Govt Job Mindset An Impediment To Startup Culture: MoS Jitendra Singh

Minister of State (MoS) for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh on Friday (September 30) said that predisposition towards government jobs is proving to be an impediment to the startup culture in northern India.

He made the comments while inaugurating a Startup Expo in Jammu targeted largely at areas such as agriculture, dairy, pharmaceuticals, information technology and communications.

The MoS said that the startup culture is yet to catch the imagination of youngsters in some north Indian states, and added that south Indian states have taken a lead in creating a chain of globally recognised startups. 

The minister also said that many youngsters are realising the possibility of ‘greater fortunes’ in the world of entrepreneurship and are quitting their lucrative jobs in multinational companies (MNCs) to establish their own startups. 

Touting the government’s ‘Startup India’ scheme, Singh said that the number of startups in India has soared from a mere 350 in 2014 to more than 77,000 in 2022, with more than 100 unicorns.

Lauding startup hubs such as Bengaluru and Chennai, he said that innovators, incubators, and entrepreneurs are making a global mark in areas such as 5G, artificial intelligence, drones, semiconductors, blockchain, green energy, and space economy.

Noting the paucity of awareness in the northern parts of the country, Singh said that citizens are not availing benefits of government schemes focused on startups owing to lack of information. 

Calling startups a big focus of the government, the minister said that a new wave of agritech startups has emerged in the country in the past few years. He further said that these new-age startups are solving problems related to market access, supply chain management, seed management, among others. 

Singh also drew attention to ‘Kisan Drones’, which he said can be leveraged and adopted in a big way to promote crop assessment and digitisation of land records.

Last week, MoS for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that the government is looking at aiding bootstrapped startups via policy decisions and through infusion of capital.

Besides, the government has also announced plans to support more than 10,000 startups in the next five to six years under its GENESIS (Gen-Next Support for Innovative Startups) initiative. 

Meanwhile, the current macroeconomic climate and market volatility have played a spoilsport for the ecosystem as startups have struggled to raise money and investors are wary of investing.

According to Inc42, Indian startups raised $1.1 Bn in funding in August this year, down 73% compared to $4.1 Bn during the same period last year. India is currently home to 107 unicorns.