PIB | 24 Jul, 2022
The Government has launched Startup
India initiative on 16th January 2016 with an aim to build a
stronger ecosystem for nurturing India’s startup culture that would
further drive our economic growth, support entrepreneurship, and enable
large-scale employment opportunities.
Sustained
Government efforts in this direction have resulted in increasing the
number of recognized Startups from 471 in 2016 to 72,993 in 2022 (as on
30th June 2022).
Further,
DPIIT has recognized startups which are spread across 56 diversified
sectors. More than 4,500 Startups have been recognized in sectors
relating to emerging technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT),
robotics, artificial intelligence, analytics, etc.
Furthermore,
Department of Science and Technology (DST) had launched an umbrella
programme called National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing
Innovations (NIDHI) in year 2016 for nurturing ideas and innovations
(knowledge-based and technology-driven) into successful startups.
Under
NIDHI, different programs range from providing fellowships to the
students opting for entrepreneurship through Entrepreneurs-In-Residence
(EIR) Program, Promoting and Accelerating Young and Aspiring Innovators
and Startups (PRAYAS) program by providing financial support for
converting ideas into prototypes, availability of early stage Seed
support to incubated ventures, providing mentoring and investment
readiness support through Accelerators, and creating Centres of
Excellence (CoE) in incubation.
To
promote innovations in biotechnology sector, the Department of
Biotechnology, through Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance
Council (BIRAC), supports and nurtures startups in the Biotechnology
sector.
The major schemes are BioNEST Scheme (Bio incubators Nurturing
Entrepreneurship for Scaling Technologies) and Biotechnology Ignition
Grant (BIG) schemes.
Additionally,
in order to promote innovation and agripreneurship by providing
financial support and nurturing the incubation ecosystem Department of
Agriculture & Farmers Welfare under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas
Yojana- Remunerative Approaches for Agriculture and Allied Sector
Rejuvenation (RKVY-RAFTAAR) scheme has launched “Innovation and
Agri-entrepreneur development” programme, as a component.
Startups under
the programme are taking up projects in various fields of agriculture
and allied sectors like Agro-processing, Food Technology & Value
Addition, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT),
Information & Communication Technology (ICT), Block Chain Technology
(BCT), precision farming and Digital agriculture, and Block Chain
technology among others.
The
Innovations for Defence Excellence(iDEX) was launched by the Department
of Defense Production, Ministry of Defense, with the aim to achieve
self-reliance and foster innovation and technology development in
Defense and Aerospace by engaging Industries, R&D institutes and
academia and provide them grants to carry out R&D.
The startups
receive upto Rs 1.50 Crore as grant for development of innovative
prototypes. They also receive enormous support from iDEX’s partner
Incubators at IITs, IIMs and other private incubators spread all over
the country.
Under
the Atal Innovation Mission, the Government has set up Atal Incubation
Centres (AIC) to incubate startups in various sectors. It has also
launched Atal New India Challenge (ANIC) program to directly aid
startups with technology-based innovations that solve sectoral
challenges of national importance and societal relevance.
The
Government has also operationalized 26 Centres of Excellence (CoEs) in
diverse areas of national interest for driving self- sufficiency and
creating capabilities to capture new and emerging technology areas.
These domain specific CoEs are being established pan India with the
participation of the Central Government, Software Technology Parks of
India (STPI), State Government(s), industry partnership and venture
capital firms. These CoEs act as important enablers to promote
innovation in emerging technologies.
Further,
Technology Incubation and Development of Entrepreneurs (TIDE) Scheme,
launched by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, has a
multi-pronged approach in diverse areas of electronics, information and
communications technology and management.
It aims to assist institutions
of higher learning to strengthen their technology incubation centers
and enable young entrepreneurs to initiate technology startup companies
for commercial exploitation of technologies developed by them.