The 74th Independence Day celebrations at Red Fort, India was a subdued celebration by all standards, another event affected by COViD-19 pandemic. However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made another inspiring speech aimed to lift the mood of the nation and fuel the engine of the country’s development in the current crisis. Looking at all the recent announcements by the Government, it is pretty clear that most policymakers realize that India needs to be a lot more innovative and competitive to reach goals that all governments aim for.
The New Education Policy 2020, released by MHRD, looks to overhaul the long-pending colonial approach to education that most of the developed nations had already done away with.
Some of the salient points from PM Modi’s speech that Entrepreneurs could latch on to are
Atmanirbhar Krishi: Investments in Infrastructure for Agriculture – AgriTech is among the shiniest fields for startups right now. With the government planning to invest even more in Infrastructure to help the Agriculture sector, this should be helping all the opportunities linked to farm-to-plate or co-operative investments.
Space Sector: Open to Private players – This is where the big startups or ones with deep pockets can come in. The space sector has seen a lot of innovation across the world, with SpaceX, United Launch Alliance (ULA), Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman among the biggest players. They will still have to trim a lot of their fat to compete with Indian pricing.
Digital India: Digital Payments – Indians have already made more than 3 Lakh Crore (3 Trillion) transactions using digital payments. With the exponential rise of smartphones and improvements in data services across the country, payment and related services will be poised for rapid growth in the coming years.
Digital India: Internet Connectivity – PM Modi provided an aspirational vision to connect all Gram Panchayats within the Indian Mainland and Lakshadweep Islands with Optical fiber within the next 1000 days. This would open a big set of the population to consume quality content and services based on high bandwidth.
Digital India: National Digital Health Mission – A Health ID for everyone. Similar to AADHAR or PAN, the Government will roll out a Health ID which everyone would use at a doctor’s clinic, a Pharmacy, or a Hospital and all health records would be tracked digitally.
Atmanirbhar Bharat: Make in India for Defence equipments – Anyone who wants to enter into manufacturing should be delighted with this news. While getting the entire contract may be a tricky one but setting up factories for building components for these should be possible. This would also be useful for mass employment operations.
Most of these are very aspirational for now and would need a lot of groundwork before a proper rollout, esp. the Digital Health ID. Health Data Integration and centralizations need a lot of data security and data privacy laws before this can be implemented to bare minimum satisfaction.
What else in India’s Independence Day speech raised your entrepreneurial spirit? Did you find any other sectors exciting? Do you have any other ideas which you want others to target? If you want to share it with us, please add them to the comments section or let us know at contact@booleanidea.com.
