Start-ups in India
Why in the News?
The recognized start-ups in India approximating to 98,000 have created 10.34lakh direct jobs in India excluding the jobs created in related sectors such as e-commerce, fintech, EdTech, etc.,

The Indian Start-up Ecosystem:
- India has become the third largest startup ecosystem in the world.
- The CAGR of the number of recognized startups in India between 2016-22 increased up to 142%.
- At least one startup is present in each of the 36 States/UTs.
- India is also home to more than 100 Unicorns and 23 of them emerged in 2022 itself.
Startups in India: Key categories
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Key categories of Startups in India:
e-Commerce startups:
- The companies use internet and technology to create and sell products and services online.
- Examples include Flipkart, Myntra and Snapdeal.
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FinTech start-ups
- start-ups use technology to create innovative financial solutions, such as online banking, digital payments, and insurance services.
- Examples: Paytm, and PhonePe.
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Health tech start-ups
- Start-ups use technology to develop products and services that make healthcare more accessible and affordable.
- Examples: Practo, 1mg.
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SaaS start-ups
- start-ups use software-as-a-service (SaaS) technology to provide solutions to businesses.
- Examples: Freshdesk, Zoho, SmartHub.ai and Druva
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Factors fueling the growth of Startup ecosystem:
- Growing internet penetration along with proliferation of affordable smartphones and extremely affordable data plans. This led to attraction of more active and technology-savvy digital users across sectors such as ecommerce, consumer services, fintech and enterprise tech.

- Growing Investor Ecosystem plays a pivotal role in nurturing entrepreneurship and the startup culture.

- Growing Per Capita Income noticed a surge of 65% over the past decade. This has increased the consumption expenditure of people and also enabled people to experiment new products and services.
- Govt policies and Schemes:
- The Startup India initiative
- Fund of Funds scheme for the startups (FSS)
- Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS)
- Credit guarantee Scheme for Startups.
Key challenges faced by the Indian Startup ecosystem:
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- Inadequate Ecosystem for Hardware Startups ever since the 1992 LPG reforms that focused on tertiary sectors especially in IT/BPO service industries.
- High capital expenditure required to setup new business in the hardware sector makes it difficult to attract venture capital investments.

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- Low Investor Confidence Towards Deep-tech Startups due to factors such as,
- Low adoption of deep-tech technologies such as 3D printing, IoT and IoT, and robotics
- Lack of adequate R&D culture in India
- Low number of patent applications filed in India due to less spending on R&D and Innovation. For instance, China Filed 26x More Patent Applications Than India in 2019.
- Enforcement of patent laws is a major hurdle limiting the scope of intellectual property in the country.
- Stringent regulatory constraints.
For instance, The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 has been implemented to address the privacy concerns of the citizens. But a possible censorship may also affect the freedom of expression, the biggest selling point of OTT content.
Link: Recognised start-ups have created over 10.34 lakh direct jobs: Piyush Goyal- The New Indian Express