Startups are playing a pivotal role in India’s journey towards becoming a developed nation by 2047: Piyush Goyal

NEW DELHI : Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, and Textiles, Shri Piyush Goyal said that startups are playing a pivotal role in India’s journey towards becoming a developed nation by 2047. While addressing the Startup Awards & State Ranking Awards function in New Delhi on Tuesday, the Minister commended the significant progress made in the startup sector over the last eight years, stating that what was once a novelty has now become an integral part of the national mainstream.

Shri Goyal highlighted the diverse sectors in which startups are making substantial contributions, ranging from MedTech, FinTech, AgroTech to the aviation sector, drones, and simulators. He identified tourism as a sector with untapped potential, encouraging startups to explore innovative ideas around sustainable tourism. He pointed out that Wed-in-India initiative as suggested by the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi should also be noted by the potential StartUps. He added that the PM had said at Vibrant Gujarat that Bharat’s priority is New Age Skills, Futuristic Tech, AI & Innovation.

Shri Goyal expressed confidence in the entrepreneurial spirit of both the young and old, urging them to contribute their unique perspectives and ideas to the startup ecosystem. He reiterated that age should not be a barrier to engage with new ideas and foster innovation. He urged individuals, regardless of age, to actively participate in the startup ecosystem, emphasizing that every person has the potential to contribute to the growth of India.

The Minister noted that India has emerged as the third-largest startup ecosystem globally, realizing the dreams of countless entrepreneurs and introducing innovative ways of doing business. Expressing appreciation for the achievements in sectors like millets and food processing, Shri Goyal urged startups to focus on new areas such as artificial intelligence (AI). He encouraged them to come up with ideas that make life easier and revolutionize existing ways of working.

During his address, Shri Goyal outlined key initiatives that will be taken to further support startups, including the categorization of startups into different sectors for more focused interactions, the sanitization of data to identify their locations and track development stage of the startups, and efforts to ensure all startups are registered on the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) portal.

The Minister called for greater collaboration and mentoring through the MAARG portal – Mentorship, Advisory, Assistance, Resilience and Growth of Startup India. He emphasized the importance of outreach and on-boarding startups with the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) as the process for onboarding of startups has been simplified. Shri Goyal encouraged startups to register for patent, copyright, and trademark protections as the fees have been reduced for startups.

Shri Goyal announced that ‘Startup Maha Kumbh’ is scheduled to be organized in March 2024. He assured continued government support for the startup ecosystem, inviting entrepreneurs to leverage the vast consumer market and work collaboratively to transition from an emerging to a developed startup system.

This edition’s ranking exercise saw the highest-ever participation with 33 States and UTs participating. A ‘National Report’ encompassing the full exercise, along with a ‘Compendium of Best Practices’ and individual ‘State Report’ for all participating states was also launched, celebrating the spirit of entrepreneurship in India with a total of 31 States/UTs having formulated State Startup Policies. Moreover, in this fourth edition of States Ranking, 3102 startups received funding worth INR 392 crore. 95 Capacity Building and Knowledge Exchange Workshops were organised from August 2021 to December 2022.

For the purpose of evaluation, the States and UTs were divided into two categories with category A including States and UTs with a population of more than 1 crore, and category B including States and UTs with a population of less than 1 crore. Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerela, Tamil Nadu were the Best Performers in category A, while Himachal Pradesh emerged as the Best Performers in category B. The governments of Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Telangana, Punjab emerged as top performers in Category A, while Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya championed as top performers in Category B. Some achievements, efforts & initiatives from these states are highlighted in Annexure C.

The participants were evaluated across 7 broad Reform Areas consisting of 25 Action Points ranging from Institutional Support, Fostering Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Access to Market, Incubation and Mentorship support, Funding Support, Capacity building of enablers & Roadmap to a sustainable future. 15% of the total scores were awarded based on 10,000+ survey responses collected in 9 languages (telephonic and web-based).