Rahul Gandhi, the Vice-President of Congress, India’s main opposition party will meet founders of start-ups in Bengaluru today over tea. Mr. Gandhi will meet startups like Taxi aggregator Ola, grocery portal Big Basket, Skan Ray Technologies, Paper boat represented by their founders. Flipkart might be missed because its founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal are out of the city.
Angel investor Praveen Chakravarthy, who was present at Gandhi’s interaction with startup bosses in New Delhi in July, mooted the idea of a similar meeting in Bengaluru. The state Congress unit thereafter chipped in because Gandhi was eager to meet these young founders and also generating employment and boosting Karnataka’s economy. Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is expected to be present at the meeting.
Gandhi is slated to hear the experiences of these entrepreneurs. With the chief minister and prominent cabinet ministers present, the discussion might veer around to what the state government can do to help. Bengaluru is home to 3,100-4,900 active technology startups, according to the Global Startup Ecosystem Ranking Report 2015. It is the only Indian city to be ranked among the top 20 startup ecosystems in the world.