Akanksha Ghosh

Startup Policy Forum | Tech Law and Policy

[Shweta Rajpal Kohli @ShwetaRKohli]

🚨Startup Policy Forum is growing: steadily and strongly.

We've moved into a new office, and it's already brought a fresh burst of energy (plus a rare sighting: the full team in one place, thanks to our Diwali puja!).

🔹Leadership Changes
Avantika, my co-founder and SPF's backbone from day one, is stepping up as Vice President & Chief Operating Officer.

Shubhangi is elevated to Vice President & Chief Strategy Officer. (And yes, her informal title of Chief Happiness Officer lives on!)

Akanksha and Oishika are doing much of the heavy lifting as our policy and partnerships leads, and Akashdeep, who recently joined to lead communications, is already making plenty of noise (the good kind).

🔹New Team Members Prateek joins us as Manager, Member Operations & Experiences, after working on strategic partnerships and operations at CCWE, an AI strategy consultancy in London.

Subhashni joins as Manager, Founder's Office & Administration, bringing 20+ years of experience, including 15 years at NDTV supporting senior leadership.

And Mukesh Bhaiya who keeps the office functioning and all of us caffeinated!

🔹Who we Hire
People often ask how a small team gets so much done. My answer is always the same: who we hire. Beyond a very high bar for performance, we look for alignment with our vision and values, real passion for our work and, just as importantly, a wildly good sense of humour. The work is intense; the laughter gets us through it.

🚨Hiring Alert
On that note, we're hiring!
We're looking for Policy Associate (2–5 years' experience) who'd love to spend their days in the corridors of power, decoding regulations and turning them into sharp policy submissions. A legal background is preferred but not essential. A willingness to share the laughs is.

If you've read this far, you probably already follow our work and believe in our mission. That's half the interview done.

Interested? Apply here:

https://t.co/LgSSUpVdZX

In under two years, SPF has become a team I'm incredibly proud of.

For a founder, nothing beats watching a great team come together, especially with so much still to do for India's startup ecosystem.

[Shweta Rajpal Kohli @ShwetaRKohli]

Startup Policy Forum’s Vice President & Chief Strategy Officer Shubhangi Poddar recently met India’s Ambassador to the UAE, Dr. Deepak Mittal, in Abu Dhabi.

The India-UAE relationship holds immense potential for startups, investors and businesses on both sides. Deepening these ties and creating more opportunities for cross-border collaboration have been the focal point of all our conversation.

At Startup Policy Forum, we are doubling down on our efforts to connect the two ecosystems, bringing founders, investors and businesses closer.

@SPF_India @d_mittal73 @IndembAbuDhabi

[Shweta Rajpal Kohli @ShwetaRKohli]

Thank you so much Ambassador Mittal.

At Startup Policy Forum, we are excited to build these two-way bridges and grateful for your support and encouragement. 🙏🏼

[Shweta Rajpal Kohli @ShwetaRKohli]

‼️When we met @anilgoteti and the @getscapia team for our member catch-up and onboarding meeting this morning, I brought him a special gift: not a Diwali hamper, but my brand-new Scapia card.

After all, the best gift for founders is telling them you use their product!

The card had arrived a few days ago. And no better way to do the unboxing ceremony of that innovative “Let's go places” box than with the founder himself?

Beyond that, we had a great conversation about the issues that shape the wider ecosystem, from commerce to fintech to travel.

We're looking forward to working with Anil and team on the policy and regulatory questions that matter for builders like them.

In just four years, Scapia has become one of the most-loved cards for a generation that lives to travel. It's rare to see a brand built on this much customer love and founder conviction, and it shows in every detail.

Welcome aboard as an Anchor Member of Startup Policy Forum, Scapia! 🙌

P.S. Of course we tried the customary Gen Z “hold the Scapia card at a cool angle” photo. It took more attempts than I'll admit, and ultimately had to have the founder himself doing the honours!

@SPF_India

[Shweta Rajpal Kohli @ShwetaRKohli]

Over the past few days, we've closely followed the debate on the nationality of startups that has played out around Pixxel.

To be clear, Pixxel is not a member of Startup Policy Forum, but the conversation affects every founder building out of India, so we want to add our view. These are our thoughts based on chats with some members building in deeptech, without getting into the nitty gritty.

- If "Indianness" becomes a test, most of our best-known startups would fail it.

Many have foreign investors on their captable, are incorporated overseas, or run subsidiaries abroad.

Several that started as overseas incorporated because of constraints at home have since reverse-flipped, and are now among the crown jewels of our ecosystem.

