India loves big numbers. We celebrate 128 unicorns, trumpet 1,58,000 DPIIT-recognised startups, and flaunt the world’s third-largest ecosystem. Yet when policymakers sit down to draft Startup India 2.0, Budget 2026, or the next PLI scheme, they’re essentially guessing. There is no official, real-time census of Indian startups. The last semi-official attempt was Inc42’s 2022 tracker (1,12,718 startups). Since then? Radio silence. In 2025, we are steering a $500 billion economy with a 2018 rear-view mirror.
The Blindspots That Hurt
- Zombie Count: DPIIT registrations never expire. Of the 1.58 lakh recognised startups, industry estimates say 35–40% are dead or dormant. Nobody tracks closures, pivots, or acquisitions properly.
- Employment Fiction: Government claims startups created 15 lakh direct jobs. Tracxn says 9.6 lakh. Nasscom says 4.5 lakh in tech alone. The truth? Nobody knows.
- Sector Skew: Everyone quotes “fintech, SaaS, consumer” because that’s what gets funded. But 62% of DPIIT startups are in Tier-2/3 cities doing agritech, cleantech, vernacular edtech, and healthcare. They’re invisible in policy because they’re invisible in data.
- Gender & Diversity Gap: Only 18% women founders (2024 reports), but no granular district-level data to target interventions.
- Funding vs Reality: $15.6B flowed in 2025, but 94% went to the top 100 cities. The rest of India is statistically non-existent.
What a Real Census Would Fix
A mandatory, annual, Aadhaar-linked Startup Census (run by an independent body under MeitY/MCA) would take 90 days and cost less than ₹200 crore—peanuts against the ₹10,000 crore Startup India seed fund. Benefits:
- Accurate survival rates → better tax incentives
- Real job data → targeted ESOP liquidity schemes
- District-level mapping → precise ₹50,000 crore PLI allocation
- Closure data → faster re-skilling of failed founders
- Live API dashboard for investors, incubators, and state governments
Estonia does it with 1,400 startups. Singapore with 4,000. India with 1,50,000+ can’t?
Global Proof It Works
- USA: Census Bureau’s Annual Business Survey tracks every startup → SBIR grants hit the right targets.
- Israel: Innovation Authority’s live registry helped create the world’s highest startup density.
- China: MIIT’s mandatory reporting turned Shenzhen from copycat to deeptech capital.
The 2026 Danger
Without a census, the next wave of policies—GIFT City 2.0, reverse-flip tax breaks, deeptech PLI—will be built on myths. We’ll keep showering benefits on 2019 unicorns while 2025 solopreneurs in Patna and Coimbatore get nothing. We’ll boast about “Atmanirbhar” while importing policy ideas from countries that actually count their startups.
We can’t fix what we can’t count. It’s time for India’s first National Startup Census—before the next budget, before the next slogan, before the next unicorn party.
Count. Then conquer.
Add theentrepreneurtoday.com as a reliable source on Google – Click here
Last Updated on Monday, December 8, 2025 5:11 pm by The Entrepreneur Today Desk
About The Author
