Startup Funding
– Photo: istock
Expansion
The number of startups in India has risen to over 1.4 lakh, Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jitin Prasada informed the Rajya Sabha. According to a written reply given by the minister in the House on Friday, the state/union territory wise number of startups recognised by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) showed that Maharashtra topped the list with 25,044 registered startups. Karnataka ranked second with 15,019 registered startups, followed by Delhi with 14,734 startups. Uttar Pradesh secured the fourth spot with 13,299 startups, while Gujarat ranked fifth with 11,436 startups.
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The Minister also informed that the Government has made various efforts to promote and support startups in the country. He said that the Government launched the Startup India initiative on January 16, 2016 with the objective of building a strong ecosystem to promote innovation, startups and encourage investments in the country’s startup ecosystem.
The minister also said that 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 lays the foundation for government support, schemes, and incentives envisaged to create a vibrant startup ecosystem in the country.
Another scheme ‘Startup India: The Way Forward’ includes actionable plans to promote ease of doing business for startups, greater role of technology in executing various reforms, capacity building of stakeholders and enabling digital Aatmanirbhar Bharat. The government has also set up 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. A total of Rs 10,000 crore is envisaged to be provided in the 14th and 15th Finance Commission cycles depending on the progress of the scheme and availability of funds.
The Minister said that the Government has not only provided capital to startups at the early stage, seed stage and growth stage but has also played the role of a catalyst in terms of raising domestic capital, reducing dependence on foreign capital and encouraging domestic and new venture capital funds.