India

Region: Asia and Oceania
 

Classification of economies by geographic region is based on that of the United Nations Statistics Division.

Low Income
 

Based on the income levels set out by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in its Global Competitiveness Report. However, the groupings are slightly different due to the numbers of economies covered. For GEM, the low income group contains both those classified as low income and lower middle by WEF, and the middle income group has those that WEF groups as upper middle. High income is the same for both GEM and WEF.

Population: 1.3 billion
 

Population data is from the World Bank, except Palestinian Territories World Population Review and Taiwan Worldometers

GDP Growth: 7.1% (2018)
 

GDP growth data is from the World Economic Outlook Database, except Palestinian Territories Worldometers

GDP Per Capita: $1,486 (2013)
 

GDP per capita data is from the World Economic Outlook Database, except Palestinian Territories Worldometers

Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Attitudes

Most recent data: 2021
  • India 2021
  • India 2020
  • Global Average
  • Regional Average
  • Income Level Average

Self-Perceptions

  • 1
     
    Perceived Opportunities Rate:Percentage of 18-64 population (individuals involved in any stage of entrepreneurial activity excluded) who see good opportunities to start a firm in the area where they live
  • 2
     
    Perceived Capabilities Rate:Percentage of 18-64 population (individuals involved in any stage of entrepreneurial activity excluded) who believe they have the required skills and knowledge to start a business
  • 3
     
    Fear of Failure Rate*:Percentage of the 18–64 population who agree that they see good opportunities but would not start a business for fear it might fail. NOTE: this is a percentage of those seeing good opportunities, and not the total adult population
  • 4
     
    Entrepreneurial Intentions Rate:Percentage of 18-64 population (individuals involved in any stage of entrepreneurial activity excluded) who are latent entrepreneurs and who intend to start a business within three years
  • 1. Perceived Opportunities Rate
  • 2. Perceived Capabilities Rate
  • 3. Fear of Failure Rate*
  • 4. Entrepreneurial Intentations Rate:

Activity

  • 1
     
    Total early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA):Percentage of 18-64 population who are either a nascent entrepreneur or owner-manager of a new business
  • 2
     
    Established Business Ownership Rate:Percentage of 18-64 population who are currently an owner-manager of an established business, i.e., owning and managing a running business that has paid salaries, wages, or any other payments to the owners for more than 42 months
  • 3
     
    Entrepreneurial Employee Activity Rate:Rate of involvement of employees in entrepreneurial activities, such as developing or launching new goods or services, or setting up a new business unit, a new establishment or subsidiary
  • 1. Total early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA)
  • 2. Established Business Ownership Rate
  • 3. Entrepreneurial Employee Activity Rate

Motivations

  • 1
     
    Motivational Index:Percentage of those involved in TEA that are improvement-driven opportunity motivated, divided by the percentage of TEA that is necessity-motivated
  • 1. Motivational Index

Gender Equity

  • 1
     
    Female/Male TEA Ratio:Percentage of female 18-64 population who are either a nascent entrepreneur or owner-manager of a 'new business', divided by the equivalent percentage for their male counterparts
  • 2
     
    Female/Male Opportunity-Driven TEA Ratio:Percentage of those females involved in TEA who (i) claim to be driven by opportunity as opposed to finding no other option for work; and (ii) who indicate the main driver for being involved in this opportunity is being independent or increasing their income, rather than just maintaining their income, divided by the equivalent percentage for their male counterparts
  • 1. Female/Male TEA Ratio
  • 2. Female/Male Opportunity-Driven TEA Ratio

Impact

  • 1
     
    High Job Creation Expectation Rate:Percentage of those involved in TEA who expect to create 6 or more jobs in 5 years
  • 2
     
    Innovation Rate:Percentage of those involved in TEA who indicate that their product or service is new to at least some customers AND that few/no businesses offer the same product
  • 3
     
    Business Services Sector Rate:Percentage of those involved in TEA in the 'Business Services' sector - Information and Communication, Financial Intermediation and Real Estate, Professional Services or Administrative Services, as defined by the ISIC 4.0 Business Type Codebook
  • 1. High Job Creation Expectation Rate
  • 2. Innovation Rate
  • 3. Business Services Sector Rate

Societal Values

  • 1
     
    High Status to Successful Entrepreneurs Rate:Percentage of 18-64 population who agree with the statement that in their country, successful entrepreneurs receive high status
  • 2
     
