This podcast talks about India's critical role in the global transition to Net Zero and how developing nations like India need focus on climate adaptation and resilience in addition to mitigation. It will also cover ground on various emerging opportunities in climate and technology. The transcript of the episode can be accessed here:- https://avaana.simplecast.com/episodes/the-india-climate-story
[00:00:00] Saksham: Hi, and welcome to the first episode of the Avaana Climate Corner Podcast. This is Saksham from the investment team at Avaana Capital.
At Avaana, we believe that climate is the largest opportunity area for technology solutions in the coming decades and with this podcast series, we will dive deep on all things climate. Avaana Climate Corner brings together climate experts, thought leaders, and practitioners to discuss everything ranging from energy transition to climate resilient agriculture.
For this episode, we have Anjali, Swapna, and Shruti from the Avaana team with us.
Anjali is the founding partner at Avaana. Previously, she has been the chairperson of the Dena bank and a global partner with TPG Growth. She has been an investor and mentor to various unicorns, including Nykaa and Delhivery. Anjali sits on several public boards including Tata Power and Nestle. She's a member of the Niti Aayog Evolution Review Committee chaired by the Honorable Prime [00:01:00] Minister and part of the Advisory Council for the Open Network for Digital Commerce.
Swapna is a partner at Avaana. Previously, Swapna led India investments for Qualcomm ventures where she invested in multiple category leaders across sectors like supply chains, industry 4.0, mobility and agritech. Swapna is also a part of the Class 25 at the prestigious global Kaufmann Fellows program for VCs.
Shruti is an investment director at Avaana. Shruti has spent over a decade investing at the confluence of sustainability and technology across roles at Omnivore, Acumen, and IFC where she looked at investments in agritech, energy access, rural retail and manufacturing.
Our first episode features a candid conversation between Shruti and our partners, Anjali and Swapna, about India's critical role in the global transition to Net Zero and how developing nations like ours need focus on climate adaptation and resilience in addition to mitigation. They will also cover ground on various emerging opportunities [00:02:00] in climate and technology. Over to Shruti, for taking the conversation ahead with Anjali and Swapna.
[00:02:06] Shruti: Thanks, Saksham. Excited to talk more here about climate and the opportunity it presents for innovation in India.
Hi, Anjali & Swapna. Today we are going to talk about why we are seeing this increased interest in investing for climate, the challenges it presents, and the opportunities that are available for India, and what can be built out of India in the next decade.
Anjali, we are seeing increased attention on the need for climate action lately most recently with Cop 27 and also a lot of talk about the urgency behind the need to figure out pathways to get to net zero would love to understand more about what is this net zero and why it is so critical.
[00:02:44] Anjali: Shruti. Thank you very much for hosting our first episode of Avaana Climate Corner. Delighted to be here and share why we are so passionate about climate as the abiding problem to be solved over the next couple of decades and consequently also a very exciting investment opportunity. [00:03:00] Net zero refers to carbon neutrality one of the things that is being driven through the cop and and I think we have seen increased engagement in COP over the last few years. Glasgow last year in some ways was a watershed moment with global leaders coming together, making commitments around Net Zero. Sharm El Sheik continued down that path with an increased focus on green financing and we will talk about both of these. The commitments that are required for net zero reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The need to look at both mitigation, but also adaptation and resilience and the financing of all of them. Why is it important? I think today we are at a place where unfortunately there is no room for denying that there is climate change that is taking place and that the world is heating up.
We are seeing the effects of that on an everyday basis. Unprecedented heat waves in the Northern hemisphere. We are seeing erratic monsoons, and all of these have real implications. It's not just about saving the planet. Of course that is important, but at the same time, there is [00:04:00] everyday consequence and real business consequences as well.
So take for example, today, banks have to take into account climate risk when they're underwriting debt. So if you're underwriting an infrastructure project or a real estate project in a low lying area, they are thinking about the risk of flooding. We have seen how shift in wind patterns has led to a sudden decline in PLF for wind turbines and wind farms, and consequently, that has to be taken into account as well.
