Union Minister Jitendra Singh Moots Unique Identity To Monitor Startups

Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh on Thursday mooted a unique identity for startups to follow up on their progress, particularly those which have received support from the government.
    
"Such a mechanism is sought to be developed that will closely follow up the growth of these startups, see how to sustain them to ensure that they are not lost out, especially those startups that have received technical and financial support from the government," the minister said.
    
He was chairing a high-level joint meeting of different science ministries and departments, including Science & Technology, Biotechnology, CSIR, Earth Sciences, and Atomic Energy.
     
Singh said that a mechanism was necessary as the number of startups has risen to more than one lakh.
     
He had earlier suggested that a presentation be prepared, in collaboration with the NITI Aayog, to identify factors that could be constraints for some startups. 
     
Accordingly, a presentation was made at Thursday’s meeting by Chintan Vaishnav from the NITI Aayog.
    
The presentation pointed out that lack of innovation, skilled workforce, and funds could be the major factors adversely affecting the sustainability of some startups. 
    
The minister proposed that an exercise could be undertaken to assess whether the startups could be identified by a "Unique ID" for effective monitoring across all sectors.
     
Singh said under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the government was providing every kind of technical as well as financial support for ideas and innovations to grow and sustain. 
     
He said, as a result, India has emerged as the leading startup ecosystem in the world with more than one lakh startups and more than 100 Unicorns and the time has come to strategize sustainability.
     
CSIR Director General N Kalaiselvi, Department of Science & Technology Secretary S Chandrasekhar, Department of Biotechnology Secretary Rajesh Gokhale, Earth Sciences Secretary M Ravichandran, and Department of Atomic Energy Secretary A K Mohanty attended the meeting.