Broadly, GoI has managed to get this balance right. The harvest of Indian unicorns bears out the ease of doing business. Increasing disclosures for venture capital have kept the funding pipeline reasonably wide. And, consumer protection is gaining traction through a flurry of legislation. Excesses in other ecosystems have not singed most Indian startups, although investors have been more discerning post listing. To that extent, regulation is catching up with investor protection, as it must. Rules have been tightened to discourage fundraising at anything but fair value.
Other jurisdictions do have lower guard rails and hold out the promise of greater business freedom. But those freedoms come with unreasonable risks for new entrepreneurs. The Indian ecosystem may not be the easiest to do business in, but it also does not permit spectacular flameouts. This has partly to do with the overall business regulatory structure that may be restrictive by some accounts, but delivers for an economy at India‘s stage of development. Our startups must operate within this reality with the assurance that rules for doing business in the country will be progressively relaxed as market forces gain a stronger hold. They could play a big role in speeding up the transition.