    Entrepreneurship as a Good Career Choice Rate:Percentage of 18-64 population who agree with the statement that in their country, most people consider starting a business as a desirable career choice
  • 1. High Status to Successful Entrepreneurs Rate
  • 2. Entrepreneurship as a Good Career Choice Rate

Entrepreneurial Framework Conditions

Most recent data: 2021

Expert Ratings: 1 = highly insufficient, 5 = highly sufficient

  • India 2021
  • India 2020
  • Regional Average
  • Income Level Average
  • Global Average
  • India 2021
  • India 2020
  • Regional Average
  • Income Level Average
  • Global Average

2021 Entrepreneurial Activity Review

India’s entrepreneurial activity expanded dramatically in 2021 despite some contradictory economic signals. The two headline entrepreneurship indicators, TEA and EBO, both increased after a discouraging 2020 performance. India’s TEA rate increased to 14.4% in 2021, up from 5.3% in 2020, while its EBO rate increased to 8.5%, from 5.9% in 2020. This expansion corresponds with other figures pointing to a dramatic upswing in India’s entrepreneurial activity. For example, nearly 20,000 new startups were registered by India’s Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) in the single year between April 2020 and 2021 — nearly matching the 30,000 total startups registered by the DPIIT in the four-year period between 2016 and 2020.

Clearly, 2021 witnessed a boom in early-stage entrepreneurial activity for India. This flurry of activity may be due to the pent-up demand and subsequent opportunities generated by the reduction in COVID-19 risk that so damaged the Indian economy in 2020. Relatedly, the proportion of Indian TEA respondents who stated they saw opportunities as a result of the pandemic was 77.6%, highest among GEM Level C economies. The rate of EBO respondents seeing opportunities was 68.2%, also highest among this set of economies.

Yet there are also concerning economic signals that could constrain entrepreneurship in India. First, over 90% of APS respondents stated that their household lost income as a result of the pandemic in 2021, a rate higher than the 2020 survey. This may explain part of the increase in TEA, as more people needed to increase their income. Such necessity-driven entrepreneurship does not typically result in sustained, innovative businesses. Additionally, it is hard to find customers when so many households are losing income. Another surprising finding is that 86.8% of TEA respondents stated it was more difficult to start a business now than a year ago, which was higher than in 2020 (77.6%). Considering the profusion of new businesses, it would be expected that people are finding it easier to start a business than in the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020.

2021 Framework Conditions Review

Despite some of the contradictory findings noted, such as a higher TEA rate among the sentiment that is more difficult to start a business, the conditions for entrepreneurship in India appear to be quite strong. This may help explain why early-stage entrepreneurial activity rapidly expanded in 2021. In the framework conditions of Entrepreneurial Finance (5.0) and Ease of Access to Finance (4.7), both so crucial to expanding new ventures, India scored the highest of all GEM Level C economies. Additionally, on the framework conditions of Government Policy: Support and Relevance (5.3) and Government Policy: Taxes and Bureaucracy (4.7) India scored the highest among GEM Level C economies; while Government Entrepreneurial Programs (4.8) was second highest. These high scores point to a strong public–private support system for entrepreneurs, indicating that there could be capacity for even higher rates of early stage entrepreneurship as the economy expands.

Indian experts also scored the economy’s Research and Development Transfers condition highest among GEM Level C economies, at 4.4. This is somewhat expected given India’s history of hosting many IT and other technical firms that support or partner with large international technology companies. However, at least one area in which it appears India could improve is Physical Infrastructure, where experts gave a score of 6.4, down from 7.0 in 2020. In such a large economy, access to quality infrastructure is key for entrepreneurs to meet market demand.

India Reports

Name
Report information
pdf
  • Year of publication: 2021
  • Category: National Reports
  • Language: English
  • Upload date: 2021-12-22

  • The 2020-21 GEM Report completes its 22 years of measuring entrepreneurship-related activities. It measures entrepreneurship activities and ecosystem through surveys and interviews of various field experts, conducted by the teams in respective countries. The GEM survey generates a variety of relevant, primary information on different aspects of entrepreneurship and provides harmonised measures about individuals’ attributes and their activities in different phases of venturing (from nascent to start-up to established business and to discontinuation).
  • URL: https://www.gemconsortium.org/report/50894
 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor India National Report 2020-21
Report information
pdf
  • Year of publication: 2021
  • Category: National Reports
  • Language: English
  • Upload date: 2021-04-02

