On the Startup India initiative, the Economic Survey states that startups drive economic growth, create employment and foster a culture of innovation. It states that, as on March 1, this year, 16,578 new start-ups were recognised spread across 499 districts across the country.
It states that 47% of the start-ups from Tier II and III cities and 46% of recognised start-ups have at least one woman director. The survey also enumerates steps the government is taking to ease regulations in the sector such as exemption from income tax on investments raised by start-ups, regulatory reforms implemented to improve ease of doing business for start-up companies and so on.
The document also holds forth on the Start-up India Hub as a ‘One Stop Shop’ for the ecosystem, where 2,37,902 users have availed of the Start-up India Learning programme to help build business plans, 647 start-ups have been supported through dedicated facilitation services while 1,262 start-ups have connected to mentors.
Among the states, Maharashtra(18.91%), followed by Karnataka(14.67%) and Delhi (13.38%) accounted for a huge share of the recognised startups. As per the industry-wise distribution of recognised start-ups, IT Services led the way with 15% share followed by Healthcare and Life Sciences at 9% and Education at 8%. Two buzzwords that have been popular in the past couple of years, Renewable Energy and Internet of Things accounted for 3.05% and 3.09% of the total startups respectively.
