Over 1 lakh 40 thousand recognized Startups in the country

The Government unveiled an Action Plan for Startups comprising of schemes and incentives envisaged to create a vibrant startup ecosystem in the country. The Action Plan comprises of 19 action items spanning across areassuch as “Simplification and handholding”, “Funding support and incentives” and “Industry-academia partnership and in cubation”.

For attaining specific objectives of the Action Plan, various programs are implemented by the Government under the Startup India initiative to recognize, develop, promote, and empower the startup ecosystem. All the steps under taken by the Government under the said initiative are inclusive and are implemented across States/UTs.

The State/Union Territory (UT)-wise details of number of DPIIT recognised startups in the past two years viz. 2022 and 2023 are placed as given below:.

The State/UT- wise number of DPIIT recognized startups during the past two years viz. 2022 and 2023 are as under:

The Government, with the objective of building a strong ecosystem for nurturing innovation, start-ups and encouraging investments in the startup ecosystem of the country, launched the Startup India initiative on 16th January 2016.

As per eligibility conditions prescribed under G.S.R. notification 127 (E) dated19th February 2019, entities are recognized as ‘startups’ under the Startup India initiative by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).

The detail so of various programs under taken by the Government to promote startups across the country are as under:

1. Startup India Action Plan: An Action Plan for Startup India was unveiled on16th January 2016. The Action Plan comprises of 19 action items spanningacross areas such as “Simplification and handholding”, “Funding support andincentives” and “Industry-academia partnership and incubation”. The ActionPlan laid the foundation of Government support, schemes and incentivesenvisaged tocreateavibrantstartupecosysteminthecountry.

2. Startup India: The Way Ahead: Startup India: The Way Ahead at 5 years celebration ofStartup India was unveiled on 16th January 2021 which includes actionable plans forpromotion of ease of doing business for startups, greater role of technology in executingvarious reforms, building capacities of stakeholders and enabling a digital Aatmanirbhar Bharat.

3. Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS): Easy availability of capital is essential forentrepreneurs at the early stages of growth of an enterprise. The capital required at this stageoften presents a make-or-break situation for startups with good business ideas. The Scheme aims to provide financial assistance to startups for proof of concept, prototype development, product trials, market entry and commercialization. Rs. 945 crore has been sanctioned underthe SISFS Scheme for period of 4 years starting from 2021- 22.

4. Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS) Scheme: The Government has established FFS withcorpus of Rs. 10,000 crore, to meet the funding needs of startups. DPIIT is the monitoringagency and Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) is the operating agencyfor FFS. The total corpus of Rs. 10,000 crore is envisaged to be provided over the 14th and15th Finance Commission cycles based on progress of the scheme and availability of funds.It has not only made capital available for startups at early stage, seed stage and growth stagebut also played a catalytic role in terms of facilitating raising of domestic capital, reducingdependence on foreign capital and encouraging home grown and new venture capital funds.

5. Credit Guarantee Scheme for Startups (CGSS): The Government has established theCredit Guarantee Scheme for Startups for providing credit guarantees to loans extended to DPIIT recognized startups by Scheduled Commercial Banks, Non-Banking FinancialCompanies (NBFCs) and Venture Debt Funds (VDFs) under SEBI registered AlternativeInvestment Funds. CGSS is aimed at providing credit guarantee up to a specified limitagainstloans extended by Member Institutions (MIs) to finance eligible borrowers viz. DPIIT recognised startups.

6. Regulatory Reforms: Over 55 regulatory reforms have been undertaken by the Governmentsince 2016 to enhance ease of doing business, ease of raising capital and reduce compliance burden for the startup ecosystem.

7. Ease of Procurement: To enable ease of procurement, Central Ministries/ Departments aredirected to relax conditions of prior turnover and prior experience in public procurement forall DPIIT recognised startups subject to meeting quality and technical specifications.Further, Government e- Marketplace (GeM) also facilitates and promotes procurementof products and services by the Government from startups.

8. Self-Certification under Labour and Environmental laws: Startups are allowed to self-certify their compliance under 9 Labour and 3 Environment laws for a period of 3 to 5 yearsfrom the date of incorporation.

9. Income Tax Exemption for 3 years: Startups incorporated on or after 1st April 2016 canapply for income tax exemption. The recognized startups that are granted an Inter-Ministerial Board Certificate are exempted from income- tax for a period of 3 consecutiveyears out of 10 years since incorporation.

