As per the report by Ministry of Finance, the 1.14 lakh start-ups that have been recognized by Indian government have created more than 12 lakh jobs as of October 2023.
Indian Government Recognized Startups Create 12 Lakh Jobs
These start-ups have been recognized by the Startup India initiative and it is under the same initiative that 2.1 Lakh loans has been disbursed till November 2023. Notably, 84% of these were sanctioned to women entrepreneurs in India. This underscores and goes a long way in understanding the impetus that government is placing and promoting gender-inclusive growth.
The report further adds the commitment that government has taken in form of various regulatory reforms to foster a conducive environment for such startups.
Government has also improved the ease of doing business by decriminalizing 3600 compliance requirements which in turn has propelled more indigenous startups in the overall ecosystem.
The report also mentioned Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) which has seen a significant increase in digital transactions, since it has facilitated over 6.3 million transactions by November last year.
There has also been a mention of AI, since this technology is deemed to affect or take away many employment opportunities globally. The report said that “… the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) poses a big challenge to governments around the world due to the questions it poses to employment particularly in services sectors. This was recently highlighted in an IMF paper estimating that 40% of global employment is exposed to AI, with the benefits of complementarity operating beside the risks of displacement”.
Riding on the back of internet penetration and smartphone availability over 931 million users, India’s digital economy is growing exponentially. This is led to Indian start-ups raising 146 billion dollars till date. Notably, there are many which have achieved unicorn status and attracting substantial investor interest.
2024 to Bring Some Relief in Funding
The report also mentions the funding winter, wherein the Indian start-ups have faced difficulty in securing necessary investments as compared the previous years. Despite the drought in funding, as per the experty, there shall be a revival when it comes to funding prospects by the second half of 2024.
Scheduled for February 1, there is a lot of anticipation for the interim Budget 2024, wherein the stakeholders are keen to know what are the measures or policies government has devised for the growth of Indian startup ecosystem.
