Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday announced the launch of Rs 1,000-crore ‘Startup India Seed Fund’ to support startups and help budding entrepreneurs pursue innovative ideas. Addressing the ‘Prarambh: Startup India International Summit’, Modi exuded confidence that the growth of startups would help in generating jobs and improving lives of people in the region. “In order to provide initial capital for startups, the nation is launching a Rs 1,000 crore Startup India Seed Fund. This will help in setting up new startups and promote their growth,” said the Prime Minister. The summit marked the fifth anniversary of the ‘Startup India’ initiative launched by Modi on this day in 2016. The government, Modi added, has been implementing the Fund of Fund Scheme to help startups raise equity capital. Going forward, the government will also help startups in raising debt capital, he added. India, the Prime Minister said, was home to the world’s third largest startup ecosystem which had helped several budding entrepreneurs to come up with innovative technologies and become big corporations. He further said that startups in India were not limited to big cities and about 40 per cent of such budding entrepreneurs were coming from tier-II and -III cities. Modi said in 2014 there were only four startups in the unicorn club, but today there were more than 30. He informed that 11 startups entered the unicorn club in 2020 itself. India is the world’s third largest startup ecosystem. There are over 41,000 startups in the country

New Delhi, January 16

A sanitation worker from AIIMS, New Delhi, on Saturday became the first Indian to get a COVID-19 vaccine shot, moments after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the world’s largest inoculation drive, following a highly emotional address to the people.

Tears in eyes and lumps in throat, the Prime Minister remembered the desperate times of 2020 when families did not know any way out of the pandemic, and when they could not even offer ritualistic send-offs to the departed.

“Decision of a lockdown wasn’t easy but we went by the dictum ‘Jaan hai toh jahaan hai’,” Modi said.

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