The North News
(Gandhinagar), Gujarat, September 23
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday said that the youth and startups of India form the backbone of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of a New India. He was speaking at the inauguration of the Startup Conclave 2025 in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, where Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and senior dignitaries were also present. Shah said the conclave, built around the themes innovate, elevate and accelerate, would provide a major platform to connect emerging startups with investors and discuss ways to overcome challenges in the sector. He said discussions would be held across seven sessions over two days.
The minister highlighted that the number of startups in India had surged from fewer than 500 in 2014 to over 1.92 lakh today. Unicorns too had grown from just four in 2014 to more than 120, with a combined valuation exceeding $350 billion. “Startup India has turned Indian youth from job seekers into job creators,” Shah said, adding that the ecosystem had expanded into 770 districts, with nearly half of the ventures founded by women. He pointed out that India has now become the third-largest startup ecosystem globally, alongside being the third-largest digital ecosystem. India’s ranking in the Global Innovation Index has also improved dramatically—from 91st in 2015 to 38th in 2024. Shah expressed confidence that the country would enter the top ten within three years.
During the conclave, a compilation of the Indian Knowledge System was launched, covering fields such as Ayurveda, classical arts, architecture, mathematics, philosophy, science, space and the environment. Shah said that through the New Education Policy, Prime Minister Modi had created a framework to research and study this knowledge, enabling youth to carry out world-class research.
Shah also credited Modi’s reforms—including the Make in India initiative, production-linked incentive schemes, the removal of thousands of compliances and the implementation of GST—for building a supportive environment for startups. He said the GST reform, in particular, had established a bridge of trust between taxpayers and the government. The minister praised Gujarat’s consistent performance in the sector, noting that the state hosts 16,000 startups, with Ahmedabad ranking among the top four startup cities in the country. He concluded that both the Government of India and the Government of Gujarat were standing firmly with the youth to turn their entrepreneurial dreams into reality.
