Facilitate 75 startups to become unicorns by next Independence Day: Piyush Goyal to startup council
Premium- Goyal said NSAC’s aim must be to make startups grow beyond India’s geographical boundaries and create global impact
Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on Monday urged the National Startup Advisory Council (NSAC) to facilitate 75 startups to become unicorns by the next Independence Day.
Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) in January had constituted the Council to drive sustainable economic growth and generate large scale employment opportunities by promoting and supporting startup ecosystem. The meeting was attended by M.R. Kumar, Chairman, LIC; R.S. Sharma, CEO, National Health Authority; Rajan Anandan, Managing Director, Sequoia Capital; Ritesh Agarwal, Founder, OYO Rooms; Manoj Kohli, Country Head, Softbank India; Abhiraj Bhal, Co-founder, UrbanCompany; Kunal Bahl, Co-founder, Snapdeal; Vineet Aggarwal, President, ASSOCHAM; Sanjeev Bhikchandani, Co-founder, InfoEdge; Mohandas Pai, Co-founder & Chairman, Aarin Capital; Prashant Prakash, Partner, Accel Partners; Anjali Bansal, Founder, Avaana Capital; Sharad Sharma, Founder, iSpirt; and Debjani Ghosh, President, NASSCOM.
While addressing the council, Goyal said NSAC’s aim must be to make startups grow beyond India’s geographical boundaries and create global impact. “Our startup ecosystem has the potential & promise to make India the innovation and invention hub of the world and NSAC has been working tirelessly to pave the way forward for budding Startup Entrepreneurs in India. NSAC will nurture startups to aim for higher competitiveness and make India the startup capital," he added.
Prime minister Narendra Modi speaking at an industry event last week said India now has about 60 unicorns out of which 21 unicorns were added to the list only in last few months. Despite a harsh pandemic, the ambitions of our startups are at the zenith. The record listing of Indian startups is the beginning of a new era for the Indian market. This is proof of the fact that India has unlimited growth opportunities," he added.
Goyal said said with the new National Education Policy, schools will now sow the seeds of startup ideas at a young age. “I want to see new startups emerge across India especially in Tier II & Tier III cities. This will catalyze employment generation; and strengthen forward and backward linkages," he added.
Goyal said that government is committed to cut red tape, improve ease of doing business, provide financial assistance through startup seed fund, support incubators and tinkering labs for startups to realize their potential.
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