India to Host 1 Million Startups by 2035: Nandan Nilekani
India will be home to 1 million startups by 2035, with the nation becoming the world's most sought-after IPO market, Infosys Co-Founder Nandan Nilekani said. Addressing the Arkam Annual Meet 2025 in Bengaluru, Nilekani spoke of the revolutionary power of technology, capital, entrepreneurship, and formalisation in taking India to an $8 trillion economy.
Today, we have 1,50,000 startups, and with a 20% CAGR, by 2035, we hope to see 1 million startups. While the economy is expanding at 8%, the startups will leave the economy behind and each IPO will give birth to 100 other startups, Nilekani observed. He added that a number of these startups are happening in small metros outside large cities and are taking up different local challenges.
Nilekani emphasized India's increasing role as an IPO center, noting that while the values of IPOs may be lagging behind the US for now, the number of public issues is picking up very fast. "Singapore or US-incorporated companies are turning back to India, voluntarily paying more tax to list here. Ghar waapsi is occurring", he said.
He also emphasized the promise of land asset tokenization to free up $3.3 trillion of land capital. "Around 50% of Indian assets are in land, which is not easily tradable or usable as collateral. Tokenizing land can turn that around, making transactions easy and unlocking tremendous value", Nilekani elaborated.
To realize the vision of the $8 trillion economy, Nilekani emphasized developing AI for a billion Indians, enhancing last-mile consumer and MSME access, improving agriculture, health, and education sectors, speeding up capital flow to startups beyond the top eight cities, and streamlining business regulations.
With a successful startup ecosystem, a changing global IPO environment, and innovative solutions such as land tokenization, India seems to be well on its way to emerging as a powerhouse of entrepreneurship and economic growth by 2035.
