Startup Express Chugs on

Startup ventures are rising on an unprecedented speed and scale, like never before. It seems to be is the season of startups turning into unicorns at the blink of an eye - just so many of them are making it big in the corporate world and achieving the status of the unicorn.

Unicorn means any startup which achieves a valuation more than one billion dollars and is privately owned. Achieving unicorn status is no easy thing, only a limited number of startups will be able to achieve this status.

Startup ecosystem in India is also registering a staggering growth at the rate of 15,400%. As per available statistics, count of startups in 2016 was 471 and count of startups as of June 30, 2022 is 72,993 – this figure is astonishingly high considering the cash burnout and taking of billions of dollars after several recent IPOs of the gig economy companies.?

Significant increase in the number of startups at such a staggering rate is result of various initiatives and incentives provided by the central government to promote startup ecosystem.

Such initiatives and incentives are as follows:

Start Up India Initiative: Key initiative that changed the dynamics and fate of startup ecosystem was Start UP India initiative launched by the central government in the year 2016, with the intent to recognize and confer special incentives on qualified startups to promote startup ecosystem in India.

It is interesting to note that there are 56 business lines of different sectors recognized by the central government as part of startup drive ?- Future is all about Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, artificial intelligence, analytics, etc., it is promising to note that around 4500 startups are identified and recognized under this segment.

Innovation and Agri-entrepreneur development programme: Even though future is technology, undoubtedly agriculture is one of key backbones of Indian Economy from time immemorial and will continue to be the backbone of Indian economy.?However, in order to thrive the productivity of agriculture sector, adoption and integration of innovative technologies into agriculture is the key.

To promote and encourage innovators and business persons to venture into agriculture sector, the central government has initiated?“Innovation and Agri-entrepreneur development” programme to provide financial aid and confer special incentives on startups dealing with agriculture sector.

Other initiatives:

Centers of Excellence: 26 Centers of Excellence (CoEs) is in operation in different fields with core objective to create, develop and adopt innovative technologies of new age to drive “self-sufficiency and self-reliant” agenda.

Atal New India Challenge: This is initiated with the intent to directly support and fund startups with technology-based innovations

Atal Innovation Mission: The core objective of this mission is to establish and develop incubation centers as part of the mission to incubate startups in diversified fields.

National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovations (NIDHI): This initiative was launched in 2016, to start, promote and drive various programs to support innovative initiatives of students with a vision to be an entrepreneur and to promote startups with vision to embrace emerging and innovative technologies with the potential to change the dynamics of Indian Economy.

The progress of startups is encouraging and promising, with right nurturing of young businesspersons with a vision to emerge as entrepreneurs to scale up the economic prospects of the nation to next level.

It will be interesting to see how these startups will fare in realtime as many startups are in budding stage and need to find their firm ground on the map of the corporate world.

One thing is evident, central government is committed to support start ecosystem, it is in the hands of entrepreneurs of startups to scale the startup ecosystem to new heights with the right utilization of the support provided by the central government in the form of various incentives and programs with core objective to support startup ecosystem.

Success of these startups in long run could change the employment trajectory of Indians by creating numerous employment prospects and more revenue generating opportunities to boost the economic prospect of the nation.

Source : deccanherald.com