Indian Start-up Community Should Foster 75 More Unicorns in 2022, says Union Commerce & Industry Minister
Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Monday that the startup community should foster 75 more unicorns in 2022, as funding for Indian startups continues to flow at a quick pace and more new-age enterprises attain a $1 billion value.
Goyal said during the Startup India Innovation Week's opening ceremony that the nation now boasts roughly 82 unicorns, with more than half of them exceeding the $1 billion valuation level last year.
The minister noted that startups can assist provide healthcare to rural places as well as help India reach the government's aim of self-sufficiency, said, "let's target to nurture additional 75 unicorns in this year."
He said, "Successful companies should make a point of interacting with entrepreneurs and startups in smaller towns and villages." In addition, businesses should attempt to serve new and untapped markets around the country, such as rural tourism.
The Commerce Minister noted the importance of startups and their development in the face of the epidemic, saying, "our startups have turned Covid-19 into an opportunity from a crisis."
As the world continues to be hit by pandemic waves, Goyal believes that Indian entrepreneurs should focus on making startups more resilient and on making the entire world healthier.
He further said, "I think our startups can play a very important role to democratise the availability of healthcare across the world for the rich and poor, for lesser privileged countries, less developed countries... as much as for the developed world."
The minister also stated that startups were a major contributor in India's leap from 76 in 2014 to 46 in 2021 in the global innovation index. He added, "we have broken into the ranks of top 50, but I think we should now all collectively aspire to breach the top 25 ranks in the global innovation index and I will seek your cooperation and support to make this happen.”
He outlined legislative initiatives to foster entrepreneurship and the startup environment, stating that patent registration fees have been dropped to 20% of what they were previously, and that the government has also provided a 50% discount on trademark filing fees, as well as tax benefits and other perks.
In the previous four years, he claims, a better intellectual property rights (IPR) regime has resulted in the registration of nearly 1 million trademarks. He underlined, "I would urge more and more startups to look at the intellectual property rights that they are creating as an important element of their value proposition."
Goyal claimed that the much-anticipated Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) digital strategy, which will be unveiled on January 14th at this weeklong event, will bridge the gap between global ecommerce behemoths with "huge financial muscle strength" and rising domestic digital commerce companies.
On January 13th, as part of Startup India Innovation Week, the Minister of Commerce and Industry will host a roundtable of global venture capital (VC) funds. Domestic VC funds will also be represented in the roundtable.
Goyal said during the Startup India Innovation Week's opening ceremony that the nation now boasts roughly 82 unicorns, with more than half of them exceeding the $1 billion valuation level last year.
The minister noted that startups can assist provide healthcare to rural places as well as help India reach the government's aim of self-sufficiency, said, "let's target to nurture additional 75 unicorns in this year."
He said, "Successful companies should make a point of interacting with entrepreneurs and startups in smaller towns and villages." In addition, businesses should attempt to serve new and untapped markets around the country, such as rural tourism.
The Commerce Minister noted the importance of startups and their development in the face of the epidemic, saying, "our startups have turned Covid-19 into an opportunity from a crisis."
As the world continues to be hit by pandemic waves, Goyal believes that Indian entrepreneurs should focus on making startups more resilient and on making the entire world healthier.
He further said, "I think our startups can play a very important role to democratise the availability of healthcare across the world for the rich and poor, for lesser privileged countries, less developed countries... as much as for the developed world."
The minister also stated that startups were a major contributor in India's leap from 76 in 2014 to 46 in 2021 in the global innovation index. He added, "we have broken into the ranks of top 50, but I think we should now all collectively aspire to breach the top 25 ranks in the global innovation index and I will seek your cooperation and support to make this happen.”
He outlined legislative initiatives to foster entrepreneurship and the startup environment, stating that patent registration fees have been dropped to 20% of what they were previously, and that the government has also provided a 50% discount on trademark filing fees, as well as tax benefits and other perks.
In the previous four years, he claims, a better intellectual property rights (IPR) regime has resulted in the registration of nearly 1 million trademarks. He underlined, "I would urge more and more startups to look at the intellectual property rights that they are creating as an important element of their value proposition."
Goyal claimed that the much-anticipated Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) digital strategy, which will be unveiled on January 14th at this weeklong event, will bridge the gap between global ecommerce behemoths with "huge financial muscle strength" and rising domestic digital commerce companies.
On January 13th, as part of Startup India Innovation Week, the Minister of Commerce and Industry will host a roundtable of global venture capital (VC) funds. Domestic VC funds will also be represented in the roundtable.
