Sustained efforts by the Government to build a strong ecosystem for nurturing innovation have led to a substantial increase in the number of startups recognised by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) to 1,17,254 as on 31 December 2023. These recognised startups are reported to have created over 12.42 lakh direct jobs creating significant economic impact. There is at least one recognised startup in every state and union territory (UT) spread across over 80 per cent of the districts across the nation, the Commerce Ministry data shows.
The Government with an intent to build a strong ecosystem for nurturing innovation, startups and encouraging investments in startup ecosystem of the country launched the Startup India initiative on 16 January 2016. Since then. 55,816 DPIIT recognised startups have at least one-woman director as on 31 December 2023.
The Government is implementing various schemes/programmes to promote women entrepreneurship. To promote flow of both equity and debt to women led startups, 10 per cent of the fund in the Fund of Funds for Startups Scheme operated by Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) is reserved for women-led startups. A virtual incubation program for women entrepreneurs was conducted in collaboration with Zone Startups to support women-led tech startups with pro-bono acceleration support.
The States’ Startup Ranking on support to startup ecosystems is primarily an exercise to identify good practices across all the Indian states. The evaluation includes a specific provision to gauge the formulation and implementation of policies and special incentives to promote women-led startups in each state. The particular action point has witnessed active engagement and thereon reporting of measures undertaken by participating States and UTs.
The Ministry of MSME is taking several steps to support women owned Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the country to increase women’s participation. These include sSpecial drives for registration of women owned MSMEs under Udyam Registration Portal, various fiscal incentives to women entrepreneurs under the Credit Guarantee Scheme for Micro and Small Enterprises.