Exploring India’s Innovation and Startup Landscape: Insights from the Latest Data

Exploring India’s Innovation and Startup Landscape: Insights from the Latest Data

Published on :- February 3rd, 2023

India is a land of innovation and entrepreneurship, with a rapidly growing startup ecosystem. However, the latest data on the innovation and startup scenario in India shows a mixed picture. The country's overall performance in the Innovation Index has decreased from 23.4 in 2020 to 14.6 in 2021.

This data dialogue explores the trends in innovation, patents, trademarks, startups, and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) spending in India and also delves into the performance of different states and sectors.

A comprehensive tool for evaluating and developing the country’s innovation ecosystem, India Innovation Index ranks states and union territories on their innovation performance to build healthy competition.

The India Innovation Index has two major dimensions - Enabler and Performance. The Enabler Dimension pillars (Human Capital, Investment, Knowledge Workers, Business Environment, Safety and Legal Environment) cover features crucial for promoting innovation within a state/UT. Pillars in the Performance Dimension (Knowledge Output and Diffusion) represent a nation’s benefits in knowledge creation and competitiveness. The Enablers dimension, which measures a state's capacity to improve its innovation potential, has decreased from 29.3 in 2020 to 19.5 in 2021. The Performance dimension, which measures the state's outcomes through innovation enablers, shows a similar trend, falling from 17.9 in 2020 to 9.62 in 2021.

According to the India Innovation Index 2021, Delhi (27) received the highest innovation score, followed by Manipur (19.37) and Karnataka (18.01). On the other hand, Ladakh (5.91) and Lakshadweep (7.86) scored the lowest.

States like Arunachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Uttarakhand showed significant growth compared to their scores in 2019. On the other hand, states like Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu saw a drop in their overall scores from 2019.

Patents and Trademark

Patents and trademarks are some of the enablers of innovation in a country. The number of patents filed between 2005-2006 and 2020-2021 has almost doubled. The highest number of patents filed and patents granted was in the year 2020-2021. For years where the examined patents & trademarks are higher than those filed, it could be because of the previous years’ backlog.

As per the Department of Promotion for Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Annual Report, the highest number of trademarks filed was in 2020-2021 (approx. 440,000); the highest number of trademarks registered was in 2018-2019 (approx 320,000 trademarks) with the number consistently declining since 2019.

Number of Startups in India

India has emerged as the third largest ecosystem for startups globally. In the last 7 years (2016-22), over 77,000 startups have been recognised by the Department for Promotion of Industry and the Internal Trade (DPIIT) across 656 districts of the country. The number of registered startups with the government has also increased significantly from just 471 in 2016 to 20,000+ in 2021.

In 2021-22*, ~2,220 startups were registered in Maharashtra, followed by Delhi (1,345), Karnataka (1,236) and Uttar Pradesh (1,233).

In 2022, the IT services sector (8,280) had the highest number of registered startups, followed by Healthcare & Life Sciences (6,100). On the other hand, the lowest number of startups recognised were under Passenger services, Airport Operations, and Dating and Matrimonial.

IT services (98,210) and Healthcare & Life Sciences (66,090) also generated the highest number of jobs across all industries.

Corporate Contribution

Over the last seven years, INR 208 Crore of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds have been invested in the Technology Incubation sector.

The majority of the funds went to the state of Maharashtra (54 Crore INR). Out of the total funds, INR 120 Crores were used by external or other Implementing agencies. The top funding industries are from BFSI, IT, and Automotive.

Although India has shown an overall decrease in its innovation index score, certain states have shown significant growth. The number of patents filed and trademarks filed has increased along with the number of registered startups, despite the decreasing number of trademarks granted. The IT services industry maintains the highest number of startups registered and employment generated across the country.

Join our mailing list, get fresh data charts delivered to your mailbox

[newsletter]

Frequently Asked Questions

Know More

Know more and connect with us

Know More

Couldn't find what you are looking for?

Let us Know