Pitched a novel model for establishing a Think Tank to improve the Indian startup ecosystem. Key goals include: 1) Driving Technology development 2) Studying the co-evolution society and technology 3) Actively collaborating with the government, International community for Policy making and Advocacy. Collaborated with Vijay Raghavan. Photo by Jo Szczepanska on Unsplash

1.
Innovation India
Sreyas Sriram
Vijay Raghavan
IIITDM Kancheepuram

2. Executive Summary:
The Indian startup ecosystem has grown tremendously in the past couple years. A variety of
ecosystem players such as the government, investors, universities and corporates have attempted
to improve the ecosystem as a whole. However, India as a nation lacks a knowledge centre / think
tank that can get all these stakeholders to align and push startups towards areas of national
importance - high tech. This includes blockchain, AI and semiconductor technologies which are
critical to our nation’s development as a hub of technology. In this case study, we present a
framework to establish a centre of excellence to improve the ecosystem as a whole. The case is
organized as follows: First, we start off by analyzing the existing startup landscape in India. Then,
we look at how we can align these stakeholders to contribute to and promote this Think Tank /
Knowledge center - ​Innovation India. ​We then present an action plan, go to market strategy and
the organization chart for this think tank. Finally, we conclude with some thoughts on how we can
make Innovation India come to fruition to improve the startup ecosystem.

3. A snapshot of the Indian Startup ecosystem
India has had a strong culture of entrepreneurial activity - mostly ranging from the ​Gujarati
Businessman ​to the neighbourhood kirana store owner. There are around ​10,000 startups
registered in India today. Another aspect that is changing rapidly is the availability of capital - there
are around ​200 registered VCs​ in India, signaling a shift from traditional sources of capital.
In the past couple of years, there has been a concerted push to promote startups - ranging from
reducing red tape for approvals and relaxing investment rules.
However, India as a nation needs access to cutting-edge technology to solve our problems and the
area we seem to be lacking in is High Tech - Semiconductors, AI, healthcare and blockchain. The
system of incubators tied to universities such as the ​IIT Madras research park​ have produced a
variety of technology intensive startups. The underlying problem is that the ​lack of awareness of
emerging technologies and novel business practices ​hinder adoption of new technologies in
different domains.
Another factor is the​ lack of industry-academia connect​ - academia lies behind industry in terms of
skills and this skills gap causes the problem of the ​unemployable Indian engineering graduate​.
However, cutting-edge research done in leading universities does not often come up in industry as
they have their own labs for research. Certain companies are setting up R&D centres in
universities.
Emerging areas of this decade are yet so see major evangelism and participation, a few firms have
invested heavily into emerging areas such as fintech , AI and Blockchain.
When one looks at the 10,000 or so startups in India, 4300 are technology startups with around a
third of them or roughly 1400 in the e-commerce space, which paints a very skewed picture of the
indian startup. High tech startups working on hardware, semiconductors and design don’t get as
much recognition.
Stakeholder status and a quest for alignment
To design a model for alignment of stakeholders involved: one must do the following:
1) Chart out their relative position in context of the Indian startup scene
2) Map key enablers and barriers to progress at each stakeholder level
Small Businesses​: ​Small businesses not operating in the technology fields are traditionally low
tech. Most people believe that, setting up a website, handling social media are complex, costly and
time consuming.
Key enablers​:​ Low cost services for accounting and allied services (Websites , SEO , Server
setup etc)
Barriers ​:​ Low financial capability , Usually not well defined customer profile or target market.

4. Business Services ​:​ Business service firms offer services such as tax and accounting software,
team messaging apps, food and beverages, marketing and so on. They are still in a nascent stage,
often restricted to established companies or startups with tech-savvy founders.
Key enablers :​ ​A strong economy and investment into startups/businesses. At times periods of
churn could result in very innovative business services (for example the digital payments space
post demonetization)
Barriers:​ ​Poor market growth and bad network
Incubators / Accelerators​ : ​Startup incubators are companies that assist new startups in their
initial phase of development. Incubators share both tangible and intangible resources such as
equipment, office space, services such as accounting and legal services. However, they are
currently restricted to urban areas / universities.
Key enablers: ​ Cross-pollination of ideas from academia to startups and vice versa.
Barriers:​ Student engagement with startups is often a challenge,the existing model of college
education does give them a provision to explore new avenues, engage with businesses or start
their own companies. Startup projects or problems are capricious while academia likes well
structured and organised work.
Examples : ​T-Hub, Y-Combinator
Established businesses:​ ​Established companies have a working structure and framework for
product development. Issues related to tightening of R&D budgets, increasing technology
disruption and bureaucracy make it difficult for large companies to innovate on their own.
Corporates collaborate with other small firms including startups by investing fully or partially to
access to their pool of talent, assets and capabilities.
Key enablers : ​Creation of small innovation teams / forging consortiums to work on cutting edge
technology and the big problems.(Eg) R&D labs in universities and startup groups elsewhere.
Barriers :​ Communication is key, there have been instances where consortiums established by
large firms ended in massive failure or were inconclusive .
Examples​ :​ Yes bank, Anthill and Cash-e (T-Hub), for the fintech and Blockchain space
respectively.
International agencies / Governments​:​ Aid agencies and UN bodies like UNESCO, and the
World Bank have an established presence in India. They have their own set of focus areas and
tend to work in the social sector.
Key enablers : ​ Well defined and tested business models are often the key spaces that
international agencies and governments invest into.

