About:

• The Start-up India initiative of the Government of India envisages to build a robust Start-up ecosystem in the country for nurturing innovation and providing opportunities to budding entrepreneurs. 
• The key objective of the “State Startup Ranking” is to foster competitiveness and propel States and Union Territories to work proactively towards uplifting the startup ecosystem. 

• The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT)  has published this report.
• It has been implemented as a capacity development exercise to encourage mutual learning among all states and to provide support in policy formulation and implementation.
• This is the second edition of the States’ Startup Ranking Exercise.

Reform Areas:

The States’ Startup Ranking Framework 2019 has 7 broad reform area, consisting of 30 action points ranging from 

• Institutional Support
• Easing Compliances
• Relaxation in Public Procurement norms
• Incubation support, Seed Funding Support
• Venture Funding Support and 
• Awareness & Outreach

To establish uniformity and ensure standardization in the ranking process, States and UTs have been divided into two groups. While UTs except Delhi and all States in North East India except Assam are placed in Category ‘Y’. All other States and UT of Delhi are in Category ‘X’.

Ranking Categories:

For the purposes of Ranking, States are classified into 5 Categories: 

• Best Performers, 
• Top Performers, 
• Leaders, 
• Aspiring Leaders and 
• Emerging Startup Ecosystems.

Significance:

• The Centre and states, coming together in the spirit of cooperation, collaboration and competition to promote startups, is really an important development. 
• The startups are the store-house of talent, knowledge and ideas, and the ranking will not only help the states and UTs, but also the entrepreneurs, and will help in expansion of the startups and launching of new ventures. 
• It will also encourage women entrepreneurs actively into the startups.

Why in News?

The Results of the second edition of Ranking of States on Support to Startup Ecosystems were released by the Minister of Commerce & Industry and Railways .

References:

1. https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1653368
2. https://www.startupindia.gov.in/srf/about-us.html#objective
3. https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/india-announces-the-states-startup-ranking-list-gujarat-gets-the-best-performer-while-karnataka-and-kerala-are-top-performers/articleshow/78056746.cms