Startups: Nirmala Sitharaman, the Union Finance Minister, urged startups on Saturday to focus on less-famous topics like climate change, millet production, and enhancing farmer conditions.

At a national summit to support startups, Sitharaman emphasised the need of combating climate change and urged the companies to do so because it will affect the nation’s agricultural practises.

“Of course defence production, renewable energy, nuclear, satellites, space technologies, they are all there. You have already touched upon those areas. I am asking you to touch upon some of those less glamorous areas as well,” Sitharaman told the gathering here.

“My appeal is, more and more innovations coming from the startups for dealing with climate and climate change is going to be absolutely precious,” the Finance Minister said.

She urged the companies to try to improve living circumstances for farmers and city inhabitants and to provide millets as a solution for a healthy diet.

According to her, businesses can also look at markets that can provide farmers with much better prices and a large number of jobs due to the value adds that can be added. She emphasised that in order to improve India’s climatic conditions, consideration should be paid to climate and its associated solutions.

The Finance Minister cautioned that the Indian economy would incur significant costs that would be completely unaffordable if the challenges related to climate change were not addressed.

“The across-the-board damages that adverse climate and weather conditions can create is going to be big for any country to subsume, absorb or take on board,” she cautioned the gathering.

People may see farmers trying to alter their farming patterns, Sitharaman noted. According to Sitharaman, the seed-sowing process is being pushed back because of the erratic monsoon season.

She emphasised that rainfall that used to occur over the entire monsoon season is now experienced within a few days, which neither cities nor rural areas can withstand.