StartUp jump in 9 years a major success story of Modi-led govt: Jitendra Singh

New Delhi [India], June 2 : Union Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Jitendra Singh has said that "StartUp jump in 9 years" is a major success story of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government.
Addressing a youth congregation here, Jitendra Singh said that before 2014 there were just about 350 StartUps, but after Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave the clarion call from the ramparts of the Red Fort in his Independence Day address in 2015 and rolled out special StartUp scheme in 2016, there was a quantum jump and India today has the world's third largest StartUp ecosystem in the world, boasting 92,683 startups with more than 115 unicorns (billion-dollar enterprises), according to the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions.
The minister said, in the year 2022 alone, 26,542 entities were recognised as Startups by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) as startups. A NASSCOM study says tech startups created 23 lakh direct and indirect jobs in the year 2017-2021, according to the statement of the ministry.
Besides, startups have self-reported creation of a million jobs directly and many more indirectly since the launch of Startup India in 2016 when the total jobs created stood a meagre 10.
Jitendra Singh said, "India's youth today is gradually coming out of the government job mindset and is ready to take the plunge and create new opportunities in niche sectors, in turn creating scores of job opportunities." Interacting with youth beneficiaries of central government schemes in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh, he said that the focus of the government in the last 9 years has not been just to create employment but also to build entrepreneurship.
Jitendra Singh said, "Besides Startup India, the Modi Government also launched the StandUp India scheme on April 5, 2016, to facilitate bank loans from Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) between Rs 10 lakh to Rs 1 crore to at least one Scheduled Caste (SC) or Scheduled Tribe (ST) and one woman per bank branch for setting up a greenfield enterprise in trading, services or manufacturing sector." The scheme is expected to benefit at least 2.5 lakh borrowers.
Jitendra Singh said, "PM Modi wants our youth to become new entrepreneurs, new producers and create a complete network of start-ups by these new entrepreneurs across the whole country. PM Modi has a dream to make India Number One in the world of StartUp. PM Modi is of the firm belief that in the coming days "Start-up India" and "Stand-up India" will be there or the future of the country.
Jitendra Singh said Indian Startups raised USD 44 billion in 2021, with over USD 33 billion going towards deals worth more than USD 5 million. "Many Indian startups are domiciled outside India - despite having the majority of their market, personnel and founders in India. These "externalised" or "flipped" startups constitute a large number of India's unicorns," he said.
Jitendra Singh said PM Modi also opened the doors of the space sector to private sector participation, as a result today ISRO is working with nearly 150 private startups. Similarly, before 2014, India's bio-economy was valued at USD 10 billion. The minister added, "Now it's over USD 80 billion. Biotech startups have grown 100 times in the last eight years from 52 odd startups in 2014 to 5,300 plus in 2022."
Jitendra Singh advised the budding StartUp entrepreneurs to look beyond the IT, computer and communications sectors to the most unexplored and the richest farm sector, which is awaiting a huge Tech revolution after the Green revolution.
Calling for promoting agritech start-ups in a big way, the Minister said, "Agriculture is one of the important pillars of the Indian economy as 54 per cent of the Indian population depends directly on agriculture and it accounts for around 20 per cent of GDP".
The minister said that before 2014, no one knew about Aroma Mission or Purple revolution. "But today Lavender cultivation has led to the boom of agritech startups. The central government's Aroma Mission, ably supported by Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), is changing the mindset of farmers and more and more of them are taking up the cultivation of aroma crops like lavender, lemon grass, rose and marigold for extracting costly oils to be used in many industries." He said the oil is sold at about Rs 9,000 per litre are used in making incense sticks and also being used for room sprays, cosmetics and therapeutics.