New Delhi: In a clear sign of indomitable spirit of Indian entrepreneurs, more than 10,000 startups joined the fray in the last six months, and nearly 40% of the total 50,000 recognised startups in the country, have been launched in the last 14 months. It shows that Indian startups have started their business and added to job creation at a time when the country has been battling with the adverse economic impact of Covid-19 global pandemic that led to a 7.3% decline in the country’s GDP in the last fiscal.
According to the latest official data, now there are 50,000 government-recognised startups in 623 districts of the country, with each state and union territory having at least one DPIIT recognised startup.
Moreover, Indian startups added 1,70,000 jobs in the last one year alone, at a time when the country’s GDP contracted by over 7% due to the adverse economic impact of Covid-19 global pandemic, which disrupted supply chains and production of goods across the world.
Startups thrive despite Covid
According to officials, it took only six months to add the last 10,000 startups as compared to more than two years for the first 10,000 after the launch of Startup India initiative by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2016.
In the first year, only 743 startups were recognized by the government, whereas 16,000 startups have been recognized by the government in the last fiscal, the period which saw unprecedented decline in economic activity due to the Covid-19 global pandemic.
With the launch of Startup India initiative, recognized startups have now spread across 623 districts in the country, said officials, adding that now each state and union territory has at least one government recognised startup.
Job creation
According to the latest data available with the government, on an average, every startup was able to provide employment to 11 people.
“The recognized startups have contributed significantly to job creation, with nearly 5,50,000 lakh jobs reported from over 48,000 startups, there were on average 11 employees per startup,” said the officials.
About 1,70,000 jobs were created by recognized startups in the 2020-2021 period alone.
Food Processing, IT Sector
Officials said the maximum registered startups were in the sectors such as food processing, product development, application development, information technology consulting and business support services.
The leadership teams of 45% startups have a woman entrepreneur, a trend which will inspire more women entrepreneurs to turn their ideas into startups, they said.
Widespread presence
According to officials, 30 States and UTs have announced specific startup policies to support them and states like Maharashtra, Karnataka, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat have the greatest number of startups.
Read More: Majority of Startups, SMEs to scale down, shut business due to Covid: Survey
Startup India
In January 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Startup India scheme to encourage the country’s entrepreneurs to start innovation based new businesses.
In the Union budget that year, the government also announced certain relaxation in tax liabilities for the government recognised startups, expecting that it will lead to job creation and economic growth.
The initiative is intended to catalyse startup culture and build a strong and inclusive ecosystem for innovation and entrepreneurship in India.
“Entrepreneurs now have options to avail benefits across a range of laws, regulations, fiscal and infrastructural support, leading to a surge in startup ecosystem growth,” said the government.
Funding opportunities
Funding opportunities to startups have been enhanced through the Fund of Funds Scheme with an overlay of Rs 10,000 crores and the recently launched Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS) with an outlay of Rs 945 crores.
In addition to this, the DPIIT has launched several programs to support startups such as launching a National Startup Awards, State Ranking Framework, Global VC Summit, and Prarambh: Startup India International Summit.
