Indian Startup Ecosystem Among World's Top Three: PM Modi Under the 'MUDRA Yojana', the country's women today are proving their mettle everywhere, from contributing to small businesses to leading the startup ecosystem, said PM Modi at ISC 2023
By Soumya Duggal •
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During his virtual address at the 108th Indian Science Congress (ISC) on Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated that with regards to innovation in startups, India ranks among the world's top three countries.
He was referring to the findings of the Global Innovation Index 2022, released by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in September last year, which placed India at the 40th position among 132 countries.
''In the field of science, India has found its place in the top 10 countries of the world. Till 2015, in 130 countries, India was at 81st place (in the index)," he stated while charting the country's progress in science, technology and research in the last eight years.
A five-day event on the theme 'Science and Technology for Sustainable Development with Women Empowerment', ISC 2023 is being held at Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University, Maharashtra, which is celebrating its centenary this year.
"The world's future safety relies on sustainable development alone and you have (rightly) connected this subject with women empowerment," Modi told his audience, adding, "We need to, both, empower women through science as well as empower science and research through female leadership."
With India recently assuming the G20 Presidency, the next G20 Leaders' Summit is scheduled to be held on September 9 and 10 in New Delhi. Highlighting women-led development as a key subject to be addressed at the upcoming summit, Modi stated that through the assistance of the 'MUDRA Yojana', the country's women today are proving their mettle everywhere, from contributing to small businesses to leading the startup ecosystem. Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana (PMMY) was launched in April 2015 for providing loans up to INR 10 lakh to non-corporate, non-farm small/micro enterprises.
PM Modi also added that India's scientific power has a big role to play to bring the country to new heights in the next 25 years. Science should make India 'atmanirbhar' and the motivation of the scientific community should be to meet India's needs, he said.
