Government & Policy
Invest India
Domestic Investor's Desk → July/August → December 2023
Invest India is the world's most awarded Investment Promotion Agency. A department under the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India. Its primary mission is to attract and retain foreign and domestic investments in the country, making India a preferred investment destination globally.
TLDR;
- I chose to skip big college choices to join Invest India, while just out of high school — as one of their youngest ever employees.
- Worked with the Atmanirbhar Niveshak Mitra or the Domestic Investors' Desk which facilitated domestic companies with other parts of Invest India and liaised with MSMEs to the biggest companies of India — helping them expand.
- Was at Invest India during the G20, where Invest India was one of the key stakeholders in India's presidency — I was with the team that organized various events.
- Attended various conferences, met numerous premier government officials, CXOs.
- Facilitated tech development, market research and analysis, operational expansion, and event organization.
A bit of my story at Invest India
Summer of 2023. While having a couple of college options on hand, my intention was to take a gap year, and spent my time working. But prior to the summer, much earlier, my eyes were set on working with a body of the government I was always fascinated by — Invest India.
I'd known about their operations via LooCafe's work, as an SMB looking to expand — Invest India was a key mover for companies. Startup India, itself, is a department under Invest India.
That pretty much was a 'wow' moment for me. Invest India is extremely unique as an agency. Its commerce focus, investment promotion agency behaviour is like a consultancy, with diplomacy, does international business, domestic business, governance, policy, interdepartmental research, works on fund release, fund growth, Indian representation — quite a bit.
Interdisciplinary, agentic, open to folks outside a conventional path and with recruitment taste for 'sparkly' people. I was told that Invest India would be a pretty good fit for me by a mentor, he said 'Invest India is really a place for you, smart well-dressed folks with pretty nice talking skills and well-educated' — flattery, and embarrassment for me to write this on, but that's how I'd describe Invest India to anyone who I think should work there.
I just had to work there, I applied, wrote some emails and asked for some help, and they made an exception with the experiences I've had before; and I didn't let them down eventually. So there I was, no university decision made, onto a gap year per-se, and really excited with the Invest India opportunity on hand.
I had to join the office, be there in person at the Vigyan Bhavan in the heart's heart of the country — the centres of governance circled around Rajpath. My aunt & uncle lived in Gurgaon, a city part of the NCR, an hour and half of metro ride away from Vigyan Bhavan.
My work started at Invest India pretty comfortably, my manager Dr. Astha was the kindest, and my team members were wonderful, the friends I met there were so much more experienced than me, from fine institutions and of course, at a minimum of 3–4 years older than me, in final years of University.
The office was extremely lively, we had the G20 going on, it was summertime, so interns from the best universities around Delhi were around. I worked on various projects, and overall a pretty solid experience — perhaps it wasn't as challenging, just often, it was a lot to do, and rigorous.
But the best parts of Invest India came beyond the work I was given — networking with friends and departmental heads, attending events at Vigyan Bhavan, just dropping into other offices such as the Office of the Scientific Advisor and speaking to someone about what's up in science in India!
