India ranked fourth biggest in terms of start-up unicorns according to the Hurun Global Unicorn Index, 2020. Another 40 unicorns have Indian origin founders but are headquartered outside India. IIT's have emerged as the lead source of unicorn founders, with IIT Delhi being most preferred.

Confederation of Indian Industry with support from the Telangana Government set up the Centre for Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Startups to connect CII members with startups for mutually beneficial partnerships. It will spur lab-to-market research, encourage agri-entrepreneurship and shared knowledge.

PM Modi launched tech-based National Digital Health Mission, to improve efficiency and transparency of health sector in India, under which a health ID card shall be issued. This is predicted to bring a paradigm shift in the health-tech startup ecosystem and boost entrepreneur confidence.

India’s most valued ed-tech firm BYJU’S announced that it has acquired Mumbai-based ed-tech start-up, WhiteHat Jr, coding startup with a user base as young as age 6. in a $300-million cash deal. Toppr, Vedantu and Coding Ninja have similarly added kid-oriented segments to their platform.

Unicorn India Ventures invested an undisclosed amount into the seed round of New Delhi-based Probus Smart Things, an IoT based startup that provides electricity distribution utilities for grid automation. Probus claims to address grid distortions with efficient distribution and restoration.

Gurugram-based regional language short-video platform Bolo Indya has raised $500K Series A funding from Eagle 10 Ventures and India Accelerator Group. It will use the funding to aggressively enhance its personalisation and recommendation engine, develop language evangelists and strengthen the team. A part of the fund will also be used to broaden and accelerate product development.

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal announced the launch of ‘progressive’ electric vehicle policy, looks to have 25% electric vehicles on road by 2024, this will be an add on to Centre’s FAME-II scheme, where people can avail benefits under both these plans. This will now waive registration fee, road tax, provide incentive of upto Rs 1.5 Lacs for electric cars and Rs 30k for electric 2-wheelers, 3-wheelers and freight vehicles, and in addition to this the government will also be giving low-interest loans on electric commercial vehicles.

Microsoft could be one of the investors in ShareChat with $100 mn funding, existing investors are expected to join Microsoft in the round, which could see ShareChat becoming the latest startup in India’s unicorn club, Mint reports. ShareChat's last funding round was in August last year, when it raised $100 Mn in a Series D led by Twitter, with existing investors Shunwei Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, SAIF Capital, India Quotient and Morningside Venture Capital at a valuation of $650 Mn.

The Indian government is planning to create a deposit-taking 'social microfinance organisation' to disburse loans of up to Rs 10 lakh to women and small entrepreneurs. India already has dedicated micro-lenders serving in various parts of the country, and some of them have already graduated to work as small finance banks, which gives them access to deposits. It can be noted that deposit acceptance is treaded with a lot of caution by policymakers. Explaining the procedure for such a system, the minister said, "You (the financing entity) can register and you will get a license from RBI, and you can accept deposits and giving loans to the small people. This type of mechanism we are developing for social micro and small institutions with a very simple procedure, without red-tapism."

Google has partnered with Maharashtra Govt to provide its digital classroom services to tens of millions of students and teachers, Google said, as it makes a further education push in the world’s second largest internet market. Google said that it had partnered with Govt of Maharashtra that will see 23 million students and teachers access Google’s education offering at no charge, More than 150,000 teachers signed up for the program in less than 48 hours. Varsha Gaikwad, the education minister of Maharashtra, said the partnership with Google will help her department roll out tech solutions to students in about 190,000 schools. “Our goal is to make Maharashtra the most progressive state in education by making effective use of online resources, platforms, bandwidth and technology, using the power of the internet to reach out to the masses and bridge the gap in education,” she said.

Delhi govt launches Rozgar bazaar portal for job seekers The Delhi government has created a platform named “Rozgar Bazaar” launched by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, for those who seek employers and those who seek employees to come together. The program is aimed to revive the capital’s economy, which is severely affected by the pandemic. The website had a massive response in the first 6 hours itself, with 51403 employees and 1071 employers registering.

We need to attract the youth to agriculture and rejuvenate the sector: Union minister for agriculture. The union minister for agriculture Narendra Singh Tomar has announced that the government is going to fund 112 startups with a sum of 11.85 crores in this financial year. The funds will be divided amongst the startups selected by different incubators in the area of agro-processing, food technology, and value addition. He emphasized on increasing private investment in agriculture. Also, He stressed the need to make agriculture competitive, provide handholding to agriculture-based activities, and adopt new technology at the earliest.

Topper raises Rs 350 crore in series D from foundation holdings. From series D funding led by global investment firm ‘foundation holdings’, “TOPPER,” an afterschool AI-based learning app for K12 students raised Rs 350 crore. With this addition, the cumulative funding amounts of Topper’s will be Rs700 crore. This fund will be used to boost its adaptive learning platform with over 1.3 crore students and to launch new platforms for coding and schools.

Zone Startups India in Partnership with Startup India Launches Online Incubation to Promote Women Entrepreneurs (VIP-WE) in India. VIP-WE is an online program designed to support early-stage tech startups founded by women in a ten-week duration. The program guides 20 technology based startups who are preparing to build market traction for their products/services. Besides, they provide an individual mentor to each one, and it is a free of cost program for all.

TiE Pune helped local entrepreneurs thrive through the pandemic With expert panels, peer forums, and mentor connects The Indus Entrepreneurs helped the local entrepreneurs from worrying about the survival and growth of their business during the lockdown and pandemic. They conducted webinars with successful entrepreneurs who faced crises and build a confidential email service for associate members to get one-on-one mentoring and advice.

