There’s a lot of pessimism about India’s growth prospects right now, amplified by the sheer amount of geopolitical drama we’re living through. But if we aren’t hopeful that India will do better, then everything becomes moot.

This isn’t to say we don’t have real problems. We do. But every successful country has had to deal with its own share of thorny challenges along its development path. What matters is how we respond.

Today is National Startup Day 🇮🇳, and I can’t think of a better time to build something in India, and for the world, despite all the challenges. While it’s okay to be pessimistic or cynical at times, India has come a long way considering the constraints it has faced. Could it have gone even further? Sure. But it’s better to think about things as they are, rather than as they should be, and then work toward what they could be.

I’m saying this because we are truly living in unprecedented times. The world order is being redrawn geopolitically, economically, and technologically. It’s hard to even describe all the monumental shifts happening around us. But massive shifts create massive opportunities for entrepreneurs who can see them coming.

And there’s never been a better time specifically to build in India. If I were tweeting this in 2015-16, the startup scene barely existed outside of a few big e-commerce companies. There were no local pools of capital. No recognition. People genuinely thought startups were what you did if you had no other skills in life.

Today, everything has changed. We’re living in a world where every country is focused on its own self-sufficiency, and the era of unchecked globalisation is over. For India, this means we have all the enabling factors in place: improving ease of doing business, deeper pools of local capital (especially long-term investors), a massive domestic market, and active government support for startups.

Most importantly, AI has dramatically reduced the barriers to experimentation. You can now build and test ideas that would have required entire teams and massive budgets just a few years ago.

Given all of these converging factors, if you’ve always had a dream to build something, there’s never been a better time to take your shot.

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