Washington, June 13 (IANS). India’s innovation ecosystem has received “tremendous recognition” in Silicon Valley over the past five years. This change has been possible due to the increasing number of startups, Artificial Intelligence (AI) based enterprises and the boom in global investment. Entrepreneur and investor Shashi Tripathi gave this information in a special conversation with news agency IANS before the ‘India Innovates 2026’ summit to be held in France.
Tripathi said, “India has made many wonderful achievements in the field of AI, technology and overall innovation. The respect for India in terms of innovation has increased significantly.”
100 Indian startups selected through a competitive process will showcase their capabilities at the ‘India Innovates 2026’ conference to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron. Tripathi said the event reflects India’s growing reputation as a global innovation and entrepreneurship hub.
Tripathi further told IANS that Silicon Valley’s perspective on India has changed rapidly. Now Indian entrepreneurs are not limited to just traditional tech services but are also rapidly moving into emerging areas like AI, fintech, retail technology and space innovation.
He said, “New space technologies are being developed in India. New fintech solutions are emerging. New models are being created in the retail sector. Overall, innovation is happening on a large scale in India.”
He said that due to increasing innovation, the confidence of international investors in India has also increased. Global technology companies and venture capital investors are investing in India on a large scale.
Shashi Tripathi said, “New investments are continuously coming to India from Silicon Valley. A large amount of capital is being invested in India because of innovation.”
Tripathi cited change in social thinking as a major reason for India’s progress. According to him, now the youth are adopting entrepreneurship as a career instead of job. “The culture has changed now. When I completed my studies, I could not have imagined starting a company immediately after graduation,” he said.
He told that today many students are starting startups even before completing their studies. He said, “Now failure has started to be accepted and unless there is failure, there will be no innovation.”
Tripathi described ‘Bharat Innovates 2026’ as an important platform for international cooperation. He said that this will provide an opportunity to Indian startups to connect with global markets, investors and tech ecosystem.
He said, “Collaboration is very important. It is important to understand what is happening in the world and compare ourselves with the global level.”
He informed that the startups selected for the conference are among the strongest emerging companies of India. They are working in areas like AI, fintech, health technology and advanced engineering. “These are excellent startups. Their quality is very high,” Tripathi said.
Tripathi also credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi for promoting startup culture in India. He said that PM Modi did not allow innovation to be limited to big cities only, but played an important role in taking it to small towns.
“I would give him credit for developing and accelerating the startup ecosystem. He has played a huge role in it,” he said.
He said that now innovations are also emerging from second and third tier cities, thereby ensuring wider participation in economic development. However, Tripathi believes that India will have to work on more ambitious projects to compete with the world’s leading innovation hubs.
“India has the talent, the capability and the courage to do big innovations. India can do it,” he said.
He stressed the need for deeper collaboration between government, industry and academic institutions. He especially described the role of Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) as important.
Shashi Tripathi said, “IIT has played a huge role and I believe that the role of IIT will continue to be very important in future also.”
–IANS
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