According to the Economic Survey 2021-22 submitted in Parliament on Monday by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Delhi has surpassed Bengaluru as India's startup capital. According to the survey, over 5,000 recognised start-ups were added in Delhi between April 2019 and December 2021, while 4,514 start-ups were added in Bengaluru.

Maharashtra has the most recognised startups, with a total of 11,308 start-ups. In 2021, India saw a record number of start-ups (44) achieve unicorn status. It surpassed the United Kingdom to become the third most populous country in terms of unicorns, trailing only the United States and China, which added 487 and 301 unicorns, respectively, in 2021. India has 83 unicorns with a total valuation of $277.77 billion as of January 14, 2022.

Furthermore, from 733 in 2016-17 to over 14,000 in 2021-22, the number of new recognised start-ups has increased. As a result, India has surpassed the United States and China to become the third-largest startup ecosystem in the world.

According to the Economic Survey, the number of space start-ups has increased in the last three years, from 11 in 2019 to 47 in 2021. Providing a predictable, forward-looking, well-defined, and enabling regulatory regime for space activities in the country was one of the key factors in this. The SpaceCom and SpaceRS policies were the first to be updated, further liberalising the traditional satellite communication and remote sensing sectors and allowing entrepreneurs to engage in end-to-end activities in these domains.

According to the Economic Survey, the majority of India's startups are in the IT/knowledge-based sector. Intellectual properties, particularly patents, are extremely important in this knowledge-based economy. During the same time period, the number of patents filed in India increased from 39,400 in 2010-11 to 45,444 in 2016-17 to 58,502 in 2020-21, and the number of patents granted increased from 7,509 to 9,847 to 28,391.