JK emerges as top performer in start-up ecosystem among UTs, NE states

Srinagar, Jul 8: Jammu and Kashmir has emerged as top performer among all the UTs and the North-Eastern States in the ranking of States’ Exercise-2021 on Support to Start-Up Ecosystems.
This was revealed in the results of the third edition of ‘Ranking of States on Support to Startup Ecosystems’ released by Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Piyush Goel at the National Capital.
According to the report, States and Union Territories were classified into five categories, like- Best performers, Top performers, Leaders, Aspiring leaders and Emerging Start-Up Ecosystems.
The Jammu and Kashmir (UT) which has been clubbed with UTs and the North-Eastern States including those States having less than one crore population has emerged as top performer while Meghalaya is best performer.
The Jammu and Kashmir government released a thorough start-up policy in 2018 with the goal of supporting and nurturing the establishment of at least 500 new start-ups in J&K over the course of the following ten years. In the past few years, 84 start-ups have been established in J&K.
The rankings are based on the initiatives taken to develop the start-up ecosystem for promoting budding entrepreneurs.
The exercise is aimed at supporting states and Union territories (UTs) in developing their start-up ecosystem and learning from each other’s best practices.
A total of 24 states and 7 UTs participated in the exercise, which ranked them under five categories – best performers, top performers, leaders, aspiring leaders and emerging start-up ecosystems.
The states and UTs were also ranked under these five categories based on the population of less than one crore.
Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana and Jammu and Kashmir were categorised as the top performers. Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, and Goa are in the leaders category.
States and UTs in the aspiring leaders’ category include Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chandigarh, Puducherry and Nagaland.
According to the ranking, the emerging start-up ecosystems category includes Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Mizoram and Ladakh.
They were evaluated across seven reform areas consisting of 26 action points, ranging from institutional support, fostering innovation, access to market, incubation and funding support.
Speaking after declaring the awards, Piyush Goyal said that Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) had the power to spawn thousands of start-ups.
“The huge success that UPI has been in India, which has democratised the payment system in India. In the next 5 years, we will have ONDC democratize e-commerce across India. So much so that we will have a few thousand start-ups may be more and a few hundred unicorns. Rather than three companies being 100 billion or one trillion size, you will have a thousand companies each of a billion-dollar. That is what ONDC has the power to do,” the Union Minister said.
Anurag Jain, Secretary, DPIIT said that a number of initiatives of the government including JAM (Jandhan, Aadhar, Mobile), Digital India, Gatishakti, Ease of Doing Business were driving the start-up ecosystem across India. “If the Start-up system has to grow further, the biggest role has to be played by States. We can play a facilitative role,” he said.
Jammu and Kashmir administration is working to encourage start-ups and foster innovation thereby creating job opportunities in abundance besides raising economic graph of the Union Territory.
Endeavouring to accomplish this stupendous task, J&K government is focusing on sectors such as food processing, agriculture, renewable energy, handicrafts and handloom by vigorously promoting start-ups in these vital sectors.
Terming start-ups as game changer towards economic growth, Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha said that the government is determined to provide incubation and seed funding support to brilliant ideas and solutions. “Our aim is to build a strong ecosystem for nurturing innovation and start-ups in J&K and the synergies between industrial and academic establishments will encourage and empower young innovators and boost private investment in start-ups”, the Lt. Governor observed.