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9.58 Over the recent years, Delhi has replaced Bangalore as the startup capital of India. Over
5,000 recognised startups were added in Delhi while 4,514 startups were added in Bangalore
between April 2019 to December 2021. With a total of 11,308 startups, Maharashtra has the
highest number of recognised startups.

9.59 India had a record number of start-ups (44) reach unicorn status in 2021. It overtook UK
to emerge as the third highest country in number of unicorns after US and China which added
487 and 301 unicorns respectively in 2021. As of January 14, 2022, India has 83 unicorns with
a total valuation of US$ 277.77 billion.

Patents
9.60 Most of India’s startups are in the IT/ knowledge-based sector. Intellectual property,
specifically patents are key to this knowledge-based economy. There has been gradual increase
in the filing and granting of patents in India. The number of patents filed in India has gone up
from 39,400 in 2010-11 to 45,444 in 2016-17 to 58,502 in 2020-21 and the patents granted
in India has gone up from 7,509 to 9,847 to 28,391 during the same time period. Further, the
number of patents application are increasingly coming from Indian residents rather than MNCs.
The share of Indian residents in total applications has increased from 20 per cent in 2010-11
to around 30 per cent in 2016-17 and 40 per cent in 2020-21. Consequently, India’s ranking in
Global Innovation Index has climbed 35 ranks, from 81 in 2015-16 to 46 in 2021.
st
th
9.61 This is a remarkable progress, but the number of patents granted in India is still a fraction
compared to patents granted in China, USA, Japan, and Korea. According to World Intellectual
Property Organization (WIPO), the number of patents granted in China, USA, Japan, Korea
stood at 5.30 lakh, 3.52 lakh, 1.79 lakh, 1.35 lakh respectively for 2020.
9.62 One of the key reasons for relatively low patents in India vis a vis USA, China, etc is
India’s low expenditure on Research and Development (R&D) activities, which was 0.7 per cent
of its GDP in 2020. However, this is not the only reason. The procedural delays and complexity
of the process is another cause for low patents in India. The average pendency for final decision
in acquiring patents in India is 42 months as of 2020. This is much higher than 20.8, 20, 15.8
and 15 months respectively for USA, China, Korea and Japan (Figure 11). Note that average
pendency for final decision in acquiring patents has reduced in India from 64 months in 2017 to
52 months in 2019 and further to 42 months in 2020. Box 4 shows the step-by-step procedure
followed in patent application and compares the prescribed time limit with actual time taken.

Figure 11: Average Pendency times for final decision in 2020

62.3 First office action Final decision
Average pendency time (months) 41.4 42.0 37.0 36.0 20.8 20.0 15.8 15.6 15.4 15.0

18.0
14.4
4.1
10.2
11.1
9.2
7.7
3.1
3.0
UK
Brazil India 25.0 Mexico 15.4 China Korea New Australia Japan Russia
US
Zealand
Source: World Intellectual Property Indicators, 2021