By Mahua Venkatesh
New Delhi, Jan 13: "Its raining unicorns," – this will grab headlines in 2022 and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharamans task is well cut out. Sitharaman in the forthcoming Union Budget, could come up with more incentives and policy measures keeping an eye on creating the right ecosystem for unicorns to come up, reliable sources told India Narrative.
In her last budget, the finance minister announced extension of tax holidays for startups along with exemption of capital gains for investment till March 31, 2022. Access to credit and tax incentives are areas that would be looked into.
"We will further focus on startups and unicorns. Expect more policy measures in the budget," an insider told India Narrative.
The Unicorns, which are startups valued over $1 billion, are expected to go in for large scale employment generation in the coming months as well.
Notwithstanding the Covid pandemic, last year, more than 30 startups in India made it to the prestigious Unicorn list.
Inaugurating the 25th National Youth Festival, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that about 10,000 start-ups have come up in India despite the Covid 19 pandemic in the last few months.
"Startups (in India) are entering a golden age," Modi said, adding that the new mantra of the youth is "compete and conquer."
India is now home to 81 unicorns with a total valuation of $274.17 billion. Invest India data reveals that out of the total number of unicorns, 44 unicorns with a total valuation of $ 89.17 bn were born in 2021.
In 2020, India witnessed the birth of more than 10 unicorns. The number was 38 in 2021. Sources said that there are many more waiting in the wings to join the unicorn club in the next few months.
India has emerged as the third largest ecosystem for startups globally after the US and China with over 60,770 officially -recognized startups across 636 districts.
According to Inc42, a media platform tracking Indian startups and entrepreneurs, if the present euphoria continues, "India will manage to get more than 100 unicorns by 2022, much earlier than the previous estimation of 2023."