Pune is strong contender in startup ecosystems – Amit Phadnis
Pune, 28 November – Major number of corporate and venture funds are coming forward to invest in the start-ups in India. While, Bangalore which is marching ahead in this sector currently, Pune is also emerging as a strong contender in the race of start-ups ecosystem, said Amit Phadnis, President, Engineering and India Site Leader, CISCO Systems on Saturday. Phadnis was addressing the keynote at the PuneConnect 2015, a one-day flagship event of Software Exporters Association of Pune (SEAP).
PuneConnect is a forum designed for Pune startups to showcase their products and services to the potential consumers in the city. It is held in partnership with NASSCOM-Pune, TiE-Pune, PuneTech, Ispirit, POCC, SME Joinup, MCCIA, IACC, HIA and CIIE-Pune.
Speaking at the occasion, Phadnis said, “The digitization provides an equalizing force for developing and developed countries. In future, the way applications are developed is going to change dramatically. In 2014, around $ 2.256 billion of venture capital was invested in Bangalore and it has become the 3rd largest city in terms of funding the start-ups. The start-ups will soon have Pune as another city to develop and nurture the unique business modules as it has all the potentials to become another Silicon Valley. Pune is probably ahead in terms of education as it offers variety of streams for students.” He also added that these two cities need to develop a strong communication with each other which will help the start-ups.
Laying out the future development and value potentials of Internet of Everything (IOE) and Internet of Things (IOT), Phadnis said, “There is a need of bringing innovation in the digital world where every portion of generated data could get consumed by maximum number of business modules.”
Phadnis said that cyber security is one of the biggest challenges today from the perspective of digitalization.
He also mentioned that corporate world has a vital role in the development of start-ups and CISCO would like to work hand in hand with the start-ups, instead of competing with them.
While in his inaugural address, S. Ramprasad, President, SEAP, said, “Next few years are going to be a game-changer for all of us, particularly for India. The Digital India initiative and Smart City concept by the Prime Minister has given a great platform with full of opportunities to us. Soon, the products designed in Pune should have local as well as global significance.”
Moreover, the event saw panel discussion which was conducted by Ashutosh Parasnis had speakers like Anup Sable, AVP and Head of Automotive Engineering, KPIT, Abhay Ghaisas, Vice-President of Engineering at Druva, Pradeep Dharne, Managing Director, Applied Micro Circuits Pvt. Ltd. and S.K. Gupta, Director, STPI.
Present at the event, chief guests Stephen Yarwood, Lord Mayor of the City of Adelaide in South Australia and Kunal Kumar, Commissioner, Pune Municipal Corporation awarded the winner of PuneConnect 2015, Nitin Kumar Gupta, Director, NavStik Labs. The award was in the form of trophy and a cheque of Rs.50,000. NavStik works on building next-generation platform for commercial drone applications. Dheeman Kadam, Co-founder, CAROK was awarded with the Runner up trophy. CAROK is working on bringing trust, transparency and efficiency in the unorganized sector of automotive care.
The chief guests also made an appeal to come forward with innovative digital ideas for ‘Smart City’ during the session.
In addition, a Playbook Round Table was held on ‘Getting Traction for Product Start-ups’ while another Round Table on Venture Captial was also held.