Their journey is a sign of what has improved here, the opportunity that India presents, not proof that they were ever less Indian.

- Building a company in India takes grit, patience and a high tolerance for constraints. Founders deserve the freedom to decide where they incorporate, whom they raise from, which markets they enter first and how they go to market.

Some will start abroad and come home. Some will start here and follow their customers overseas. Some will deliberately build everything through an Indian entity.

These are all valid business choices, and none of them, in our view, should be squarely viewed as a test of loyalty or patriotism.

An Indian company scaling globally brings revenue, talent and credibility back to the ecosystem.

- Sovereign and strategic technology does come with legitimate questions of ownership, control and data.

Those questions should be answered by clear, predictable rules set by regulators and policymakers and applied equally to every company.

They should not be settled by public trials of a founder's patriotism.

Clear rules will protect national interest far better than social media verdicts, and they let founders plan without fear.

National pride matters. The most lasting pride, though, comes from a country that offers founders the best opportunity to build and scale, on a level playing field.

We know for sure India offers that opportunity, we know the government has been hugely supportive of startups, we also know India continues to have its constraints.

Creating a level playing field for Indian startups has always been Startup Policy Forum's mission. Because if we don’t engage, educate or advocate we can’t expect change to happen. We will continue to do our bit to ensure Indian startups have a voice and a seat at the table.

@PixxelSpace @SPF_India @awaisahmedna

[Shweta Rajpal Kohli @ShwetaRKohli]

Fintech Premier League Season 2 brought to you by Signzy and Startup Policy Forum is heading towards the finish line with the finals scheduled tomorrow in Mumbai.

Team Startup Policy Forum (SPF) went hopping across cities from Gurgaon to Bengaluru to Mumbai to catch the action of the regional semi-finals and to cheer the playing squads.

The teams playing the finals on Saturday are
@zerodha @NPCI_NPCI, @SalaryTopup @indifitech
Jocata and Vartis.

Here are some glimpses of the semis

@FintechOnPitch @SPF_India @lawyer_intech @ankitratan @TeamSignzy @ptl_bhavin

[Startup Policy Forum @SPF_India]

AI may be global, but how people feel about it depends a lot on where they are.

A Pew Research study across 37 countries found that only 9% of workers globally expect AI to create more jobs, while 46% expect job losses. In India, the outlook is quite different. 21% expect AI to create jobs, while just 29% anticipate job losses.

It’s a reminder that AI itself isn’t deciding the future of work. The choices we make as leaders will.

Today, our President & CEO Shweta Rajpal Kohli will be in Bengaluru for Glean:GO On the Road, sharing insights on the Work AI Index research with Rebecca Hinds, Rahul De and Subramanian Kalpathi.

We look forward to the conversation on making AI work for people, not just businesses.

@glean | @RebHinds

@ShwetaRKohli | @AvantikaGode | @Shubhangip611 | @akankshaghosh13 | Oishika Ghosh | @bforbaruah

[Shweta Rajpal Kohli @ShwetaRKohli]

Startup Policy Forum’s annual Diwali get-together, Lights & Leaders, came back even brighter this year.

It was an honour to host senior government officials, regulators, Members of Parliament, founders, investors, big tech leaders, policy thinkers, and friends from the media for a get together to ring in the festive season.

The conversations never stopped, and the room was alive with energy all evening.

At SPF, our purpose has always been simple: to bring the corridors of power and the corridors of innovation together, and to be the bridge between them.

So it meant a great deal to us to see so many senior bureaucrats across ministries and departments, who spend their days drafting and implementing policies that govern our ecosystem, choose to spend their evening with us.

Their presence reflects a government that is engaging, and deeply invested in the success of Indian startups.

Thank you to everyone who joined us for Lights & Leaders. Here’s to more light, more leadership, and more bridges built together. 🪔

@SPF_India

[Shweta Rajpal Kohli @ShwetaRKohli]

Happy Dussehra!

[Startup Policy Forum @SPF_India]

We’re honoured to welcome Pawan Chandana, Co-Founder & CEO, Skyroot Aerospace, to the Advisory Board of DeepVerse, our Centre for DeepTech Innovation.

Skyroot Aerospace is India's first space-tech unicorn founded by former ISRO scientists Pawan Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka. It scripted history on July 18, 2026, with Vikram-I, becoming the first Indian private company to launch an orbital rocket from Indian soil.