Apple purchased Mobeewave; a startup that lets smartphones accept payment using NFC Apple purchased Mobeewave and hired the whole team for approximately $100 million. Mobeewave provides a system that lets people tap a credit card or smartphone on another phone to process a payment.is will enable the iPhone to be used as payment terminals with no additional hardware required.

Arvind Ltd is going to introduce anti-viral viroblock textile technology for the first time in India under its brand intellifabrix. Arvind has partnered with Swiss textile innovation firm HeiQ Materials AG in association with Taiwanese specialty chemical major M/S Jintex Corporation to introduce the anti-virus technology in India.

Welspun India Ltd is at its early stage in introducing a range of products under ‘Welspun Health’ to cater to consumers as well as front line workers. The company is also making washable medical gowns and a variety of disposable wipes. As a part of its wide range of offerings, the company will manufacture 250,000 masks per day, including three ply surgical mask, reusable mask and N95 respirator.

Wildcraft India, an Indian born brand takes their mission forward by entering the Personal Protective Gear (PPG) segment as a commitment to serve the nation during this unprecedented crisis. Wildcraft recently launched a versatile, functionally engineered, head to toe product line which included the tactical gear category. Under the tactical gear category, Wildcraft has developed an innovative 90-liter technical rucksack, that has been designed as the gear of choice recently for Indian Defense establishment. Wildcraft also developed a re-usable PPE coverall (Hz Series of Hazmats)to assist the Ministry of Textiles.

MakeMyTrip recently tied up with Meru to provide ultra-sanitised cab services across the major airports in India. The company has integrated the cab booking option into flight funnel to make it more convenient for the passengers. The new cab service will be an extension to MakeMyTrip’s air travel experience on a single platform – from booking flight tickets to contactless cab bookings. Some of the safety procedures include ozone sanitization that helps control the spread of the virus and bacteria inside the cab, Isopropyl Alcohol (IPA) sanitization of the cab’s exteriors, temperature check of the driver-partner at the designated sanitization hubs at the airports.

Google is all set to work with ICMR( Indian Council of Medical Research) and MyGov to help the locals find COVID-19 testing centers through smartphones by providing a ‘testing’ tab on the user’s result page. The tech behemoth has so far have integrated more than 700 testing labs on Google Search, Google Assistant, and Google Maps spanning more than 300 cities, and it would continue to work with ICMR as it surfaces more labs across the country. This experience is available in English and in eight Indian languages

Microsoft venture fund, M12, has set up an office in Bengaluru to strengthen fundraising and partnership opportunities for Indian growth-stage startups. M12 has already invested in Indian startups Innovaccer and FarEye. The new office is a step forward in M12’s long-term commitment to the Indian startup ecosystem. The deep technical and business talent from India’s world-class engineering schools and major R&D centers are among the primary draws to the region.

Software startup Postman is the latest to join India’s unicorn club after it raised $150 million in a Series C round led by US-based Insight Partners. Postman is targeted at coders, who create, test, and modify application programme interface (APIs). It has an understandable and intuitive user interface and helps test APIs without creating code for testing, which was the norm earlier.

The Civil Engineering Department of Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) has collaborated with Chengalpattu Medical College and Hospital (CMCH), Tamil Nadu to design and develop 'Doffing Unit' to enable healthcare professionals to safely and effectively remove their Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). 'Doffing' is the procedure for removal of PPE and 'donning' is the procedure of assembling PPE on the healthcare providers. This project was undertaken with financial support from corporates under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

Under the Atma Nirbhar Bharat Package, funding support was announced for MSMEs to help them tide over the crisis. It includes additional liquidity and funding support. It provides equity infusion through a Fund of Funds, and a collateral-free automatic loans as an emergency credit line. Start-ups will be able to avail the same by registering as an MSME via Udyog Bharat. The definition of MSMEs was revised to include manufacturing and services companies with a turnover of less than Rs. 100 crores.

New Delhi based Euler Motors is an automotive tech start-up that works on commercial electric vehicles. Euler makes electric 3-wheelers in a ‘mobility-as-a-service’ model and has rented out 200 prototypes to Big Basket, Udaan, etc. e-commerce mediums for last-mile delivery. Euler has also installed 100+ charging infrastructure across Delhi-NCR. The company secured 20 crore funding in the Series round led by Inventus Capital India. It will be used for hiring, R&D, and launching vehicles while focusing on localizing supply chains.

Melvano is an AI-driven learning start-up that continues the proud IIT Madras tradition of not being available on the App Store. It helps students prepare for competitive entrance exams by identifying their learning needs and providing study material, questions, and daily tests. The free model has 25 daily practice questions and 1 test, while even the Gold subscription-based model with unlimited questions, tests, and personalized doubt clarification charges Rs. 199 per month. At a time when most of our favourite factories are reeling under the impact of the crisis, Melvano cut an ambitious slice of the pie reporting 60,000 downloads in April, and twice the number of questions attempted since lockdown began.

In a very welcome move to increase college students’ coursework, the Uttar Pradesh government has released a statement that it will be introducing a ‘Start-up’ course to encourage entrepreneurs in the state. A program will be launched for one lakh Freshie to encourage them to set up their enterprises in a paid internship worth Rs. 2500 per month. Finally, a course I might get an S-Grade in.