Centre planning to have at least one startup in every district

Karnataka, Kerala and ranked are ranked best among the startup states in the country.

New Delhi: The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) is working on a plan to ensure that every district in the country has at least one recognised startup, a senior official said.

According to Joint Secretary in the DPIIT Sanjiv, there are around 125 districts in the country where there is no startup.

“We will reach every district of India where we (startups) are not present,” he told DH.  

He said the DPIIT would soon send letters to state industry departments and district collectors to seek their support in onboarding startups.

Sanjiv said startups give a boost to business and industrial activities. “When a startup is set up it gives inspiration to other entrepreneurs in the region,” he added.

A host of financial support and tax related benefits are offered to startups recognised by DPIIT. Around 3000 start-ups in the country have been granted tax exemptions under section 80-IAC of the Income Tax Act. Other benefits include angel tax exemption and financial support under Credit Guarantee Scheme for Startups.  

Maharashtra has the highest number of tax exempted startups followed by Karnataka, Sanjiv said. Top five sectors of tax-exempted startups are: IT services, healthcare & life sciences, education, agriculture and green technology.

The number of startups in India has increased to over 117,000 as on December 31, 2023 from around 400 when the Start-up India initiative was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January 2016. Sanjiv said there is at least one start-up in all the 28 states and 8 Union Territories (UTs) in the country.

Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu are the “best performer” states, as per startups State Ranking Awards 2022 released on Tuesday. Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan and Telangana have been ranked as “top performer”.

Addressing the award function, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said startups would play a pivotal role in India’s journey towards becoming a developed nation by 2047.

The minister outlined some initiatives that the government plans to take to provide more support to startups. The proposed initiatives include categorisation of startups into different sectors for more focused interactions, sanitisation of data to identify their locations and track development stage of the startups, and efforts to ensure all startups are registered on the DPIIT portal.

Goyal is scheduled to hold a closed-door roundtable interaction with representatives of unicorn startups on January 17. “The discussion will focus on the growth trajectory of the Indian startup ecosystem, the role of domestic capital in nurturing and scaling startups and India’s position in the international startup landscape,” as per brief of the event shared by DPIIT.

Founders or senior representatives of around 40 unicorns including Lenskart, EasyMyTrip, Zerodha, Boat and CarDekho are likely to participate in the meeting. A delegation of 30 women-led startups are also scheduled to meet President Droupadi Murmu on January 18.

According to data shared by DPIIT, there are 112 unicorn startups in India with a combined valuation of around $350 billion. Unicorn refers to a company with a value of over $1 billion.