8 years of Startup India: How PM Modi’s pet startup initiative performed so far

Jan 17, 2024 Abhishek Yadav

Launched on January 16, 2016, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Startup India initiative focused on building a strong ecosystem for nurturing innovation among startups and encouraging investments in the startup ecosystem of the country.

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Under the Startup India initiative, startups need to register with the Commerce Ministry’s Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) to access a host of tax benefits, easier compliance, IPR fast-tracking and more.

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As of January 16, over 1.18 lakh startups in India were registered with DPIIT and 2,977 received income tax exemptions.

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3,685 startups were funded under the SIDBI Fund of Funds scheme which was established in 2016 with a corpus of Rs 10,000 crore.

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Moreover, as per the annual review of the commerce ministry, more than 1.14 lakh startups created over 12 lakh jobs with an average of 11 jobs created by each recognised startup.

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Under its Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS) scheme, the government committed about Rs 10,229 crore to 129 Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs). A total of Rs 17,272 crore has been invested by the AIFs in 915 startups.

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Under the Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS), another flagship scheme of the Startup India programme, Rs 747 crore has been approved to 192 incubators who have put Rs 291 crore in 1,579 startups.

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Startups looking to register with DPIIT should be operational for not more than 10 years from the date of incorporation.

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Also, the company should be incorporated as a private limited company or a registered partnership firm or an LLP with an annual turnover not exceeding Rs 100 crore for any of the financial years since its Incorporation.

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Moreover, startups should not have been formed by splitting up or reconstructing an already existing business and should work towards the development or improvement of a product, process or service and/or have a scalable business model.

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