Start-Ups have Generated 17.28 Lakh Direct Jobs

Amardeep Singh Bhatia, secretary, department for promotion of industry and internal trade (DPIIT) tells Pushpita Dey about the government's various schemes to give start-ups a leg up.

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Why would you call India a global start-up hub?

India has evolved into one of the largest start-up ecosystems, the world's 3rd largest, in the last decade. From 500 recognised start-ups in 2016, we have moved to 1.57 lakh in nine years, generating 17.28 lakh direct jobs.

Of these start-ups 48% feature at least one woman director, with the 770-plus districts of India contributing at least 1 start-up. This reflects on the increasing inclusivity of our entrepreneurial landscape.

What initiatives have enabled this growth?

The Start-up India initiative launched in 2016 which completed nine years recently, has been a catalyst in driving the start-up movement.

For budding entrepreneurs, seed fund of around Rs 450 crore has been disbursed to around 2,500 start-ups through 213 incubators under the Start-up India Seed Fund Scheme. For funding needs in their growth stage, Fund of Funds for Start-ups Scheme provides a corpus of Rs 10,000 crore as contribution to various Alternative Investment Funds, which have invested more than Rs 21,000 crore in start-ups. Another flagship initiative, Atal Innovation Mission, includes establishing Atal Tinkering Labs and Atal Incubation Centres to promote innovation through active engagement of around 1.1 crore students. Further, DPIIT has recently launched the Bharat Start-up Knowledge Access Registry platform to streamline interactions between start-ups, investors, mentors and government.