The Story of Anand Verma
Anand Verma is a first generation graduate in a family of farmers. While working as an IT engineer, he decided to try his hand at farming by using AI technology. As it turns out, one of his experiments at growing cauliflower was successful in his father’s farm at Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh .His learning sowed the seeds of Fasal, a company that builds hardware for precision agriculture .Fasal is one of the breed of Business to Business (B2B) focussed Indian start-ups that experts are calling as the “Third wave” or “AI Wave”.
The AI wave in the Indian Economy
The “AI Wave” of Indian startups marks a significant evolution in the entrepreneurial landscape, reflecting the country’s growing maturity as a global hub for innovation. Building on the foundations laid by earlier waves(liberalisation, IT Wave) this phase is characterised by a deeper integration of advanced technologies and a strong focus on sustainability and social impact. As startups increasingly tap into emerging trends like deep tech, health tech, and green solutions, they are redefining industries and addressing pressing challenges faced by society.
This wave is not only about creating disruptive businesses but also about fostering inclusive growth and resilience, with a diverse range of founders emerging from across the country, including Tier II and III cities. With robust funding and a supportive ecosystem, the Third Wave is poised to drive India’s economic transformation and position it as a leader in the global startup arena.
Features of AI Wave in the Indian Economy
- Technological Integration: Startups are using advanced technologies, such as AI and blockchain, to bring about industrial transformations. For instance, Niramai uses AI for non-invasive early-stage detection of breast cancer through thermal imaging.
- Sustainability Focus: Companies like Ola Electric lead in sustainable transport developing electric vehicles and charging infrastructure to reduce carbon emissions and forward eco-friendly mobility.
- Social Impact Commitment: BharatPe is making the economy go digital by offering easy credit access and digital payment solutions to small business entities and merchants in a traditionally cash-based economy.
- Ecosystem Collaborations: New age companies like Freshworks have collaborated with mature organisations, hence showing in essence how collaboration can bring about better delivery of services throughout the industry.
- DeepTech Innovations: SigTuple uses AI and machine learning algorithms in analysing medical data, thereby making it easier to automate the diagnosis process in pathology, which has big repercussions for healthcare outcomes.
- Agility and Resilience: Cure.fit, a health and fitness startup, swiftly changed its business model within a very short span of time during the pandemic. It began offering e-fit classes and meal delivery, showing how agile the company was being during challenging times.
- Diverse Funding Pattern:The diversity in funding infrastructure for Koo brings in funding from venture-capital-funded capital and government support as open options for Indian startups.
- Regional Ecosystem Development: Razorpay is from Bangalore, and its service has been taken to the tier-2 cities to get local businesses on the digital payment bandwagon and fuel entrepreneurship outside the big town centres.
- Consumer-Centric Innovation: Zomato engages in innovations focused on enriching customer experience through personalised recommendations and interfaces that are friendly to the customer, tailoring and evolving their services according to consumer feedback and preferences.
Thus, the AI Wave of the Indian economy is of great importance for startups that illustrate the use of technology and innovative solution paradigms to focus on challenging existing social and environmental problems. As such entrepreneurship continues into traditional sectors by integrating advanced technologies, these entrepreneurial ventures are better poised not only in driving economic growth but also inclusivity and sustainability.
With this type of focus on social impact, partnership with mainstream industries, and diversification of funding sources, Indian entrepreneurs are best-equipped to lead the charge in shaping the new face of business and its future. With this revolutionary era, entrepreneurs can brainstorm solutions that resonate with consumers while being in the larger interest of nation building. There’s a huge scope that Indian startups may become major players globally and bode much better into an even brighter and stronger economic landscape because the ecosystem continues to mature.
