The Government with an intent to build a strong ecosystem for nurturing innovation, startups and encouraging investments in startup ecosystem of the country launched the Startup India initiative on 16th January 2016.

For attaining specific objectives, various programs are implemented by the Government under the said initiative. Sustained efforts by the Government have led to an increase in the number of Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) recognised startups to 1, 17,254 as on 31st December 2023. These recognised startups are reported to have created over 12.42 lakh direct jobs creating significant economic impact. There is at least one recognised startup in every State and Union Territory (UT) spread across over 80% of the districts across the nation.

Specifically for the last five years viz. 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023, the State/UT-wise number of DPIIT recognised startups and number of direct jobs created by DPIIT recognised startups are placed as Annexure-I and Annexure-II respectively.

Since the launch of the Startup India initiative in 2016 by the Government, 55,816 DPIIT recognised startups have at least one-woman director as on 31st December 2023.