The Centre is willing to partner with the Indian industry in its initiative to promote future businesses by building a platform with like-minded countries, Commerce & Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has said.

“We need to build a platform with like-minded countries and trusted partners to promote new-age businesses in India, ” Goyal said at the launch of the ‘Future Business Group’ by industry body CII on Thursday.

The group includes young founders of India’s successful new-age businesses and aims to support the emergence of new-age businesses, build companies of global scale, attract global investment in new businesses in India, create a future-ready talent pool and establish a dynamic and forward-looking ecosystem to catalyse the emergence of new innovative businesses.

“We have a huge start-up ecosystem in India. It is more about recognising our capabilities, uplifting our entrepreneurs. Some of the ideas that youngsters have come up with are truly revolutionary,” he said.

Pool of capital

The Minister pointed out that the Indian industry can come together to create a pool of capital that can be utilised towards supporting new businesses and research. He said industry should engage with youth to encourage entrepreneurship, through providing skills and mentorship.

Some of the countries and regions identified by the CII for bringing into a global platform to work collectively include the US, Japan, the EU, South Korea, Australia and Singapore.

The Minister said that within the EU, countries like Sweden and Norway could be focussed on as they had a lot of traction for new businesses. One could possibly look at emerging areas such as South Africa and Brazil, he added.

Goyal was also open to the idea of forming a Joint Working Group of Department for Policy on Industry and Internal Trade and CII to formulate National Strategy for Future Businesses and initiate policy reforms. According to CII, the objective of the group could be to position India as a preferred investment destination for new businesses, design attractive sectoral incentives for the identified key sectors and incentivise SEZ creation and upgradation in States.

Innovation hub

Talking about the improvement in India’s rank from 52 to 48 in the Global Innovation Index, the Minister said that all should work together to truly make India an innovation hub.“We have a huge start-up ecosystem. I have no doubt that the spirit of the industry will even encourage the government to proactively go forward with new ideas and processes to make it easier and simpler to do business in India,” he said.

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