States’ Startup Ranking 2018: Gujarat Ranked Best Performer
Sanjay Trivedi
Business, Economy, India Subcontinent, News, South East Asia, World News
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- The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) announced results of thefirst ever States’ Start-up Ranking 2018 at an event in New Delhi today. DIPP began this exercise from January, 2016.
- States have been identified as leaders across various categories such as Start-up policy leaders, incubation hubs, seeding innovation, scaling innovation, regulatory change champions, procurement leaders, communication champions, North-Eastern leader, and hill state leader.
- On the basis of performance in these categories, the States have been recognised as the Best Performer, Top Performers, Leaders, Aspiring Leaders, Emerging States and Beginners, as follows:
- Best Performer
- Gujarat
- Top Performers
- Karnataka, Kerala, Odisha, and Rajasthan
- Leaders
- Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Telangana
- Aspiring Leaders
- Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal
- Emerging States
- Assam, Delhi, Goa, Jammu & Kashmir, Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, and Uttarakhand
- Beginners
- Chandigarh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Puducherry, Sikkim, and Tripura
- Fifty-one officers from States and Union Territories have been identified as “Champions”, who have made significant contributions towards developing their State’s Start-up ecosystem.
- The key objective of the exercise was to encourage States and Union Territories to take proactive steps towards strengthening the Start-upecosystems in their states. The methodology has been aimed at creating a healthy competition among States to further learn, share and adopt good practices.
- The entire exercise was conducted for capacity development and to further the spirit of cooperative federalism. Awareness workshops in all States, knowledge workshops in leading incubators, pairing of States for intensive mentoring, international exposure visits to US and Israel and intensive engagement between the States with Start-up India team, and video conferencing have helped many States initiate effective measures to support Start-ups.
- DIPP consulted all stakeholders of the Start-up ecosystem and came up with 7 key reform areas as the basis of the States’ Start-upranking framework.An online portal was launched, which was instrumental in enabling States seamlessly submit their initiatives across these reform areas.
- A total of 27 States and 3 Union Territories participated in the exercise. Evaluation committee comprising independent experts from the Start-up ecosystem assessed the responses across various parameters. Many parameters involved getting feedback from beneficiaries. More than 40,000 calls were made in 9 different languages to connect with beneficiaries to get a real pulse at the implementation levels.
- A comprehensive National Report on the States’ Start-up Ranking 2018 was also released at the event today, detailing the journey of Start-up India, role of Central and State Governments, conceptualisation of the ranking framework, evaluation methodology, capacity development of States, assessment process, feedback from stakeholders, and the results of the exercise along with the impact it created on the states and the future road map.
- The Secretary DIPP, Ramesh Abhishek, speaking on this occasion, said that start-ups are very important for the country as they create jobs and India resides in its states and start-ups with their innovative ideas will be able to solve social, agricultural and service sector problems of the country.
- He further added that the ranking exercise has been an extremely enriching and educating experience for all the participants and has demonstrated the huge impact that can be made when Centre and States work together as Team India. These results are as much a recognition of the leading states as they are a celebration of efforts made by all the states for helping innovation and entrepreneurship across the length and breadth of the country
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- Gujarat has added one more feather to its cap under the leadership of the dynamic Chief Minister Mr. Vijay Rupani. Gujarat has earned the “BEST PERFORMER” in States Start-up Ranking with a score of 100 percentile in the newly launched State Start-up Rankings 2018 assessment held by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP). DIPP conducted the study to assess States and Union Territories on key areas of interventions that are fundamental to a healthy Start-up ecosystem. The aim of the rankings is to help bring notice to the progress that various States have made for promoting Start-ups, and at the same time foster a spirit of competition between the States.
- Gujarat’s reputation as a fast growing hub for technology & services-based Start-ups reflects in the new rankings that were published today. The Government of Gujarat has taken proactive steps in key areas such as incubation support, seed funding support, simplified regulations, and easing public procurement. Gujarat also scored exceedingly well on the awareness and outreach parameters, an example of which is the Vibrant Gujarat Start-Up and Technology Summit organized earlier this year. The Government currently supports 196 start-ups and provided incentives in form of sustenance allowance, product development assistance and marketing assistance. The Government of Gujarat has also recognised 34 nodal institutes for supporting start-ups. Apart from offering assistance, the Government of Gujarat also gives preference to Start-ups in public procurement.
- Gujarat has been particularly recognized for seed funding support, policy formulation and implementation, incubation hubs, outreach events of national and international level, venture funding, public procurement etc. Chief Minister of Gujarat, Mr. Vijay Rupani said, “It is the youth that will find the solutions for our development goals through innovative ideas and thinking. The Gujarat State Government currently supports 184 startups and we aim to support up to 2,000 start-ups at the cost of Rs. 7,000 by the 2021.”
- Mr. M K Das, Principal Secretary, Industries and Mines Department, said , “The Government of Gujarat is committed to the start-up ecosystem to drive Gujarat and the nation’s growth. Gujarat has been able to achieve this feat thanks to the entrepreneurial spirit of Gujarat catalysed by the proactive approach & conducive policies from the government. This recognition gives us encouragement to go a step further and expand the start-up ecosystem in the state”.
- Industries Commissioner, Mrs. Mamta Verma said, “It has been a learning experience for all the stakeholders. The reforms suggested by DIPP were very practical & constructive, and have definitely added to the momentum for further evolution of Start-up ecosystem in Gujarat & the nation as a whole.” With the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit fast approaching, it is no wonder that the organisers have identified Innovation, Entrepreneurship and the Youth as key areas of focus for the 9th edition of the Summit.
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