Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal on Saturday urged start-ups throughout the country to support goods and solutions with a wider social and economic effect and to foster businesses in every district.
“Today, India is rapidly moving towards hitting the century of unicorns. I believe the golden era of India’s start-ups is starting now,” Goyal said, quoting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s words at the National Startup Awards 2021’ wherein 46 startups along with one incubator and one accelerator were felicitated.
“PM has focused on three sutras (pillars) to strengthen innovation — liberating entrepreneurs from the web of Govt processes, creating an institutional mechanism to promote innovation and handholding young innovators and young enterprises,” the Minister said, pointing out focus areas to make India the best start-up ecosystem in the world. These are, according to Goyal, developing solutions and content in Indic languages, creating innovation zones at the level of the urban local bodies, adopting best practices from across the globe, and enhancing India’s global competitiveness.
For the ecosystem enablers categories, a total of 2177 applications were received from startups across 49 sub-sectors, as well as submissions from 53 incubators and 6 accelerators. There were 863 women-led start-ups, 414 Covid-19-fighting inventions, and 253 rural start-ups among the applications. Agriculture, animal husbandry, drinking water, education and skill development, energy, enterprise technology, environment, fintech, food processing, health & wellness, industry 4.0, security, space, and transport and travel were among the 15 sectors and 49 sub-sectors in which applications were received.
Six new categories were also created to celebrate remarkable startups that are making a positive impact on society. In addition, remarkable entrepreneurs inventing solutions to promote Indian languages and complement government efforts to battle the COVID-19 epidemic were acknowledged in the 2021 edition of the awards. All submissions were judged on six criteria: innovation, scalability, economic effect, social impact, environmental impact, and inclusivity and diversity.
Not only will the recognized entities profit in terms of being able to attract more business, funding, partnerships, and talent, but they will also be able to serve as role models for other organizations, inspiring them to be deliberate and responsible about their socioeconomic effect. The government will recognize the startup prize finalists in seven categories: investor connections, mentorship, government support, and more.
