New Delhi, Aug 12, 2022, By Special Correspondent

New Delhi, Aug 12: India ranks third globally in Start-Up ecosystem and also in terms of number of Unicorns, Science & Technology Minister Dr Jitendra Singh said Friday.

 

As per the latest data, there are currently 105 unicorns, out of which 44 were born in 2021 and 19 in 2022, he said while delivering the keynote address at “DST Start-Up Utsav” at Dr Ambedkar International Centre here.

 

The minister said the decade 2021-30 is expected to bring transformational changes for Indian Science, Technology and Innovation (STI).

 

Singh said under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India has increased the Gross Expenditure on R&D (GERD) more than three times in the last few years. 

 

He said as per latest data, India has over 5 lakh R&D personnel, reflecting a 40-50% increase over the last eight years.

 

Besides, in the last eight years, women's participation in extramural R&D has also doubled and now India occupies 3rd rank in terms of number of PhDs awarded in Science and Engineering (S&E) after the USA and China. 

 

With global powers shifting and technology becoming the epicentre of international engagements and rule-making, India under Modi is living up to global benchmarks, he said according to an official release.

 

Referring to Prime Minister Modi’s launch of Start-Up India from the ramparts of Red Fort in 2015, Singh said, India in its 75th year of Independence is now home to as many as 75,000 Start-Ups. 

 

He said the special focus on Science, Technology and Innovation has fired the imagination of the youth in the country to innovate and solve problems with new ideas. 

 

Singh pointed out that India’s startups today are not limited to only metros or big cities and added that 49 per cent of the start-ups are from tier-2 and tier-3 cities. 

 

He said, "We have startups emerging in the fields like IT, agriculture, aviation, education, energy, health and space sectors."

 

Singh released four publications featuring promising Start-Ups under various components of NIDHI, including flagship programme of Technology Business Incubator (TBI) and a coffee table book of 51 CAWACH funded start-ups.

 

He said India ranks third among the most attractive investment destinations for technology transactions in the world as it has a strong focus on science and technology. 

 

India is among the topmost countries in the world in the field of scientific research, positioned as one of the top five nations in the field for space exploration and also actively engaged in emerging technologies such as quantum technologies and artificial intelligence, he said.

 

Singh said that the Centre for Augmenting WAR with COVID-19 Health Crisis (CAWACH) programme carved out in a record time by DST just when Covid hit, was the first program by any department of Government of India to support Start-Ups working on Covid products and solutions.

 

Noting that overall impact and outcome of DST’s programme on innovation and entrepreneurship has been significant, he said it included promoting 160 incubators, nurturing 12,000 startups including 1627 women led startups and generating 1,31, 648 jobs.

 

Singh informed that India has created a massive jump in its global ranking of Global Innovation Index (GII) from 81st in the year 2015 to 46th in 2021 among 130 economies of the world. 

 

India ranks 2nd among 34 lower middle-income economies and 1st among 10 Central and Southern Asian economies in terms of GII. The consistent improvement in the GII ranking is because of the immense knowledge capital, the vibrant start-up ecosystem, and some outstanding work done by the public and private research organisations, the minister added.