The government of India’s commitment towards enriching the Startup ecosystem in the country has recently been underlined by the second edition of the National Startup Awards 2021. The Union Minister of Commerce & Industry presented these awards and declared that the 16th of January, the day when the Startup India Initiative was launched back in 2016, will be celebrated as National Start-up Day from now on. This initiative is targeted to stimulate the Startup culture across the country.
Startup India Initiative
Launched in 2016, the Startup India Initiative aims to create a robust Startup ecosystem within the country. The main objective is to foster innovation and extend every possible opportunity to budding entrepreneurs. The action plan of this initiative zeroes in on three key aspects – Simplification and Handholding, Funding Support and Incentives, and Industry-Academia Partnership and Incubation.
This initiative was designed by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), which falls under the Ministry of Commerce & Industry. The aim is to recognise and reward outstanding startups, along with the ecosystem enablers who are helping build innovative products or solutions.
The National Startup Awards 2021
National Startup Awards 2021 marked its second occurrence and invited applications across 15 sectors and 49 sub-sectors. Apart from rewarding innovation and scalability among startups, the awards also acknowledged the efforts of startups working to promote Indic languages and those contributing to national efforts against Covid-19 pandemic.
Notably, the decision process evaluated startups on six parameters: Innovation, Scalability, Economic Impact, Social Impact, Environmental Impact, and Inclusiveness and Diversity.
The Rewards
The winning startup founders receive a cash prize of Rs. 5 lakh along with an opportunity to showcase their solutions to relevant public authorities and corporate entities. Additionally, incubators and accelerators are rewarded with Rs. 15 lakh. This year, the award was bestowed upon 46 startups, 1 incubator and 1 accelerator.
The Status of Start-ups in India
Today, India is globally recognised as the third largest startup ecosystem, housing over 15,000 startups in 2020 alone; a significant increase from around 5000 startups in 2010. Key enablers of this growth include smartphone and internet penetration, prevalence of cloud computing and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), and a robust national payments stack.
Despite the challenges brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, India has observed a rise in Unicorn startups (valued over USD1 billion) in 2021, surpassing the numbers from the decade before. However, there still exist significant challenges such as scaling Indian startups, bridging the digital divide, and tackling a complex regulatory environment.
Other Initiatives to Support Startups
Several other initiatives have been taken to bolster the startup ecosystem in India:
– Ranking of states on support to Startup Ecosystems: This evaluation tool helps in strengthening the state-wise support for developing holistic startup ecosystems.
– SCO Startup Forum: Launched in October 2020, this forum focuses on collective development and improvement of startup ecosystems.
– Prarambh Summit: Aimed at providing a platform for startups to showcase new ideas, innovations, and inventions.
– Startup India Seed Fund Scheme: This scheme offers financial assistance to startups for concept proofing, prototype development, product trials, market entry, and commercialization.
– Fisheries Startup Grand Challenge: This challenge, in association with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, encourages innovation in the Fisheries sector.
All these efforts combined reflect the encouraging steps towards promoting the growth of startups in India.
