Indian startup ecosystem is mature, set to bolster Indian economy: AWS' Kumara Raghavan

The Indian startup ecosystem is mature, with multiple tailwinds that are poised to escalate India to become the third largest economy in the world, said AWS‘ Kumara Raghavan. In a conversation with PTI, Raghavan, Head, Startups, Amazon Web Services (AWS) India, and South Asia, discussed the vibrant Indian startup scene, noting its strength and innovation potential. “We are the 5th largest economy, we are trending towards becoming the 3rd largest… factors that will contribute to it are labor addition, infrastructure growth, and efficiency improvements, where technologies like GenAI will play their part, a large developer ecosystem, the ability to build products in the country and serviced all over the world, then there are regulatory tailwinds like Make in India and Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme as well,” he said.

Raghavan lauded the maturity of the Indian startup ecosystem, noting the significant contributions of experienced founders who have embarked on multiple entrepreneurial ventures. “We are the third largest startup ecosystem in the world. And there are a couple of tailwinds going for us,” he said.

He gave credit to various factors for driving India’s growth as a startup ecosystem.

“Over the last decade, we have seen founders launch multiple startups over the last 7-8 years,” he said, adding that this wealth of experience has not only accelerated the lifecycle of startups but has also enhanced their chances of success.

India’s strong developer ecosystem has further bolstered the startup scene, offering a competitive advantage and fostering a culture of innovation, he added.

“These combine to give us a very strong momentum… India is one of the most vibrant and open markets. And there are so many opportunities to solve,” he noted.

Raghavan also pointed out the increasing interest of startups towards embracing GenAI, and gave instances of Yellow.ai, Healthify, Fibe (formerly EarlySalary) adopting and utilising AWS’ generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) capabilities to revolutionise customer experiences, internal operations, and scalability.