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J&K emerges as ‘top performer’ in supporting start-ups

In the ranking of “States’ exercise 2021 on Support to Start-Up Ecosystems”, the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has been declared as ‘top performer’ among all UTs and the North-Eastern States in its group.

Piyush Goel, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles announced the findings of the third edition of the ‘Ranking of states on support to Startup Ecosystems”. States and Union Territories were divided into five categories for the ranking process: Best Performers, Top Performers, Leaders, Aspiring Leaders, and Emerging Start-Up Ecosystems.

Meghalaya was declared as the best performer, followed by top performer Jammu and Kashmir, among UTs and North-Eastern States, including those States with less than one crore population.

After results were announced, Piyush Goyal said that the ONDC (Open Network for Digital Commerce) is capable enough to give rise to thousands of start-up companies. He said that the enormous success of UPI in India has helped to democratise the country’s payment system. Similarly, we will have ONDC democratise e-commerce in India over the next five years. As a result, we  will have thousands of companies worth $1 billion, as opposed to a handful of companies that are $100 billion or $1 trillion in size.

Goyal stressed that the Indian ecosystem may excel in its field and recommended that States coordinate with those that are close by in order to share knowledge and experience. Additionally, he requested that the government increase the number of Start-Ups on the Government e-Marketplace (GeM), noting that services had now been included on the GeM.

Goyal said that the Central and State Governments’ various start-up initiatives should be focused on creating a startup ecosystem in each district. He underlined the requirement to register and enrol more start-ups. In the same way that the Indian Premier League (IPL) democratised the cricket industry, he said, there was a big chance to democratise the Start-Up ecosystem.

To make starting a company and doing business easier across the nation, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has been conducting the States’ Start-up Ranking Exercise since 2018. With 31 participant States and Union Territories in this edition, the biggest number to date, the exercise’s influence has expanded over the course of its previous three iterations.  The State Start-up Ranking exercise was initiated in order to help States and Union territories build their start-up ecosystems and learn from each other’s best practises.

The latest edition of the States’ Startup Ranking Exercise’s evaluation period ran from October 1, 2019, to July 31, 2021. Over the span of six months, the provided documentary evidence was assessed. The review committee, which was made up of members from 29 non-governmental start-up ecosystem stakeholders and 19 government ministries, evaluated each document over the course of 14 sessions.

The participants were assessed based on their performance in 26 action points distributed over 7 key reform areas, including institutional assistance, fostering innovation and entrepreneurship, market access, incubation support, funding support, mentorship support, and enabling capacity building.