The number of recognised startups in India has risen from 471 in 2016 to 72,993 in 2022 so far, which is a significant 15,400 per cent jump. The new-age enterprises are spread across 56 diversified sectors, and over 4,500 start-ups have been recognised in sectors such as the internet of things (IoT), robotics, artificial intelligence and analytics, according to official data.
“Startups and the entire technology ecosystem are the engines of growth for any country. Recognising this aspect, the government has launched Startup India initiative on January 16, 2016, with an aim to build a stronger ecosystem for nurturing India’s startup culture that would further drive our economic growth, support entrepreneurship, and enable large-scale employment opportunities,” the commerce and industry ministry has said in a statement.
In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Som Prakash has said the government is implementing the Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS) Scheme and the Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS) to provide financial assistance to startups through Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) and incubators, respectively.
The government has established FFS with corpus of Rs 10,000 crore to meet the funding needs of startups. DPIIT is the monitoring agency and the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) is the operating agency for FFS.
Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS) aims to provide financial assistance to startups for proof of concept, prototype development, product trials, market entry and commercialisation, and Rs 945 crore has been sanctioned under the SISFS Scheme for a period of four years starting from 2021-22. Easy availability of capital is essential for entrepreneurs at the early stages of growth of an enterprise. The capital required at this stage often presents a make-or-break situation for startups with good business ideas.
The ministry’s statement said the Department of Science and Technology (DST) had launched an umbrella programme, called ‘National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovations’ (NIDHI), in 2016 for nurturing ideas and innovations (knowledge-based and technology-driven) into successful startups.
Under NIDHI, different programs range from providing fellowships to the students opting for entrepreneurship through Entrepreneurs-In-Residence (EIR) Program, Promoting and Accelerating Young and Aspiring Innovators and Startups (PRAYAS) programme by providing financial support for converting ideas into prototypes, availability of early-stage seed support to incubated ventures, providing mentoring and investment readiness support through Accelerators, and creating Centres of Excellence (CoE) in incubation.
“To promote innovations in biotechnology sector, the Department of Biotechnology, through Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), supports and nurtures startups in the Biotechnology sector. The major schemes are BioNEST Scheme (Bio-incubators Nurturing Entrepreneurship for Scaling Technologies) and Biotechnology Ignition Grant (BIG) schemes,” it added.
To support the start-ups in the country, the Startup India Action Plan was unveiled on January 16, 2016. The 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 the government support, schemes and incentives envisaged to create a vibrant startup ecosystem in the country.
Read all the Latest News and Breaking News here