Create population scale, unlock potential of system to create valuable companies: Nandan Nilekani to entrepreneurs

Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani

Startups and technology companies should create population scale to unlock the potential of the system as entrepreneurs look to create more valuable companies amid a macroeconomic downturn, said Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani speaking at the GSV Emeritus Summit.

“I think it’s important to realise that we designed all this public infrastructure and population scale with the idea of building innovation on top of it just like Jio could use e-KYC (know your customer) to do mobile connections,” said Nilekani.

“I think if you can create population scale which is substantial and unlock the potential of the system, then you as an entrepreneur can build on top of that and create very valuable companies,” Nilekani added.

Nilekani's comments come at a time when India's technology companies and startups are facing a slowdown in demand as well as a worsening funding winter. Naturally, entrepreneurs have become risk-averse in order to extend their runway and survive this downturn.

Nilekani also expressed his bullishness on India stack and some of the recent initiatives of the government including the move to bring GST under account aggregator framework. Nilekani said that this will help companies indirectly in creating jobs, which would then lead to sales picking up.

“We have this whole system in the financial sector where people can start using their own data to get access to credit for it. Now India has about 11-12 million businesses registered in the GST (Goods and Services Tax) system. And in the latest budget, the government said that the GST system could join the account aggregator network, which means that every company in the case system can ask for its data back from the GST, which includes the tax filings, invoices, which is authentic,” said Nilekani.

“So what this will do is essentially reduce friction to credit for small business which will be challenging. And if millions of small businesses get access to credit. Then given the fact that you could build a company where they create jobs, and once they create jobs, there will be pressure on skilling because the guy with better skill would get the job. So I think we have to solve the demand side issue of job creation, and I think the sales will then follow,” Nilekani added.