New Delhi, Dec 17 (FN Agency) With Union Budget less than two months away, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday held a meeting with top honchos of venture capital and private equity funds such as Sequoia, Softbank, General Atlantic, Kedaara Capital, Chrys, Brookfield and Blackstone. During the interaction, Modi sought inputs for improving Ease of Doing Business in India, attracting more capital and furthering the reform process in the country.
A press note from Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said that Modi appreciated the practical suggestions received from the fund managers and said the government is committed towards working to resolve the issues and challenges faced by them. The Prime Minister mentioned the innovation happening in India at the grassroot level and the boost to the startup ecosystem. As per an official statement, the venture capital and private equity fund representatives praised the Prime Minister for his leadership which has been a “prime driving force behind the massive boost to the investment climate in the country.” Praising the initiatives taken to boost the Startup ecosystem in the country, Siddarth Pai from 3one4 termed the Prime Minister as the ‘Startup Prime Minister’. While Prashant Prakash from Accel highlighted the opportunities that are present in the Agri startups, Sequoia’s Rajan Anandan suggested working towards making India the global hub in education by leveraging technology. Shantanu Nalavadi from India Resurgent 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 from Blackstone said that India is among the best performing geographies for the fund house globally. “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, Software as a Service (Saas) etc,” said the PMO release. Among those who attended the high-level interaction included Munish Verma from Softbank, Renuka Ramnath from Multiples, Vipul Roongta from HDFC, Padmanabh Sinha from NIIF, Sandeep Naik from General Atlantic, Manish Kejriwal from Kedaara Capital and Vineet Rai from Aavishkar. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, officials of PMO and Finance Ministry were also present in the interaction.