#StartUpIndia - 10 reasons why India is already a startup nation

We all get ideas but only a few of us work hard to make it happen. A 'start-up' or a 'startup' does just that! The startups knowledge is not associated with money but with inquisitiveness to solve problems and pain points which will resolve the pain of a hundred others.

The foundation of startup lies in finding solutions and making an enterprise out of ideas. Startup founders are known for their risk taking abilities, adventurism and a problem solving attitude. New age startups are beyond apps and information communication technology. Well known Indian startups like Map My Genome, Practo and many others are making innovative breakthrough in the field of molecular biology and healthcare. Startups go viral in achieving social change.

It cannot be denied that we have a million problems, but we also have a billion minds and many more solutions. - PM Narendra Modi

India is already a breeding ground for startups. According to a Nasscom report, India is amongst the top five largest startup communities in the world. India has seen 4,200 startups come up in 2015 which resulted in 80,000 jobs. New jobs add to increased consumption that reflects a spike in India's GDP. India has already become a startup nation. In an event held at Vigyaan Bhavan,  New Delhi, the Department of Industrial Promotion and Policy launched 'Startup India - Standup India' campaign. Startup India is a flagship initiative of the Government of India intended to built a strong eco-system for nurturing innovation and startups across the country. 

10 reasons why India is already a startup nation

1. Startups means new businesses. During last year, 98,473 businesses were incorporated. India is known for large MSME (Micro/Small/Medium Enterprise) sector which has spread across many industries. App based IT startups are always in the news for series of seed funding. Startup India programme encourages startups in the field of agriculture, education, healthcare, etc. They are the expected to expand by handholding and incubation. India's angel investor have been investing in social startups like Arcatron and GingerMind etc. Relaxed RBI and SEBI norms mean great business for fintech startups.

2. The total funding by venture capitalists and banks in startups stand at $9 billion as on 2015, which is more than the combined GDP of Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur, Sikkim and Andaman & Nicobar. 

3. Flipkart is the most valued Indian startup. The valuation of flipkart is more than the GDP of 13 Indian states and union territories. Flipkart's Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal were named into Forbes billionaires list. Flipkart's Indian rival Snapdeal is valued more than Vedanta or GSK. Flipkart and Snapdeal are selling huge range of products including real estate, jewellery and automobiles. For delivery to the last person, these e-commerce giants have tied up with India Post.

4. India is home to 5.7% of the world's unicorn startups that are valued at over $1 billion. India's unicorn startups houses are Flipkart, Snapdeal, Ola, PayTM, Quickr, Mu Sigma and InMobi.

5. Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd has become the world's largest startup with the investment of Rs 1,50,000 crore before commercial launch. The telecom giant will be launching 4G service soon. Jio has also launched live TV, music streaming, cloud storage and payment services in digital app space. Home grown Patanjali Ayurvedic Ltd reached historic Rs 5,000 crore turnover in just 4 years since launch. Patanjali is the fastest growing FMCG company with turnover close to major brands like HUL, Colgate and Dabur.

6. In 2015 itself, 17 finance companies received funding of over $290 million; making this one of the most funded sectors of the year and also one showing great promise. With relaxed RBI guidelines in relation to payments bank, this is a new avenue for startups to innovate. 11 companies in the B2C commerce space received funding to the tune of $3.3 billion, which also means that over 33 per cent of the funding last year was in B2C companies and over 50 per cent of these were Unicorn startups.

7. In adherence to Startup India campaign, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan have come up with startup policies. Kerala has decided to invest one per cent of its budget for entrepreneurship. Various MBA colleges have started incubator programs in campuses. 4 more IITs will have research parks on the lines of IIT Bombay and IIT Madras. 

8. Startup Village in Kochi and Vizag plans to incubate more than 1,000 startups in next 10 years. The Startup Village angel fund of $10 million is approved by SEBI. Startup Village is also known for India's first 1TBPS high speed internet.

9. International acquisition were seen in last two years. Facebook acquired Little Eye Labs and Twitter acquired Bengaluru based Zipdial.

10. #StartUpBudget - FM announced StandUp India scheme for SC/ST entrepreneurs with Rs 500 crores corpus. Every banking branch in India have been mandated to at least fund 1 SC/ST entrepreneur or women entrepreneur. Income tax exemption for startups for its first three years of business operations was also announced.

The focus of the #StartUpIndia is to create an ecosystem to establish innovation based startups to increase employment opportunities and overall economic development. The StartUp India action plan showcases benefits such as single point of contact, easy clearances, app helping to register a company in a single day, three year income tax exemptions etc.

Failures are a stepping stone to success. Winding up a company would be possible in just 90 days. It will motivate aspiring entrepreneurs to take risk. Steps like Self Certified Clearance, No government inspection for 3 years, easy patent registration, and development of incubators would add impetus to entrepreneurship.

From red tape to red carpet, #StartUpIndia directly reflects in ease of doing business. TheIndianCapitalist.com is of view that by 2020, India may become the largest start-up ecosystem in the world. Startup India, Stand up India!

- Chaitanya Kulkarni ( twitter.com/chai2kul )