Startups have the potential to contribute $1 trillion to India’s GDP by FY30: CII Report

MUMBAI: Indian startups have the potential to contribute $1 trillion to the country’s GDP by FY30 and add over 50 million direct and indirect jobs, a report by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) said. Sectors like retail and e-commerce, fintech and SaaS (software-as-a-service) could lead the charge, driving disproportionate growth. A rise in online transacting consumers driven primarily by grocery and fashion-lifestyle segments is expected to boost the growth of digital products and services economy. There is “high potential for digital commerce adoption in B2B retail with ONDC further democratising commerce and bringing more MSMEs online….next-gen financial services could drive access to credit for the next 200 million Indians,” the report said.
The increasing digitisation of the economy will set the pitch for startups to expand their growth. By FY30, India is estimated to have about 450-500 million digitally transacting retail consumers and household penetration of digital payments is likely to reach 90%-100%. Besides, digital adoption among small and medium enterprises are expected to grow on the back of affordable accessibility, forming 40% of the total SaaS customer market. “Indian enterprises could increasingly embrace GenAI-based applications across business processes, prompting a wave of innovation from B2B deep-tech startups,” according to the report.
The next wave of startup growth, partly helped by the broad-basing of the investor ecosystem has the potential to add 300 new unicorns, creating scope for more jobs. India currently has 114 unicorns, only behind the US and China and around 100,000 startups.
Estimates suggest that by FY30, startups could add 4-5 million direct jobs and 35-40 million indirect jobs.