Rajan Anandan and Saurabh Srivastava Author “The Lift-Off Nation,” a New Book Arguing India Is Entering the Golden Age of Startups
Two of India’s most respected startup veterans have put their view of the ecosystem into a book. Rajan Anandan, Managing Director at Peak XV Partners and former head of Google, Microsoft and Dell in India, and Saurabh Srivastava, entrepreneur and investor who co-founded NASSCOM, TiE and IAN, have authored “The Lift-Off Nation: Why We Are Entering the Golden Age of Indian Startups,” published by Juggernaut.
Here is the central argument. The authors say India’s startup ecosystem is entering a potential golden age, driven by a growing pool of experienced founders, innovation across sectors, global ambition, deeper capital markets and strong government support. They point out that a new generation of founders has been schooled in the first wave of “academy” startups, and that around 40% of new seed-funded startups in 2025 were building for the world from day zero, not just for India.
The book also backs the optimism with context on funding and policy. It notes that venture capital funding has grown five times over the past decade, that India’s public markets are now open to startup IPOs, and that digital public infrastructure such as Aadhaar and UPI is the envy of the world. India is already the third-largest and fastest-growing startup ecosystem by number of startups, behind only the US and China.
It does not shy away from the gaps either. The authors cite figures showing India spends roughly 0.65% of GDP on research and development, compared with 2.6% in China and 3.5% in the US, and argue that India needs to raise this to at least 3% of GDP to build globally competitive, innovation-driven businesses, especially in technology-heavy industries.
The book draws on interviews with leading founders, investors, policymakers and academics, and spans consumer companies, financial services, healthcare and emerging deep-tech areas such as space and AI. It runs to about 384 pages and was released at the end of September 2026.
A reality check worth keeping in mind: this is the authors’ thesis, and a hopeful one, not a forecast. Whether India actually turns this momentum into global-scale companies will depend heavily on R&D investment, deep-tech depth and consistent execution.
Still, when two people who helped build the ecosystem say the best may be ahead, founders and investors are right to pay attention.
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— Sandeep Raiza