There are so many facets to this, but energy transition is a very significant issue so that we can move from a high fossil fuel dependence economically, globally, to now a low fossil fuel dependence, moving to renewables, moving to better battery technologies and storage. Super important energy transition, energy access for mitigation, but also for adaptation and resilience building.
We are seeing food security emerge as a significant issue as well. Crop failures, high heat waves. Erratic monsoons all lead to disruption of food supply chain and food is a very [00:05:00] core requirement for the human species. I'll pause there. I think there is a sense of urgency. Perhaps we should have started doing this, two decades ago, but we are doing it now both from a species continuity, business continuity and we'll talk more about, hence the opportunity to really make an impact on this problem. We see climate change and climate action today where digitization was 20 years ago. So 20 years ago, companies didn't think about digitization as essential, and today, every single enterprise function is digitalized.
Similarly, over the next 20 years, sustainability and climate action. So in procurement, supply chain, R&D, product design, manufacturing, across the board and financing, there are very significant financing implications, cost of capital implications as well for businesses. So we see sustainability emerging as the digital for the next 20 years.
[00:05:50] Shruti: It's interesting that you talked about mitigation and adaptation. A lot of discussion globally seems to be on rolling back on production and consumption [00:06:00] taking steps to reduce energy usage taking steps to reduce transport usage. Maybe that is doable for countries where carbon footprint of the economy was high anyway.
For countries like India where a lot of development goals and growth is yet to be achieved, doesn't it get more complicated? What does the way forward look like for countries like India and other developing economies? Swapna I would love to hear your thoughts.
[00:06:22] Swapna: Thanks Shruti for this opportunity. The world is for sure for heating up. Of course, India is important in the largest scheme of things. Given we all now understand that climate is not a local problem, it's the same air we breathe, so India has to be looked at in the larger scheme of things.
I'm glad we are building Avaana Climate Corner to have that safe place for those important conversations and get more meaningful over time. I think how we look at India today, think of how India has moved over the last 10, 20 years. India emerging, developing, whatever you may call it.
It is important in terms of how it is shaping up. It is the second largest population in the world. The country [00:07:00] continues to grow. There is consumption bolstering, there's manufacturing being bolstered. Real estate continues to grow. And with all that, I think the narrative is that we all have our own carbon footprint.
But if you look at some stats and facts, I think India's energy usage is still less than one third of the global median. Most of our population still lives in rural and periurban areas, but this Also gives us a big opportunity to solve for future, which means as we solve for future, we will see technologies which are just not about mitigation.
So we could all be thinking about hydrogen and electric vehicle, but what we could also be thinking about is process and product innovations towards adaptation. And we are already seeing companies in our portfolio and in our pipeline, which are building towards adaptation. And the interesting thing is the company, which will build for India, will not only build for India, but will actually build for rest of the world . Because at the end as we started, we thought, we talked about how climate is not really a local problem, but a very global problem. Actually now we have a world of opportunity to solve for [00:08:00] it and not just have the mitigation lens.
[00:08:02] Shruti: We are seeing climate emerge as the biggest problem right now. I think that's something everybody agrees. And the second side of the same coin tends to be opportunity. So from this problem there's the likelihood of, the most game changing solutions to emerge in our collective past experiences, however, we've seen sustainability being an afterthought or, a good to have how have you seen this changing over. And how do you see the opportunities evolving here?
[00:08:28] Anjali: I think you mentioned and so did swapna, that India is a high growing, high growth country.
We are, some say already, the world's largest population, certainly the youngest population, one of the fastest growing large economies. We are the fifth largest economy today. Climate and as we know is a global problem. It's not something that any one country can solve on its own or any even one hemisphere can solve.
So given that India is large, it is growing, we will consume more and we have to consume [00:09:00] more to continue our growth. And hence, hard to abate industries like cement, steel power. 60% of our power is coal based and the world is seeing that it's, the transition to renewable has not been an easy one.
