“Startup India Innovation Week will bring India’s innovators in the limelight”, says the Union Minister
India, coming up as a global innovation hub, is now the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem. The Minister of Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal, said the DPIIT (The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade) has already acknowledged 60,000 startups so far. The Union Minister said, “Indian startups representing 55 industries, spread across 633 districts with at least one startup from every State and UT (Union Territories) of the country have created over six lakh jobs since 2016. 45% of the startups are from Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, and 45% of them are represented by women entrepreneurs. Startups have the potential to accelerate India’s integration into global value chains and create global impact.”
In the minister’s opinion, startups are the major reason behind our nation’s rapid rise in the Global Innovation Index from 76 (2014) to 46 (2021). He insisted that now that we are in the Top-50, we should aspire to get into the ranks of Top-25.
STARTUP INDIA INNOVATION WEEK 2022
Goyal inaugurated the first-ever ‘Startup India Innovation Week’ on January 10, 2022. Organized by DPIIT, the event will extend from January 10 to January 16. The week-long event will be held virtually and aims to mark the 75th year of the country’s independence, “Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav”, and will display the growth of entrepreneurship across the country.
The innovation celebration also intends to bring together India’s key startups, investors, entrepreneurs, banks, policymakers, funding entities and incubators under one roof to celebrate and advocate innovation. Goyal also encouraged the established startups to come forward and guide the young entrepreneurs from Tier-2 and Tier-3 towns. He said, “We all should take failures as stepping stones to success and should focus on three goals – strengthening Make-In-India, innovation and mentoring the young talents.” He also suggested SENSE – Share, Explore, Nurture, Serve and Empower; the five mantras for the success of startups in future.
He commented that 2021 will always be remembered as the “year of unicorns”. He noted that India now has in total 82 unicorns, with more than half of them added over the last twelve months. He said that after a successful 2021, the goal of the startup ecosystem of India for this year should be to generate 75 additional unicorns.
“Startups”, said Goyal, “have turned Covid-19 into an opportunity from a crisis”, pinpointing the growth of startups during the pandemic. He also remarked how startups could play a significant role “to socialize and democratize the availability of healthcare across the world”. He said, “As the world is facing successive waves of this pandemic, our entrepreneurs must start thinking of making our startups more resilient”.
Piyush Goyal also talked about the government’s “Prashasan Gaon ki Aur” policy which provides essential services like electricity, healthcare, banking services, sanitary facilities, education and broadband connectivity to every citizen of the country. He stated how startups could “significantly improve” these last-mile delivery services through value addition. He said there are “endless and immense possibilities” for startups and remarked that “we need to get a sense of these possibilities and go out there and locate every new idea with a fresh mind, a fresh perspective and new spirit.”
While addressing the inaugural session, he also talked about how the government has taken steps to simplify the process of starting up by drawing attention to the importance of reduction in patent filings, starting fund of funds, relaxation in public procurement norms and launching seed fund scheme.
The Union Minister also divulged that the government was “working actively” on ONDC – the open network for digital commerce. The ONDC is intended to be a neutral platform through which online buyers and sellers of goods can transact despite the platforms on which they function. The initiative, which was announced in July 2021, “will provide huge opportunities for startups and bridge the gap between the large e-commerce companies”, according to Goyal. He is certain that it would alter online commerce the way UPI (Unified Payments Interface) has changed digital payments.
To reach the goal of entering the Top-25 in the GII (Global Innovation Index), he asked the innovators for their “cooperation and support”.
Published by- Aashay Bhujbal
Edited by- Mahi Gupta