10. Faster Exit for Startups: The Government has notified Startups as ‘fast track firms’enabling them to wind up operations within 90 days vis-a-vis 180 days for other companies.

11. Exemption for the Purpose Of Clause (VII)(b) of Sub-section (2) of Section 56 of theAct (2019): A DPIIT recognized startup is eligible for exemption from the provisions ofsection 56(2)(viib) of the Income Tax Act.

12. Support for Intellectual Property Protection: Startups are eligible for fast- tracked patentapplication examination and disposal. The Government launched Start-ups IntellectualProperty Protection (SIPP) which facilitates the startups to file applications for patents, designs and trademarks through registered facilitators in appropriate IP offices by payingonly the statutory fees. Facilitators under this Scheme are responsible for providing generaladvisory on different IPRs, and information on protecting and promoting IPRs in othercountries. The Government bears the entire fees of the facilitators for any number of patents,trademark or designs, and startups only bear the cost of the statutory fees payable. Startups are provided with an 80% rebate in filing of patents and 50% rebate in filling of trademarkvis-a-vis other companies.

13. Startup India Hub: The Government launched a Startup India Online Hub on 19th June2017 which is one of its kind online platform for all stakeholders of the entrepreneurialecosystem in India to discover, connect and engage with each other. The Online Hub hosts Startups, Investors, Funds, Mentors, Academic Institutions, Incubators, Accelerators,Corporates, Government Bodies and more.

14. International Market Access to Indian Startups: One of the key objectives under the Startup India initiative is to help connect Indian startup ecosystem to global startupecosystems through various engagement models. This has been done though internationalGovernment to Government partnerships, participation in international forums andhosting of global events. Startup India has launched bridges with around 20 countries thatprovides a soft- landing platform for startups from the partner nations and aid inpromoting cross collaboration.

15. Startup India Showcase: Startup India Showcase is an online discovery platform for themost promising startups of the country chosen through various programs for start-ups exhibited in a form of virtual profiles. The startups showcased on the platform have distinctlyemerged as the best in their fields. These innovations span across various cutting-edgesectors such as Fintech, EnterpriseTech, Social Impact, HealthTech, EdTech, among others. These startups are solving critical problems and have shown exceptional innovation in theirrespective sectors. Ecosystem stakeholders have nurtured and supported these startups, there by validating their presence on this platform.

16. National Startup Advisory Council: The Government in January 2020 notified constitution of the National Startup Advisory Council to advise the Government on measures needed tobuild a strong ecosystem for nurturing innovation and startups in the country to drivesustainable economic growth and generate large scale employment opportunities. Besidesthe ex-officio members, the council has a number of non-official members, representingvarious stakeholders from the startup ecosystem.

17. National Startup Awards (NSA): National Startup Awards is an initiative to recognize andreward outstanding startups and ecosystem enablers that are building innovative products orsolutions and scalable enterprises, with high potential of employment generation or wealthcreation, demonstrating measurable social impact. Handholding support is provided to allthe finalists across various tracks viz. Investor Connect, Mentorship, Corporate Connect,Government Connect, International Market Access, Regulatory Support, Startup Championson Doordarshan and Startup India Showcase, etc.

18. States’ Startup Ranking Framework (SRF): States’ Startup Ranking Framework is aunique initiative to harness strength of competitive federalism and create a flourishing startup ecosystem in the country. The major objectives of the ranking exercise are facilitating statesto identify, learn and replace good practices, highlighting the policy intervention by states for promoting startup ecosystem and fostering competitiveness among states.

19. Startup Champions on Doordarshan: Startup Champions program on Doordarshan is aone-hour weekly program covering stories of award winning/ nationally recognised startups. It is telecasted in both Hindi and English across Doordarshan network channels.

20. Startup India Innovation Week: The Government organises Startup India Innovation week around the National Startup Day i.e., 16th January, with the primary goal was to bringtogether the country's key startups, entrepreneurs, investors, incubators, funding entities,banks, policymakers, and other national/international stakeholders to celebrateentrepreneurship and promote innovation.

21. ASCEND: Under ASCEND (Accelerating Startup Caliber& Entrepreneurial Drive), sensitization workshops on startups and entrepreneurship were conducted for all eight NorthEastern States with the objective to capacitate and augment knowledge on key aspects ofentrepreneurship and continue efforts towards creating a robust startup ecosystem in these States.

