The number of startups in India has increased to more than 1.4 lakh, highlighted Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, Jitin Prasada, in Rajya Sabha.
According to a written response by the minister in the house on Friday, the number of Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) recognized startups State/UT-wise has shown that Maharashtra tops the list with 25,044 registered startups.
Karnataka is second with 15,019 registered startups, followed by Delhi with 14,734 startups. Uttar Pradesh has secured the fourth place with 13,299 startups, while Gujarat is in fifth place with 11,436 startups.
The minister also informed that the Government has undertaken various efforts to promote and support startups in the country. He stated that the Government, with the objective of building a strong ecosystem for nurturing innovation, startups, and encouraging investments in the startup ecosystem of the country, launched the Startup India initiative on January 16, 2016.
The minister also added the ‘Startup India Action Plan’ comprises 19 action items spanning across areas such as “Simplification and handholding,” “Funding support and incentives,” and “Industry-academia partnership and incubation.” The Action Plan laid the foundation of Government support, schemes, and incentives envisaged to create a vibrant startup ecosystem in the country.
In the other scheme ‘Startup India: The Way Ahead’ includes actionable plans for the promotion of ease of doing business for startups, a greater role of technology in executing various reforms, building capacities of stakeholders, and enabling a digital Aatmanirbhar Bharat. The Government has also established a Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS) with a corpus of Rs 10,000 crore to meet the funding needs of startups. DPIIT is the monitoring agency and Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) is the operating agency for FFS. The total corpus of Rs 10,000 crore is envisaged to be provided over the 14th and 15th Finance Commission cycles based on the progress of the scheme and the availability of funds.
The minister stated that the government has not only made capital available for startups at the early stage, seed stage, and growth stage but also played a catalytic role in terms of facilitating the raising of domestic capital, reducing dependence on foreign capital, and encouraging homegrown and new venture capital funds.
