India celebrated the first-ever National Startup Day on 16th January 2022, with an aim to support the startup culture spread across India.
16th January 2022 also marks the 6th anniversary of the Startup India initiative.
Why January 16?
i.16th January was chosen to mark the anniversary of the launch of the Startup India initiative.
ii.The Startup India initiative was launched on 16th January 2016.
Background:
i.On 15th January 2022, As a part of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, a week-long event, “Celebrating Innovation Ecosystem”, Prime Minister(PM) Narendra Modi virtually interacted with around 150 startups across India.
ii.While interacting with the startups PM Modi declared the 16th January of every year as the National Startup Day.
iii.The interaction was aimed to understand how startups can contribute to national needs by driving innovation in the country.
About Startup India initiative:
i.Startup India Initiative has initiated several programmes with an aim to support entrepreneurs, build a robust startup ecosystem and transform India into a country of job creators instead of job seekers.
ii.The programmes are managed by the dedicated Startup India Team, which reports to DPIIT.
Key Points:
i.At present Indian Startups are working in 55 diverse industries and the total number of startups in India has become more than 60000.
ii.PM Modi also noted that around 42 unicorns have been made in India in the past 1 year.
He also stated that there is at least 1 startup in each of the 625 districts of India and more than half of the startups are from tier 2 and tier 3 cities.
iii.India have granted 28,000 patents in 2021 compared to 4,000 in 2013-14, while 2.5 lakh trademarks were registered in 2020-21 compared to 70,000 in 2013-14.
India’s ranking in the Global Innovation Index has moved up to 46 from 81.
