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 16th  January 2016.

For attaining specific objectives, various programs are implemented by the Government under the said initiative. Sustained efforts by the Government have  led to an increase in the number of Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) recognised startups to 1,17,254 as on 31st 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% of the districts across the nation.

Specifically for the last five years viz. 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023, the State/UT-wise number of DPIIT recognised startups and number of direct jobs created by DPIIT recognised startups are placed as Annexure-I and Annexure-II respectively.

Since the launch of the Startup India initiative in 2016 by the Government, 55,816 DPIIT recognised startups have at least one-woman director as on 31st December 2023.

The Government is implementing various schemes/programmes to promote women entrepreneurship. The details of such Government initiatives are placed as Annexure III.

This information has been provided by the Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, Shri Som Parkash in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.

 

ANNEXURE-I

State/UT-wise number of recognised startups during the last five years viz 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 are as under:

S. No.	States/UTs	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
	Andaman and Nicobar Islands	7	5	13	9	15
	Andhra Pradesh	161	215	286	382	586
	Arunachal Pradesh	2	-	4	9	17
	Assam	62	108	181	282	362
	Bihar	137	236	374	517	811
	Chandigarh	37	52	63	81	126
	Chhattisgarh	152	143	159	233	360
	Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu	3	5	12	12	11
	Delhi	1,302	1,711	2,129	2,548	3,150
	Goa	39	60	78	104	98
	Gujarat	565	846	1,655	2,262	3,291
	Haryana	658	787	1,036	1,327	1,740
	Himachal Pradesh	27	40	55	117	144
	Jammu and Kashmir	30	57	123	167	247
	Jharkhand	79	153	180	232	337
	Karnataka	1,566	1,648	2,082	2,546	3,032
	Kerala	597	671	901	1,070	1,294
	Ladakh	-	1	-	4	4
	Lakshadweep	-	1	-	-	2
	Madhya Pradesh	302	401	540	891	1,264
	Maharashtra	1,987	2,531	3,552	4,763	5,801
	Manipur	3	10	33	31	26
	Meghalaya	5	-	6	10	18
	Mizoram	-	1	2	6	13
	Nagaland	2	5	6	7	22
	Odisha	170	257	367	442	620
	Puducherry	10	13	16	29	43
	Punjab	86	134	239	294	443
	Rajasthan	321	459	591	986	1,443
	Sikkim	2	1	3	2	2
	Tamil Nadu	556	715	1,067	1,791	2,810
	Telangana	559	754	928	1,370	1,757
	Tripura	7	17	11	25	23
	Uttar Pradesh	807	1,290	1,876	2,554	3,426
	Uttarakhand	87	109	155	236	271
	West Bengal	276	362	648	991	1,170
	Grand Total	10,604	13,798	19,371	26,330	34,779

 

ANNEXURE-II

State/UT-wise number of direct jobs (self-reported) created by recognised startups during the last five years viz 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 are as under:

S. No.	States/UTs	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
	Andaman and Nicobar Islands	60	32	72	71	97
	Andhra Pradesh	1,552	2,849	2,304	3,067	5,669
	Arunachal Pradesh	12		31	55	185
	Assam	726	874	1,403	2,553	3,350
	Bihar	1,079	2,134	3,086	4,498	9,057
	Chandigarh	312	355	978	898	1,328
	Chhattisgarh	1,423	1,054	1,694	2,126	3,189
	Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu	29	31	136	147	138
	Delhi	13,862	17,638	22,231	29,955	38,280
	Goa	349	340	494	830	824
	Gujarat	6,077	9,295	17,329	23,610	48,138
	Haryana	9,990	10,515	10,006	13,694	26,021
	Himachal Pradesh	195	281	344	972	1,079
	Jammu and Kashmir	238	447	776	1,297	2,452
	Jharkhand	624	1,353	1,362	1,827	3,525
	Karnataka	20,256	23,767	20,812	24,544	35,066
	Kerala	4,413	5,446	7,582	10,286	11,737
	Ladakh	-	3	-	32	29
	Lakshadweep	-	7	-	-	31
	Madhya Pradesh	3,955	3,468	6,568	11,511	12,070
	Maharashtra	21,979	29,133	38,354	50,913	64,974
	Manipur	22	116	382	309	195
	Meghalaya	27	-	48	61	157
	Mizoram	-	2	15	106	79
	Nagaland	10	32	81	71	268
	Odisha	2,248	2,220	3,742	4,526	6,532
	Puducherry	130	68	198	233	568
	Punjab	1,230	1,673	2,429	2,318	4,935
	Rajasthan	3,819	4,439	5,579	10,590	13,724
	Sikkim	6	2	29	22	8
	Tamil Nadu	6,860	7,772	9,684	17,192	30,536
	Telangana	8,622	8,576	9,581	14,249	18,378
	Tripura	46	735	95	188	193
	Uttar Pradesh	8,823	13,226	18,812	22,673	33,831
	Uttarakhand	701	709	1,696	1,684	2,401
	West Bengal	3,396	2,604	6,632	9,353	11,468
	GRAND TOTAL	1,23,071	1,51,196	1,94,565	2,66,461	3,90,512

 

ANNEXURE-III

Programs Implemented to promote Women Entrepreneurship:

1. To promote flow of both equity and debt to women led startups, 10% 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.

