MANISH GUPTA
Ranchi, July 5: From being one of the pioneers in the country on the road to developing the startup ecosystem, Jharkhand seems to have lost its way as the latest Ranking of States on Support to Startup Ecosystems does not even feature the state.
“Jharkhand was one of the first four states to have drafted its startup policy in 2016 but today it is among the five states and Union Territories that did not even participate in the all-India startup ranking,” said an official of the state industry department.
Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal on Monday released the third edition of the Ranking of States on Support to Startup Ecosystems, which evaluated the participants across seven broad reform areas consisting of 26 action points.
While Gujarat and Karnataka emerged as the Best Performers, Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha and Telangana got the Top Performers award among the states. Among the UTs and northeast states, Jammu & Kashmir was adjudged as Top Performer.
Assam, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh became winners in the Leaders category, and Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan were declared as Aspiring Leaders among the states, the Ministry said in a statement.
Andhra Pradesh and Bihar were clubbed under the Emerging Startup Ecosystem. A total of 31 states and UTs participated in the ranking, the highest since the start in 2018. Jharkhand, West Bengal, Haryana, Sikkim and Lakshadweep did not participate.
It should be noted that Jharkhand was declared as one of the Aspiring Leaders in both the first and second editions of the ranking, released in 2018 and 2020, respectively. The consideration period for the third edition was 1 October 2019 to 31 July 2021, and the documentary evidence submitted was evaluated over a six-month period.
After announcing the startup policy in 2016, the Jharkhand government through its IT department had initiated the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Innovation Lab with an aim to develop a favourable ecosystem for the growth of startups in the state. The lab, however, had no CEO for about one-and-a-half years during the pandemic. The state IT Director was made its new CEO a few months back.
In a recent conversation with lagatar24.com, Jharkhand IT Secretary Kripa Nand Jha informed that the state is coming out with a new Startup Policy within a month, and will be signing an MoU with XLRI Xavier School of Management in Jamshedpur for helping create the right startup ecosystem in the state.