And more recent geopolitical disruptions have also brought that to the fore. So consequently it's there is, India is integral to any global climate solution. So hence we look at India in a very special way. The other reason why India can actually be a great source of solutioning is we have seen in the last two decades, India's leapfrogged.
We have not only grown economically, but the breadth and penetration of digitization in India is unparalleled. We have leapfrogged twice already. We have gone from fixed line telephony to now the largest, cheapest data network in the world. Ubiquitous use of mobile phones. 700 million smartphones in India, a billion connected Indians with bank accounts.
So we have seen that transition happen from fixed line telephony to mobile. We've also seen [00:10:00] leapfrogging in payment systems going from largely cash for small transactions to now UPI and again, 7 billion transactions on UPI in the month of September, and displacing credit card, debit card, which were closed loop systems.
So we are very enthusiastic that similarly, India's ability the digitization base, the base of technology, great talent and engineers will lead to solutioning that will create climate solutions, not just for India. And we will leapfrog some of the things that have happened around the world so we can actually get to the next generation of solutions directly.
And those solutions are not just for India, but India can build solutions for the world as well. We are seeing that now in ONDC as open network for digital commerce, which is in some ways what UPI did for payments ONDC will do for commerce. And so consequently we are very enthusiastic. We see the opportunity with a great talent pool. The largest sort of Public or government led public digital infrastructure.
We will come up with solutions on energy transition, [00:11:00] access storage, food securities, climate resilient agriculture regenerative agricultural practices. Most of India's farmers are smallholder farmers.
So they have to be taken care of as well as we go up the adaptation and resilience building journey, and then of course supply chains and creating sustainable supply chains geopolitics, et cetera. Everyone's looking at now onshoring nearshoring of supply chains, and so that becomes a critical factor as well.
[00:11:25] Swapna: And we see it every day in kind of companies we are meeting, right? Which is, I think earlier, I would say 10 years, 15 years back, you would see every company talking about building for, say, financial services or education or healthcare. But increasingly, we are also seeing this, in our entrepreneur quality. Everyone does believe, that climate is the next playground and has started building towards that. Very excited as to what is happening in India today.
[00:11:54] Shruti: When it comes to moving the needle on impact outcomes for climate action this is going to [00:12:00] require multi-party cooperation. How are we seeing stakeholder readiness for this transition? So you mentioned that, talent is already looking at this space. But beyond talent, how do you see consumer readiness. How do you see the corporate ecosystem looking at this? Policy viewpoints
[00:12:16] Swapna: it takes a village , especially when you're building over a country with 20% of the world
population. But I think what is also interesting is who wants to be a key stakeholder.
So if you think about ourselves at Avaana, what are the key four ecosystems that really need to come together to build this? Of course there is technology. So technology is stable stakes, be it digital or otherwise, which will help these companies innovate faster and cheaper. Then comes the adoption curve, and all of us, having lived this lives multiple times over.
Every large corporate, either building globally or locally, wants to partner with these startups because they don't want to be found sleeping at the wheel, and which a lot of them have missed the last bus of digital innovation. So there is an increasing awareness that we need to partner with the companies either [00:13:00] invest in them, either work with them, partner with them, acquire them to get their technology knowhow. The third piece is policy and regulatory. In my mind there has been very significant push across the ecosystem to move us towards the more greener transition. Anecdotally, think about electric vehicles. I don't think 10 years back, any of us thought about electric vehicles would probably think it's a joke. Probably, Tesla is only company in the world which knows and understands it and 10 years today later, I think every person is either talking about an electric vehicle, is trying to own one. In five years, I'm assuming every household probably will have one because you're talking about 50% EV and 10, hence probably every vehicle in the country will be electric vehicle. Of course, these are all dream. These are all passionate projects of many people involved, but that is where a lot of policy and regulatory support has been meaningful in the country in its journey.
