PM Modi: Declares National Startup Day, calls startups backbone of new India 

In an interaction with more than 150 startups on Saturday, Prime Minister Modi announced January 16 as the ‘Startup Day’. If we want the culture of start-ups to reach the far-flung parts of the country then a startup day should be a priority, he pointed out in his speech. He asserted that startups are the hallmark of not just self-reliance but self-confidence too. So, the government plans to further nurture new brands in the coming days. 

According to PM Modi, it is startups that are going to be the backbone of new India. He is very sure that startups in India are going to be game-changing. He expressed his joy in his speech while congratulating the youth or startups that are raising the Indian flag on a world stage. In his speech, he spoke of the golden era that Indian startups are creating. Last year, India had 42 unicorns, startups companies that are valued above $1 billion. 

As of now, the nation has a total of 82 unicorns. The Prime Minister believes that this number will grow rapidly to a minimum of 100. For this reason, the government has decided to celebrate January 16 as the nation’s startup day. The Modi government’s announcement also came on the occasion when the ‘Startup India’ initiative has completed its six years of launch. 

PM Modi directed the video conferences that were a part of Startup India Innovation Week organized by the DPIIT or Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade. The Prime Minister spoke about the measure their administration has taken to boost start-up culture in the country. He highlighted the Startup India initiative is one of those measures. Other than Startup India, the government has arranged to fund, removed angel, tax, and just simplified the tax procedure. They have allowed self-certification of nine labor and three environment laws. On top of that, the government has also removed more than 25 thousand compliances.

The conference was attended by startups from diverse industries. Although the startups present in the conference were categorized under six major groups. Each group gave presentations to the Prime Minister on six themes. Themes like growing from roots, nudging the DNA, from local to global, technology of future, building champions in manufacturing, and lastly sustainable development. 

They discussed and shared ideas related to data collection mechanisms in agriculture. They talked about how they make India into a preferred agri-business hub. Next, they discussed ways of boosting healthcare including mental health through the use of technology. Tourism, ed-tech, space sector, job identification, and many more were topics they touched upon.