Delhi has over the years turned into India’s start-up capital, adding the most number of start-ups in 2021, the Economic Survey 2022 tabled in the parliament on Monday started. It also said that with these additions, Delhi has now replaced Bengaluru as India's start-up capital. Over 5,000 recognised start-ups were added in Delhi while 4,514 start-ups were added in Bengaluru between April 2019 to December 2021. However, with a total of 11,308, Maharashtra has the highest number of recognised start-ups.
India had a record-breaking year in terms of the number of unicorns added in 2021. The Economic Survey stated that India overtook UK to rake in third highest number of unicorns globally at 83 after US and China, which added 487 and 301 unicorns, respectively in 2021. As of January 14, 2022, India has 83 unicorns with a total valuation of $277.77 billion.
The government has also accelerated the process of registering the start-ups with the Inter Ministerial Board (IMB) under the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), with the government recognising over 14,000 new start-ups as compared to only 733 start-ups during 2016-17.
As a result, more than 61,400 start-ups have been recognised in India as of January 10, 2022. During 2021, 555 districts had atleast one new start-up. On the other hand, only 121 districts had atleast 1 new start-up in 2016-17, according to the Economic Survey.