PM Modi wants BRICS to help 100 startups scale yearly; Shuddh Swad turns Bihari thekua into a Rs 1 Cr D2C business

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called on BRICS member nations to create pathways enabling 100 startups to scale into cross-border markets each year, per YourStory. Speaking at the BRICS Business Forum in New Delhi, Modi tasked the BRICS Business Council with reviewing the target alongside identifying the top 10 trade barriers and facilitating 1,000 new business partnerships annually. The New Delhi Declaration also backs a startup incubator network and weighs a BRICS Startup Innovation Fund, with proposals around digital public infrastructure, AI, and cross-border payments.

The announcement reflects BRICS' growing scale—the grouping has expanded to 11 countries, accounting for nearly half the world's population, about 40% of global GDP, and more than a quarter of global trade, according to YourStory. India has offered its Digital Public Infrastructure and UPI architecture as a blueprint for member nations to deepen cross-border business integration. The New Delhi Declaration also proposes better access to finance for MSMEs through credit assessment frameworks and invoice discounting mechanisms.

In a separate story, Shuddh Swad, a West Bengal-based D2C food startup, has reached ₹1 crore in revenue within its first year of operations, per YourStory. Founded in 2025 by Jayanta Karmakar and Kailash Bouri with an initial capital of just ₹10,000, the bootstrapped venture makes preservative-free Bihari thekua—a deep-fried sweet snack traditionally offered as prasad during Chhath Puja—using traditional household recipes. The startup operates without institutional funding and sells through its own website, major e-commerce channels, and quick-commerce platforms.

Shuddh Swad has sold over 40,000 units across three thekua variants: coconut and suji, coconut and jaggery, and cardamom, all currently priced at ₹299 (discounted from ₹599) and available in 250-gram, 750-gram, and 1.25-kilogram packs, according to YourStory. The 40-member team is developing R&D pipelines to commercialize traditional regional recipes from other Indian states, signaling ambitions to expand beyond thekua into a broader portfolio of regional snacks.