On par with the larger government, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has “no data” on start-ups’ contribution to the GDP, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal disclosed in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha on September 23. The DPIIT does not maintain any data on the number of start-ups affected by COVID-19 either, the minister revealed. Start-ups add more than 1.23 lakh jobs in 2020 In response to a question by NCP MP Vandana Chavan (Maharashtra), Goyal revealed that almost three lakh jobs have been reported by recognised start-ups between 2017 and 2019. Although the figures were as on September 6, 2020, they did not include data from 2020. Number of jobs reported by recognised start-ups: 2017: 49,648 2018: 95,338 2019: 1,54,558 In an earlier question in Lok Sabha by BJP MP Ranjeetsinha Hindurao Naik-Nimbalkar (Madha, Maharashtra), Goyal had, however, stated that as of September 6, 2020, 34,267 start-ups created a total of 4,22,986, or more than four lakh jobs, jobs. This means that in the first eight months of 2020, start-ups added 1,23,442 jobs. Goyal did not specify, either in this session or in the last, from when DPIIT started collecting this data. From the state-wise break-up of job creation by start-ups, 68.6% start-up employees are concentrated in six states/UT: Maharashtra (80,714, ~19%), Karnataka (71,533, (~16.9%)), Delhi (49,497, ~11.7%), Uttar Pradesh (33,803, ~8%), Haryana (29,770, ~7%) and Telangana (26,013, ~6.1%). This is on par with distribution of maximum number of start-ups across the…
