Only 5% of 80,000 startups are in mfg sector: Expert

Hyderabad: Though India has 80,000 plus startups, out of them, only a small portion, just 5 per cent of startups are in manufacturing sector, an industry veteran said.

“The country needs more startups in the manufacturing sector and the toughest thing in an enterprise is dealing with people,” said Yerramm Raju, Founder Director—of Telangana Industrial Health Clinic Ltd, during a technical session on ‘Entrepreneurship and its trait—Identification of business opportunities’. This session is a part of two-day ‘Entrepreneur Mentorship Programme for Women’ organised by the Federation of Telangana Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FTCCI) here on Wednesday. Deepanwita Chattopadhyay, Chairman & CEO, IKP Knowledge and Vanita Datla, Chairperson & MD of Elico Ltd were the guests of honour for the inaugural function.

On the occasion, Meela Jayadev, Senior Vice President of FTCCI said there is never a better time than now to become an entrepreneur.

Deepanwita Chattopadhyay said that India ranks 40th in the global innovation index rank. It ranks 19th in startups and 121st in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). “Our country ranks the lowest globally in SDGs. So align the businesses to the SDGs. India is a signatory to the SDGs and we need to meet them by the year 2030,” she said.

Deepanwita further says, “We are still a developing nation. We are a young nation. Many youth seek jobs every year. But India doesn’t have so much capacity to offer jobs to the entire youth of the nation. So entrepreneurship is necessary. When I began my career 30 years back we had not heard of mentorship. Now it is gaining a lot of importance. Telangana should become a capital for entrepreneurship in India.”

She also advised a few men in the audience who were aspiring to become entrepreneurs to accommodate more women in their workforce.