Prime Minister Hosts Roundtable With PE/VC Leaders

Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted representatives of leading Private Equity and Venture Capital funds at his Lok Kalyan Marg residence in Delhi for interactions in line with his endeavour to boost the investment climate in the country. During the meeting the discussion centered around the key initiatives in this regard by the government. The Prime Minister personally interacted with the industry leaders to also gather their inputs in the runup to Budget 2022.

The meeting was attended by a host of leading industry professionals. These included Mr. Prashant Prakash from Accel Partners, Mr. Rajan Anandan from Sequoia Capital, Mr. Gopal Srinivasan from TVS Capital, Ms Renuka Ramnath from Multiples, Mr. Munish Verma from Softbank, Mr. Sandeep Naik from General Atlantic, Mr. Manish Kejriwal from Kedaara Capital, Mr. Ashley Menezes from Chrys, Mr. Srini Sriniwasan from Kotak Alternate Assets, Mr. Shantanu Nalavadi from India Resurgent, Mr. Siddarth Pai from 3one4, Mr. Vineet Rai from Aavishkar, Ms Shweta Jalan from Advent, Mr. Amit Dalmia from Blackstone, Mr. Vipul Roongta from HDFC Capital, Mr. Ankur Gupta from Brookfield, Mr. Mukul Arora from Elevation, Mr. Sehraj Singh from Prosus, Mr. Ranjit Shah from Gaja Capital, Mr. Sunil Goyal from Yournest and Mr. Padmanabh Sinha from NIIF. Finance Minister Ms. Nirmal Seetharaman was present along with MoS Finance, Officials of PMO and Finance Ministry were also present in the interaction.

In the course of discussions, the Prime Minister sought suggestions towards improving Ease of Doing Business in India, attracting more capital and furthering the reform process in the country. A number of practical suggestions were forthcoming from the representatives, which the Prime Minister appreciated and he commented that the government is committed towards working to resolve the issues and challenges highlighted. He discussed the efforts undertaken by the government to bring in more reforms, future potential of initiatives like PM GatiShakti, and steps taken to reduce the unnecessary compliance burden. He also mentioned the innovation happening in India at the grassroot level and the boost to the startup ecosystem.

Representatives of the Venture Capital and Private Equity Fund praised the Prime Minister for his leadership which has been a key driving force behind the boost to the investment climate in the country. Praising the initiatives taken to boost the Startup ecosystem in the country, Siddarth Pai termed the Prime Minister as the ‘Startup Prime Minister’.

The Venture Capital and Private Equity Fund representatives also talked about the entrepreneurial potential of the country, and how it can be leveraged so that our startups can attain global scale. Prashant Prakash highlighted the opportunities that are present in the Agri startups. Rajan Anandan suggested working towards making India the global hub in education by leveraging technology. Shantanu Nalavadi praised the reforms undertaken by the country in the last 7 years especially the step to set up the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). Amit Dalmia said that India is among the best performing geographies for the Blackstone (funds) globally. Vipul Roongta praised the policy initiatives that have been taken by the government, in the Housing sector especially in the Affordable housing segment. The representatives also discussed the opportunities that are emerging because of India's exemplary climate commitments including the ones in the sphere of energy transitions. They also gave inputs about areas like FinTech and Financial Management and Software as a Service (SAAS) amongst others. There was also discussion around the goal of making India a $5 trillion economy which was appreciated by those in attendance.