Starting 2020, India increased import duties on toys and implemented a quality control order (QCO), with the aim of giving a competitive advantage to domestic toy manufacturers. Has the strategy paid off? “QCOs and similar barriers increase uncertainty and inefficiency in the system. Industry becomes more hesitant to invest and produce," says Rahul Ahluwalia, co-Founder of Foundation for Economic Development (FED). “Besides, the protectionist policies also force toy buyers to pay more. Any product that is competitive in terms of quality does not need any kind of protection or boost from the government to make it export worthy. It happens automatically."

Venkatesan elaborated on the ‘missing’ entrepreneurial mindset: "Too many of our entrepreneurs have a victim mindset. However, if you look at our first-generation entrepreneurs in the last 20-30 years,those who built pharma businesses or our ecommerce guys, they also had formidable challenges. They, nevertheless, found a way to power through."