Made to perfection: India Today honours the country's emerging entrepreneurs

Real change is brought about by entrepreneurs and innovators. The government's job is to facilitate," said Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union minister for law and justice and electronics and information technology, while delivering the inaugural address at the second india today Make in India Emerging Entrepreneur Awards in New Delhi on July 6. Inspired by the Union government's Make in India mission, the awards were initiated last year to encourage Indian entrepreneurs making a mark in the manufacturing sector.

Prasad expressed satisfaction over the momentum building in the new economy from IT-enabled services. India, he said, has emerged as the world's third-largest start-up hub. Sharing his government's achievements, Prasad said FDI has increased by 33 per cent in the past three years, taking investment from overseas to a record high. The country, he said, has also moved up 12 places in the global ranking on ease of doing business.

The Union minister also set the goal of building a $1 trillion digital economy in the next five years. "We came up with technology that is affordable, development-oriented and inclusive," he said. Prasad emphasised that growth is linked to good governance, which in turn needs the foundation of good politics. "Good politics is based on integrity. We must work honestly and diligently. We are happy this government is taint-free," he said.

During the day-long event, spread over 11 engaging sessions, 27 eminent speakers debated the country's growth potential. They included Union minister of state for finance and corporate affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal, Union minister of state for civil aviation Jayant Sinha, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant and K. Radhakrishnan, former chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation. Sinha, Meghwal and india today Group Editorial Director Raj Chengappa joined india today Editor-in-Chief Aroon Purie in giving away the awards.

Kant, in his keynote address, said that India cannot grow till it penetrates the global market, but things stand to change with the Goods and Services Tax (GST). "It will result in 12-14 per cent growth in the capital goods market as investment in the sector will grow," he said. Kant added that GST will help expand the tax net, boosting social sector development. Meghwal said 2017 would be remembered as the year of economic reforms. He said the demonetisation last year had helped in the digital economy's growth from January this year. Demonetisation had also dealt a blow to the country's shadow economy-estimated at 23.7 per cent of the GDP by World Bank-and added 9.1 million people to the tax net. "If we had to provide global economic leadership, we needed to hit the shadow economy," Meghwal said. Refuting the perception that credit growth had been slow in the country, Sinha said: "There had been a structural shift in how the Indian economy gets financed, which does not get reflected in the old accounting system."

Methodology

To select the winners of the Make in India Emerging Entrepreneur Awards, the india today Group partnered with Samagra, a governance and development consulting entity. In the first stage of the selection process, secondary research based on industry reports, company database, media reports and suggestions from experts was conducted for over 350 companies. Sixty companies were shortlisted. The founders and heads of these companies were interviewed, their financial reports of the past three years were scrutinised and intellectual property-related documents reviewed.

Finally, an eminent panel, which included india today Editor-in-Chief Aroon Purie; Baba Kalyani, chairman, Kalyani Group; Manish Sabharwal, chairman, TeamLease Services; Uday Kotak, CEO, Kotak Mahindra Bank; Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairperson and managing director, Biocon; and Sanjay Nayar, CEO, KKR India, selected the winners.