Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu emerged best performers among states with population over 1 crore in the States’ Startup Ranking 2022 by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).

Himachal Pradesh was the best performer among states with a population less than 1 crore.

States’ Startup Ranking

• The States’ Startup Ranking is a yearly capacity building exercise created and released by the DPIIT that evaluates all of India’s states and Union Territories on their efforts to build an ecosystem conducive to startup growth.

• States’ Startup Ranking was launched in February 2018 to achieve the vision of building a robust startup ecosystem in the country. 

• It aims to evaluate the Indian startup landscape through the eyes of state policy intervention and identify state practices that accelerate ecosystem growth and development.

• The states ranking has led each state to have dedicated startup policies and through annual rankings, it tracks the evolution of these policies and the overall efforts of states in ecosystem building.

• Through this exercise, states and UTs can identify areas of improvement and expansion for their region to boost growth and development of startup ecosystem.

• The exercise is a medium to showcase the best practices across different states and UTs and to encourage others to explore and adopt new ventures and areas of improvement and collaboration.

• This is the fourth edition of the States’ Startup Ranking. The consideration period for the ranking was from August 1, 2021 to December 31, 2022, during which, the compliance and progress on action items were considered for the evaluation process.

• The states and UTs were broadly divided into two sections — Category A and Category B — based on their population size, those having more than 1 crore and the ones with less than 1 crore.

• States/UTs were evaluated based on 25 action points across seven reform areas. These reform areas were able to capture the essential pillars for development of the startup ecosystem.

• Based on the performance of the states and UTs in various reform areas, they have been categorised into five groups.

These groups are:

i) Best Performers (Percentile: 90-100): Best Performers are the leading states and UTs in the country with model state startup ecosystems, setting a benchmark for other states to follow.

ii) Top Performers (Percentile: 70-89): Top Performers have shown significant growth in respective startup ecosystems and have established initiatives to nurture the entrepreneurs of the state/UT.

iii) Leaders (Percentile: 50-69):  Leaders are the states and UTs which have been continuously working towards building an effective startup ecosystem. 

iv) Aspiring Leaders (Percentile: 30-49): The states and UTs identified as Aspiring Leaders are working towards identifying and formulating initiatives to provide support to the startups in the state and UT.

v) Emerging Startup Ecosystems (Percentile up to 30): The states and UTs identified as the Emerging Startup Ecosystems are on the path of developing their startup ecosystem.

Results of States’ Startup Ranking 2022

• As many as 26 states and 7 UTs took part in the exercise. All 8 states from the northeast region participated in the exercise this year. 

• Based on the performance of states and UTs in various Reform Areas, they have been categorised into five groups. 

• The score of each state and UT is converted into percentiles which shows the relative performance of each state and UT compared to others. 

• States and UTs with similar percentile scores are then categorised into one grading group. 

• Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh are categorised as the best performers.

• Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Telangana, Arunachal Pradesh, and Meghalaya, are categorised as the top performers.

• Eight states are categorised as ‘leaders’ and that include Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Manipur, and Tripura.

• States and UTs in the ‘aspiring leaders’ category include Bihar, Haryana, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Nagaland.

• States under ‘the emerging startup ecosystems’ category include Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Ladakh, Mizoram, Puducherry, and Sikkim.

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