Open Network for Digital Commerce a thousand unicorns, says Piyush Goyal
LUCKNOW, July 4 (The CONNECT) - Uttar Pradesh has emerged as a leader in developing startup ecosystem for budding entrepreneurs, according to the ranking of states and Union territories by the Department for promotion of industry and internal trade (DPIIT).
The States’ startup ranking 2021 was released by Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal in Delhi on Monday. A total of 24 states and 7 Union territories (UTs) participated in the exercise, which ranked them under five categories -- best performers, top performers, leaders, aspiring leaders and emerging startup ecosystems.
The state of Uttar Pradesh has moved up two categories — from ‘Emerging Startup Ecosystems’ last year to ‘Leaders’ — in the ranking now.
Owing to the sustained efforts of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in reinstating a strict law and order system across the state and establishing a safe environment, along with several initiatives taken by the state government to develop the startup ecosystem for promoting budding entrepreneurs, Uttar Pradesh has achieved the milestone and has fared better than at least 15 States/UTs.
Numerous efforts of the Uttar Pradesh government such as organization of special job fairs, provision of employment and self-employment opportunities to the youth in the state through various schemes such as the ODOP, provision of financial assistance to the youth, development of infrastructure, enabling investment in the state has resulted in progress of the state to becoming one of the best states in the country in developing startup ecosystem for upcoming entrepreneurs.
Gujarat and Karnataka emerged as the Best Performers in a category of States which included NCT of Delhi. Meghalaya won the top honours among UTs and North-eastern (NE) States. While Kerala, Maharashtra, Orissa and Telangana got the Top Performers award among states, Jammu & Kashmir emerged as the Top Performer among UTs and NE states.
Assam, Punjab, Tamil Nādu, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh were adjudged the winners in the Leaders category among states; Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh and Goa bagged the Leaders honour among the UTs and NE states. Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan were declared as Aspiring Leaders among the States. Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli & Daman and Diu, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland, Puducherry and Tripura were the Aspiring Leaders from the UTs and NE states. Andhra Pradesh and Bihar from States category and Mizoram and Ladakh from the UTs/NE States were clubbed under the Emerging Start-up Ecosystem.
Speaking after declaring the awards, Piyush Goyal said that ONDC (Open Network for Digital Commerce) 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 the 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 Minister said.