And last is capital availability. Again, capital availability has been, has become easier then in the past. There's a lot of local and global , lot of strategic capital, not only equity, [00:14:00] which we do at Avaana. But also if you think about it, there is increasing number of platforms which can enable with the debt and working capital to help transition towards a more robust startup ecosystem, to build for climate.
We, at Avaana, all of us do believe that it is a perfect time in history where next 10 years will really wave the path for startup ecosystem, will be for climate.
[00:14:24] Shruti: So a decade ago we'd seen this massive flow of capital into was called Cleantech. A lot of capital went in and did not really meet the desired financial or impact goals for that matter. How do you see the current investment interest as different from the 1.0 of Cleantech?
[00:14:42] Anjali: So several things have changed in the last 10 to 15 years. One is there is a greater sense of urgency. It is no longer a nice to have. It is actually a must have. It has to get integrated and embedded in every aspect of human life, how we live, how we work, [00:15:00] how we do business, and certainly policy makers.
Most countries today around the world have recognized this, have net zero goals. Companies have net zero goals, large funders, so large capital is very focused rewarding responsible businesses. So ESG today is a fact of life, even though it is after the fact reporting. So those are some of the big shifts that have taken place in the last 10, 15 years.
Secondly, as a society, the consumer is starting to demand better alternatives, more sustainable alternatives, as long as they are at cost parity, or more affordable and what is enabling all of this to happen is really technology. So today, technology has developed enough we are starting to see real adoption based on financials, a new unit of solar energy today costs less than a new unit of thermal. Of course, we have a very large installed thermal or fossil fuel base. But Businesses can today make the decision to go to solar or renewable because it just makes [00:16:00] more financial sense.
The cost of sensors so that you can enable iot in small farms or in the manufacturing process, is now low enough to actually make it economically viable. So technology has grown and has developed. It is now affordable. And importantly, I think when you put all of this together, you put the sense of urgency, consumer demand, capital demand, regulatory policy support, and the cost of technology. It just makes more sense to go to sustainable alternatives and does not require the subsidy support. And perhaps, 15 years ago we were a little ahead of our time. But today the time is ripe both in terms of urgency and the need to do something now, as well as from a basic financial, economic scalability and viability.
[00:16:47] Shruti: Thanks for that Anjali. When we look at climate and sustainability today instead of seeing it as a sector, we see it as an underlying layer across sectors. We [00:17:00] pick any segment of economy and our life today, and there is going to be a layer of climate risk and climate opportunity associated with it.
If we look at energy that contributes to 40% of India's emissions but is also extremely crucial for our current way of life and also for our economy to grow forward. Mobility and supply chains constitute over 30% of the country's emissions our supply chain costs are 14% of our GDP compared to 8%, which is the global average, largely because of our logistics networks themselves being very inefficient. in itself contributes to a fifth of the country's emissions and is also a sufferer the consequences of climate change. How do you see opportunities for disruption and solutioning across these sectors? As the enablement happens towards low carbon development pathways.
[00:17:52] Swapna: I think this is why we do what we do all three of us as investors. Technology, I think has become the core and central [00:18:00] theme across solving large problems.
So in supply chain, let's talk about some of our companies and the kind of innovations we are seeing, right? So if electric vehicle is the future in some sense and this is where the world and India is moving towards it's all about OEMs, but also picks and shovels, which will help take the ecosystem forward.
And then when I think about how we have built up portfolio and Turno is a classic example of if you need to move the needle forward, you need to get the ecosystem and Turno is building a great underwriting tool by collecting every data possible to enable easier transition from ICE to electric vehicle, because people are how to underwrite ICE engines, but nobody knows how to underwrite batteries.
Of course, it's very new and turno is going to be a key enabler in that journey. For example, Shruti Terra is a great company, right? How do you see our, Terra is a great example of what they're building for sustainability.
[00:18:56] Shruti: Absolutely. So in fact Terra for for reference [00:19:00] is helping build up the talent ecosystem for the future economy, just the same way we had companies build digital talent to support the growth of a digital economy.