@SkyrootA | @PawanKChandana | @bharathdaka

@ShwetaRKohli | @AvantikaGode | @Shubhangip611
| @akankshaghosh13 | Oishika Ghosh | @bforbaruah

[Shweta Rajpal Kohli @ShwetaRKohli]

Startup Policy Forum’s Avantika Gode met Shri Chandra Bhushan Kumar, Secretary, Ministry of Labour & Employment, to discuss matters related to India's gig economy.

The govt is keen for platforms to use their scale to bring gig workers into insurance, maternity and other welfare schemes, so benefits reach the people they're meant for.

Gig work is a three-sided market: workers, consumers and businesses. Good policy must work for all three.

Startup Policy Forum will be working closely with the Ministry on these issues of immense significance for the startup ecosystem and the Indian economy.

@LabourMinistry @SPF_India

[Shweta Rajpal Kohli @ShwetaRKohli]

As the deadline for DPDP implementation nears, Startup Policy Forum continues to host its Data Privacy Compliance Clinics across the country to answer key questions on compliance choices while helping startups in this journey. Grateful to have participation from @GoI_MeitY for these sessions.

A snapshot from the recent clinic held in Mumbai.

@SecretaryMEITY

[Shweta Rajpal Kohli @ShwetaRKohli]

Look forward to running this masterclass Startups & Storytelling: Making Narrative your Moat at @_TechSparks tomorrow. Do join if you’re attending!

@YourStoryCo @SharmaShradha @ShivMuths

[Shweta Rajpal Kohli @ShwetaRKohli]

An honour to meet and interact with Mrs. Akie Abe, former First Lady of Japan, during her visit to India, at a special closed-door dinner hosted by @ndtv in her honour. Thank you, @rahulkanwal and Team NDTV for the warm invitation.

The NDTV India–Japan Summit, "From Friendship to Future," explored new avenues for collaboration between our nations.

It was a pleasure to join a panel moderated by @VishnuNDTV alongside Ambassador Sujan Chinoy and Yukita-san of JETRO.

I shared perspectives from my recent visit to Japan with Minister Piyush Goyal, and on the opportunities for startups in the renewed India–Japan economic partnership.

It was also wonderful to engage with Delhi LG Shri Taranjit Singh Sandhu at the Summit and share updates on the work of Startup Policy Forum.

@SandhuTaranjitS @PiyushGoyal
@akie_official @SujanChinoy @JETRO_info

[Shweta Rajpal Kohli @ShwetaRKohli]

‼️ Startup Policy Forum wholeheartedly welcomes the GST Council’s decision to scrap the arrest powers of GST officers and raise the threshold for prosecution from ₹1 crore to ₹5 crore.

This is a landmark reform, which will strengthen ease of doing business and bring more proportionality and certainty to tax enforcement.

The decision will provide greater confidence to India’s startup community while ensuring that genuine tax compliance issues are addressed through appropriate and proportionate measures.

SPF has consistently advocated for greater clarity, proportionality and due process in tax enforcement.

Concerns around the use of arrest powers in tax matters, particularly in some recent cases, had been raised by SPF earlier this year through our statements and submissions and subsequently in our meetings with government stakeholders, including during our Fintech Baithak meetings earlier this year with multiple stakeholders.

We also welcome the GST Council’s recommendation to extend the inverted duty structure (IDS) refund mechanism to input services. This has been a longstanding issue highlighted by SPF through multiple representations and engagements with Government stakeholders, given the working-capital blockage arising from the accumulation of input tax credit (ITC) attributable to input services by India's startup community.

The proposed reform marks an important step towards addressing this concern and creating a more equitable and efficient refund framework for businesses.

We further appreciate the broader set of reforms announced by the Council, including faster and more automated refunds, simplified registration and filing processes, measures to protect genuine input tax credit claims, and reduced compliance friction for businesses.

Together, these measures represent an important step towards making GST administration more predictable, efficient and business-friendly.

SPF remains committed to working with the Government to ensure a predictable and proportionate regulatory environment for India’s startup ecosystem.

@PMOIndia
@FinMinIndia @nsitharaman
@GST_Council

[Shweta Rajpal Kohli @ShwetaRKohli]

Some ideas find their moment. DeepVerse seems to be one of them.

We are immensely humbled by the media coverage that the DeepVerse launch has received across leading national, business and global publications. 🙏

The stories capture it even better than we could have. In a time of geopolitical uncertainty, building sovereign deep-tech capability has become a national priority, and that message is clearly landing.

For those who've been asking us, DeepVerse is a platform that unites the entire Deeptech ecosystem across startups, investors, policymakers, academia and big tech to facilitate a sustained policy dialogue around multiple critical sectors.

