28,979 startups recognised by DPIIT as on March 1: Piyush Goyal

As many as 28,979 startups have been recognised by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) as on March 1 this year, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

The maximum number of startups recognised are from Maharashtra (5,477). It was followed by Karnataka (4,206), Delhi (3,740), Uttar Pradesh (2,342), Haryana (1,635), Telangana (1,609), Gujarat (1,555), and Tamil Nadu (1,509).

These startups are allowed to enjoy certain tax and non-tax benefits under the Startup India programme.

"As on 1st March 2020, a total number of 3,37,335 employment (sic) has been reported by 27,137 DPIIT recognised startups," Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

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In a separate reply, the minister said there is no provision under Startup India initiative for direct sanctioning of funds to startups.

However, it has established a Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS) with corpus of Rs 10,000 crore, to meet their funding needs.

DPIIT is the monitoring agency and Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi) is the operating agency for the FFS.

The total corpus of Rs 10,000 crore is envisaged to be provided over the 14th and 15th Finance Commission cycles, based on progress of the scheme and availability of funds.

"As on February 18, 2020, Sidbi has committed Rs 3,123.20 crore to 47 Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) registered alternative investment funds (AIFs). These funds have raised a corpus fund of Rs 25,728 crore," Goyal sad.

He said that the AIFs have invested a total of Rs 3,378.47 crore into 320 startups, out of which Rs 912.91 crore have been drawn from FFS.

Fund of Funds does not directly invest into startups, but provides capital to Sebi-registered AIFs, known as daughter funds, which in turn invest money in growing Indian startups through equity and equity-linked instruments.

In a separate reply on India-US trade deal, he said India has an open mind in dealing with any trade-related matter while keeping its domestic and trade interests in mind.

Decisions are taken in the larger public interest after having consultation with all stakeholders, he said.

"Trade related issues are a part of any ongoing economic relationship, and will continue to be discussed and addressed as a part of the regular bilateral trade engagement between India and the US," he added.

(Edited by Kanishk Singh)