India holds world’s highest rate of recognising start-ups per day

BUSINESS DESK: Start-ups have been the buzzword in India for the last several years. India is powering its growth with innovation and entrepreneurship. Currently, there are 75,000 start-ups in the country, which coincides with the 75th year of independence.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had envisioned “a new India that taps on the entrepreneurial potential of its people” as he mentioned in the Independence Day speech from the Red Fort on August 15, 2015 (Indian Independence Day). A programme has been initiated to lay out an action plan to build a strong ecosystem for nurturing innovation and start-ups in the country.

In the past six years, the action plan has successfully guided into making India the third largest ecosystem. While the initial 10,000 start-ups were recognised in 808 days, the latest 10,000 were achieved in only 156 days. With more than 80 start-ups getting recognised per day-India holds the highest rate in the world. This further encourages the future start-up culture that is promising and encouraging for budding entrepreneurs. The Indian start-up ecosystem is promising not just for entrepreneurs but also for job seekers too.

An impressive, 7.46 lakh jobs have been created, so far, which has seen a 110 per cent yearly increase over the last six years. In fact, about 49 per cent of Indian start-ups are from Tier II & Tier III, a picture that validates the tremendous potential of Indian youth not limited to metropolitan states. The start-ups India programme, launched by the government of India in 2016, was primarily set up to provide an enabling environment for start-ups.

Today it has evolved into the launch pad for all the budding entrepreneurs and innovators across the nation. It has helped start-ups by providing funds, tax incentives, support for intellectual property rights, an eased public procurement, enabling regulatory reforms, access to international fests and events, and much more.

Currently, of the total recognised start-ups, around 12 per cent cater to IT services, 9 per cent to Healthcare and Life Sciences, 7 per cent to education, 5 per cent to professional and commercial services and 5 per cent to agriculture. The start-up India programme has become synonymous with sustainable economic growth.

A start-up India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS), is being implemented by the Indian government with effect from 1 April 2021, which provides financial assistance to eligible Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) recognised start-ups for proof of concept, prototype development, product trials, market entry and commercialisation. This enables the start-ups to graduate to a level where they will be able to raise investments from angel investors or venture capitalists or seek loans from commercial banks or financial institutions. SISFS is disbursed to eligible start-ups through eligible incubators across India.

Across 56 diverse industries, India’s Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has recognised start-ups. In fields related to new technologies including the Internet of Things (IoT), robots, artificial intelligence and analytics, more than 4,500 companies have been recognised.

Besides, India’s National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Discoveries (NIDHI), an umbrella initiative started by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), aims to foster knowledge-based and technology-driven innovations into profitable enterprises.

Besides through the Indian government’s Promoting and Accelerating Young and Aspiring Innovators and start-ups (PRAYAS) programme, Entrepreneurs-In-Residence (EIR) provides money-related help for turning ideas into prototypes and early-stage seed support to incubated enterprises. This establishes Centers of Excellence (CoE) in incubation and provides mentorship and help in investment readiness through Accelerators. (ANI)