Sustained government efforts have helped increase the number of recognized startups from 726 in 2016-17 to 65,861 as of March 14 this fiscal year, parliament informed on Friday.

The government had launched the “Startup India” initiative on January 16, 2016, with the aim of creating a stronger ecosystem to nurture the culture of startups that would further boost economic growth, support entrepreneurship and enable employment opportunities for large scale.

”Sustained government efforts in this direction have increased the number of recognized startups from 726 in FY 2016-17 to 65,861 in FY 2021-22 (as of March 14, 2022)’ ‘ Trade and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said in a written response to the Rajya Sabha.

He said the recognized startups are spread across more than 640 districts and reported creation of more than seven lakh jobs with an average of 11 jobs created by them.

Recognized startups, he said, are spread across 56 diverse industries such as IT services, fintech, technology hardware, enterprise software, artificial intelligence and nanotechnology.

In response to another question, the Minister of State for Trade and Industry, Som Parkash, said that on February 28 this year, the ministry had allocated Rs 2,791.29 crore to SIDBI, which at its round has committed Rs 6,795 crore to 82 alternative investment funds (AIF), while Rs 8,785 crore has been invested by backed AIFs in 574 startups.

”The Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS) aims to provide financial assistance to startups for proof of concept, prototype development, product testing, market entry and commercialization… Rs 945 crore was allocated under the scheme for a four-year period from 2021-22,” he added.