Startups in India have grown by 300 times in the last nine years, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said on Monday while speaking at a function at which the “National Innovation Awards” were presented to “Grassroot Innovators” by President Droupadi Murmu.

The minister said that there were just around 350 startups before 2014, but after Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave a clarion call from the ramparts of the Red Fort in his Independence Day address and rolled out a special StartUp scheme in 2016, there has been a quantum jump in StartUps to more than 90,000 with more than 100 Unicorns.

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He further added that simultaneously Prime Minister Modi opened up the space sector for private participation leading to more than 100 StartUps in the space sector within just about three years. Similarly, Biotech StartUps went up from around 50 to nearly 6,000, he said.

The minister said India had no dearth of talent, capability, innovation and creativity in the youth, but they were lacking a favourable milieu and proper patronage from the political leadership which was provided by Prime Minister Modi. ”It is now evident that we have so much innovative talent even in our rural youth and there is no linkage between formal education degree and innovation capabilities which is evident from the awards given today,” he said.

Jitendra Singh added that this issue was also sought to be addressed by the PM by bringing in the National Education Policy 2020 which gave emphasis to skill and not only to academic degrees and prepared an individual for earning livelihood according to his/her aptitude and skill.

The minister mentioned that the nature of the awards given today and the profile of the awardees proved that a large number of “Grassroot Innovators” were available in India who might not have a very high formal education but who were capable of creating success stories and also generating attractive means of livelihoods for themselves.