National Startup Day
PM Narendra Modi calls startups "backbone" of new India, declares Jan 16 as 'National Startup Day'
The country will celebrate January 16 as National Startup Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told a virtual gathering of over 150 entrepreneurs on Saturday as he termed startups as the “ backbone “ of new India and the engine that will power the nation’s economic growth in the run up to the 100 th year of Independence.
The first is to liberate entrepreneurship and innovation from the web of government processes, bureaucratic silos. Second, is creating an institutional mechanism to promote innovation. And third, is handholding young innovators and young enterprises,” the Prime Minister said at the event, a part of the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav.
Pointing out that the number of startups in India had grown to over 60,000 from less than 500 just five years ago, Modi said these ventures are working across nearly 55 industry sectors and are “changing the rules of the game.”“I believe the golden era of India's startups is starting now,” the Prime Minister said as the country is “rapidly moving towards hitting a century of unicorns,” which are the hallmark of self-reliant and self-confident India.