DPIIT Secretary Jain Suggests Startups to Focus on Smaller Cities

Startups should focus more on small cities in India where business opportunities are huge, Anurag Jain, secretary of the DPIIT said. Anurag Jain said at CII’s Global Unicorn Summit, “We should not forget the rural markets, tier 2 and tier 3 cities. Rural markets will grow very fast. In our solutions, we should always remember whether my solution is sustainable or not.”

According to the government, about 45% of Indian startups are from tier-2, with at least one startup in three cities and 623 districts. From 2018 to 2021, startups created 5.9 lakh jobs, of which 1.9 lakh jobs were created in 2021 only.

With adding 8- startups every day, India’s startup ecosystem is the third-largest in the world and the country is second highest in adding the number of unicorns. Anurag Jain also asked startups to look for sustainable solutions to the problems that society faces. 

Ritesh Agarwal, founder, and group chief executive officer at OYO said that small towns in India are now exposed more to the world than ever before. Tier 2 and tier 3 towns are hotbeds of new entrepreneurs being created, startups are coming for at least the entire national market and ideally for the world, he said.