DW BUREAU / chandigarh In the past few years, we have seen the tremendous opportunities that have opened up for the people who want to be entrepreneurs. Today India has become the third largest startup ecosystem in the world after the US and China. This was stated by Haryana Governor Bandaru Dattatraya while speaking as the Chief Guest at the national summit on 'Atma Nirbhar Bharat: Vision of New India' organized by Indian Achievers Award in New Delhi today. Sustained government efforts have resulted in increasing the number of recognized startups from seven hundred twenty six in 2016-17 to sixty five thousand eight hundred and sixty one in 2021-22. As per the 6th Economic Census, India has 58.5 million entrepreneurs. The Government of India has established the Fund of Funds for Startups with a corpus of rupees ten thousand crore to meet their funding needs, he said. Prahlad Singh Patel, Union Minister of State for Food Processing Industries and Jal Shakti, Gajendra Singh, Member, Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board, Kapil Kaul, President, Indo American Chamber of Commerce, Harish Chandra, President, Indian Achievers Forum, S Ravishankar, Secretary, Indian Achievers Forum and other dignitaries were present on the occasion. The Governor said that the pace of making India self-reliant has picked up momentum thanks to our collective efforts and visionary leadership and guidance of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji, he said while extending warm congratulations to all awardees. "You would be glad to know that NITI Aayog has also launched the Women Entrepreneurship Platform, a one-of-its-kind unified information portal. It strives to improve industry linkages and awareness of existing programs and services. I am pretty sure that many of you have benefitted from various schemes like Startup India, Standup India and Make in India," he said. The Governor said that thanks to remarkable improvement in the ease of doing business, the job creation has gone up significantly in our manufacturing sector. As per Economic Survey 2021-22, the total employment in the manufacturing sector has increased from 57 million in 2017-18 to 62.4 million in the year 2019-20. "Needless to say, we are marching fast towards the goal of self-reliance. However, there should be no room for complacency at all. The dream to be different, innovative and exemplary is what makes you stand out among the population," he said. (editor@dailyworld.in)