No data on startups' contribution to GDP, shutdowns due to COVID-19: Govt

New Delhi: Even as startups continue to emerge as one of the key factors to boost entrepreneurship, innovation, jobs, and investment in the country, their contribution to India’s gross domestic product (GDP) is yet to be recorded by the government. India is currently the third-largest startup ecosystem with 8900-9300 technology startups following the US and China, as per the Nasscom startup report 2019, however, “No data on contribution to GDP by startups is maintained by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal

Trade,” Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. The startup ecosystem is currently led by the likes of Paytm, Byju’s, OYO, Freshworks, Druva, Udaan etc. while the DPIIT has so far recognised 37,385 companies as startups under the Startup India programme.

In response to another question around the number of startups that have shut operations due to the Covid impact and the number of startups that are still operating though with the disruption caused due to the pandemic, the minister added that there is no such data maintained by the DPIIT for this as well. Similarly, the government data for MSMEs impacted due to the lockdown is perhaps not available even as the outbreak “has temporarily affected various sector including Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises,” said MoS Ministry of MSME Pratap Chandra Sarangi.

The minister was responding to a question in the Rajya Sabha on September 19, 2020, on whether enterprises have shut down during lockdown and how many have closed their operations completely and partially. However, MSMEs GDP share is nearly 29 per cent that the government is hoping to increase to 50 per cent in five years, as announced by MSME Nitin Gadkari on multiple public occasions.

However, Goyal shared the data around the number of jobs created by startups in response to the question on job generation by startups. According to the data shared, the number of jobs reported by DPIIT recognised startups increased from 49,648 in 2017 to 95,338 in 2018 and 1,54,558 in 2019. As of September 6, 2020, 4,22,986 jobs were reported by 34,267 startups with Maharashtra (80,714 jobs), Karnataka (71,533 jobs), Delhi (49,497 jobs), UP (33,803 jobs), and Haryana (29,770 jobs) were on top in job creation among other states.