Courage Meets Capital In This New Era Of Indian Startups, Says Raamdeo Agrawal

In a nation with a buzzing capital market, a quiet revolution is underway. India's younger generation has both the courage and access to capital for launching startups. This means that the route of entrepreneurship is no longer the road not taken.

The younger generation is boldly stepping into the entrepreneurial arena, and Raamdeo Agrawal, chairman and co-founder of Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd., calls this a powerful confluence of courage and capital. Agrawal, one of India’s most respected financial minds, paints a vivid and optimistic picture of this shift.

"We have no dearth of new guys. There are so many people who work really hard," he said in an exclusive conversation with NDTV Profit on Friday. He emphasised that the notion of a lack of ambitious individuals is far from the truth, citing his own son's dedication as an example of the full-time commitment of young professionals.

Agrawal highlighted a crucial distinction. "While some are passionate and some are not passionate, the number of new entrants into both the corporate and entrepreneurial worlds is present."

There is massive interest, he said. With the startup sector growing with innovative ideas and attractive opportunities, individuals are increasingly willing to take the leap into building something of their own.

This courage to take on entrepreneurial ventures, coupled with the readily available capital in the market, creates what Agrawal describes as a "quite crazy" blend. He notes this powerful synergy is not just happening, but getting bigger. This signals a sustained and accelerating entrepreneurial boom driven by India's younger generation.

On the broader economy, Agrawal is upbeat. India’s economic potential is rising steadily, driven by its sheer scale and population base. “The potential of the economy is definitely going up,” he stated, adding that trade flows will be a key driver of GDP growth going forward.

“There’s almost a one-to-one correlation between trade flow increases and GDP expansion." Once trade picks up, growth will accelerate, he said.

Agrawal noted that even as the benchmark indices have delivered modest returns over the past year, investor participation remains strong. He pointed to the ongoing shift in savings from fixed income to equities as a structural trend, noting that family offices, retail investors and promoters are all contributing to the market’s momentum.