Three new tools for States and Union Territories for ranking of startups in the country was launched by Union Minister of Commerce and Industry at a function today in New Delhi. The tools are: the State and Union Territory Startup Ranking Framework, the Compendium of Good Practices for Promoting Startups in India and the Startup India Kit. These will act as catalysts to help the Startup India initiative to drive India’s economic growth. India is home to about 20,000 startups, with about 1,400 beginning operations every year. They are not only driving economic growth but also leading to technological innovations and employment generation in every state. Entrepreneurs are introducing new solutions everyday and also improving existing processes. To encourage and help statrups the Govt of India has taken the lead in creating policies and a framework. !8 States and UTs have a startup focussed environment with ease of doing business for startups.
The key objective of the Startup States and UTs Ranking Framework is to encourage States and UTs to take proactive steps towards strengthening the Startup ecosystems at the local level. The Ranking Framework will measure the impact of each step initiated at the local level for building a strong Startup ecosystem. The Ranking Framework will also enable contnuous learning through the dissemination of good practices. The Minister said that the Govt is aligning its strategies to tap into the infinite potential of young entrepreneurial minds.TheGovt wants to help them in the journey from idea to business and business to success. These policies will help states to take proactive steps to enable startup ecosystems at the local level. The State and UT Ranking Framework is based on the feedback collected from Startup ecosystem stakeholders, which include startups, mentors, investors, accelerators, incubators and the government bodies. Areas which should be given greater thrust like seed funding support, women entrepreneurship are given more score.
The parameters of this feedback focus on all the actions and initiatives undertaken by states on or before March 2018. These include having a startup cell or helpline and a mobile or web portal for queries, the size of the startup mentor network created by the state government and the number of key incubators for incubation support to startups. The Startup India Hub portal will provide a platform for the launch of the Ranking Framework. The official release of theStartup India Compendium of Good Practises for promoting Startups in India focuses on enriching the Startup ecosystem through ethical behaviours and is currently followed by 18 States and UTs. It covers 95 good practises across 7 areas of intervention. These are distilled into 38 action points including Incubation Support, Seed Funding, Angel & Venture Funding, Startup Policy & Implementation, Simplified Regulations, Easing Public Procurement, Awareness & Outreach. The Startup India Kit is primarily a one-stop guide on all Startup India offerings. It offers vital information, advice and assistance through website links, statistics, tools, templates, events, competitions and a glossary on startup terms. All the benefits available to startups from the Startup India initiative can be found in the kit.