Eight years of Startup India: Is it really a runaway success?
Startup India began on 16 January 2016, and by 2018, claimed itself as a huge success for having reached an arbitrary mark of 10,000 firms registered under it. But then, that was a public-relations byte. Eight years on, the jury is still out.
Yes, India has emerged as the world’s third largest ecosystem for startups—with over 112,000 of them across 763 districts recognized by the commere ministry’s department for promotion of industry and internal trade (DPIIT). In a country of 1.4 billion plus, however, an absolute number can’t be a success measure. Such an assessment of a startup ecosystem must take into consideration many facets.
As expectations go, a thriving startup eco-system should drive innovation, economic growth and job creation. To assess its health and success, several key metrics are commonly used that provide us insights into the vibrancy, sustainability and growth potential within the ecosystem. Here are some of the primary metrics that objectively measure success: First is the number of startups: The total count of new businesses is a basic metric.
A higher number typically indicates a more dynamic and vibrant ecosystem, so this data can serve a useful purpose. For some standardization to compare it with an ecosystem like Silicon Valley in the US, we should track properly defined startups as a proportion of total legacy enterprises. As Startup India has encouraged startup formation by providing support, mentorship and incentives for entrepreneurs to launch new businesses, thus complementing the Atal Innovation Mission designed to set up incubators and accelerators across the country, our ratio would have improved in recent years.
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