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: 2023
  • India 2023
  • India 2022
  • 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: 2023

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

  • India 2023
  • India 2022
  • Regional Average
  • Income Level Average
  • Global Average
  • India 2023
  • India 2022
  • Regional Average
  • Income Level Average
  • Global Average

2023 POLICY ROADMAP

The Indian economy has been growing strongly. Real GDP is expected to have expanded by just under 8% in 2023. India reached a historic milestone when its GDP surpassed $4 trillion in November 2023. The 2023 inflation rate was expected to be around 5%, slightly above the Bank of India target rate.

The government announced in 2023 the establishment of 30 Skill India Centres, providing training in skills such as coding, artificial intelligence and robotics. Meanwhile, the rollout of the Startup India Seed Fund Scheme continues, with over 1,000 startups benefiting since the scheme was launched in 2021.

2023 Framework Conditions Review1

The entrepreneurial environment in India continues to go from strength to strength. The National Entrepreneurial Context Index (NECI) score, based on responses from national experts, was 6.6 in 2023. This marks a full recovery from the depths of the pandemic, with that same environment having been scored at 5.0 in 2021.

In 2022, all of India’s 13 Entrepreneurial Framework Conditions (EFCs) were assessed as more than sufficient (score ≥5.0). By 2023, 10 of those 13 scores had improved, with the lowest assessment being for Government Policy: Taxes and Bureaucracy (6.2). All of the other 12 EFCs scored higher than this, all the way up to a score of 7.8 for India’s Social and Cultural Norms in support of entrepreneurship. These EFC scores are a substantial achievement, particularly for a Level C economy, and make India one of only three GEM economies in 2023 in which all EFCs were assessed as more than sufficient (alongside the Netherlands and the United Arab Emirates). So India is, among these 49 GEM economies, one of the best places in the world to start a business.

National experts were also asked to assess India’s social support for women entrepreneurship, and how women entrepreneurs’ access to resources compares to that of men. India scored well on both counts,
with its score of 6.6 for support and 6.7 for access to resources, ranking India second and third respectively of the 49 GEM economies.

2023 Entrepreneurial Activity Review

Despite the economic growth noted earlier, one in two adults in India reported that their household income had fallen in 2023. A year earlier, this number was three out of four adults.

Not surprisingly, given the supportive entrepreneurial environment, enterprise has a high profile in India, with more than one in two adults knowing someone who had recently started a new business, while more than four out of five adults considered themselves to have the skills and experience to start their own enterprise (third highest in GEM), or saw good opportunities to start a business locally (second highest in GEM). However, more than three in five of those seeing good opportunities would not start a business for fear it might fail, the third highest proportion in GEM 2023, behind China and Saudi Arabia. One in five adults in India expected to start their own business in the next three years.

India’s level of Total early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) in 2023 was just under 12%, up slightly from 2022 and more than twice the level at the depths of the pandemic. Men were more likely to start a new business (male TEA = 14.6%) than women (9.3%), and India had a relatively high level of Established Business Ownership at 12.4%. So there was roughly one new business for every established one.

Making a difference in the world was the most popular motivation among new entrepreneurs, agreed by more than four out of five. Three out of four also agreed they had started a business to continue a family tradition. Very few new entrepreneurs had customers beyond India, perhaps not too surprising given the scale and growth of national markets, and two in five expected to use more digital technology in the next six months. Finally, job expectations were fairly low among India’s new entrepreneurs, with less than one in 10 expecting to employ at least six more people over the next five years.

1 A brief description of the GEM approach is given in the footnote on p. 107.

India Reports

Name
Report information
pdf
Global Entrepreneurship Monitor India National Report 2022-23
Report information
pdf
  • Year of publication: 2023
  • Category: National Reports
  • Language: English
  • Upload date: 2023-01-30

  • The 2021-22 GEM Report completes its 23 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). The GEM Report 2021–2022 throws light on entrepreneurial trends and practices amidst changing business and the impact of COVID-19 on entrepreneurial activities in the country. The GEM India study was conducted using a well-established GEM research methodology that is consistent across all participating countries, thus enabling cross-country comparison. The Adult Population Survey (APS) was conducted among 3252 samples and provides information regarding the level of entrepreneurial activity in the country based on the national framework conditions, whereas the National Expert Survey (NES) was conducted on 72 national experts with an average work experience of 10 years. The NES focuses on entrepreneurial start-up eco-system in India with regard to nine entrepreneurial framework conditions (EFCs).
  • URL: https://gemconsortium.org/report/51138
 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor India National Report 2021-22
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://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://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://gemconsortium.org/report/50586
 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor India Report 2018-19
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