Odisha bags “Top performer” in State Startup ranking 2021

Insight Bureau: Odisha has been declared as the top performer in the State Start-up Ranking 2021 by Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) released by Piyush Goyal, Minister for Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles on 4th July in a felicitation ceremony in New Delhi.

For the purposes of the Ranking, States and Union Territories are classified into 5 Categories, viz. Best Performers, Top Performers, Leaders, Aspiring Leaders and Emerging Start-up Ecosystems of which, Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha and Telangana got the Top Performers award among states.

The Executive Chairman of Startup Odisha, Dr. Omkar Rai received the award on behalf of the Odisha Skill Development Authority. Recently, startup Odisha was in the news for the appointment of former DG of software technology parks in India, Dr. Omkar Rai as the Executive Chairman. Dr. Rai is the person responsible for bringing software development to the heart of the IT industry.

The 3rd edition of the States’ startup ranking exercise was conducted by DPIIT with the main objective of strengthening the support of States and UTs to holistically build their startup ecosystems. The 2021 Startup Ranking Framework aims to make big strides in every state and UT.

Odisha was recognized as a “Leader State” for supporting the startup ecosystem published by Shri Piyush Goyal in 2019. Odisha’s MSME department was ranked first by the Government of India for their exemplary efforts to optimize MSMEs in the economic scenario. Odisha has achieved remarkable successes with Mission Shakti, 5T, Mo Sarkar, School Transformation and Startup Odisha, Odisha has become the new face of development in innovation. The state has transformed from an agricultural rich state to an industry-driven state with new talent to represent the different sectors.

The State Start-up was launched in 2018 to encourage States and Union Territories to work towards reducing regulations on startup expansion and increasing support for the startup ecosystem.