THE Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has unveiled its ambitious plan to establish startups in every district across the country by the end of 2025. Over the past nine years, the number of startups in India has risen from just 400 in 2014 to over 157,000 today.
Addressing a press briefing, Amandeep Singh Bhatia, Secretary of DPIIT, highlighted the success of the Startup India Initiative, launched on 16 January 2016. “The programme has been instrumental in supporting entrepreneurs, building a robust startup ecosystem, and transforming India into a nation of job creators instead of job seekers,” he said.
DPIIT Joint Secretary Sanjiv shared, “Our focus is to ensure a thriving startup ecosystem in every district of India by 2025. Currently, 48 per cent of startups are emerging from tier-2 and tier-3 cities, showing that entrepreneurship is no longer confined to metropolitan hubs.”
Sanjiv explained that in 2016, startups were present in only 120 districts. This has expanded to over 750 districts today, with plans to cover all districts by 2025. The number of unicorns has grown from 8 in 2016 to 118 in 2024. Unicorns are startups valued at least one billion dollars but not yet listed on a public exchange.
Startup funding has surged from $8 billion in 2016 to over $155 billion today, and the ecosystem has generated more than 1.7 million jobs.
The Secretary highlighted that the government launched three key schemes to strengthen the startup ecosystem. To support startups, the government established a Fund of Funds for Startups, alongside 144 Alternative Investment Funds (AIF) with a corpus of Rs 80,000 crores to provide financial backing.
The Startup India Seed Fund Scheme was introduced to offer early-stage funding to startups through incubators, acting as a model for nurturing innovation, while enabling startups to access loans from banks by offering credit guarantees, thus easing financial challenges.
Bhatia pointed out that the 2016 Startup India Action Plan introduced measures such as tax exemptions and regulatory relaxations to ease the burden on startups. The Government Procurement System prioritises purchases from startups, fostering business opportunities.
The government has also emphasised supporting deep-tech startups through targeted funding. Bhatia mentioned that as the ecosystem completes a decade, efforts will focus on collaborating with companies to develop innovative products and exploring greater integration with international markets.
With these efforts, India is poised to solidify its position as one of the world’s leading startup ecosystems, fostering innovation and creating new opportunities nationwide. The DPIIT released figures on startup performance in India as a curtain raiser to celebrate National Startup Day on 16 January.
Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, the government launched the Startup India initiative on 16 January 2016, with the aim of building a robust ecosystem for nurturing innovation, supporting startups, and encouraging investment in the country’s startup sector.
