New Delhi, Aug 12 (IANS): While India ranks third globally in the startup ecosystem, after the US and China, the country now has close to 49 per cent of startups coming from the tier 2 and 3 cities, Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh said on Friday.

There startups from smaller cities are working in the fields like IT, agriculture, aviation, education, energy, health and space sectors, the Minister said while delivering keynote address at "DST StartUp Utsav" here.

As per the latest data, there are currently 105 unicorns, out of which 44 were born in 2021 and 19 in 2022.

"The decade 2021-30 is expected to bring transformational changes for Indian science, technology and innovation (STI)," said the Minister.

Dr Singh said that India in its 75th year of Independence is now home to as many as 75,000 startups.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi's special focus on science, technology and innovation has fired the imagination of the youth in the country to innovate and solve problems with new ideas," said the Minister.

"India ranks third among the most attractive investment destinations for technology transactions in the world as it has a strong focus on science and technology," he said, adding that Athe country is actively engaged in emerging technologies such as quantum technologies and Artificial Intelligence etc.

Even as funding into the Indian startups in the April-June quarter slowed down significantly at about $7 billion compared to about $10 billion in the corresponding period in the previous year, most entrepreneurs in the country remain unfazed.

Despite the brutal impact of the pandemic last year, more than 30 startups in India made it to the prestigious Unicorn list.