Government's immediate steps ensured Indian startups were not adversely impacted by SVB crisis: Ashwini Vaishnaw

On India producing a ChatGPT-like rival, the Minister said 'wait for a few weeks there will be a big announcement'

Immediate action by the government to help Indian startups in the aftermath of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) collapse ensured they were not adversely impacted by the "minor crisis", Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Monday.

He also exhorted the entire startup community to think of the Indian banking sector as their trusted partner.

Vaishnaw, Minister for IT and Communications, also noted the rapid strides taken by India in areas of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and quantum computing.

Speaking at India Global Forum event, the Minister said while there was a time when India was only seen as a consumer of technology, today "many global developers like to have Indian start ups, entrepreneurs and academicians as their partners, as technology gets developed".

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"... In these two technologies, we would like use of Indian talent for developing solutions for India and for the world," he said.

To a question on whether India can produce something equivant to ChatGPT, the Minister said "wait for a few weeks there will be a big announcement."

The Minister said it is important for global economy to have trusted partner like India.

All over the world there is a sense that India should emerge as a key semiconductor manufacturing destination, Vaishnaw said adding that Government is working "sincerely and diligently" to ensure a vibrant semiconductor ecosystem comes up in the country.

The Minister further said that after the SVB collapse, the government swung into action to handhold Indian start ups that had funds or deposits in the bank.

"How we responded to that minor crisis is that we immediately engaged with entire start up community and made sure that whatever deposits they wanted to shift to Indian banks... the entire process was flawlessly executed by collaboration between different arms of Government," he said.

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Not a single start up was adversely effected by the "minor crisis", the Minister said describing Indian banking sector as resilient and with healthy balancesheet.

"We have requested all the start ups, don't think about putting your funds in any bank anywhere...put your funds in India. And I will request all the Global start up community also, think of India as your trusted banking sector," he said.

Vaishnaw exhorted global entrepreneurs and innovators across sectors to leverage the India edge to develop trusted technology for the country, and for the world.

Vaishnaw said the India's 4G/5G stack had shown outstanding results, during testing.

"The roll out has started. From coming September we will be rolling 300 sites a day of this India's own telecom technology stack," he said.