‘Industry should create a fund to nurture new-age entrepreneurship’: Piyush Goyal

Addressing the industry at the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) through video conference, Goyal said top Indian business leaders can engage with youth and mentor them to encourage entrepreneurship.

Union commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday proposed the industry to create a pool of capital to nurture new-age ideas, support new businesses and encourage entrepreneurship.

File photo: Union minister Piyush Goyal. (PTI)

Addressing the industry at the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) through video conference, Goyal said top Indian business leaders can engage with youth and mentor them to encourage entrepreneurship.

The government will help the CII in creating a global platform that may include like-minded countries such as the US, Japan, European Union (EU), Singapore, Canada, South Africa and Brazil to work collectively towards the development of potential new businesses across the globe, he said. Goyal, on Thursday, launched the CII’s new initiative - India’s Future Business Group (FBG).

“The FBG has been constituted to support the emergence of new-age businesses, attract global investment in new businesses in India and to foster government-industry cooperation to help develop new policies to support the innovative businesses,” a CII spokesperson said. The theme of the group is ‘Nurturing the existing new businesses and fast-tracking the entry and growth of new businesses in India’, he said.

Sanjiv Bajaj, vice president of the CII and chairman of Bajaj Finserv Ltd said, “Disruption is the new normal. The whole process of developing disruptive technologies and business models will be accelerated by the CII’s Future Business Group. India has played a key role in digital technologies in the last 10 years, now the time is ripe for the country to make the next big leap.”

“The initiative will send a powerful message to all entrepreneurs of present and future about our efforts to encourage and incubate the businesses of future,” Manoj Kohli country head, SoftBank India said. He is also the chairman of the group.

Chandrajit Banerjee, director-general of the CII, proposed to Goyal to consider forming a joint working group of the industry and the government to formulate the national strategy and focus on sector-wise reforms. The minister accepted the proposal, the spokesperson said.

The FBG will dedicate itself to encourage the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship. It will guide and steer the newcomers to rise to the unicorn, he said.

The CII would soon launch the global unicorn series under the auspices of SoftBank India with the participation of unicorns from the US, the EU, Japan, Australia, Singapore, Israel and South Korea to share their journey to glory, he added.