Despite the Centre focusing on start-ups with a slew of announcements and tax breaks recently, the growth of start-ups is concentrated only to a few states, with Maharashtra leading the pack, and Karnataka and Delhi following suit, mainly on account of the support from state governments.
As informed by Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal on Wednesday in Lok Sabha, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has recognised 23,657 start-ups creating 2.58 lakh jobs as on December 4.
Of these, the highest number of start-ups were in Maharashtra — 4,443 DPIIT-recognised start-ups creating 52,847 jobs.
The state government took several initiatives in 2018, including the Maharashtra State Innovative Startup Policy, the Fintech Policy 2018, and the Maharashtra State Innovation Society, which helped it to promote entrepreneurs for business ideas in New Age sectors. It had recently sanctioned 16 start-up incubation centres with Rs 5 crore granted to each.
In 2018, Maharashtra saw the registration of around 2,787 start-ups; thus, reaching the top position ahead of Karnataka and Delhi. With the change in government, it is to be seen how the start-up policies take shape in the state in future.
Karnataka, with 3,444 DPIIT-recognised start-ups, created 46,462 jobs. Following suit was Delhi, with 3,001 start-ups creating 34,489 jobs. In Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, there were 3,261 start-ups with more than 39,600 people employed.
Sikkim and Daman & Diu were at the bottom with five start-ups employing less than 20 people, a statement released by the government revealed. However, commerce ministry officials say the actual number is much higher, if they take into account the start-ups that are not recognised by the Centre.
According to Nasscom’s report on start-ups last month, the number of jobs created by tech start-ups alone has grown from around 40,000 direct and around 1.6 lakh indirect jobs in 2018 to around 60,000 direct and about 1.8 lakh indirect jobs in 2019.