Delhi now becomes start-up capital of India, shows Economic Survey

New Delhi: Union government on Monday tabled the pre-Budget Economic Survey, it showed that Delhi had now replaced Bengaluru as the start-up capital of the country — noting that the Capital city had added more start-ups than Bengaluru in the last two years, prompting Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to hail this as a victory for his AAP-led government here.

Several reports suggested that this was in line with the listings on stock markets, including those of Zomato, Policybazaar, Delhivery and Oyo.

The Economic Survey revealed that more than 5,000 recognised startups were added in Delhi in the time between April 2019 and December 2021 — more than the 4,514 startups added in Bengaluru in the same time period.

The Survey considers start-ups registered under the Union government's Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).

Significantly, the Survey report also revealed that Maharashtra has the highest number of recognised start-ups at 11,308.

Sharing a link to a report of the Survey, Delhi CM Kejriwal said on Twitter, "Congrats Delhi for yet another achievement." Meanwhile, the Deputy Chief Minister, Manish Sisodia, who is also the Capital's Finance Minister, said, "Delhi became the start-up capital of the country. That is, Delhi is now at the forefront of the country in creating new jobs for the youth. If Arvind Kejriwal is there, then it is possible.The youth of Delhi is now becoming a job giver not a job seeker."

Sisodia has been leading the Delhi government's efforts to promote start-ups and entrepreneurship ventures by the youth by introducing a curriculum in Delhi government schools that give students the opportunities to implement their ideas. In addition to the EMC (entrepreneurship mindset curriculum), the Delhi government has also started a seed money project — giving capital to students' business ideas — already resulting in many students developing burgeoning businesses.

Among other findings published in the Survey, it said that India had created 44 unicorn start-ups (private companies with a valuation of more than a billion dollars) in 2021, which it said was far greater than previous years. As per this data, the Economic Survey noted that India was now just behind the United States of America and China in number of unicorns.

The US and China added 487 and 301 unicorns in 2021 respectively.

The 83 unicorns built in India over the years have a total valuation of around $277.7 billion, the survey said, adding that Indian start-ups had raised over $35 billion in funding last year.

"The number of patents filed in India has gone up from 39,400 in 2010-11 to 45,444 in 2016-17 to 58,502 in 2020-21 and the patents granted in India has gone up from 7,509 to 9,847 to 28,391 during the same time period," it added.

The survey stated that number of patents application are increasingly coming from Indian residents rather than MNCs. The share of Indian residents in total applications has increased from 20 per cent in 2010-11 to around 30 per cent in 2016-17 and 40 per cent in 2020-21.