5. Barriers :​: International agencies need to invest heavily into ensuring policy and regulatory
frameworks are met. They also require a strong executive body working along with their
shareholdings for them to reap the fruits of their investment.
How has the stakeholder alignment worked out in T-HUB?
Online and offline onboarding for Investors,Mentors and Ambassadors :​ ​Constant building of
partnerships online and offline has lead to a huge network for T-Hub. T-Hub was started with a
funding of Rs 10 Crore which was rapidly scaled to $100 Million in a matter of four years.
Corporate partnerships :​ With 48 corporate partnerships and 8 anchored accelerator programs,
T-Hub ensures the deserving are not left out.
There are two broad acceleration models in T-hub:
Broad spectrum acceleration programmes:
One great example would be Uber, Uber exchange is a short term accelerator programme in the
silicon valley for startups in the agritech, smart city, sustainability, social impact and transportation
sectors. They cater to a variety of different domains and aim to activate the entire startup
ecosystem as a whole.
Niche accelerator programmes:
Yes bank and Facebook’s collaborative model with T-hub can be termed as a niche acceleration
programme. These programmes aim at building traction for emerging technologies :Yes bank’s
focus lies in the fintech space while Facebook aims at promoting AR/VR technologies.
About us: ​Innovation India
We propose a unique knowledge centre - ​Innovation India, ​that aims to align all of these
stakeholders under the greater goal of improving the startup ecosystem in India.​ Innovation India
would be a non-profit, technology-oriented think tank. We aim to work with the public sector ,private
sector and academia to promote open innovation and knowledge sharing in the Indian startup
ecosystem.
A Paradigm shift in the indian ecosystem
Innovation India​ serves as a consortium that bridges various ecosystem players through a deep
rooted understanding of the co-evolution of Indian society, culture and technology. The think tank
is largely flat with a strong emphasis on design driven approach to studying emerging technology,
problem-technology fitment while closely studying the emerging Indian ecosystem.
We have on board experts from the fields of investment, strategy, design , finance, government,
education, Social media and HR.

6. We have a three pronged approach to approaching change making:
1. Analyze :​ The roles highlighted in green and the blue focus on understanding the present
2. Connect :​ The roles highlighted in red blocks focus on connecting ecosystem players and
driving dialogue on multiple platforms
3. Imagine :​ The roles highlighted in pink work independently and visualizes the India of
tomorrow.
Project Map cum Strategic action plan
1. Inception :​ We start like anyone else , as a startup! (0 Yrs)
We offer consulting services to academic institutions setting up incubators as well as
existing business incubators looking for Technology and business advisors
2. First steps : ​We run an online networking platform for peer to peer mentorship and
collaboration on Technology and business. Tying up with Niti Aayog mentorship program.
We onboard students interested in advancing careers as well as Early stage startups to be
a part of the process. We match mentors using an AI driven model.
3. Setting up a digital space: ​We are India’s first digital think tank, it’s easier to get people
online rather than in person. We bring the network to your smart devices. (1 Year)
4. Online publishing :​ We onboard experts to be a part of our organisational structure and
we design and publish reports on the nature of Indian startups, funding, growth ,
emergence of technology and impact on society.

7. 5. Growth and expansion : ​We approach Large businesses and VCs after critical mass to
build a consortium for Innovation development , policy and regulatory debates and
Investment study. (2 Years)
We are now an established Centre-of-excellence improving the startup ecosystem in India.
Initiatives:
Education and skill-mapping:​ ​India needs to create millions of new jobs in order for us to
maintain economic growth. We need to map future jobs and skills demand and suggest what
educators and policymakers can do to address skills gaps. We work with academia to identify
potential candidates and match them with startups and tie-up with industry to upskill students in
technology.
Another important area is the use and impact of digital technologies in education.Initiatives such as
the ​Atal Innovation Mission​ which aims to promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship
offer unique partnerships for us.
Innovation Index:
An important factor to consider while gauging the startup ecosystem is ​Innovation​ as a metric. We
propose an innovation index, a metric that provides insights that can be understood by
policymakers and the public. We also propose an ​innovation dashboard - ​an interactive
dashboard that allows policymakers to improve research and innovation policy based on big data.
Challenges / Moonshot prizes:
Competitions open-to-all, are often the best
way to identify talent and bring about
innovative solutions for the most pressing
problems. A variety of different innovation
contests have brought about a lot successful
startups.
Tech talks: ​While there are special interest
groups in cities organizing talks in special
areas, we as a think-tank have access to a
wider group of professionals. Weekly talks
open to the public sparks new ideas and
interest in technology.
Conferences: ​Conferences bring about
people from industry, students and open
source developers to share the recent
advancements in a field (ex: Blockchain). The
recent (Aug 2018) international blockchain

8. conference co-hosted by NITI Aayog, Telangana and Goa state governments is an example of a
conference uniting these stakeholders.
Hackathons: ​Hackathons are a great way for teams to build products in a short time with cutting
edge technologies. They have produced multiple successful startups.
Startup conclaves: ​Startup conclaves are events that enable entrepreneurs to network with fellow
entrepreneurs and meet potential investors and co-founders.
Financials:
We present the budget .projections for ​Innovation India ​at different stages.
The detailed financial analysis document can be found here​.
Concluding thoughts:
In this case study, we analyzed the indian startup ecosystem, identified the root cause of
non-alignment of stakeholders and determined pathways to bring them together to build a robust
Indian startup ecosystem.
Our model lays emphasis on starting at the lowest level of the hierarchy and moving up towards
VCs. We believe the future is digital and propose a completely digital think tank - which is
accessible and affordable to all its stakeholders.