Union Minister of State for Electronics, IT and Skill Development Rajeev Chandrasekhar interacted with over 450 startups,owned/co-owned by Indians, venture capitalists (VCs), industry leaders and others stakeholders on the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank through video conferencing from New Delhi on Tuesday.
He assured them that the Narendra Modi government is laser-focused on helping them tide over this crisis. This 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 assured them the government would do everything possible to navigate the storm caused by the bank collapse.
Chandrasekhar suggested: “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.”
Chandrasekhar further said, “We will share list of suggestions with Finance Minister Smt 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 assured 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 banks in the US.”