22. The Startup India Investor Connect Portal: has been co-developed under the Startup India Initiative with SIDBI, serving as an intermediary platform that links startups and investors in order to help entrepreneurs from various industries, functions, stages, regions,and backgrounds in mobilizing capital. The portal has been built with the aim to enable inparticular; early-stage startups located anywhere in the country to showcase themselves toleading investors/ venture capital funds.

23. National Mentorship Portal (MAARG): In order to facilitate accessibility to mentorship for startups in every part of the country, the Mentorship, Advisory, Assistance, Resilience,and Growth (MAARG) program has been developed and launched under the Startup India Initiative.

24. MeitY Start-up Hub (MSH): A nodal entity to interconnect deep tech startup infrastructure an India, the ‘MeitY Start-up Hub’ (MSH) has been set up under Ministry of Electronics &Information Technology (MeitY). MSH is assisting incubators and startups improving their scalability, market outreach, etc. and has also established partnerships with variousstakeholders paving the way for an economy built on innovation and technologicaladvancement.

25. TIDE 2.0 Scheme: Technology Incubation and Development of Entrepreneurs (TIDE 2.0)Scheme was initiated in the year 2019 to promote tech entrepreneurship through financialand technical support to incubators engaged in supporting ICT startups using emergingtechnologies such as IoT, AI, Block-chain, Robotics etc. The Scheme is being implementedthrough incubators through a three-tiered structure with an overarching objective to promoteincubation activities at institutes of higher learning and premier Research & Development (RD) organisations.

26. Domain specific Centres of Excellence: MeitY has operationalised Centres of Excellence (CoEs) in diverse areas of national interest for driving self- sufficiency and creatingcapabilities to capture new and emerging technology areas.These domain specific CoEs actas enablers and aid in making India an innovation hub in emerging through democratisation of innovation and realisation of proto types.

27. Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC): An industry-academiainterface agency of Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology issupporting biotech startups in all biotech sectors including clean energy and emergingtechnologies. Project based funding is provided to startups and companies forproduct/technology development under its key Schemes including Biotech Ignition Grant(BIG), Small Business Innovation Research Initiative (SBIRI) and Biotechnology IndustryPartnership Programme (BIPP). Incubation support to the startups and companies is also provided through Bioincubators Nurturing Entrepreneurship for Scaling Technologies (BioNEST) Scheme.

28. SAMRIDH Scheme: MeitY has launched the ‘Start-up Accelerator Programme of MeitYfor Product Innovation, Development and Growth (SAMRIDH)’ with an aim to supportexisting and upcoming Accelerators to further select and accelerate potential software product-based startups to scale.

29. Next Generation Incubation Scheme (NGIS): NGIS has been approved to supportsoftware product ecosystem and to address a significant portion of National Policy onSoftware Product (NPSP) 2019.

30. Support for International Patent Protection in E&IT (SIP-EIT) Scheme: MeitY had initiated a scheme titled “Support for International Patent Protection in E&IT (SIP-EIT)that encourages international patent filing by Indian Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises(MSMEs) and startups so as to encourage innovation and recognize the value andcapabilities of global IP.

31. North-East Region Entrepreneurship & Startup Summit (NERES): Ministry of SkillDevelopment and Entrepreneurship organised NERES, an entrepreneurship and startup summit aimed at offering a platform to promising startups and aspiring entrepreneurs across North-East Region (NER). The objective of NERES was aimed at stirring upentrepreneurial minds across the NER states and promotes startup entrepreneurs by offering them a platform to pitch their business ideas and also addressing various challenges faced by the startups. The programme provided a platform for aspiring and existing entrepreneurs/startups to participate and showcase their business ideas and plan. It also helped them to learn more about the good practices and network with fellow startups. Theprogramme has paved the way for startups and entrepreneur to seek support from mentorsand an ecosystem that support their business growth.

32. Atal Innovation Mission: The Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) is a flagship initiative of the Government, set up by NITI Aayog to promote innovation and entrepreneurship across the length and breadth of the country. AIM has established Atal Tinkering Labs (ATLs) with the objective of fostering curiosity, creativity and imagination in young minds and inculcate skills such as design mind-set, computational thinking, adaptive learning, physicalcomputing, rapid calculations, measurements etc.

33. National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovations (NIDHI): Department ofScience 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.

34. Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX): iDEX was launched by the Department of Defense Production, Ministry of Defense, to achieve self- reliance and foster innovation and technology development in Defense and Aerospace by engaging industries such as MSMEs and startups, R&D institutes and academia and providing grants to carry out R&D.

This information has been provided by the Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry,  Jitin Prasada in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha