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Compared to the last decade, the Indian luxury market is growing at a really quick pace. This growth is fueled by a surge in ultra-high-net-worth individuals and a strong middle class, expanding entrepreneurship and greater e-commerce penetration. The increasing number of millionaires in India, expected to grow by 105% by 2026 is attracting global luxury brands. For instance, Aditya Birla Fashion Retail recently partnered with French luxury department store chain Galeries Lafayette to house over 200 luxury brands in India. I'd love to see more brands leveraging India's existing sourcing and manufacturing capabilities to serve this market. It could focus on creating unique, India-inspired luxury products that cater to the growing appetite of Indian consumers and the global market. By infusing local craftsmanship with global appeal and utilising digital platforms for wider reach, a new brand can make a mark in the luxury segment.

India spent most of its last 25 years as a sustenance economy. As we move into the next phase of beyond sustenance, there is an expected tsunami of savings and also credit. Total savings in the last 25 years is USD 12 Tn, while the same number is likely to be a staggering USD 100 Tn+ in the coming 25 years. Indian savers will need significant innovation in investment products beyond just Mutual Funds, Insurance, Vanilla Alternates and Physical Savings. This intersecting with the democratisation of the life of the rich and famous through social media will throw up interesting innovation opportunities. Satchetisation/Fractionalisation of Home Ownership, Farmland, and Art are massive opportunities. As we formalise, thanks to the India Stack and GST, enterprise treasury is another massive opportunity. From just a few lakh registered indirect taxpayers, we have moved to over 1.6 Mn registered GST payers. The benefits of formalisation are starting to outweigh the regulatory cholesterol for most businesses. Solutions around investing, lending, and insurance for enterprises are akin to what we say with personal finance (post-credit bureau revolution). India's domestic credit to GDP is 55%, while the world average is at 150%. As we go towards 150% over the next ten years, the size of the opportunity will go from USD 2 Tn to USD 14 Tn.

There is a pretty massive opportunity to set up large contract operations to recycle lithium-ion battery packs. Once lithium enters the country, nobody wants to ever see it go outside, and hence policy is extremely in favour of this. With the increasing use of these batteries, establishing large-scale contract operations for their recycling is not just environmentally critical but also economically strategic. It ensures the retention of lithium within the country and provides price stability for raw materials, crucial for OEMs. However, most OEMs don't want to run recycling themselves, hence the contract part.

I think paid membership communities are the need of the hour. Closed doors can provide meaningful and impactful space for discussions and learning across a wide variety of topics. The global subscription economy, which includes such communities, is booming and is projected to reach $1.5 trillion by 2025, up from $650 billion in 2020​​. A highly engaged tribe of scaled-up business leaders is a great community to serve with various products and offerings. I am spending most of my time on this opportunity.

I see an opportunity to build global gaming IPs as well as the game development infrastructure, SaaS services and sector-focused ancillaries. A new generation of gaming studios are emerging, targeting upcoming gamers across the globe. In India alone, the gaming market is currently valued at $3B with over 500M gamers, and is projected to nearly double in the next five years. New startups could capitalise on this by creating innovative gaming platforms and by developing scalable SaaS solutions tailored for gaming companies. These could include tools for easier game development, analytics and player engagement. We expect this opportunity to grow in the coming years.

Open Networks are reimagining the future of digital commerce with a fundamental shift in easing value concentration at a node and empowering the end nodes – the consumer and the service provider. This provides a great opportunity to build a Federated AI architecture/learning model for digital commerce which allows entities to collaborate and innovate collectively while maintaining the right privacy, security and ownership. In addition to improving the customer experience, this Federated AI approach could also address internal operational challenges in e-commerce. By integrating AI into CRM systems, automating warehouse processes and enhancing real-time data analytics for supply chain management, startups can significantly streamline operations and reduce costs.

I believe incredible opportunities come when platforms change. If you look at the past few decades, one of the biggest opportunities came when mainframes switched to personal computing, creating Microsoft and tons of software companies. Then came the shift from landline phones to feature phones to smartphones, which began an entirely new ecosystem and several new companies. These platform changes are once-in-a-decade or multi-decade opportunities. I believe that the shift from ICEs (Internal Combustion Engines) to EVs presents one such opportunity. The last platform shift in this sector was when Watt's steam engine gave way to fossil fuel-powered small personal vehicles. Now, with electric vehicles, the entire platform will change again, including consumer behaviour, workflows and how different parts of the industry are built around this. So, focusing on the EV value chain is the next big thing, with opportunities across upstream, midstream and downstream. This includes rethinking raw materials sourcing, manufacturing, supply dynamics, key partnerships, efficient and interoperable charging infrastructure, cybersecurity, end-of-life recycling and more. Over this decade, several new companies will be created as the new EV value chain gets built.

India is still in its first innings of financial services and long way to go before 500M+ Indians are fully served with unique financial services products

(a) As savings, assets and spending power inflects, opportunity for multiple financial services companies that own 1-5M unique customers, and serve them deeply on assets (new age AMCs/PMS, unique debt first products), spend (credit on UPI, corporate/B2B payments) and insurance (GI insurance plays across - health, crop, all property including auto/laptops etc).

(b) DPI makes all of this possible and now needs founders to build DPI 2.0 native enterprise software companies across card/payments stack, AML/Fraud/KYC, core banking etc.

India's potential to lead global solutions in climate technology is pretty clear; especially in domains like sustainable agriculture, waste management, packaging innovation, and emission analytics. These areas can help solve environmental problems in India and globally. While there are some efforts going on presently, they aren't big or new enough to make a huge difference. If India can create an environment conducive for new ideas in climate tech, I believe that could lead to better solutions. This wouldn't just bring in investments, but it'll also create jobs and drive sustainable goals. As more people around the world want eco-friendly solutions, Indian entrepreneurs could also sell these solutions globally. This needs everyone to come through - the government, entrepreneurs, investors and the community to work together.

The need to transition towards a low-carbon economy will play a big role in energy storage. It will help in increasing grid resilience and facilitating renewable energy integration in India, with a target of 500 GW of renewable energy by 2030. During this transition, the reliance on lithium-based storage, which currently dominates the market, has produced both constraints and environmental challenges. How do we find and use new ways to store energy for the power grid? It's important to have a steady supply of electricity and to use more clean energy in India. The current lack of different energy storage options is a big problem for energy companies, everyday people and the government. Finding a new solution could bring a lot of good changes for everyone, from local areas to big industries, by helping the shift to green energy.

India’s ‘Net Zero by 2070’ goal is ambitious and there is a lot going on to help us achieve this. Apart from programs like the National Solar Mission, large conglomerates like Adani and Reliance have made significant investments in Green Energy and EVs. Another advantage is our low baseline on energy production - we do not have to choose between conventional and green sources like some of the other nations. This gives us a head start to embrace sustainable alternatives. Gaining on these favourable factors will help us become a global leader in sustainable and green technology.