India best place for startups: Kris Gopalakrishnan

Hyderabad: Rooting for innovation, especially in healthcare, Infosys co-founder and Axilor Ventures chairman

Kris Gopalakrishnan

on Wednesday said India is the best place for new-age companies to innovate and try out new models because of the sheer size of its population as well as the number of challenges faced by people here.

“If you are a startup today, the best place to be is in India. If you are a large MNC, especially in the healthcare industry, India is a huge opportunity because not just new technology, but new processes, procedures test beds for trying out new modalities are possible in India… we want to ensure that we bring affordable quality of healthcare to every single citizen of the country. This itself is a huge challenge and forces you to innovate even further,” he said while addressing participants at the valedictory session of BioAsia 2019.

The IT leader said it is important to collaborate with international players, especially in the area of diseases related to ageing such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Dementia, where we do not have any cures. Gopalakrishnan said the interaction of biology with other sciences was necessary to boost innovation.

Earlier in the day, he also batted for the creation of a healthcare stack on the lines of India Stack. “…just look at the fintech industry in India…because the India stack was created …we are able to do financial transactions using just a phone. That has empowered ordinary individuals and they do not need to know the complexities of the system behind it. I think we need to evolve towards a healthcare stack,” he explained. The healthcare stack would allow stakeholders to use the data and innovate to come up with unique solutions for people.