New Delhi, Jan 16 (FN Agency) The golden age for start-ups is just beginning and India is headed towards hitting a Unicorn century, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday following an interaction with start-ups. He announced that January 16 will be celebrated as “Start-Up Day” to take the start-up culture to far flung areas of the country. “Our start-ups are changing the rules of the game and, therefore, I believe start-ups are going to be the backbone of new India,” he said. Start-ups from various sectors such as agriculture, health, space, industry 4.0, security and FinTech were part of the virtual interaction with Modi. Modi said that as many as 42 start-ups had turned Unicorn (firms valued at $1 billion or more) last year and these companies worth thousands of crores were now a symbol of self-reliant and self-confident India. The Prime Minister’s interaction with start-ups ahead of the Union budget hints that more initiatives are in the pipeline to promote the new-age firms.
Urging the start-ups to make their dreams global and not just local, Modi offered a new mantra for grand success: ‘Let’s innovate for India, innovate from India’. He stated that investing in research and development related to future technology was the government’s priority. The Prime Minister said the current era was about innovation, industry and investment. He told start-ups that the wealth and jobs they create were for the betterment of the nation. He said that Indian start-ups were working with 55 separate industries and their number has increased from less than 500 five years ago to more than 60,000 today. Modi has been a great proponent of start-ups and recommends the youth to join the entrepreneurial bandwagon and contribute towards nation-building. India has been among the countries where the start-up ecosystem has been steadily growing. It has emerged as the third largest start-up ecosystem in the world after the US and China. The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on Friday said that more than 150 start-ups would participate in the Saturday meeting and make presentations. “The aim of the interaction is to understand how start-ups can contribute to the national needs by driving innovation in the country,” an official statement said.