Bengaluru bigger host of technology-driven start-ups than Delhi, Mumbai: Report

Leading from the front, India's information technology hub Bengaluru has surpassed the likes of New Delhi and Mumbai when it comes to being a host to the largest number of technology-driven start-ups. Next in the list are Hyderabad and Chennai who have also become quite popular among budding entrepreneurs, a study by industry chamber Assocham said. The study, done in association with the Thought Arbitrage Research

Institute, found that in the sphere of technology-driven start-ups, India has moved up to third position after the US and Britain. While the US has more than 47,000 tech start-ups and Britain has over 4,500, the figure for India was around 4,200 by 2015-end.

"In terms of total number of start-ups, comprising tech and non-tech areas, India again figured among the five largest hosts in the world along with China," the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India said in a statement here on Sunday.

The number of start-ups in both India and China was 10,000 each. The US is at the No.1 position among the overall list of 83,000 budding entrepreneurs, the statement added.

In India, Bengaluru was host to 26 per cent start-ups, followed by Delhi NCR with 23 per cent and Mumbai with 17 per cent.

"In the 'catching up' category fell Hyderabad with eight per cent, and Chennai and Pune with six per cent each," Assocham said.

"The disruptive innovation in technology and process is creating newer Indian start-ups and foreign investors, including some of the well-known Venture Capital Funds, are showing immense interest in these start-ups," Assocham President Sunil Kanoria said in the statement.

According to the chamber, the awareness that a start-up is a vehicle of rapid growth through technological "disruption" and innovation needs to spread across the economy.

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"Only then, there can be a true start-up revolution; otherwise if any small traditional business is treated as a start-up then the start-up eco-system will never develop properly.

"Realisation of this distinction needs to percolate to all strata of the policy-making and economy to ensure that a real support system for the start-ups, in terms of technology, hand-holding, funding and rapid growth, can develop properly in the country," it said.

The report has suggested tax exemptions for research and experimentation to encourage fresh ideas without fear of failure.

It has also said courses on creation of small businesses should be encouraged in the learning campuses.

Meanwhile, the government on Friday announced that a team would be set up to advise on how to further improve India's ranking in the global index of countries in the sphere of innovations.

Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman made the announcement here while releasing the Global Innovation Index 2016 Report, which shows India has improved its index ranking by 15 places over last year to 66th place, following five previous years of decline in position.

In his address at the event, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said India is becoming a centre for innovation, and in the last few years over 1,500 multinationals had relocated their R&D centres to places like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and Gurgaon.