The economic and trade volatility caused by the war in West Asia has underscored the need for India to upgrade its start-up ecosystem in order to create a clear path from ideation to commercialisation, Rahul Ganapathy, convenor, State Start-up Panel, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Tamil Nadu, said on Friday.

Speaking at a round table meeting to improve the region’s start-up ecosystem organised by CII Tamil Nadu and Centre for Entrepreneurship Development and Incubation (CEDI), National Institute of Technology – Tiruchi (NIT-T), Mr. Ganapathy said: “Industry members need to be on a single plane, to see what we can collaborate in with the government, because unless we help each other, we are not going to achieve our target of the $1 billion economy. With the recent global disruptions and geopolitical shake-ups, it is better to seek help in our weak areas. We need to unearth the hidden gems in Tier II and Tier III cities in the start-up sector.”

A coffee table book to highlight interesting and successful start-ups in Tamil Nadu was in the pipeline.

The panel of experts included M. Umapathy, director, CEDI-NIT-T, P. Karupannan, project lead, StartupTN, Vinoth Malaikani, CEO, EDII-ABIRF, Tiruchi, and Daniel Wilson, manager, iTNT Tiruchi, among others.

Representatives and founders of start-ups felt that bodies such as CII should act as a bridge or ‘matchmaking agency’ between the government and diverse sectors to facilitate progress. They also raised concerns over retaining young talent and imparting domain knowledge to students within their educational curriculum.

‘Rebrand the city’

G.B. Ramprakash, chairman and managing director, Enixs Technology India, said that it was time to rebrand Tiruchi as ‘Tech City’ considering the developments in emerging technologies and hardware industries in this sector happening here.

Participants flagged mentorship as an essential part of the start-up ecosystem, where educational institutions such as NIT-T could take the lead to create opportunities. Others pointed out to the need for a special economic zone to promote food-related start-ups in the Tiruchi region.