This is only the beginning. Our founding cohort brings together a high-powered Advisory Board, 30+ partners across VCs, startups and big tech, along with 100+ deep-tech companies building across 10 sectors identified by us through the #100DesiDeeptechs initiative.

If you’re building or backing Deeptech, join us in this evolving conversation.

Here’s a snapshot of the headlines that DeepVerse generated.

[Chandra R. Srikanth @chandrarsrikant]

30 investors, founders join Startup Policy Forum's deeptech policy platform DeepVerse

The platform will focus on policy and ecosystem challenges facing deeptech startups across 10 sectors -semiconductors, advanced manufacturing, spacetech, quantum technology, defence technology, biotech and healthtech, cleantech and energy, drones and aerospace, electric vehicles and robotics

https://t.co/2GgFsmCdzp

[Shweta Rajpal Kohli @ShwetaRKohli]

A high-powered advisory board comprising founders, investors and policymakers will guide the deeptech ecosystem forward as we focus on a sustained policy dialogue across 10 focus sectors.

[Shweta Rajpal Kohli @ShwetaRKohli]

‼️ Introducing DeepVerse, Startup Policy Forum's Centre for DeepTech Innovation.

♦️Why "DeepVerse"?
Deeptech isn't one sector. It's a universe. On one side: semiconductors, space, robotics, biotech, quantum, clean energy, advanced manufacturing. On the other: multiple ministries, departments, regulators whose decisions matter. These worlds often work in separate orbits. DeepVerse brings that universe together.

♦️Why does DeepVerse matter? 
Deeptech moves on long timelines, needs patient capital, and often enters territory regulation hasn't mapped yet. Founders know where they're stuck. Investors see what makes capital flow. Academia drives the research. Big tech brings scale. The government sets the rules. 

DeepVerse brings them together. We have launched with an initial 30+ partners across startups, investors, academia and big tech, to build a sustained policy dialogue, so the people writing the rules hear directly from the people building and backing the future.

We also have an 18-member high-powered Advisory Board to guide us.

♦️The Logo
Read it one way: a spark of invention held between the brackets of hard science, with a beam cutting deep into the lab and reaching all the way to orbit. Read it another: two drones flanking a rocket on lift-off, a nod to the aerospace and space tech founders, representing two of the 10 focus sectors.

Our full page ads announcing the launch have appeared across leading national and business dailies today including @EconomicTimes, @livemint and @IndianExpress

Let’s move India’s deeptech ecosystem forward, together.

@PMOIndia @narendramodi
@AshwiniVaishnaw @JitinPrasada @SecretaryMEITY

@prashanthp
@tarunsmehta
@PawanKChandana
@TheRealNamzoo @MohapatraHemant @visheshrajaram @sateesh_andra @GandhiIshpreet
@smdcmc @anirudhnsharma @ChagunBasha @BessemerVP @ironpillarfund @crane_vc @AccelIndia @LightspeedIndia

[Startup Policy Forum @SPF_India]

Startup Policy Forum’s GCC Policy Baatcheet at the @SmartworksInd Intellion campus, Navi Mumbai, brought together Mr. Praveen Singh Pardeshi (@PrvnPardeshi) (CEO, MITRA and Chief Economic Advisor to the Chief Minister), Mr. Aman Mittal (@amanmittal_1991) (Joint CEO, MITRA), and GCC leaders for an open, industry-focused dialogue on what’s working, what isn’t, and what companies need on the ground.

The conversation covered the rapid growth of GCCs, how AI is changing the nature of work, and the practical support companies need when they set up.

Maharashtra is well placed to lead India’s next wave of GCC growth, from Pune to Navi Mumbai to Solapur.

India already hosts ~50% of the world’s GCCs, contributing ~2% of GDP, with 111 new greenfield centres established in the first eight months of 2026.

But the conversation kept coming back to what matters most: people. How do we build the right talent? Better cities? How do we make Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities genuinely livable, accessible and full of opportunity — places where innovation shapes how the whole city works?

This is within reach if policymakers and industry work on it deliberately.

At SPF, we remain committed to working closely with the Maharashtra government to turn conversations like this into ground-level action, while bringing enablers, governments and industry partners together to deliver the next phase of India’s GCC story.

@harsh_binani | @neetish_sarda |
@mygovMaha | @kdhavse | @SPF_India | @ShwetaRKohli | @AvantikaGode | @Shubhangip611 | @akankshaghosh13 | @bforbaruah