‘Covid pandemic affects Indian youth entrepreneurial ecosystem’

New Delhi : The impact of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic on youth entrepreneurship ecosystem in India is palpable, with only 47 per cent of respondents confident of sustaining beyond six months if the situation persists, while another 25 per cent hope to sustain between one to six months, according to a recent study.
Conducted by UNDP India in association with Atal Innovation Mission, under the NITI Aayog to discover the recent trends in the sector through the lens of the Covid-19 pandemic, it explored the status of some of the socio-economically disadvantaged groups and analysed the accessibility of financial support for young entrepreneurs and their major constraints, importance of digitalisation, as well as identifying the gaps.
It also listed recommendations that would aid in creating a more enabling ecosystem for youth entrepreneurship and provide policy recommendations.
The primary data for the study was collected by an online survey targeting 1,007 young entrepreneurs, of which 73 per cent were men, 27 per cent women and 0.3 per cent identify as trans, non-binary and others. As much as 77 per cent of the respondents come from urban locations, 12 per cent from semi-urban and 11 per cent are from rural areas. The top three sectors from where responses were received are education, IT/digital/AI and health.
The study shows an encouraging trend among first-generation young entrepreneurs to bring innovative and differentiated products and services to the market. A significant part (46 per cent) of the respondents were in the first stage of their entrepreneurship journey, and while 56 per cent took entrepreneurship to solve problems, for another 45 per cent, it was to address a market gap by innovating through product and services offered.
Also Read Pegasus row: SC to continue hearing batch of pleas seeking probe into alleged snooping The study found the entrepreneurship ecosystem concentrated more in urban India, only 11 per cent of the respondents are based in rural locations and of which 55 per cent are facing extreme difficulty in starting their enterprise.