Indian Startup ecosystem has grown exponentially since its inception as it expanded from about 340 to more than 1,15,000 between 2016 and 2023 after the launch of the Startup India Initiative under the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) in 2016. It has witnessed a dynamic startup ecosystem encouraging the essence of entrepreneurship across different strategic sectors such as Defence, Space, etc while innovating new solutions to support India’s growth story over the years.

The Startup India initiative has set up a sturdy startup ecosystem with a promise to nurture innovation and make India a startup factory leading global entrepreneurial ecosystem. The underlying efforts are fuelling viable economic growth impacting employment growth opportunities at the mass level across the strategic sectors.

The well-crafted policies under various initiatives and programs for startups while promoting patent filing at a faster mode have led to a favorable environment to support innovation across strategically important sectors like Defence, Space, Education, Technology, Agriculture, and Healthcare, among many others. The demography of India in terms of its substantial population and diversity makes it the best catalyst in the market for creating innovations which are further fuelled through regular reforms in the policies that have helped in achieving a robust, viable, and continuously evolving startup ecosystem with a rapid growth of unicorns. across sectors.

India has the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem whereas it secured the top rank in quality scientific publications and ranks second in innovation quality among middle-income economies. Indian startups provide innovative solutions to the challenges faced by diverse sectors, winning the confidence of investors and industry alike at national and international levels.

This has attracted the interest of government, industry/ technology giants, and investors in supporting upcoming startups having promising and innovative spirits across strategic sectors to achieve unique solutions and prove to be a game-changer for India. This has played a vital role in crowning India as a global startup factory enabling easy and convenient access to government funds, rebates in taxation, and speeding up the patent registration process. This has laid down a strong foundation to nurture innovation in Indian entrepreneurial minds to support the vision of ‘Viksit Bharat.’