The Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has emerged as the top performer among all the UTs and the North-Eastern States in the ranking of States’ Exercise-2021 on Support to Start-Up Ecosystems.
The results of the third edition of ‘Ranking of States on Support to Startup Ecosystems’ were released by Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Piyush Goel at the Union Capital today. For the purpose of the ranking, States and Union Territories were classified into five categories, like- Best performers, Top performers, Leaders, Aspiring leaders and Emerging Start-Up Ecosystems.
The Jammu and Kashmir (UT) which has been clubbed with UTs and the North-Eastern States including those States having less than one crore population has emerged as top performer while Meghalaya is best performer.
In this (B) category, Arunachal Pradesh, Goa and Andaman and Nicobar Islands emerged as Leaders; Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Tripura, Nagaland, Chandigarh, Puducherry, Dadra, Nagar Haveli & Daman-Diu as aspiring leader while Mizoram and Ladakh are the Emerging StartUp Ecosystems category in the ranking.
Gujarat and Karnataka emerged as the Best performers in a category of States which included NCT of Delhi, while Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha and Telangana got the Top performers award among States.
Punjab, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Assam were adjudged the winners in the Leaders category among States; Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan were declared as aspiring Leaders among the States. Andhra Pradesh and Bihar from States category and Mizoram and Ladakh from the UTs/NE States were ranked at the bottom, under the Emerging Start-up Ecosystem.
Piyush Goyal after declaring results said that ONDC (Open Network for Digital Commerce) had the power to spawn thousands of Start-Ups. “The huge success that UPI has been in India, which has democratised the payment system in India. In the next 5 years, we will have ONDC democratize the e-commerce across India. Rather than three companies being 100 billion or one trillion size, you will have a thousand companies each of a billion dollar. That is what ONDC has the power to do,” the Minister said.
Emphasizing that Indian ecosystem could become the best in the work, Goyal suggested that States could align with neighbouring ones so as to learn from each other. He also asked the department to get more Start-Ups on the Government e-Marketplace (GeM), saying that now even the services had been brought under GeM.
Goyal suggested that there was a need to focus on Developing Start-Up Ecosystem in districts with help of all the Start-up related schemes by the Central and the State Governments. He emphasized upon the need to onboard and register more Start-Ups. He added that there was a great opportunity to democratize the Start-Up ecosystem in the same way as the Indian Premier League (IPL) democratized the cricket arena.
Anurag Jain, Secretary, DPIIT said that a number of initiatives of the Government including JAM (Jandhan, Aadhar, Mobile), Digital India, Gatishakti, Ease of Doing Business were driving the Start-Up Ecosystem. “If the Start-Up system has to grow further, the biggest role has to be played by States. We can play a facilitative role,” he added.
Manoj Kohli, Member, National Start-up Advisory Council the new coaching/mentoring programme MAARG (Mentorship, Advisory, Assistance, Resilience and Growth) focused on creating profitable Start-Ups, improving their corporate governance, scaling up their operations, addressing funding gaps and building their brand. This, he said would improve their success rate.
Shruti Singh, Joint Secretary, DPIIT said that the Start-Up Ecosystem has come a long way with States playing a big role. “Today, States have vibrant ecosystem with 27 States having their portals in regional languages,” she added.
The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has been conducting the States’ Start-up Ranking Exercise since 2018 to facilitate the ease of building a start-up and doing business across the country. The exercise has grown in its impact over the last three editions, with 31 participating States and Union Territories this edition, the highest till date. The State Start-up Ranking exercise aims to support States and Union territories in developing their start-up ecosystem and learn from the best practices in each State and Union Territory.
The consideration period for the third edition of the States Startup Ranking Exercise was 1st October 2019 to July 31, 2021. The documentary evidence submitted was evaluated over a 6-month duration. The evaluation committee across 14 meetings assessed each document and was composed of representatives from 19 government departments and 29 Non-Government start up ecosystem stakeholders, for fair and transparent evaluation.
The participants were evaluated across 7 broad reform areas consisting of 26 action points ranging from Institutional support, Fostering innovation and Entrepreneurship, access to market, incubation support, Funding support and Mentorship support to capacity building of enablers.
