Thiruvananthapuram: Gujarat, Kerala and Karnataka have emerged as the best-performing States in developing startup ecosystems for budding entrepreneurs, according to the ranking of States and Union Territories (UTs) by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).
Union Commerce Minister Shri Piyush Goyal announced this in New Delhi today while revealing the entire list of rankings on the occasion of National Startup Day.
The ‘Best Performer’ is the top most startup ranking level, followed by the ‘Top Performer’ title, which was also won by Kerala earlier for the last three years for providing institutional support to startups, students and women entrepreneurs, besides providing nascent companies enormous opportunities to interact with investors through programmes such as IGNITE. The state’s efforts to encourage startups involved in bringing about ambitious changes in the rural sector also enabled the southern state to win the laurel.
The areas where Kerala emerged as the national topper were resource development, investment leadership, procurement leadership, sustainable development, incubation, mentorship services, innovation and best institution.
Of the 5,000 startups registered under KSUM, 250 have entered the market. More than 100 of them are run by women entrepreneurs. The state has 50 incubators across its 14 districts. KSUM holds five awareness programmes annually for the state’s government employees and 15-plus projects to mobilise investments.
Kerala has more than 40 startups engaged in renewable energy, eco-sustainability, climate change and rural development.
KSUM, which was established in 2006 under the Kerala government, works for entrepreneurship development and incubation activities in the state.