Rahul Garg
Chairman, CII Unicorn Forum & Founder, Moglix
A 360 Framework for India’s Startup Future
On National Startup Day, the moment invites both optimism and reflection. India’s entrepreneurial ecosystem has grown rapidly. Yet the world it will operate in over the next decade will be more complex than the last shaped by geopolitical shifts, policy recalibrations, and evolving value chains. In this context, startups must anchor their strategy in a holistic, 360-degree framework that emphasises capability, adaptability, and long-term relevance.
The most important lesson from recent global trade developments, whether tariff changes in Latin America, nearshoring trends in North America, or supply-chain diversification efforts across Asia is this: geography is fluid; capability is constant. Trade corridors, tariff regimes, and preferential agreements change. What endures is the strength of a nation’s industrial, technological, and entrepreneurial base. For Indian startups, the imperative is clear: build capability that endures beyond any single corridor or cycle.
Geopolitical resilience and capability before geography
The resurgence of global supply-chain realignment, from tariff dynamics in Mexico to the diversification strategies of global manufacturers highlights that agility can no longer be an occasional asset. For India’s startups, resilience means the ability to adapt, relearn, and pivot without losing strategic coherence. It also means building underlying capabilities in core domains that make Indian enterprises attractive partners across multiple markets and corridors.
Capability is not a static metric. It reflects product quality, supply-chain depth, execution discipline, and the confidence to compete without assuming preferential access. Startups should think beyond single markets and cultivate competencies that make them globally relevant, not conditionally competitive.
Technological sovereignty with purpose and context
Technological adoption remains at the heart of competitiveness. But the question for Indian startups is not merely what technologies to adopt: it is how they are applied. Pathways that rely heavily on imported playbooks will struggle to answer local needs at scale. Instead, applied innovation must reflect India’s market reality and contribute to deeper self-reliance while preserving global relevance. Use of advanced technologies — AI, automation, data systems should be purposefully aligned with solving real business and societal needs in India. This mindset will enable solutions that are locally grounded and globally resonant.
Strategic sector focus and policy ecosystems
India’s ambition to build strength in deeptech, sustainable manufacturing, industrial innovation, and related domains is not aspirational rhetoric. Government tools like the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes, extended across 14 priority sectors, are now materially shaping industrial capacity, investment flows, and export competitiveness. These schemes have attracted substantial investment nearly ₹1.76 lakh crore in realized commitments and generated significant jobs and output across key manufacturing segments.
Startups that align with such strategic sectors not only contribute to import substitution and supply-chain resilience but also position themselves as partners in nation-scale industrial transformation. In areas like solar manufacturing, electronics components, pharmaceuticals APIs, and industrial automation, the PLI framework is already catalysing structural capability.
A 360-degree startup framework: capabilities, technology, and ecosystem alignment
A true 360-degree framework does not isolate resilience, innovation, or sector focus into silos. It combines them with institutional collaboration, policy coherence, and ecosystem support from capital markets to skilling pipelines, from trade facilitation to regulatory clarity. The startups that thrive will be those that embed these elements into strategy and execution.
This framework serves two principal dimensions. First, it strengthens India’s domestic startup ecosystem by creating durable companies with deep roots in local opportunity and advantage. Second, it enables Indian enterprises to emerge as credible choices for global partners seeking resilient, distributed systems rather than brittle, cost-only solutions.
Shaping change, not reacting to it
India’s startups have shown remarkable adaptability in the past decade. The next decade will reward those that combine strategic capability with contextual innovation. Resilience is not merely defensive. It is the ability to harness uncertainty as a source of opportunity and growth. By embedding resilience, technological self-belief, and sectoral depth into their core strategies, India’s startups can transform challenges into durable competitive advantage not just for themselves but for the nation’s role in global innovation and supply networks.
India’s entrepreneurial journey is not just about navigating uncertainty. It is about shaping the future with purpose, discipline, and sustained capability.
The most important lesson from recent global trade developments, whether tariff changes in Latin America, nearshoring trends in North America, or supply-chain diversification efforts across Asia is this: geography is fluid; capability is constant. Trade corridors, tariff regimes, and preferential agreements change. What endures is the strength of a nation’s industrial, technological, and entrepreneurial base. For Indian startups, the imperative is clear: build capability that endures beyond any single corridor or cycle.
Geopolitical resilience and capability before geography
The resurgence of global supply-chain realignment, from tariff dynamics in Mexico to the diversification strategies of global manufacturers highlights that agility can no longer be an occasional asset. For India’s startups, resilience means the ability to adapt, relearn, and pivot without losing strategic coherence. It also means building underlying capabilities in core domains that make Indian enterprises attractive partners across multiple markets and corridors.
Capability is not a static metric. It reflects product quality, supply-chain depth, execution discipline, and the confidence to compete without assuming preferential access. Startups should think beyond single markets and cultivate competencies that make them globally relevant, not conditionally competitive.
Technological sovereignty with purpose and context
Technological adoption remains at the heart of competitiveness. But the question for Indian startups is not merely what technologies to adopt: it is how they are applied. Pathways that rely heavily on imported playbooks will struggle to answer local needs at scale. Instead, applied innovation must reflect India’s market reality and contribute to deeper self-reliance while preserving global relevance. Use of advanced technologies — AI, automation, data systems should be purposefully aligned with solving real business and societal needs in India. This mindset will enable solutions that are locally grounded and globally resonant.
Strategic sector focus and policy ecosystems
India’s ambition to build strength in deeptech, sustainable manufacturing, industrial innovation, and related domains is not aspirational rhetoric. Government tools like the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes, extended across 14 priority sectors, are now materially shaping industrial capacity, investment flows, and export competitiveness. These schemes have attracted substantial investment nearly ₹1.76 lakh crore in realized commitments and generated significant jobs and output across key manufacturing segments.
Startups that align with such strategic sectors not only contribute to import substitution and supply-chain resilience but also position themselves as partners in nation-scale industrial transformation. In areas like solar manufacturing, electronics components, pharmaceuticals APIs, and industrial automation, the PLI framework is already catalysing structural capability.
A 360-degree startup framework: capabilities, technology, and ecosystem alignment
A true 360-degree framework does not isolate resilience, innovation, or sector focus into silos. It combines them with institutional collaboration, policy coherence, and ecosystem support from capital markets to skilling pipelines, from trade facilitation to regulatory clarity. The startups that thrive will be those that embed these elements into strategy and execution.
This framework serves two principal dimensions. First, it strengthens India’s domestic startup ecosystem by creating durable companies with deep roots in local opportunity and advantage. Second, it enables Indian enterprises to emerge as credible choices for global partners seeking resilient, distributed systems rather than brittle, cost-only solutions.
Shaping change, not reacting to it
India’s startups have shown remarkable adaptability in the past decade. The next decade will reward those that combine strategic capability with contextual innovation. Resilience is not merely defensive. It is the ability to harness uncertainty as a source of opportunity and growth. By embedding resilience, technological self-belief, and sectoral depth into their core strategies, India’s startups can transform challenges into durable competitive advantage not just for themselves but for the nation’s role in global innovation and supply networks.
India’s entrepreneurial journey is not just about navigating uncertainty. It is about shaping the future with purpose, discipline, and sustained capability.