We are going to require talent across functions that understands how sustainability becomes an underlying layer across businesses and functions. And Terra is in fact ensuring that it's not just learning, but outcomes that get achieved. So they're using this magic troika of community learning as well as connecting with opportunities. So really exciting things they're doing as well.
[00:19:33] Anjali: And building on that. I think if you look at each of these spaces, there is energy transition. There is mobility. We also are seeing some very interesting plays emerge in creating food security. So Eeki Foods, a young company, have used a patented polymer material science based growing chamber to grow everyday vegetables, tomatoes, eggplants cucumbers in the desert of Rajasthan, they're able to grow them at 10 to 12 rupees [00:20:00] a kilo. Sell them in the market at market price and thus create a climate resilient controlled growth environment farming process. So in some ways, they're doing for food production, what assembly line did for manufacturing, they're creating a lot more predictability and consistency in the quality of vegetables grown. And thus making it also affordable and available to a large part of the Indian population. Now, given that Eeki is able to do this in the desert of Rajasthan, needless to say, this can hence be replicated at scale across India and in other deserts as well. So Eeki is getting interest already, say for example, from the Middle East where food security is an equally important issue.
Hence, going back to what we had said earlier in today's session, that innovation that comes out of India will solve not just for India, but also for the world. Eeki is doing that. We have another company called Farmart. Farmart has actually created the operating system for procurement of staples, so wheat, rice, maze, and so on.
Working with about close to 3 [00:21:00] million farmers and working closely with rural retailers, enabling the entire supply chain using technology. Very product and technology led, extremely capital efficient and fantastic team. And again, they have started exports outside India as well.
[00:21:16] Shruti: Would also love to hear more on additional trends that you're seeing in the sustainability space. We're seeing a lot of talk globally around themes in carbon markets, in carbon accounting in technologies for enabling more efficiency in the energy sector. How are you seeing that landscape evolve in India?
[00:21:34] Swapna: That's a good question. I think it's also anchors of how India will become a centerpiece of technology export across the world in the areas we are building. So there is no denying certain fact. Fact one is we have largest population, which also means we have a lot of data sets to work on, which means great software companies can actually use this data sets to build large companies and can build from India for the world. And we've seen this [00:22:00] story play out in the past.
The second is a talent. The talent here is second to none. So you will companies which will be doing great product innovations as well as process innovations in their journey. And what this translates into the key areas where innovation is happening in globally as well as in India.
First example, carbon accouting. India is largely an agrarian economy. There is a lot of data here, a lot of work happening already around lot of regenerative farming, carbon credits, markets. So we will see good companies and we're already seeing good companies emerge. The second big piece is, for example, scope three emissions. Again, most of the world has in a way exported their Scope Three emissions to this part of the world.
So we are already seeing some entrepreneurs working towards Scope three emission, which is the hardest to measure. The third is, for example, EV ecosystem. Now, EV ecosystem is large enough and there are many parts to it.
There is controllers, there is motors, there is battery, there's battery recycling, there is chemistry, there is cell packing. And across each of these pillars, we are seeing lot [00:23:00] of innovation coming out from different pockets of India, and we can continue this across each sub themes that we see across the three key areas we invest in supply chain mobility, agri and food systems, energy and resource management. Where companies are taking up one problem statement within these large buckets and solving for them, and even within those buckets, there are enough and more vertical companies which can be created.
So for example, if you think about carbon accounting, it can be very specialized on an industry level. It could be for manufacturing industry, it could be for chemicals industry. It could be for something else. So that's what we are seeing. And I would also like to share with our audience here what are some of the innovations that you both are also bullish about ?
[00:23:46] Anjali: Sure. Swapna, we spoke a little bit about scope three and 80% of most enterprise emission footprint sits in scope three.
So Scope one, scope two are relatively easier to measure and manage. Scope three is very hard because it's [00:24:00] the long tail of your supply. And in the global south, and markets like India, Indonesia, et cetera, where a lot of the world's manufacturing sits, all of these are in small businesses and small farmers.
