After digital ecosystems, Start up India beckons Jignesh Shah

Gearing up for his second innings, embattled entrepreneur Jignesh Shah feels there is a great opportunity in setting up digital ecosystems for helping social sector enterprises raise funds and for products aimed at promoting water conservation.

“There is an urgent need to further these causes, but my idea is to do them in such a manner that it is commercially viable for all stakeholders rather than making them look like charity work or something that has been forcefully imposed. Given the conducive political environment in place today, I want to help create these ecosystems as a mentor,” Shah said.

The comments assume significance in the wake of water conservation being one of the top priorities for the Modi government, while it has also proposed an idea of setting up ‘social stock exchanges’ to help social sector organizations raise funds.

The 52-year-old businessman, who began his entrepreneurial journey in his 20s and went on to set up 10 exchanges across six continents in a span of 10 years, had to exit all exchange-related businesses under regulatory orders in the aftermath of a Rs 5,600-crore default at one of his smallest ventures, National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL), in 2013.

Shah has said in his newsapper interviews that time has come to start his second innings as court orders are absolving him of all the charges one after another as no agency could prove even a single paisa of wrongdoing on his part, nor on the part of his companies.

While one of his flagship exchanges, MCX (Multi-Commodity Exchange), had become the world’s second-largest commodity bourse under his leadership and all other group exchanges were also doing well before his exit, Shah said he does not want to bask in his past glory and the time is no longer right for a business model focused on exchanges.

Shah also said he is very keen on getting start-up ecosystems executed by roping in “right young minds”, while himself playing the role of “a catalyst and an enabler”.

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Created on Jan 16th 2020 01:04. Viewed 299 times.

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