NEWS – 4^th states’ Start-up Ranking a yearly capacity building exercise by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) released

HIGHLIGHTS

• Started in 2018
• Karnataka has emerged as one of the best performers – for fourth consecutive year
• The other best performers include Gujarat, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu.
• Exercise was launched in 2018 – announced by Commerce & Industry Ministry – assesses the performance of States and Union Territories across seven reform areas divided into 25 action points
• Seven reform areas include institutional support, fostering innovation and entrepreneurship, access to market, incubation and mentorship support, funding support, capacity building of enablers and roadmap to sustainable future
• The ‘best performer’ title is awarded to States and Union Territories with model State start-up ecosystems that could be benchmark for other States to follow
• Bengaluru adorns the title of ‘India’s start-up capital’
• The Karnataka government has also introduced schemes like the ELEVATE programme which offers up to ₹50 lakh for innovative early stage start-ups for no equity in return and the ELEVATE – Unnati programme for start-ups with founders from SC/ST communities. The government also recently introduced preferential market access for start-ups registered in the State