Healthcare is next big wave for startup ecosystem: Ratan Tata

Healthcare-related breakthroughs would be the next big wave for the startup ecosystem in the current decade, said Tata Sons' chairman emeritus Ratan Tata on Thursday after inaugurating T-Hub, the Telangana government's startup incubation initiative.

“Walking around the T-Hub building, I couldn’t help but say that this is going to be the new India of tomorrow. Medical breakthroughs powered by technologies like analytics, will be the next big thing for startups,” he said.

T-Hub is housed in a 70,000-sft iconic signature building christened ‘The Catalyst’. Later speaking with reporters, he said that he sees a great deal of breakthroughs in  the areas such as life sciences and stem cells, which could cure diseases that hitherto were fatal or had no cure. Stating that innovations to cure certain types of cancers would also emerge in the current decade. “There is a need to support young entrepreneurs who were keen to unleash the Indian tiger,” he observed.

To a question on the future of Tata Motor’s Nano car project he replied in the affirmative. “Our idea was to give an Indian family with a two-wheeler, an all-weather four-wheeler transport. Nano would find a place in the Indian consumers' garages,” an optimistic Tata said. Refusing to make any specific comment on the ongoing  intolerance debate in the country, Tata, however, said India had been a country of communal harmony for centuries together and it would continue to do so.

Earlier, Nasscom Chairman B V R Mohan Reddy said the T-Hub, which would accommodate 300 startups comprising 800 people, will not only create an innovation cluster, but also create a high-density startup ecosystem.