Who is Balaji S Srinivasan, Indian-American entrepreneur praised by PM Modi?

PM Modi responded to Balaji S Srinivasan's post on why he is investing in India and Indians. (Image credit: balajis.com)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi commended Indian-American entrepreneur and investor Balaji S Srinivasan on Sunday for his positive outlook on India's investment climate. The Prime Minister reaffirmed the nation's commitment to fostering innovation and embracing global investments.

“I love your optimism and will add – the people of India are trendsetters and trailblazers when it comes to innovation. We welcome the world to invest in our nation. India won't disappoint,” PM Modi said, responding to Srinivasan’s note on why he is investing in India and Indians.

The angel investor said India is an ancient civilization “that's simultaneously like a startup country”.

He said he sees the growth potential “because it helps build up Bharat, and because a strong and self-sufficient India is good for the world”.

Srinivasan’s points indicated a positive outlook on the economic prospects of the country and reflected confidence in the opportunities for investment and growth in the Indian market.

Who is Balaji S Srinivasan?

Balaji S Srinivasan is a prominent Silicon Valley investor and entrepreuner who was the CTO of crypto exchange Coinbase and a general partner in Andreessen Horowitz. He is an early investor in several tech companies and crypto protocols.

Srinivasan is the cofounder of several companies that were eventually acquired.

He is the cofounder of Earn.com (acquired by Coinbase), Counsyl (acquired by Myriad), Teleport (acquired by Topia), and Coin Center. Counsyl, where he was also the CTO, was a genomics startup that began in a Stanford dorm room and tested four per cent of all US births.

After ten years in genomics and five years at Counsyl, he stepped back from an executive role in November 2012 to work on other areas of technology.

Srinivasan has author of "The Network State", a best-seller in which he describes how to build the successor to the nation state, a concept called the “network state”.

The investor holds a BS/MS/PhD in Electrical Engineering and an MS in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University. He also served as a lecturer at Departments of Statistics, and Computer Science at Stanford.

In 2017, Srinivasan was under consideration for the Donald Trump administration's pick to lead the Federal Drug Administration (FDA), the all-important federal agency for drug and pharma industry.

In 2021, Srinivasan, along with Naval Ravikant, had invested in Koo, the microblogging platform that was launched in an attempt to be India answer to X (formerly Twitter).

An active presence on X, Srinivasan has over 9.62 lakh followers on the platform.