From just 400 registered startups in 2014 to 85,000 in 2022, India’s startup ecosystem has come a long way. It’s not even been a decade and India’s startup scene has come to the third spot globally after China and the US.
Needless to say, start-ups have been a boon to the Indian economy. Since start-ups are centres of novel innovations, they obviously generate jobs, which means more career opportunities; more employment leads to a stronger economy. When a start-up creates jobs for locals, they also invest in goods and services, which in return, increase the influx of cash and revenue to the government.
Many MNCs have their eyes on India. In order to focus on their core competencies, they are outsourcing their tasks to small businesses. For example, Accenture gave 1.35 million dollars worth of business to startups within the last year, giving startups an opportunity to make a significant impact on both the Indian and global markets. Figures show that Indian GDP is expected to grow by 6.9 % in the fiscal year ( FY) 2022-23 and 6.2 % in GY 2023-24. As we know GDP plays and important role in any country’s economy, If India keeps promoting and supporting more start up initiatives, it will become easier to increase revenue domestically.
In a recently concluded G20 Leader’s summit in early 2023, India heavily focussed on Digital India and Startups. India has been enjoying the G20 presidency since December 2022.
With its Startup-20 Engagement Group initiative, India aspires to create a global narrative for supporting startups and enabling synergies between startups, corporates, investors, innovation agencies and other key stakeholders.
In recent years, the Government of India has been actively engaging with Bhutan to connect the startup ecosystems of the two countries. The Indian Embassy had organized the first ever Bhutan-India Startup Summit on 28-29 February 2020 in Thimphu.
Flowing from the successful Startup Summit, there have been a number of collaborative initiatives including capacity building programmes for Bhutanese entrepreneurs as well as a feasibility study to establish an entrepreneurship development centre in Bhutan.
The Indian side is working on several more initiatives for collaboration between the Government of Karnataka and the Royal Government of Bhutan in the areas of Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, Machine Learning and Robotics, etc. India remains a steadfast development partner of Bhutan across all sectors including such new and emerging areas of startups and technology.
India’s increasing GDP will also directly impact Bhutan. The Indian government recently announced that it is going to help Bhutan build its third international gateway. India -Bhutan startup summits keep taking place from time to time, where startup enthusiasts are mentored by experts.
