TN, the land of startups under Stalin
Chennai: A plethora of initiatives taken by the DMK government, under Chief Minister M K Stalin, has led to the launch of 6,115 startups during the last three years that saw the creation of a favorable ecosystem in the State, enabling it to emerge as one of the top most destinations for starting new businesses in the country.
To keep up with the success story, the State government has announced the Global Startup Summit at Chennai in January, 2025, which would be attended by representatives of leading startups that have made a mark in different parts of the world and young aspiring entrepreneurs, showcasing the concern and interest shown by the government in encouraging startups.
Actually, when the DMK government took charge in 2021, the State had just 2105 startups and the numbers shot up to 6115 in three years only because of the various initiatives taken by the Chief Minister to increase the employment opportunities for youth and to also make Tamil Nadu a ‘US $ one trillion economy’ by 2030.
Among the initiatives of Stalin were the organization of Startup festival at Coimbatore in August, 2023, which saw 21,556 participants, 18,835 visitors, 1761 representatives of companies and 841 exhibitors eagerly attending the gala event and investors coming forward to support 1672 ventures at a total cost of Rs 3,64,39,000. Also 83 manufacturing products were introduced at the exhibition.
The Dravidian Model governance also provided the opportunity for 25 women to become entrepreneurs by launching their own startups and turned 18 women’s Self Help Groups (SHGs) into startup workshops, besides opening 150 job prospects through startups launched with financial aid from Tribal Welfare Department, 1,525 jobs through TANSEED supported startups and 238 jobs through other startups.
The investments made in startups launched with TANSEED financial assistance have gone up to Rs 314.50 crore and the capital of the startups begun under the TANFUND platform with 714 investors has shot up to Rs 26.40 lakh.
The other efforts of the Chief Minister that created the healthy ecosystem for startups included the signing of MoUs with State Bank of India, HDFC bank, DBS Bank, Federal Bank, Yes Bank and UCO bank for extending financial support for startups, the organization of 5,393 training programmes on providing funds for startups and the setting up of startup centres at the SIPCOT industrial parks in Sriperumbudur and Hosur at a cost of Rs 33.46 crore.
Five incubation centres for startups were given opportunities to familiarize the operations of Singapore based SWITCH industries and Rs 5 lakh subsidy was given to the incubation centres. Ever since an exclusive portal was launched for startups on February 29, at least 78 startups have linked up with it, symbolizing the success of the Chief Minister’s initiative.