The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has awarded Gujarat as the best performer in State Startup India Ranking 2019. The western state occupied the top spot for the second year in a row. Karnataka and Kerala were named as the top performers in the list.
A proactive mechanism to identify regulatory issues from disruptive sectors and conceptualise iCreate, one of the largest start-up incubators in the country, and its 'Student Startup and Innovation' policy helped Gujarat top the list, according to a presentation released by DPIIT on Friday. Andaman & Nicobar bagged the top spot among Union Territories (UTs). A total of 22 states and three UTs participated in the exercise.
India has become the third-largest start-up ecosystem in the world with over 36,000 enterprises recognised under the Startup India initiative.
"I'm sure the announcements will go a long way in further promoting both by central government and states and UTs. It boosts the spirit of competitive federalism and encourages more collaboration among states, entrepreneurs and other stakeholders in the ecosystem," said Piyush Goyal, Minister of commerce, who released the results and the State Startup Ranking Report 2019 in New Delhi. "Indian industry, investors, high net-worth individuals (HNIs), mutual and pension funds should also consider in participating (through funding) in the exciting journey of Indian startups. The potential upside of ideas coming from startups more than compensate for a few investments which may not give the desired results."
The minister also pressed for three recommendations to focus on in order to promote Atmanirbar Bharat. Reimagining products through innovation and disruptive technologies, redesign and re-engineer processes that result in reforming regulatory and age-old practices and, lastly, work on people-centric ideas.
The States’ Startup Ranking Framework 2019 was compiled based on seven broad reform areas consisting of 30 action points ranging from institutional support, easing compliances, relaxation in public procurement norms, incubation support, seed funding support, venture funding support, and awareness and outreach.
An evaluation committee comprising of independent experts from the startup ecosystem carried out a detailed assessment of responses across various parameters. Many parameters involved getting feedback from beneficiaries which was gathered through more than 60,000 calls made in 11 different languages to empathetically connect with beneficiaries to ascertain the real pulse at the implementation levels.
In the last year's edition of the ranking, Gujarat emerged as the best performer in developing the startup ecosystem for budding entrepreneurs. Other top performers that followed the western state were Karnataka, Kerala, Odisha and Rajasthan.