While e-commerce and mobile is flourishing, manufacturing is languishing,” says Shaurya Himatsingka

 “We need to step out of just business and look at nation building,” words from a young Shaurya Veer Himatsingka, who serves as the National Chairman of Young Indians (Yi), a wing of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

The team of YourStory was at Yi’s entrepreneurship summit called #GrowthHack to understand more about the initiatives the industry body is taking to foster entrepreneurial growth.

Talking about Young India, Shaurya tells us that it is a nation building forum, standing on three pillars of – Nation building, Youth Leadership, and Thought Leadership with various verticals of entrepreneurship, innovation, etc. He says

“It’s about taking up projects and translating them into the development of a stronger India while creating a sustainable ecosystem. Our vision is to be the voice of young Indians globally and our mission would be to build the young India of our dreams.”

While speaking about what he thinks of the entrepreneurship ecosystem, he comments it is quite sector dependent. At one end there is excitement around e-commerce and mobile in Bangalore, but on the other he thinks while being based out of the eastern part of the country the sector of manufacturing is languishing behind.

So what steps should the government take to foster this ecosystem? Shaurya comments, by saying the ease of doing business.

“It really summarises what has been missing in India. Coming from a manufacturing background, I often see that our biggest concern is not the project economics, but about getting the land and pollution clearances. This takes away an immense amount of mindspace for an entrepreneur. You got to let him or her focus on the business and not let them get stuck with issues which are peripheral.”

Moreover, individuals who don’t have that amount of rigour are just pushed out of the ecosystem, breaking them. Thus, according to this National Chair ease of business of not just reducing clearances from 50 to 40, but also receiving the right financial and other support.

How Yi collaborates with the government

Speaking from a thought leadership perspective, Shaurya says Yi plays a role in advocacy and policy with the government. Trying to create two page powerful and impactful papers on topics of importance like traffic law, etc., this industry body petitions the government to enact these policies for the betterment of the nation.

The organisation also aims to work with the government actively to see and hope that within 12–18 months the policies suggested by Yi have been implemented by the government across sectors.

Advice to entrepreneur

Being an entrepreneur and angel investor himself, Shaurya urges individuals who are starting up to go for it. He thinks that quite often one gets stuck in analysis and paralysis, with too much analysis. Calling it a great danger, he says founders shouldn’t get caught in the melee of great valuations and funding coming in. One really needs to ask themselves if they see a market five years down hence.

Hence, a healthy balance between being a dreamer and pragmatists is really important to make things successful. As an angel investor, Shaurya looks at great teams. Concluding he comments

“At the end of the day, you invest in people. Moreover, it’s about basics. Whether a market exists for the product and unit economics is becoming important. That is very important and a very healthy thing."

Camera person: Rukmangada Raja

Video editor: Anand

Production Assistant: Vincent Arthur