The Rise of the Startup Ecosystem in India and its Societal Impact

Our public seminar series continues as we explore the most recent trends, patterns, and challenges of entrepreneurship in Asia and their relevance to Silicon Valley and the U.S. This week we’ll move our focus to India with guest speaker, Dr. Amit Kapoor, Honorary Chairman of the Institute for Competitiveness of India. Dr. Kapoor will discuss the rise of the startup ecosystem in India and its societal impact, highlighting the massive changes in the Indian market structure and evolving dynamics. The discussion will be moderated by Dr. Richard Dasher, Director of the US-Asia Technology Management Center.

About Dr. Amit Kapoor, Honorary Chairman, Institute for Competitiveness, India

Amit Kapoor, PhD, is a leading expert on international competitiveness, India’s economy, and democratic development. He is Honorary Chairman at the Indian Institute for Competitiveness, Chair for the Social Progress Imperative & Shared Value Initiative in India, member of the University of San Diego’s Advisory Board and has been a lecturer at Stanford University.

He has authored The Age of Awakening: The Story of the Indian Economy Since Independence, and co-authored Riding the Tiger (with Wilfried Aulber), The Elephant Moves (with Amitabh Kant), Jyotirlingams (with Bibek Debroy), and Competitiveness Roadmap for India @100 (with Christian Ketels and Michael Porter). His most recent book, Disrupting Democracies is published by the Bertelsmann Foundation. He has also been the driving force behind, and author of, the India City Competitiveness Report, the India State Competitiveness Report, the India Manufacturing Competitiveness Report, the India State Sustainability Report, the India Livability Report, and the Creative Economy of Indian Cities and States Report, that are published on a periodic basis, and numerous other reports on India’s economic, social, and political environment. His work also forms the basis of prestigious State, City, and Corporate Competitiveness awards in India.

Amit has worked extensively with NITI Aayog (the Indian Prime Minister’s Think Tank), the Economic Advisory Council to India’s Prime Minister, India’s Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, the World Bank, Harvard’s Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness, and numerous other organizations around the world. He has been indicted into the “Competitiveness Hall of Fame” by Harvard’s Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness and received the Ruth Greene Memorial Award for best case of the year from the North American Case Research Association.

He is a columnist with Economic Times, Financial Express, Mint, Open, Business World, and Business Standard. In addition to these publications, his contributions have appeared in Harvard Business Review, Hindu, Business Insider, Hindu Business Line, Outlook Business, Governance Now, Business Today, FirstPost, and many others. In all, he has written over 1000 opinion pieces in addition to his academic work. He has presented his work on strategy, competitiveness, and democratic development to international gatherings in Washington DC, London, Toronto, and Iceland, as well as to Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, Harvard Law School, Harvard College, Stanford University, University of California-Berkeley, the World Economic Forum, TEDx and the Unreasonable Thinking Summit.

Amit chairs the jury and curates India’s Porter Prize and curates India’s National Competitiveness Forum, Shared Value Summit, and Thinkers 50 (India), among other forums. As for his interest in entrepreneurship, he is a keen investor and has funded enterprises like Mettl, SoulAce, Devtron Labs, Business World, and others. He tweets @kautiliya and can be contacted at [email protected].

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To attend in-person, please register over Eventbrite.

To attend by Zoom, please register here.

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Parking options:

• Memorial Way, Stanford, CA 94305 [Google Map]
• Lasuen St. and Roth Way, Stanford, CA 94305 [Google Map]
• Please check parking signs carefully to ensure that permitted parking (A or C) and metered spaces are free after 4:00 pm. Paid parking is enforced around The Oval until 6:00 pm.

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Our series on "Entrepreneurship in Asian High-Tech Industries" begins March 31, 2025 and continues until June 2, 2026.

For our schedule of speakers, please visit our event page here.

Session Recordings are typically posted within 3 business days after each session on our .

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