Creating infra to win back startups & businesses to Maharashtra: Deputy CM

Devendra Fadnavis also reiterated that the state is aiming to stay number one in the space of fintech startups

Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis agreed that the state lost to Bengaluru in terms of attracting startups, but added that the infrastructure that his government is creating will be able to attract businesses back.

“We lost a lot to Bangalore, I agree, because we did not create infrastructure and it was unaffordable for businesses to be in Mumbai and hence they went to Bangalore and Hyderabad. But now we are creating such an infra in Mumbai and the State that we can bring back that position,” said the minister. He was talking at the Nasscom Technology and Leadership Forum 2023.

He also reiterated that the state is aiming to stay number one in the space of fintech startups.

“We were among the first states to have our own fintech and startup policy. Our fintech policy was very forward-looking that came out in 2018. Our fintech policy was very forward-looking at that time and we envisioned it in 2017 and PM’s startup India movement and we started the same. We started the fintech registry and our API sandbox and with that we saw almost 500 investors coming forward and invested Rs 1,000 crore and about 8,000 fintech benefitted due to the government initiatives,” he added.

While Maharashtra came up with a policy for fintechs in 2018, Karnataka came up with its startup policy in 2015, which was updated in 2022.

India is the third largest startup ecosystem in the world after the US and China. Fadnavis added that India has 80,000 startups and over 100 unicorns. “Out of those 80,000, 15,000 registered startups are in Maharashtra and around 25 unicorns are in the state,” he added.

Fadnavis also asked the tech industry at Nasscom to come up with best solutions in the healthcare and education space. “When it comes to connectivity the fiber has reached over 28,000 villages. We need best solutions in the healthcare and education space so that we can take these to the farthest parts of Maharashtra,” he added.

He added that some of the infrastructure that the state is working on will create world-class connectivity for businesses. The Trans-Harbour link, a 22km bridge, will be ready by early next year. “This will link Mumbai to the hinterland and new spaces will be created,” he said.

Fadnavis also believes that Maharashtra and Mumbai can be the hub of data centres for the country. “65 per cent of data centres capacity of India is being developed here. We can be the data centre hub for the country,” added the deputy CM.