderator: Mr Hiranmay Mahanta, CEO iHub

Dignitaries: Shri M Nagarajan IAS, Director Higher Education; Smt. Anju Sharma, IAS, Principal Secretary, Education Department, Gujarat

About Webinar

The webinar was focused on “How do we convert calamity into opportunity?” Padma Shri Saurabh Srivastav walks participants through a brief interesting history of entrepreneurship and economic issues in India to give an idea about how India has overcome the hurdles over a period of time and how India can use the post COVID situation as an opportunity to move up the position globally. 

“The biggest opportunity comes with a disruption”. 

Some highlights from the session:

●        During Disruption when calamities occur, opportunities are created. Seeing the current situations, COVID-19 has occurred this time which will lead to a new lifestyle, new ways of problem solving, there will be change in policies, processes and more post-COVID.

●        Depending upon how countries handle this disruption, countries will be redefining their positioning globally. India has now started realizing the reality of this situation. Major changes needed in Healthcare, Manufacturing Supply Chain, and other sectors to push the economy. 

●        Looking into the positive side of this pandemic, India has a strong foot on pharmaceuticals and self-sustainability.

●        Our incubators and Startup India, Make in India movement have done immensely well, public & private funds are supporting startups and hence we now stand 3rd in the Startup Ecosystem in the world.

●        Government itself has started operating aggressively improvising their Standard Operating Procedures (SOP). Startups making PPE kits; Ventilators; Sanitization products; and more; are getting support from GoI.

●        “Vocal the Local & give rise to Local but Global” is the mantra today.

●        Good thing about today's entrepreneurs is that they are way confident with their research & solution and they think Global. When we talk of India of Tomorrow, Startups will make it happen.

●        People in India have always been entrepreneurial since the beginning and contributed 25% of global GDP in the past which has been reduced to 5% over a period of time due to solemnization and moved backward. Considering the COVID scenario in the world; this is the opportunity for India to leverage the domestic market to move up the position globally.

●        Business plans showcase the mindset and way of thinking of founders. Where most of the investors invest their time, capital and network.

●        Patents are useless, until you don’t have innovation around building a business out of it. Good idea is of no value, unless you create some value out of it, until you can change people's life or impact on society.

●        Don’t make something which is required today; make something needed three-five years down the line. As for today’s problems there are too many problem solvers.

For more insights click here: https://www.facebook.com/ihubgujarat/videos/2514827021951203/

About iHub Gujarat: http://ihubgujarat.in