India will be bright shining light for the world: OYO CEO Ritesh Agarwal

Agarwal said OYO has witnessed a single ecosystem where India has only moved forward

India will be the bright shining light for the world driven by its young people who are "driving startups", hospitality and travel-tech firm OYO Founder & Group CEO Ritesh Agarwal said on Saturday.

India has become a hub of startups that have created new-age services such as Ola ride-sharing, OYO rooms and Paytm, which one cannot live without today but were non-existent nine years ago, he said while speaking at a conclave on the completion of nine years of the Modi government.

"In my opinion, India will be the bright shining light for the world and driven by of course young people in India who are driving startups...," he said.

Agarwal said OYO, which also started in 2014, is also nine years old and the company has witnessed a single ecosystem where India has only moved forward.

In nine years, he said, India's startup revolution has created around $300 billion market cap "out of nothing".

Many young people from smaller towns are today aiming to not only become big entrepreneurs but they are also dreaming to become the biggest global innovators.

When asked for his advice for the youth, Agarwal asked them to focus on the pursuit of excellence and not be discouraged by people who discourage them from working towards their dreams.

Earlier at the conclave in a video message, Biocon Executive Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said that she witnessed a number of transformational initiatives over the last nine years which impacted the lives of people from all sections of society.

The country saw a path-breaking and world-beating technology during the Covid-19 pandemic that really helped in managing it very effectively, she noted.

"There were over two billion vaccinations that were rolled out to over a billion people in the country, the largest mass vaccination initiative in the world on a digital platform and I was proud as a citizen to see vaccines being sent to other nations," Mazumdar-Shaw stated.

She noted that being a woman entrepreneur and one of the first startup entrepreneurs in the country, it was heartening to see what is happening in the startup ecosystem.

"It is very exciting to see the way the government is supporting the new startups with so many initiatives, making it easier for them to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities," Mazumdar-Shaw said.