National Startup Day 2024: History, significance, theme, all you need to know

Prime Minister Narendra Modi instituted National Startup Day in 2022. (File)

With India emerging as the third largest startup ecosystem in the world, Indian startups have experienced phenomenal growth in recent years. The government, too, has been supporting entrepreneurship through various initiatives including Startup India. Indian companies raised an astounding $42 billion in investment in 2022 - compared with the $16 billion they raised the year before.

What is National Startup Day

On January 15, 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced January 16, the foundation day of Startup India, as National Startup Day. Inaugurating the event, Narendra Modi stressed the importance of startups as the foundation of new India. These businesses have been crucial in helping India move up the Global Innovation Index, from No. 81 to 40. The aim of National Startup Day is to champion entrepreneurs, cultivate a robust startup ecosystem, and pivot India into a nation of job creators rather than job seekers.

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, has marked an entire week as National Startup Week from January 10 to 16.

National Startup Day 2024: Theme, start-up week, awards

Though there has been no announcement of an official theme for this year’s celebrations, the theme for previous year centered around "Founders of Today, Leaders of Tomorrow." The week-long celebration promises to be a meeting ground for innovators, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and startup enthusiasts.

Secretary of DPIIT, Rajesh Kumar Singh, kicked off the week-long festivities with an inaugural address themed 'Startups Unlocking Infinite Potential,' on January 11, 2024. The seminar was part of the Tenth Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit held in Gandhinagar, Gujarat.

Simultaneously, a series of events are being organised across the country to celebrate innovations by Indian entrepreneurs. These include dedicated workshops for startups, mentorship sessions, stakeholder round tables and panel discussions among others. Eight virtual Ask Me Anything (AMA) live sessions are planned to be conducted from January 10 to 17, with startup ecosystem enablers, including incubators and accelerators, investors, mentors, unicorns, corporates, startups, academia and government to build capacity of the ecosystem.

Five dedicated mentorship sessions focused on ‘How to Start Up’ will be conducted focusing on topics such as understanding business structures, processes to incorporate an entity, and building a business plan.

The grand finale will be the India National Startup Day Summit and Awards 2024 to be held on February 23, 2024, in Bangalore. The awards are an initiative to recognise and reward outstanding startups and eco-system enablers that are building innovative products or solutions and scalable enterprises, with high potential of employment generation or wealth creation demonstrating measurable social impact.

National Startup Day 2024: Significance

The purpose of the day is to celebrate the accomplishments of Indian startups and to foster an entrepreneurial spirit. Another aim is to give budding entrepreneurs a forum to talk about innovation for India's youth and their role in the country's economy. The motive behind encouraging the idea of entrepreneurship is to give a boost to schemes like Make in India.
It's been eight years since the launch of Startup India and the initiative has seen remarkable growth - from 340+ startups in 2016 to 1,15,000+ startups in 2023. The Seed Fund Scheme, Fund of Funds Scheme, Credit Guarantee Scheme for Startups, MAARG mentorship platform, National Startup Awards, State Ranking Framework are some of the key pillars driving the spirit of entrepreneurship.