Startup Rankings: Gujarat, Karnataka, Meghalaya best performers

Gujarat and Karnataka have emerged as the best performers in the third edition of States’ Startup Ranking 2021 released by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).

For the purposes of the ranking of states on support to startup ecosystems, states and Union Territories (UTs) were classified into five categories – best performers, top performers, leaders, aspiring leaders and emerging start-up ecosystems, the Ministry of Commerce & Industry said in a statement.

Also read: Bengaluru set to pip Shanghai in global startup ecosystem index: Report

Gujarat and Karnataka emerged as the best performers in a category of states which included NCT of Delhi while Meghalaya won the top honour among UTs and Northeastern (NE) states.

Kerala, Maharashtra, Orissa and Telangana got the top performers award among states while Jammu and Kashmir emerged as the top performer among UTs and NE states.

Assam, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, 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 the 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.

Also read: Niti Aayog proposes tax rebates for startups hiring more women, persons with disabilities

Andhra Pradesh and Bihar from the states category and Mizoram and Ladakh from the UTs/NE states were clubbed under the emerging Start-up Ecosystem.

Four states – West Bengal, Sikkim, Haryana and Jharkhand and UT Lakshadweep did not participate in the exercise.

Speaking after declaring the awards, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal 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, has democratised the payment system in India. In the next five years, we will have ONDC democratise e-commerce across India, so much so that we will have a few thousand start-ups may be and a few hundred unicorns. 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.

Emphasising that the 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.

Also read: Indian startups created value, wealth during pandemic: Modi in Mann ki Baat

Goyal suggested that there was a need to focus on developing a startup ecosystem in districts with help of all the startup-related schemes by the central and the state government. He emphasised the need to onboard and register more start-ups. He added that there was a great opportunity to democratise the start-up ecosystem in the same way as the Indian Premier League (IPL) democratised the cricket arena.

The 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 to 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 ministry said.

Also read: Rajiv Bajaj slams EV start-ups, blames them for recent fire incidents

The consideration period for the third edition of the States Startup Ranking Exercise was October 1, 2019, to July 31, 2021. The documentary evidence submitted was evaluated over a six-month duration.

The evaluation committee across 14 meetings assessed each document and was composed of representatives from 19 government departments and 29 non-government startup ecosystem stakeholders, for fair and transparent evaluation.

The participants were evaluated across seven broad reform areas consisting of 26 action points ranging from institutional support, fostering innovation and entrepreneurship, access to market, incubation support, funding support, mentorship support to capacity building of enablers. The exercise plays a crucial role in easing the business environment for start-ups in the country, the ministry said.

“The States Startup Ranking 2021 highlighted the support being extended by over 30 states and union territories through startup policies to the ecosystem. There were only 4 states with startup policies prior to 2016. The state startup teams have been extending support across mentorship, incubation and funding. Moreover, feedback was gathered from more than 7,000 beneficiaries through surveys made in 13 different languages to grasp the real situation at the execution level,” it added.