DPIIT recognises 50,000 startups under Startup India: Commerce Ministry

As many as 50,000 startups have been recognised by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) to date, an official statement said on Thursday.

Startup India — the flagship initiative of the Indian government launched on January 16, 2016 — intends to catalyse a startup culture and build a strong and inclusive ecosystem for innovation and entrepreneurship in India.

The recognised startups are eligible to avail the benefits across a range of laws, regulations, fiscal, and infrastructural support.

"As of June 3, 2021, 50,000 startups across have been recognised as startups by DPIIT, of which 19,896 have been recognised since April 1, 2020," the commerce and industry ministry said.

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With the launch of the Startup India initiative, recognised startups have now spread across 623 districts, it said, adding each Indian state and UT have at least one startup, and 30 states and UTs have announced specific startup policies to support them.

Maharashtra, Karnataka, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and Gujarat have the largest number of these entrepreneurs.

"The recognised startups have contributed significantly to job creation, with 5,49,842 jobs reported by 48,093 startups with an average number of 11 employees per startup. About 1.7 lakh jobs were created by recognised startups in the 2020-2021 period alone," it added.

The sectors with the maximum registered startups include food processing, IT consulting, and business support services.

Further, the ministry said that funding opportunities to startups have been enhanced through the Fund of Funds Scheme with an overlay of Rs 10,000 crore and the recently launched Startup India Seed Fund Scheme with an outlay of Rs 945 crore.

Earlier, in March 2021, as many as 6,000 compliance norms were identified at the state and central level, and the work is going on to reduce these barriers to further promote ease of doing business for the industry, a top government official said.

Guruprasad Mohapatra, Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), said that a systematic exercise across the centre and states is undertaken to eliminate or reduce compliances, which will have an adverse impact on time and cost of businesses.

(Disclaimer: Additional background information has been added to this PTI copy for context)