The Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Piyush Goyal has called for greater focus on nurturing entrepreneurship in the Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities of India. He was delivering the Keynote Address at the 3rd Meeting of National Startup Advisory Council virtually.

It may be noted that 45% startups in India are from Tier 2 and 3 cities and 623 districts have at least 1 recognized startup. From 2018-21, almost 5.9 lakh jobs have been created by startups. In 2021 alone, almost 1.9 lakh jobs have been created.

Six national programmes were presented to the Minister as part of the third National Startup Advisory Council meeting to strengthen the startup ecosystem in the country.

The key interventions discussed were National Capacity Building Programme for Incubators, providing thrust to the startups engaged in manufacturing sector, empowering the larger pool of Family Offices and High Networth Individuals (HNIs) to invest in startups, accelerating Deep-tech Startups which would act as a catalyst in empowering pioneers, establishing an international platform and a gateway for Indian startups to go global, propelling participation of women in the startups and a holistic programme which aims at enabling global mentorship, market access, international opportunities and B2B connects.