India must nurture entrepreneurship in smaller cities: Piyush Goyal

Around 45 per cent Indian start-ups are from tier 2 and 3 cities and 623 districts have at least one recognised start-up.

Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on Friday called for more focus on nurturing entrepreneurships in tier 1 and 2 cities. He also urged start-ups to devise solutions for rural India. 

Around 45 per cent of start-ups in India are from tier 2 and 3 cities and 623 districts have at least one recognised start-up. 

From 2018 to 2021, almost 590,000 jobs have been created by start-ups, out of which 190,000 have been created in 2021 itself, according to government data.

The minister was speaking at the third meeting of the National Startup Advisory Council that was set up by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) in January 2020.

The council was set up to advise the government on measures needed to incentivise domestic capital for start-ups. These include mobilising global capital for Indian start-ups, keeping control of start-ups with original promoters and providing them access to global markets, among others.

Goyal also called upon start-ups to explore areas in rural tourism such as agri-stays, hotels and homestays towards creation of additional income for farmers. 

“He also asked successful start-ups to focus on the rural economy and work on solutions such as drip irrigation and natural farming to improve the lives of farmers,” an official statement stated. There is also a need to encourage the flow of domestic capital in our start-ups, Goyal said.

The meeting was attended by industry leaders such as Debjani Ghosh from Nasscom, Manoj Kohli of SoftBank India, Rajan Anandan of Sequoia Capital and Sivasubramanian Ramann, chairman and managing director, SIDBI, among others. 

Senior government officials from the finance ministry, department of science and technology, ministry of labour and employment and key stakeholders of the start-up ecosystem were also present.