2. Women Capacity Development Programme (WING) is a unique Capacity Development Program for women-led startups, to identify and support both aspiring and established women entrepreneurs in their startup journeys. The workshops are open to variety of business sectors including Tech, Construction, Product, Machine, Food, Agriculture, Education, etc. The workshops serve as a platform for emerging women entrepreneurs and other stakeholders to discuss the key challenges facing women entrepreneurs. WING workshops create a conducive environment to share best practices and experiences in overcoming challenges and to gain insights learned from the business models adopted in the Indian context. 

3. 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.

4. Startup India Hub: A webpage dedicated to women entrepreneurs has been designed on the Startup India portal. The page includes various policy measures for women entrepreneurs by both Central and State Governments.

5. ASCEND Startup Workshop Series and Women for Startups Workshops: The Government organized a series of startup workshops - ASCEND (Accelerating Startup Calibre & Entrepreneurial Drive), for the entrepreneurs, aspiring entrepreneurs, and students from North-eastern region. In addition, the workshops are conducted with a specific focus on women entrepreneurs across the north-eastern states. The workshops have witnessed participation from ecosystem stakeholders such as government officials, startups, aspiring entrepreneurs, investors, academic institutions, etc.

6. Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP): The Government launched WEP in 2018 as an aggregator platform with the aim to overcome information asymmetry in the women entrepreneurial ecosystem. By showcasing all existing initiatives and providing domain knowledge it works towards empowering both prospective and present women entrepreneurs.

7. SuperStree Podcast: With a vision to inspire a greater number of women across all regions in India to become entrepreneurs, the SuperStree video podcast series has been launched on women in the Indian Startup Ecosystem. The podcast spreads awareness related to innovations from women and to further strengthen women entrepreneurship in the country.

8. Through various awareness programmes and capacity building programmes organized by the Government, and through print media and social media platforms, the Government also creates awareness about the existing schemes which support micro, small and medium entrepreneurs, including women entrepreneurs.

9. BIRAC (under BioNEST and EYUVA schemes) has set up dedicated Bioincubation centres for women entrepreneurs that provide incubation space and mentoring (business, Intellectual Property, legal) specifically to women students/scientists/entrepreneurs as well as support women Self Help Groups (SHGs). 

 

10. BIRAC’s WInER Award fellowship (Women In Entrepreneurial Research), in partnership with TiE-Delhi NCR: Under this award programme, women entrepreneurs working on ideas that impact large sections of the society are provided financial support along with other benefits including mentoring, handholding, an opportunity to go through an intensive accelerator programme. 

11. Under the Startup Accelerators of MeitY for Product Innovation, Development and Growth (SAMRIDH) scheme, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) supports a dedicated women-led accelerator program hosted by Zone Startups.

12. Under the Technology Incubation and Development of Entrepreneurs (TIDE) Scheme of MeitY, financial assistance is provided to Institutions of Higher Learning to strengthen their Technology Incubation Centres for enabling young entrepreneurs to create technology startup companies for commercial exploitation of technologies developed by them. 

13. 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.

14. To identify the depth, quality and spread of innovation, inclusivity and diversity, and entrepreneurship in country, the Government instituted the National Startup Awards (NSA). NSA recognizes and promotes startups across 20 sectors and special categories. All four editions of the NSA (2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023) have featured a special category and award for women-led startups.

15. Ministry of MSME has taken several steps to support women owned Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the country to increase women’s participation. The details of the programs implemented in this direction are as under:

1. Special drives for registration of women owned MSMEs under Udyam Registration Portal have been undertaken.

2. Various fiscal incentives are provided to women entrepreneurs under the Credit Guarantee Scheme for Micro and Small Enterprises.

3. To encourage entrepreneurship among women, the Ministry also implements a number of programs such as:

• ‘Skill Upgradation & Mahila Coir Yojana’ under Coir Vikas Yojana, which is an exclusive training program aimed at skill development of women artisans engaged in the Coir sector.

• The Ministry also implements Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), which is a credit-linked subsidy programme aimed at generating self-employment opportunities through establishment of micro enterprises in the non-farm sector by helping traditional artisans and rural/urban unemployed youth. Under the scheme, women are provided higher subsidy vis-à-vis non special category.

• Participation of women entrepreneurs in trade fairs under Procurement & Marketing Support Scheme is subsidized.

 

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