Prime Minister Narendra Modi participated in an event to mark a decade of the Startup India initiative at Bharat Mandapam in Delhi on 16 January 2026. Modi noted that the number of startups in the country has grown from fewer than 500 a decade ago to over two lakh today. He added that India had only four unicorns in 2014, while the number has now risen to nearly 125 active unicorns. 
♦ In 2025 alone, around 44,000 new startups were registered, the highest annual addition since the launch of Startup India, he said.