India has recently developed a robust startup ecosystem which is a growing startup market because of its energetic young businesspeople and entrepreneurs. By incorporating cutting-edge technology in their products, the entire ecosystem is continually expanding and growing livelier. These startups are also engaged in rural sector and successfully solving daily life problems and contributing a lot in the development of the nation. They are working in almost every sector of the rural, and boosting the economy and also solving unemployment issue. Therefore, these startups are becoming increasingly popular, they still have significant obstacles to overcome from its establishment to working. The article highlights the problems and difficulties that startup ecosystem is facing in current scenario in the country with useful suggestions and recommendation for its economic and sustainable growth.
TopIntroduction
Entrepreneurship is establishing as a business or an organization by effectively organizing the three factors of production to deliver a unique and imaginative product to the market. Rural entrepreneurship assists a nation or region to achieve balanced regional development and aids in better resource utilization to boost the rural economy. Entrepreneurship is a sector with much potential to engage in many commercial, industrial, agricultural, and related activities that may significantly contribute to the country's economic progress (Patel and Chavda, 2013; Prabhakar et al., 2023). According to the World Bank, 70% of the workforce in India is employed in rural region, which also make up 25-30% of the country's GDP (The World Bank, 2021). Because of India's excellent startup system and potential to alter various industries, including the agri-sector, the government has chosen to become an investor in providing seed capital for younger entrants (Verma, 2022). India is preparing to digitally transform agriculture to boost agricultural revenues and productivity through technology and new business strategies. There are some problems when the productivity of agriculture is concerned as a majority of farmers who have modest land holdings; therefore, they need any financial help they can get to have extra money to put into their businesses (Tripathi and Agarwal, 2015; Priyanka and Kumar, 2016). Given these facts, it is evident how much it affects India's overall growth and requires the attention it greatly merits. Over the past twenty years, the Indian startup environment has seen rapid change. Even though several businesses formed earlier, the ecosystem was still in its infancy due to the small number of active investors and the dearth of support organizations like incubators and accelerators (Kshetri, 2011).
Since the prime minister first mentioned “Atmanirbhar Bharat” in 2014; it has fueled several national aspirations. The Atmanirbhar Bharat campaign inspired and motivated India, the third-largest startup ecosystem (Dubey and Dubey, 2020). There is a worldwide push to spur the growth and development of nations via inventions and creativity, and a healthy startup ecosystem leads to economic development and advancement within the territorial bounds of any country (Ghani et al., 2014). The entrepreneurial approach to rural development recognizes entrepreneurship as the driving force behind the economic expansion and growth; with it, other development-related variables will be recovered and frittered away. However, embracing entrepreneurship as a driving force for development won't result in rural development or the growth of rural businesses; instead, such an environment heavily depends on policies that support rural entrepreneurship (Saxena, 2012; Sharma, 2013). The conceptual framework around entrepreneurship and the implementation phase, in turn, determine the efficacy of such programs. The Indian startup ecosystem has been contributing to the well-being of our country by offering favorable returns and advantages in many forms (Chaudhari, 2021). According to one definition, a startup is a young firm that may be an entrepreneurial initiative or a new enterprise.
With more than 65,861 recognized firms as of March 14, 2022, India has overtaken the United States and China as the third-largest startup ecosystem in the world (Sarkar, 2021). India is one of the top five easiest countries to launch a new business, as per the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2021/2022 study released at the Dubai Expo. According to a poll of respondents from India who asked about their entrepreneurial activity, attitudes toward business, and perceptions of their local entrepreneurial ecosystem, 82% of them believe it is simple to launch a firm, ranking India fourth internationally (GEM, 2022). There are more than 100 unicorns in the nation, 42 of which were only produced last year by persons aged 18 to 64 starting or operating a new firm. Thus, After the US and China added 487 and 301 unicorns in 2021, India surpassed the UK to have the third-highest unicorn population (Kalra, 2022; Holla, 2022). According to the Economic Survey, India reportedly had 83 unicorns as of January 2022, valued at $277.77 billions. These figures make it clear how much it impacts India's overall growth and calls for the attention it so rightfully deserves (Tejaswi, 2022).