So scope three is a very difficult problem to crack. Now, it is not just about measurement and reporting. The ultimate goal is to be able to mitigate for it and manage your Scope three and supply chain in a way where we are actually reducing the footprint. And hence we need to create the databases, which actually don't exist today.
We've had several conversations now with regulators. The Indian regulator, as well as the US SEC , the European regulator come up with norms for reporting. In India we have the business responsibility sustainability reporting framework that SEBE has put out and companies today are all working on that, but it's largely manual. There is very little data to draw upon.
So big opportunity here, and we are looking at enterprise SaaS models that will enable companies to do the measurement reporting and build the database and the [00:25:00] intelligence to be predictive, and then to help them manage their Scope three and emission footprint a lot better.
We are also starting to see very interesting plays emerge in helping to accelerate the adoption of solar, for example, so much like Turno is doing this for small fleet operators that are also small businesses, so it creates resilience and helps to finance their adaptation transition journey.
But again, from a mitigation point of view, India has a big renewable mission globally, the world is shifting towards solar and rooftop. So we are also looking at very interesting companies that are building platforms that will enable acceleration of rooftop solar, 40 gigawatts that needs to come in over the next few years.
Big opportunity areas.
I would also think much as we are seeing in the emergence of alternative fuel, right? So we are seeing biofuels emerge using say, stubble as a source of fuel and plant based oils and fuel chemicals as well. Similarly, green hydrogen is now a big area of focus. We have to find solutions and alternatives, not just [00:26:00] solar of solar and wind are always.
But even nuclear is being talked about as a renewable sustainable solution, green hydrogen, and similarly methods for carbon sequestration. So to put the carbon back into the earth, whether into rock formations or through biochar or through other mechanisms. So a lot of emerging trends very interesting new technologies.
Some of them are still lab stage. Technologies and science becomes interesting to investors when they're ready to come out of the lab, which is when Avaana gets very excited. But of course we track all these trends quite closely.
[00:26:32] Swapna: Yeah. In fact, one of my favorite questions, which we always talk around the team is if we all had a magical wand, what could we all solve for?
And more often than not, we end up with energy storage. Then there's a way to figure out with all this alternative energy, the way to store it and make our lives easier. I guess that's another area which Avaana is very bullish and continue to look at entrepreneurs building there.
[00:26:55] Anjali: Shruti, I know you look a lot at climate resilient ag, alt [00:27:00] protein, share with us what you are seeing and how our thought process is evolving on that.
[00:27:05] Shruti: So on the food security side, we're definitely seeing innovation that can help reduce climate dependence of agricultural outputs.
So innovations like Eeki that you talked about are great examples of that. Also seeing a shift in more sustainable less carbon dependent inputs being applied for food production. There's a lot more that's going to happen in India on the alternative protein side. Not because consumption is going to shift towards non-animal protein in India, but because our population is growing at a rapid pace, we are a massively protein deficient nation.
And if we had to ensure that the entire nation got its fill of protein, our land and water requirements would be humongous and just not be sustainable enough. So we'll see a lot more happening in alternative protein side. Alternative proteins is also interesting in India because we have a very large base and variety of plant [00:28:00] protein, which we refer to as dals in India already, which serve as a good feed stock. And so we can actually look at value chains being developed, which help small farmers supply for new use cases consequently helping their incomes as well. Additionally, most of these legumes are actually climate resilient crops, so they don't require as much Dependence on climate being right.
They can work with lesser water compared to say, what paddy would. Additionally, we are also seeing opportunities in agricultural, in crops being used for other consumption items like how to make fashion more sustainable, how to actually help consumer products lower their carbon footprint.
[00:28:39] Anjali: One other trend that we are seeing, of course, and that's being globally recognized, is the need to put some of the carbon back. So to capture it, sequester it, create long term solutions for carbon sequestration. And a lot of companies are now starting to look at nature based solutions and that takes us to carbon credits and offset the carbon credit regime, which was introduced in the last decade.
