Tamil Nadu climbed six places in the national ranking of state startup ecosystems released by the Centre’s department of industry and internal trade (DPIIT).
Tamil Nadu stood at the 11th spot, categorised among “leader” states in the state startup rankings 2021. In the previous ranking exercises (2019 and 2018), Tamil Nadu was at the bottom-most category, classified as an “emerging ecosystem” for startups.
‘Best performers’ and ‘top performers’ in developing startup ecosystems
Gujarat, Karnataka and Meghalaya were the ‘best performers’ in developing startup ecosystems for entrepreneurs in 2021, according to the rankings. Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana and Jammu and Kashmir were in the next category of ‘top performers’.
“With the numerous innovative measures taken by this government to develop the startup ecosystem in the state, I hope that the state can further improve its ranking to best performer category in the coming years,” chief minister M K Stalin said in a statement.
Tamil Nadu has shown remarkable performance
The report noted that Tamil Nadu has shown “remarkable performance” through the evaluation pillars of institutional support, fostering innovation and entrepreneurship and capacity building for enablers.
The setting up of Tamil Nadu startup and innovation mission (Tansim), an agency driving the state’s startup ecosystem, and launch of Tanseed to support startups with a seed grant of up to 10 lakh were mentioned as key initiatives.
The evaluation period for the current ranking was October 1, 2019, to July 31, 2021 with the state entrepreneurship bodies sending in documentation to support their work by July 31.
Over 50 changes for startups’ ease of doing biz, says Goyal
According to the DPIIT’s most recent ranking of states and UTs, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar are among the major states with emerging startup ecosystems.
The study looks at institutional support for startups, market access, incubation support, and funding support. In 2022, the framework was expanded to include three new areas: enabler capacity building, mentorship support, and fostering innovation and entrepreneurship. After the United States and China, India has the world’s third largest startup ecosystem. While releasing the latest report, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal stated that India should strive to be number one.
The government, has enacted 52 regulatory changes to support ease of doing business for startups and to facilitate their growth. “Indian startups have raised $42 billion in funding during the calendar year 2021, surpassing funding rose in any other calendar year previously. This momentum has continued forward in 2022, with startups raising over $11 billion in Q1 2022 itself,” he said.
The state specific reports for each of the 31 participating entities include a comprehensive analysis of the respective ecosystem and an overview of the strengths and priority areas for the future. Policy interventions have been high on the government’s agenda.
Karnataka was ranked best performer
Karnataka was ranked best performer for launching an engineering research and development policy to attract sector-focused incentives, and creating regulatory sandboxes for startups to avail exemption from state and municipal laws.
