With many unicorns flipping back to India, by 2035 India will be the most preferred IPO market globally, said Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani. He added that the country will have 1 million start-ups by 2035.
Speaking at the Arkam Annual Meet 2025 here in Bengaluru on Wednesday, Nilekani said Technology, capital, entrepreneurship and formalisation are four great unlocks for an $8 trillion economy.
"Entrepreneurship is very fascinating because we expect 1 million start-ups by 2035. Today, we have 1,50,000 start-ups and we expect the start-ups will grow at a 20% CAGR. When the economy is growing at 8%, start-ups will grow at 20%, reaching a million start-ups by 2035. Every time we have an IPO, there will be 100 more start-ups," he said.
Interestingly, more and more start-ups are happening outside the metros, and they're solving different issues, he added.
He also pointed out that by 2035, India will be the most preferred IPO market globally. "Already it is the market with the largest number of IPOs, though the value is less compared to the US. In fact, what is happening is people are coming back. Companies that are incorporated in Singapore or the US are actually flipping here, paying more taxes so that they can list in India. Ghar waapsi is happening," he said.
He also highlighted how tokenization of land assets can unlock $3.3 trillion in land capital. About 50% of the assets owned by Indians is in the form of land which is not tradable. "You can't sell it and can't take a loan against it. We believe that tokenization of land assets can unlock these things where you can tokenize every piece of land, and then that can be traded very easily," he said.
In his key recommendations for an $8 trillion economy, Nilekani pointed out that the focus should be on Artificial Intelligence(AI) for a billion Indians, focus on last mile consumers and MSMEs, emphasis on agriculture, health and education, land monetisation via tokenization, accelerate capital, funding entrepreneurs outside the eight metros apart from deregulation for ease of business.