It is [00:29:00] now ripe to take off. Of course, we do have to bring in place right systems for accurate measurement so that credits and offsets are both measured, accounted, and taken credit for with integrity. And we are seeing a number of things emerge in the nature based solution space as well. Shruti, I'll turn to you, please talk a little bit about what you are seeing in the NBS space and then Swapna now perhaps how we are looking at the science behind carbon sequestration and what we can do with that.
[00:29:28] Shruti: So India, given its large agricultural land coverage and also its last forest coverage is very well positioned to look at solutions for carbon capture that are utilizing nature. So both around reforestation as well as with regenerative agriculture. And we are seeing companies build out for that space, enabling tools for project development around nature-based solutions, for example, that are emerging.
[00:29:51] Swapna: I also think carbon sequestration is more important than was net zero journey in India. I think we're still in the early days [00:30:00] of where people are thinking about different mechanisms to do. We don't unfortunately have the rock formations and like some of the geographies that people are doing it by using natural formations to help with that. But there are an increasing set of entrepreneurs who are working on some of the cutting edge technologies. Still a lot of it lab based. I think our urges we will see more solutions. We have seen more solutions globally here, and more and more entrepreneurs should start working toward this because this space is ready to take off and will take off.
[00:30:30] Shruti: So we are seeing companies that are trying to low carbon raw materials for different use cases in the personal care space. Also very excited about innovation that is going to help reduce footprint in the hard to abate industries. Be it your built environment cement, steel, green building design. Those are going to be very interesting as well. Since India has to continue to build up 85% of buildings that will exist in 2050 don't exist today. So we will actually see a lot of [00:31:00] innovation that will go into the built environment that exists 35 years from now.
So in the context of all of this that we talked about the innovation that will emerge the way talent is looking at this, and this is talent that understands the zero to one, one to n journey of startups that understands how systems need to be built for scale. Anjali, what would be your expectations of this decade?
What does this hold for growth in India and for startups in particular in India?
[00:31:25] Anjali: I'm a big bull on both India as well as startups. Needless to say, I think we are truly looking at a golden decade ahead where the confluence of a very startup friendly policy regime, global capital that is now looking at India.
We now are looking at we are the third generation of startup investing in India. We are starting to see very good exits and good liquidity creation. And I mentioned earlier the building up of public digital infrastructure, which makes it easier to start up an underlying base on which to build.
And most importantly, the technology and business [00:32:00] talent. We have a large young population and compared to even 10 years ago, today they're not looking to go into stable corporate jobs when they come out of the top tier colleges or universities. They're all looking at creating innovation and making a big difference to the world.
I am most enthusiastic about this talent trend that is now looking to go into solving the climate problem. So that is truly our golden decade ahead, if not two decades ahead.
[00:32:27] Shruti: So wonderful to hear. I think that's what gets all three of us going right in our individual journeys, we have seen how sustainability has moved from this checkbox item to actually being embedded in business strategy.
We are seeing this emerge as the next great opportunity, not just for business continuity, but also when planet continuity, So super excited to be building this out with the two of you. I don't think we could have asked for more, Swapna any concluding thoughts from you?
[00:32:54] Swapna: I think similar to Anjali and you, very bullish on India. I think [00:33:00] climate is the next big opportunity for the decade. We could have even all our backgrounds, technology investors could have been doing anything. We have chosen this because we all do believe that it's a huge opportunity and very excited to meet new founders every day.
So any and every entrepreneur building for climate, please reach out to our team and we'd love to have a conversation.
[00:33:20] Shruti: Thanks again for taking the time, Anjali and Swapna. I'm sure this is the first of what would be many conversations in Avaana's Climate Corner, and we shall soon be back with a few more conversations.
[00:33:33] Anjali: Thank you Shruti for a wonderful session.
[00:33:34] Swapna: Thanks Shruti. You've been a great host.