India Pitches Its Banking System To Startups Amid Silicon Valley Bank Collapse

Indian banking system is most stable and robust and the startups must explore using it, Union Minister of State for IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Tuesday (14 March).

Rajeev Chandrasekhar was interacting with with over 450 startups, owned and co-owned by Indians, venture capitalists (VCs), industry leaders and others stakeholders on the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) through video conferencing from New Delhi.

The minister assured them that the Modi government is laser-focused on helping them tide over this crisis. 

“Indian banking system is most stable and robust and you must explore it as part of your organisational framework. While startups have a natural incentive to use banks like SVB, we must figure out a way to use the Indian banking system without changing your business model," the minister said.

The consultation was part of the government’s approach to address the situation and offer any assistance to members of India’s innovation and startup ecosystem who had financial holdings in SVB.

Startups like Zoth.Io, Hatica.Io and VCs and financial service providers like Blume VC and Mirae Asset were part of the meet.

Some of the concerns that were shared by the attendees included transfer of their US dollar deposits to India and to US-based branches of Indian banks, among other issues.

The minister thanked them all for sharing their suggestions and assured them the government would do everything possible to navigate the storm caused by the bank collapse, according to a IT Ministry release.

He said, “We will share list of suggestions with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and explore how best your concerns can be addressed. We will also explore how smoothly we can facilitate the transfer of your US dollar deposits to Indian banks, IFSC centred foreign banks or any other Indian bank which has presence in the United States".

The minister also said that for those startups whose deposits were going to be made whole, but have no access to it currently, “We will explore the option of whether any credit lines can be made available in US dollar or Indian rupees".

"We will also try to see if more credit products like in the US, can be made available to you and make it easier for them to move from SVB to any other Indian Bank in the US," he added.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar assured the startups that they could approach CEO, MeiTY Startup Hub for any problems/issues that they were facing and the government would do its best to help out.