Introduction
Entrepreneurship has long been seen as a source of job creation fuel. In the case of start-ups, this position as an employer creates jobs in modest increments. However, when a start-up matures into a growth stage and eventually matures into a well-established firm, the number of jobs produced increases exponentially.
Over the past several years, India has undergone a start-ups movement of sorts, where more and more brilliant and determined individuals are taking up the challenge of entrepreneurship. In 2018, 1200 new companies were founded in India, the largest number in a single year in the country’s history. The government’s supporting policies and the availability of financial assistance from both public and private financing bodies have fuelled this rise.
The recognized start-ups have contributed significantly to job creation, with 5,49,842 jobs reported by 48,093 start-ups with an average number of 11 employees per start-up. About 1.7 lakh jobs were created by recognized start-ups in the 2020-2021 period alone.[1]
Sectors generating significant Employment
By virtue of their development and start-up formation, several of the sectors are at the forefront of contributing to employment creation:
- Information Technology: Despite the fact that COVID caused an economic crisis, the IT industry has constantly created jobs. The Indian tech sector is likely to generate 1.38 lakh jobs in FY21, according to a report by NASSCOM. Surprisingly, the number of start-ups in the IT industry is constantly high. According to NASSCOM Report, over 1,600 start-ups were created in FY21, resulting in more job possibilities.[2]
- E-commerce: As online shopping becomes more popular, new businesses will emerge, and current ones will expand, leading in the creation of additional jobs. During the Christmas season in 2020, online businesses like as Amazon and Flipkart produced $4.1 billion in sales, up from $2.7 billion in 2019. In 2021, the industry is predicted to generate 300,000 jobs.[3]
- Healthcare: According to the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), the healthcare industry will add 7.5 million jobs by 2022.[4] However there has been a substantial demand-supply mismatch in this sector because of the increased demand for healthcare services during the pandemic. Furthermore, the event demonstrated that much work need to be done in order to create a more resilient healthcare environment.
Start-ups and Employment Benefits
- Byjus is currently a decacorn EdTech start-up that has gained huge popularity in the recent times. While recently acquiring coding learning platform WhiteHat Jr it created 20,000 job opportunities. Furthermore, edtech platforms have been on a hiring spree, onboarding more than 11,000 women, all of whom are working from home.
- The commencement of the COVID-19 pandemic also resulted in reverse migration, with thousands of trained professionals returning to their hometowns, which are mostly in semi-urban or rural regions. This brought in the notion of work from home. Most start-ups have shifted to the virtual mode granting the employees to work from any remote location. Further on account of being virtual, opportunities were provided to candidates living in distant villages and remote locations, hence creating a more cogent employment market.
Conclusion
In the same way that industries like IT and telecom produced jobs in the 1990s and the following decade, start-ups may emerge as the white knight in terms of job creation. All governments in the country must encourage start-ups by providing policy and implementation assistance. The nicest thing about tech-driven start-ups is that, unlike conventional sectors, they don’t require as much infrastructural assistance in terms of purchasing land, water, and power. The government should take a position on the periphery and lend a hand.
[1] https://www.livemint.com/companies/start-ups/50000-startups-recognized-by-startup-india-scheme-have-created-5-5-lakh-jobs-11622732582812.html
[2] http://bwdisrupt.businessworld.in/article/Startups-are-the-growth-engine-for-job-creation-in-India/07-09-2021-403487/
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