The Centre decided to celebrate January 16 as National Start-up Day to take the concept to the far-flung areas of the country as Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the start-ups as people who are changing the rules of the game and are going to be the backbone of new India.
In an interaction in which the startups made presentations on six themes before the PM, Modi underlined the government's emphasis on liberating entrepreneurship and innovation from the web of government processes, bureaucratic silos.
He also claimed that startups of India are working with 55 separate industries and the number of startups has increased from less than 500 five years ago to more than 60 thousand today.
"Last year, 42 unicorns came up in the country. These companies worth thousands of crores of rupees are the hallmark of self-reliant and self-confident India. Today India is rapidly moving towards hitting the century of unicorns. I believe the golden era of India's start-ups is starting now. Don't just keep your dreams local, make them global. Remember this mantra," Modi told them while interacting via video conferencing.
Union Ministers Piyush Goyal, Mansukh Mandaviya, Ashwini Vaisnaw, Sarbananda Sonowal, Parshottam Rupala, G. Kishan Reddy, Pashupati Kumar Paras, Jitendra Singh and Som Parkash were among those present on the occasion.
Recalling the concept of the current decade as the ‘techade’ of India, the Prime Minister listed three important aspects of the massive changes that the government is making in this decade to strengthen the innovation, entrepreneurship and start-up ecosystem--- to liberate entrepreneurship and innovation from the web of government processes and bureaucratic silos, creating an institutional mechanism to promote innovation and handholding of young innovators and young enterprises.
Flagging the rise in the indicators of innovation, Modi said that in the year 2013-14, 4000 patents were approved, while last year, more than 28 thousand patents were granted. In the year 2013-14, where about 70000 trademarks were registered, in 2020-21 more than 2.5 lakh trademarks have been registered. In the year 2013-14, where only 4000 copyrights were granted, last year their number has crossed 16000
He added that startups of India are working with 55 separate industries and the number of startups has increased from less than 500 five years ago to more than 60 thousand today. There is at least one startup in each of the 625 districts of the country and more than half of the startups are from tier 2 and tier 3 cities, he said.
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