  • GEM India Report 2019-20 is an outcome of collective efforts of GEM India team that strives to capture and understand the current state of affairs in Indian Entrepreneurship. This report provides information on entrepreneurship ecosystem prevailing in the country and entrepreneurial activities being carried out in various Indian states.
  • URL: https://www.gemconsortium.org/report/50684
 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor India National Report 2019-20
Report information
pdf
  • Year of publication: 2020
  • Category: National Reports
  • Language: English
  • Upload date: 2020-11-19

  • GEM global entrepreneurship survey completed 20 years in (2018–19). GEM survey gathers the most relevant and first-hand information on different aspects of entrepreneurship. It also provides harmonised measures for individual attributes and tracks different entrepreneurship stages (from nascent to start-up to established business and discontinuation). The GEM India survey (2018–19) covers a wide population and highlights entrepreneurial attitudes, activity, motivation level of 4165 adults, nascent entrepreneurs, existing entrepreneurs, and an expert viewpoint for the existing ecosystem in the country. This is the sixth country report (India) and data is collected in two different phases: Adult population Survey (APS) and National Experts Survey (NES). In the year 2018–19, A total of 4165 adults from different Indian regions have participated in APS. Similarly, NES data is collected from the experts in the entrepreneurship, economics, finance, investments, education, legal aspects, research and development, technology, start-ups and SMEs. In this survey, more than 72 experts are interviewed to obtain the required information.
  • URL: https://www.gemconsortium.org/report/50586
 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor India Report 2018-19
Report information
pdf
  • Year of publication: 2019
  • Category: National Reports
  • Language: English
  • Upload date: 2019-01-21

  • The 2017-18 GEM Report completes its 19 years of measuring entrepreneurship-related activities. The study had a noble mission of generating globally-comparative data of entrepreneurial activity. It helped identify factors determining national levels of entrepreneurial activity as well as policies aimed at enhancing entrepreneurial activity. It measures entrepreneurship through surveys and interviews of various field experts, conducted by the teams at respective countries. The GEM survey generates a variety of relevant, primary information on different aspects of entrepreneurship and provides harmonised measures about individuals’ attributes and their activities in different phases of venturing (from nascent to start-up to established business and to discontinuation). The GEM Report 2017-18 covers results based on 54 economies completing the Adult Population Survey (APS) and the National Expert Survey (NES). The report provides insights into entrepreneurial activities in India. The GEM India study was conducted using a well-established GEM research methodology, consistent across all participating countries, thus enabling a cross-country comparison. The APS was conducted with 4000 respondents. Questions were based on generating information regarding the level of entrepreneurial activity in this country based on the national framework conditions, whereas, the NES was conducted on 72 national experts. The NES in India focuses on the entrepreneurial ecosystem, and with regard to the nine entrepreneurial framework conditions.

  • URL: https://www.gemconsortium.org/report/50212
 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor India Report 2017-18
Report information
pdf
  • Year of publication: 2017
  • Category: National Reports
  • Language: English
  • Upload date: 2018-03-23

  • The GEM Report 2016-17 completes its 18 years of measuring entrepreneurship-related activities . The study has a noble mission of generating globally comparative data of entrepreneurial activity . It helps identify factors determining national levels of entrepreneurial activity as well as policies aimed at enhancing entrepreneurial activity . It measures entrepreneurship through surveys and interviews of various field experts, conducted by the teams in their respective countries . The GEM survey generates a variety of relevant, primary information on different aspects of entrepreneurship and provides harmonised measures about individuals’ attributes and their activities in different phases of venturing (from nascent to start-up to established business and to discontinuation) . The GEM Report 2016-17 covers results based on 64 economies completing the Adult Population Survey (APS) and 65 economies completing the National Expert Survey (NES) . The report provides insights into entrepreneurial activities in India . The GEM India study was conducted using a well-established GEM research methodology, consistent across all participating countries, thus enabling a cross-country comparison . The APS was conducted among 3,400 samples, which provided information regarding the level of entrepreneurial activity in their country, based on the national framework conditions, whereas the NES was conducted on 72 national experts . The NES in India focused on entrepreneurial ecosystem, also with regard to the nine entrepreneurial framework conditions .

  • URL: https://www.gemconsortium.org/report/50030
 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor India Report 2016-17
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