There has been an exponential growth in the number of new startups coming up in the country with as many as 10,000 startups being recognised by the government in the last 180 days up to June 3, figures compiled by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) showed on Thursday.
It had taken 808 days for the first 10,000 startups to come up at the beginning of the Startup India flagship initiative of the Government of India that was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2016. The initiative which was intended to catalyse startup culture and build a strong and inclusive ecosystem for innovation and entrepreneurship in India has made significant progress.
While 743 startups were recognized in 2016-2017, in the first year of the initiative, the number has now shot up to an impressive 16,000 startups being recognized in the financial year 2020-2021 which ended on March 31.
This takes the total number of startups recognised by the government to 50,000 across the country.
State-wise scenario
With the launch of the Startup India initiative, recognized startups have now spread across 623 districts in the country. Each State and UT has at least one startup.
Maharashtra, Karnataka, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat have the largest number of startups.
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, the DPIIT statement said.
Job creation
The recognized startups have contributed significantly to job creation, with 5,49,842 jobs reported by 48,093 startups with an average number of 11 employees per startup. About 1.7 lakh jobs were created by recognized startups in the 2020-2021 period alone.
The sectors that had the maximum registered startups were ‘Food Processing’, ‘Product Development’, ‘Application Development’, ‘IT Consulting’ and ‘Business Support Services’. The leadership teams of 45% startups have a women entrepreneur, a trend which will inspire more women entrepreneurs to turn their ideas into startups.
Incentive schemes
Startup India at DPIIT has played a pivotal role in strengthening the key pillars identified for our startup economy. Funding opportunities to startups have been enhanced through the Fund of Funds Scheme with an overlay of INR 10,000 crore and the recently launched Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS) with an outlay of Rs 945 crores, the DPIIT statement said.
Multiple programs conceived and implemented by DPIIT -National Startup Awards, State Ranking Framework, Global VC Summit, Prarambh: Startup India International Summit – have provided the ecosystem an opportunity to engage with multiple partners, get recognized for their contribution and showcase the work that is being done, the statement added.
