About 10,000 start-ups have come up in India despite the Covid 19 pandemic in the last few months, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday. Speaking virtually at the inauguration of the 25th National Youth Festival, he said that today India can boast of having more than 50,000 start-ups with a strong ecosystem supporting them while creating employment.

“Startups (in India) are entering a golden age,” Modi said, adding that the new mantra of the youth is “compete and conquer.”

“Today’s youth has a can-do spirit, which is a source of inspiration for every generation,” Modi said. He added that disruptions today are leading to development.

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The Prime Minister also underlined the importance of the micro small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector in supporting the Atmanirbhar Bharat scheme.

Currently, India ranks third only after the US and China to have the largest number of unicorns.

Despite the pandemic, last year, more than 30 startups in India made it to the prestigious Unicorn list—a startup with a valuation of $1 billion or more. Estimates suggest that about $35 billion has already been pumped into these firms.

According to Invest India, the Indian unicorns have not only contributed to innovations, but have become important for employment generation. “Till FY 2016-17, approximately one unicorn was being added every year. Over the past four years (since FY 2017-18), this number has been increasing exponentially, with a whopping 66% Year-on-Year growth in the number of additional unicorns being added every year,” it said.

According to Inc42, a media platform tracking Indian startups and entrepreneurs, if the present euphoria continues, “India will manage to get more than 100 unicorns by 2022, much earlier than the previous estimation of 2023.”