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Priyanka Pani, The Hindu\nBusinessline\n<\/i><\/p>\n
Priyanka Pani, The Hindu\nBusinessline
\n<\/i><\/p>\n
Mumbai, 6 September\n2016 <\/i><\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"..\/images\/gen-next-digital.jpg\")
Going digital seems to be the mantra for some of\nIndia Inc’s generation-next. Kavin Mittal, son of Airtel’s Sunil Bharti\nMittal; Ananyashree Birla, the eldest daughter of Kumar Mangalam Birla,\nChairman of Aditya Birla Group; Isha and Akash Ambani, scions of the\nReliance Group, are spearheading various online and digital ventures.
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\nThe new generation not only wants to carve a niche for itself by\ngetting into the online ventures but also plans to take on the digital\nbiggies.
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\nHarminder Sahni, founder of consultancy Wazir Advisory, said that “the\ntrend clearly shows that the new generation wants to step out of the\ntraditional businesses and create a separate identity for themselves.\nThey don’t want to get associated with business that they don’t relate\nto, a trend opposite to what their parents did.”
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\nWhile Isha Ambani played a pivotal role in the launch of fashion portal\nAjio.com, Akash is deeply involved in RJio telecom venture.
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\nTwenty-eight-year-old Kavin Mittal is the founder of messaging app\nHike, which recently raised about $175 million from Chinese Internet\ngiant Tencent at a $1.4-billion valuation.
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\nAnanyashree Birla is coming out with her own luxury portal, CuroCrate,\nnever mind that the Aditya Birla Group has a fashion portal Abof.com.\nAnanyashree, who started her first venture when she was 17, has\ndeclined to join her father’s $41-billion diversified conglomerate.
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\nAccording to\nDevangshu Dutta, founder of advisory and research firm Third EyeSight,\n“The new generation has grown up in the age of Internet. They\nunderstand it better than their parents. Digital business, Internet of\nThings (IoT), e-commerce are moving rapidly in India and hence it makes sense\nfor the GenNext to enter this space.”<\/span>
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\nBut can the next generation compete with established players such as\nFlipkart and Snapdeal?
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\nArvind Singhal of technology research firm Technopak says “digital is\nthe toughest segment as it has no entry barrier. Besides, even if you\nhave enough money and infrastructure, one can fail as in this space all\nyou need is agility, hunger to do something different and\ninnovation.” <\/p>\n