National Startup Awards 2022: How these states are steering the wheel of startup ecosystem in India

To encourage emerging companies, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) conducted state startup rankings. We aimed to identify the factors that contribute to the success of entrepreneurship and startups in various Indian states.

The Startup ecosystem is escalating with the expansion of infrastructure and entrepreneurship is encouraged to put Indian firms on the global map. To commemorate the states working extensively to add value to this movement, Startup India and the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) organized the fourth edition of the State Startup Rankings on National Startup Day, aiming to strengthen the collaborative efforts of States and Union Territories in developing comprehensive and flourishing startup ecosystems. The State Startup Ranking Framework 2022, a rigorous and results-driven strategy, evaluated responses from 33 states and Union Territories based on 25 action points such as institutional support, funding support and access to the market among others. 

On #NationalStartupDay2024, attended the National Startup Awards that is giving recognition to the immense talent of our budding entrepreneurs.



Also released the States' Startup Ranking that is enhancing the spirit of competitive & cooperative federalism, enabling startups to… pic.twitter.com/xEA19B4tuB

— Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) January 16, 2024

The states and UTs were further divided into two categories - Category A with a population of more than 1 cr and Category B with a population of less than 1 cr. Each state was ranked by the department and then those ranks were converted into percentiles and marked under five categories — Best Performer (states between 90-100 percentile), Top Performer (states between 70-89 percentile), Leader (states between 50-69 percentile), Aspiring Leader (states between 30-49 percentile), and Emerging Ecosystems (states below 30 percentile).

Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu were categorized under ‘Best Performer' in states with more than 1 cr of population and Himachal Pradesh was the lone winner from the states with less than 1 cr population. These are the leading states in the country with model State Startup ecosystems, setting a benchmark for other states to follow.

Shri Sanjiv, Joint Secretary, DPIIT championing the spirit of #NationalStartupDay2024 today at the National Startup Awards & State Startups’ Ranking ceremony at Bharat Mandapam.@DPIITGoI #IforInnovate #InnovationWeek2024 pic.twitter.com/CLutAGWEmz

— Startup India (@startupindia) January 16, 2024

The ‘Top Performer’ bracket saw Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Telangana and Punjab in Category A and Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya in Category B. States in these groups have shown significant growth in their respective startup ecosystems and have established initiatives to nature entrepreneurship. Speaking to Local Samosa, Dr. Omkar Rai, Executive Chairman of Startup Odisha - a model Nodal agency for building the startup and innovation ecosystem in the state under the MSME department, the government of Odisha said, “Startups such as Villa Mart and Bariflo in agri industry, and emerging firms like CureBay, EzeRx, Lark.ai and MedTel in the larger healthcare space, the drone sector featuring companies like IG Drones and Darubrahma while Innocule excels in specialty chemicals, iServeU in fintech, LectureNotes in education are majorly contributing to the startup ecosystem of Odisha.”

Many supporting factors from the government led to the growth of the startup ecosystem which includes the Odisha Startup Growth Fund (OSGF), a Funds-of-Funds model for startups with a budget allocation of INR 100 Cr and Developing holistic policies and schemes to develop entrepreneurs among SC/ST, differently abled persons, and women. “Odisha intends to be one of India's top three startup hubs, with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik anticipating a startup ecosystem of at least 5,000 startups by 2025,” says Dr. Omkar Rai.

Telangana also shared the spot with Odisha in the ‘Top Performer’ group due to infrastructure, tech-ecosystem and government support via policies like ‘Telangana Innovation Policy 2016’ which is a key driving factor for fostering the growth of the Startup ecosystem and culture in the State. Mahankali Srinivas Rao CEO of T-hub - an incubation centre that synergies startups, corporations, governments, academia and investors to drive transformative change told us, “In the inception stage, initiatives like the 'T-Seed Fund' and 'T-IDEA' offer crucial seed funding, while incubator expansion and T-Hub Catalyst strengthen support. 

Moving on from the category that has already established the initiatives for the support, the report mentioned the ‘Leader’ category which has been consistently working towards building an effective system. This list comprised Andhra Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Assam and Madhya Pradesh in Category A and Goa, Manipur and Tripura in Category B. The ‘Aspiring Leader’ category had Bihar and Haryana in Category A and Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Nagaland in Category B and the final Category saw Chattisgarh, Delhi, Jammu & Kashmir in Category for more than 1 cr and Chandigarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Ladakh, Mizoram, Puducherry and Sikkim in Category of less than 1 cr population. These startups are still on the path of the development stage and need some path-breaking strategies.

Mahankali Srinivas Rao suggests some future aspects for strengthening the startup ecosystem in India like the provision of informative virtual tours, walk-throughs or video manuals on the home page specific to the Startup portal for proper information dissemination, functionality of Chatbot for query or grievance and incubator related incentives in this digital era.

These initiatives encompass the establishment of a proactive mechanism offering holistic institutional support, and the formulation of inclusive policies fostering entrepreneurship among marginalized groups such as SC/ST, differently-abled individuals, women and any aspiring entrepreneur who would like to contribute to this thriving ecosystem.