Gujarat, Karnataka top in supporting starts-ups, says Centre

Gujarat and Karnataka have been ranked as the 'best performers' in the ranking of ‘states exercise 2021 on support to start-up ecosystems', while Meghalaya has been adjudged as the 'best performer' among UTs and north-eastern states. Kerala, Maharashtra, Orissa and Telangana have got the 'top performers' award among states, while Jammu & Kashmir emerged as the 'top performer' among UTs and the NE states.

Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal, who released the report today, says 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 democratise e-commerce across India. So much so that we will have a few thousand start-ups may be more and a few hundred unicorns. Rather than three companies being 100 billion or one trillion sizes, you will have a thousand companies each of a billion-dollar. That is what ONDC has the power to do,” says the minister.

Goyal adds that states could align with neighbouring ones to learn from each other. He 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 says the need is to focus on developing a start-up ecosystem in districts, with help of all the start-up-related schemes by the central and the states. He says India needs to onboard and register more start-ups. There is an opportunity to democratise the start-up ecosystem in the same way "as the Indian Premier League (IPL)" democratised the cricket arena, he adds.

Assam, Punjab, Tamil Nādu, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh were adjudged the winners in the 'leaders category' among states. Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh and Goa bagged the leaders' honour among the UTs and NE states. Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan were declared as aspiring leaders among states. Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli & Daman and Diu, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland, Puducherry and Tripura were the 'aspiring leaders' from the UTs and NE states. Andhra Pradesh and Bihar among states and Mizoram and Ladakh among the UTs/NE states were clubbed under the emerging start-up ecosystem.

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 ranking supports states and union territories in developing their start-up ecosystem.

The consideration period for the third edition of the states’ startup ranking exercise was October 1, 2019, to July 31, 2021. States and UTs were evaluated across 7 broad reform areas and 26 action points ranging from institutional support, fostering innovation and entrepreneurship, access to market, incubation, funding, and mentorship support to capacity building of enablers.