ABSTRACT
Unlike developed countries such as the United States where big conglomerates operate and monopolise the market, small and medium enterprises form the backbone of the Indian economy. This has been possible due to a liberal market economy and strong government support that provides ambient opportunities to these businesses to grow and scale up. The same is the case with the digital market where home-grown small digital start-ups are encouraged to expand. Several government initiatives such as the Digital India campaign (2015), the Make in India initiative (2014), Start-up India (2015), and Atmanirbhar Bharat (2020) have been launched to boost the digital economy of India. Consequently, digital start-ups such as BYJU, OYO, BharatPe, Zomato, Practo, Swiggy, Paytm, Ola Cabs, and similar businesses have grown to their full potential and created ripples in the digital market. In fact, a few of them are now unicorns (i.e. valued over $1 billion). This chapter begins by delineating how government schemes/initiatives helped in boosting the digital infrastructure of India and aided the incubation of digital start-ups that became market leaders. For this purpose, the case study method was utilised to collect information on government initiatives and the digital economy of the country.
