New Delhi, June 28 (IANS): Direct employment generated by India’s recognized startups has increased to 23.36 lakh, according to an official statement. This represents a significant year-on-year growth of 36.1 percent in employment generation.
Nearly 48 per cent of all recognized startups have at least one woman director or partner, reflecting the inclusive nature of India’s innovation-led growth.
The number of startups recognized by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) is expected to exceed 2 lakh by December 2025, making India firmly among the countries with the largest startup ecosystem in the world.
According to the official statement, the country’s innovation system has performed the best ever. More than 55,200 institutions received DPIIT recognition in FY 2025-26 alone, which is the highest increase in a single year since the inception of the program.
As the Digital India program completes 11 years, the initiative is playing an important role in providing digital services to citizens at scale as well as building the future-ready Artificial Intelligence (AI), semiconductor and advanced electronics infrastructure.
The official statement said, “India’s ranking in the Global Innovation Index was 81st in 2015, which has improved to 38th by 2025. At the same time, 2.23 lakh recognized startups are driving innovation-based growth. In such a situation, the 11th anniversary of Digital India is not just an achievement, but a strong foundation for India’s global technological leadership in the coming decade.”
In April 2026, Unified Payments Interface (UPI) completes 10 years of transforming India’s financial system. 24,162 crore transactions were recorded on UPI during the financial year 2025-26.
Today UPI powers 81 percent of India’s digital payments and accounts for nearly 49 percent of the world’s real-time digital transactions. This makes India the undisputed global leader in real-time digital payments. UPI is now operational in many countries and India’s Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) has been adopted by 23 countries through cooperation agreements.
India’s digital infrastructure has also continuously strengthened over the past year.
By March 2026, the number of broadband subscribers in the country will reach 106.58 crore.
Under the BharatNet project, 2.18 lakh gram panchayats have been connected with high-speed broadband, bringing digital connectivity to the last mile of rural India.
India’s 5G network has now reached 99.9 percent of the districts and 4.74 lakh towers have been installed. At the same time, the National Data Center for the North-Eastern Region was launched in Guwahati in February 2026, further strengthening the digital infrastructure and data sovereignty of the region.
–IANS
PM