GIIC and NLND Open India Desk

The corridor starts attracting people who weren't in the room a year ago.


Yesterday, I attended the inauguration of the India Desk by German Indian Innovation Corridor — GIIC in partnership with NLND (Europe's largest innovation campus at 150,000 sqm) right here in Berlin. GIIC is one of the corridor partners to my platform India Rising and was founded three years ago to improve the Innovation Autobahn between the nations.

The event brought together corporates, scale-ups, and startups as well as Berlin and Indian state and government representatives, so overall a good mix of established corridor players and many engaging with the India story for the first time.

A few takeaways:

- New entrants are arriving.
I met many familiar faces, but also met a lot of first-timers. That's a different signal than 6 to 12 months ago.

- The competing-initiatives question keeps coming up.
I was asked several times whether all these desks, platforms, and networks are just fighting for the same space. My view: There might be some overlaps, but demand is growing faster than the infrastructure serving it. Finding your niche will matter more, and the activity provides a clear signal.

- Germany is still very much in learning mode.
Germany and Europe can learn a ton from India. Initiatives like the India Desk are crucial for giving Indian tech companies a structured gateway into Germany, and for enriching our ecosystem here.

Thank you Siddharth Bhasin, Upen Barve, Luke Lalor and the GIIC team for the invitation and the shout-out of India Rising. Also, great catching up Sunanth Venkateshwaran, Maximilian von der Ahé, LL.M. , Malte Hohlfeld, Sukesh Das, Sujata Banerjee, Udey Singh Thakur (even if brief) and nice meeting you in person Ewa Emilia Geresz, Ranjan R Jinka, Avinash Ronanki, Jamal Maxey and many others.



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