Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Startup India’ initiative has caught the attention of the world. ‘India’ was a key topic at the ongoing World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting 2017.
The ‘Startup India’ initiative has not only effected a startup boom in the country but also made India world’s third largest “hotspot” for new tech businesses in a short span of time.
Quoting a report by Nasscom and Zinnov, an article on World Economic Forum’s website (www.weforum.org) says the list of top five such countries is led by the US, followed by the UK, India, China and Isreal. According to the report, India also has the fastest growing base of startups in the entire world.
“India is in the midst of a start-up boom. Supported by a range of government initiatives, new companies are popping up all over the country,” it says.
In 2013, Nasscom had launched the “10,000 Startups programme” and around 700 tech-driven startups were set up in the year. By the end of 2015, the numbers of startups increased by 70% to around 1200. It is expected there would be 75% increase in the number of startups up to 2100 by 2020.
There are a few peculiar things about India’s startup story. Such as: Indian startups are not only catering to the domestic markets but also going global. In 2016, India’s Flipkart was placed ninth on the global startup list. Most of India’s startups are concentrated in three cities — NCR, Mumbai and Bengaluru.
According to the Nasscom report, India is the youngest start-up nation in the world as around 75% founders are less than 35 years old.
PM Modi had first talked about the Startup India campaign in his 2015 Independence day speech from the Red Fort. He had shared his vision of making India the startup capital of the world. An action plan for the initiative ‘Startup India, Standup India’ was unveiled in January 2016.
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The government has taken a slew of measures, including tax exemptions, to promote startups as it wants India to become a hub of job givers and not job seekers. Besides, the government has set up a ‘fund of funds’ of Rs 10,000 crores for Startups, which is to be managed by SIDBI.
The government has also launched a free interactive online learning and development module to educate Startups and aspiring entrepreneurs.
Source: The Financial Express
