The government celebrated January 16 as National Startup Day, to help percolate startup culture to the grassroot level.

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) announced the results of the National Startup Awards 2021. A total of 46 startups have been recognised as winners of National Startup Awards 2021 along with one incubator and one accelerator.

What is a startup?

The definition of startups was modified in 2019 with a view to include more entrepreneurs in its ambit. 

An entity shall be considered as a startup:

• If it is incorporated as a private limited company (as defined in the Companies Act, 2013) or registered as a partnership firm (under Section 59 of the Partnership Act, 1932) or a limited liability partnership (under the Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008) in India.

• Up to ten years from the date of its incorporation/registration.

• If its turnover for any of the financial years since incorporation/registration has not exceeded Rs 100 crore.

• If it is working towards innovation, development or improvement of products or processes or services, or if it is a scalable business model with a high potential of employment generation or wealth creation.

Startup ecosystem in India

• Startups in India are now spread across the length and breath of the entire country. The shift in global focus is on promoting women entrepreneurs and fostering an inclusive and innovative environment. 

• Efforts are also being made by diverse stakeholders in the Indian startup ecosystem to elevate domestic policies in concurrence with global trends.

• Two decades ago, there were only a few active investors and a limited number of support organisations, such as incubators and accelerators. However, in the past decade. There has been a significant increase in both investment activity and infrastructure facilities to provide the much-needed impetus to the expansion of the Unicorn tribe. 

• A Unicorn is a term used to indicate a privately held startup company with a valuation of over $1 billion. In 2014, there were only five Unicorns in India. The number has increased significantly to 81, thereby making India the third largest ecosystem of Unicorns in the world after the US and China. 

• The DPIIT has recognised more than 61,000 startups. The startups representing 55 industries are spread across 633 districts with at least one startup from every state and UT of the country.

• The startups have created over six lakh jobs since 2016. Nearly 45 per cent of the startups are from tier-2 and tier-3 cities and 45 per cent of them are represented by women entrepreneurs. 

• Startup ecosystem expansion is driven by rapid growth of startup hubs in tier-2 and tier-3 cities such as Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Kochi, Kanpur Chandigarh and Coimbatore. 

• The role of the state government becomes very important in developing the necessary infrastructure and support to foster the startup ecosystem. Due to the given constraints of infrastructure and supporting services, India needs to build upon low-cost and high-impact solutions.

• Although there has been an increase in angel and venture capital funding, the amount invested must be augmented. It is crucial that the ecosystem is well integrated to connect startups to fund houses and other stakeholders.

• The startup ecosystem in India comprises a multitude of stakeholders. While the founders, entrepreneurs and their companies play the most important role in the pyramid, other stakeholders have proven to be drivers of growth in their entrepreneurial stories.

• These stakeholders include – funding organisations, governments, universities, service providers, local and global market forces, intellectual property drivers and other support organisations. 

National Startup Awards 2021

• The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) conceived the National Startup Awards to recognise and reward outstanding startups and ecosystem enablers that are building innovative products or solutions and scalable enterprises, with high potential of employment generation or wealth creation, demonstrating measurable social impact. 

• The results of the first National Startup Awards were announced in October 2020.

• The National Startup Awards 2021 seek to recognise and reward outstanding startups and ecosystem enablers that are contributing to economic dynamism by spurring innovation and injecting competition. 

• The second edition of the awards invited applications across 15 sectors and 49 sub-sectors. 

The sectors are: 

1) Agriculture

2) Animal Husbandry

3) Drinking Water

4) Education & Skill Development

5) Energy

6) Enterprise Systems

7) Environment

8) Fintech

9) Food Processing

10) Health & Wellness

11) Industry 4.0

12) Security

13) Space

14) Transport

15) Travel. 

• Six special categories were also introduced to recognise exceptional Startups contributing to the good of the society. The 2021 edition of the awards also recognised exceptional Startups innovating solutions to promote Indic languages and to compliment national efforts to combat COVID-19 pandemic.

• A total of 2,177 applications were received from startups across 49 sub-sectors along with applications from 53 incubators and six accelerators for the ecosystem enablers categories. These applicants included 863 women-led, 414 innovations for combatting COVID-19 and 253 startups working in rural areas.

• All applicants were evaluated against six broad parameters — innovation, scalability, economic impact, social impact, environmental impact, and inclusiveness and diversity.

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