Jump in number of start-ups a major success story of Modi govt: Union minister Jitendra Singh

Union minister Jitendra Singh said on Friday that a major success story of the Narendra Modi government has been the rise in the number of start-ups — from just about 350 before 2014 to 92,683 now.Addressing a youth gathering here, he said that in 2022 alone, 26,542 entities were recognised as start-ups by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).He said that before 2014 there were just about 350 start-ups, but after Prime Minister Modi gave the clarion call from the ramparts of the Red Fort in his Independence Day address in 2015 and rolled out a special start-up scheme in 2016, there was a quantum jump and India today has the world’s third largest start-up ecosystem in the world, boasting 92,683 start-ups and with more than 115 unicorns (billion-dollar enterprises).

A NASSCOM study says tech start-ups created 23 lakh direct and indirect jobs between 2017 and 2021, according to a statement issued by the Personnel Ministry.Besides, start-ups have self-reported creation of a million jobs directly and many more indirectly since the launch of the Startup India initiative in 2016 when the total jobs created stood a meagre 10, it said.Singh said India’s youth today is gradually coming out of the government job mindset and is ready to take the plunge and create new opportunities in niche sectors, in turn creating scores of job opportunities.Interacting with youth beneficiaries of various central government schemes in Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh, he said that the focus of the government in the last nine years has not been just to create employment but also to build entrepreneurship.Singh said Prime Minister Modi wants our youth to become new entrepreneurs, new producers and create a complete network of start-ups by these new entrepreneurs across the whole country.He said Indian start-ups raised USD 44 billion in 2021, with over USD 33 billion going towards deals worth more than USD 5 million.Many Indian start-ups are domiciled outside India despite having the majority of their market, personnel and founders in India, the statement said.

These “externalised” or “flipped” start-ups constitute a large number of India’s unicorns, it added.Singh said Modi also opened the doors of the space sector to private participation, as a result today Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is working with nearly 150 private start-ups.Similarly, before 2014, India’s bio-economy was valued at USD 10 billion. “Now it’s over USD 80 billion. Biotech start-ups have grown 100 times in eight years from 52 odd start-ups in 2014 to 5,300 plus in 2022,” the statement quoted the minister as having said.Singh said that in the last nine years, the Modi government has launched and implemented several welfare schemes to empower every Indian.”The success of the Modi government’s prioritisation of creating new formal jobs for the youth can be seen in the massive rise in new Employee Provident Fund Organisation accounts,” he added.