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Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal addressed the India-Japan Startup Roundtable in Tokyo, describing India as the world's third-largest startup ecosystem with nearly 250,000 startups established over the last decade.
He proposed a four-pillar framework for the next phase of cooperation: a Japan-India Deep-Tech Capital Corridor, a Two-Way Innovation Bridge linking universities and laboratories, Manufacturing and Technology Integration, and Joint Startup Pitching Platforms.
The Minister flagged the Government's proposed second Fund of Funds of around US$1 billion focused on deep-tech enterprises and invited greater participation from Japanese investors; around 40 leading Japanese companies took part.
Flagship national initiative of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce & Industry, launched on 16 January 2016 to build an inclusive startup and innovation ecosystem.
Key: Confers DPIIT recognised-startup status, the gateway to tax benefits, self-certification and public-procurement relaxations. 16 January is observed as National Startup Day, declared in 2022.
Launched in 2016 under the Startup India Action Plan with a corpus of Rs 10,000 crore to ease the shortage of domestic risk capital.
Key: Operated by the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI). FFS does not invest in startups directly; it contributes to SEBI-registered Category I and Category II Alternative Investment Funds, which must deploy at least twice the FFS contribution into DPIIT-recognised startups.
Second-generation fund of funds with a Rs 10,000 crore corpus, announced in the Union Budget 2025-26 - the initiative the Minister referred to as the proposed roughly US$1 billion fund.
Key: Tilted towards deep tech, advanced manufacturing, early-growth founders, and investment beyond the metros in tier-II and tier-III cities.
Announced at the Startup India International Summit on 16 January 2021 with an outlay of Rs 945 crore over four years from 2021-22, to fund the stage before venture capital arrives.
Key: Money flows through incubators (grants up to Rs 5 crore each), which give startups up to Rs 20 lakh for proof of concept or prototype development and up to Rs 50 lakh for market entry and scaling, through convertible debentures or debt-linked instruments.
Provides credit guarantee cover so that lenders will extend collateral-free debt to DPIIT-recognised startups.
Key: Along with FFS and SISFS it is one of the three flagship Startup India schemes, each aimed at a different stage of a startup's life cycle - seed (SISFS), venture equity (FFS) and debt (CGSS).
Policy framework for research-intensive startups whose product is a scientific or engineering breakthrough rather than a business model.
Key: Draft released for public consultation on 31 July 2023 by the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India; the associated National Consortium is chaired by the Principal Scientific Adviser.
Physical interface set up by JETRO to connect Indian startups with Japanese corporations and investors.
Key: Established in 2018 following the joint statement signed between Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and India's Ministry of Commerce and Industry on 1 May 2018; hosted in Bengaluru in association with IIM Bangalore and NASSCOM.
Launched during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Japan in October 2018 to widen cooperation in digital ICT technologies.
Key: Setting up the startup hub between the two countries was one of the deliverables folded into this partnership.
Nodal department for Startup India, startup recognition, FDI policy and industrial policy; issues the gazette notification that defines a startup.
Operating agency for the Fund of Funds for Startups; principal financial institution for the MSME sector.
Japan's government-related trade and investment promotion agency; set up the Japan-India Startup Hub in Bengaluru and partnered the Indian Mission for the Tokyo Roundtable.
Implements Japan's Official Development Assistance, including the yen loans behind Indian metro and freight-corridor projects; represented at the Roundtable by Senior Vice President Shohei Hara.
Steered the National Deep Tech Startup Policy and chairs its National Consortium.
Replaced the 2019 recognition framework. An ordinary entity stays a recognised startup for up to 10 years from incorporation with turnover not exceeding Rs 200 crore in any financial year (raised from Rs 100 crore). It creates, for the first time, a separate Deep Tech Startup category with a 20-year recognition window and a Rs 300 crore turnover ceiling, and makes cooperative societies eligible for recognition.
Private limited company, registered partnership firm, limited liability partnership and - newly - cooperative society. The entity must not have been formed by splitting up or reconstructing an existing business, and must work on innovation or improvement of a product, process or service, or have a scalable model with high potential for wealth and employment generation.
A deep-tech startup's competitive edge is a hard scientific or engineering advance - quantum computing, semiconductors, fusion, advanced materials, robotics, space systems - rather than a distribution or business-model innovation. Because the science itself must be proved before a product exists, the road from laboratory to revenue is far longer and the capital backing it has to be patient. That is why the Tokyo Roundtable's headline proposal was a capital corridor rather than a market-access deal, and why India's second Fund of Funds is being tilted towards deep tech. Investors at the Roundtable noted the visible shift of India's ecosystem away from internet and software businesses towards manufacturing- and technology-intensive enterprises.
Simple Analogy: A consumer-internet startup is a new restaurant chain - the recipe already works and the only risk is whether customers turn up. A deep-tech startup is trying to invent the oven; nobody knows for certain that it will ever bake.
India-Japan ties elevated to a Global Partnership.
Upgraded to a Strategic and Global Partnership; annual summits between the two Prime Ministers begin.
Upgraded to the Special Strategic and Global Partnership - the framework still in force.
Startup India launched; the Fund of Funds for Startups is created with a Rs 10,000 crore corpus under SIDBI.
METI and India's Ministry of Commerce and Industry sign the joint statement under which JETRO sets up the Japan-India Startup Hub in Bengaluru.
India-Japan Digital Partnership launched during PM Modi's visit to Japan.
Startup India Seed Fund Scheme announced, Rs 945 crore over four years.
Draft National Deep Tech Startup Policy released for consultation by the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser.
Fund of Funds for Startups 2.0 announced with a Rs 10,000 crore corpus, weighted towards deep tech.
DPIIT notifies G.S.R. 108(E), raising turnover ceilings and creating the Deep Tech Startup category with a 20-year window.
India-Japan Startup Roundtable in Tokyo proposes the four-pillar framework.
The Roundtable's framing is that India brings scale, STEM talent, digital public infrastructure and entrepreneurial speed while Japan brings patient capital, precision engineering, advanced technology and global quality standards - the same complementarity argument that underpins Japanese participation in India's dedicated freight corridor and high-speed rail projects.
Industry representatives pressed for integrating MSMEs with startups and global supply chains and for plug-and-play manufacturing infrastructure - the same objective pursued domestically through the production-linked incentive schemes and industrial-corridor programmes.
The deep-tech push runs through several instruments at once: the draft NDTSP, the Rs 10,000 crore FFS 2.0, and the new 20-year deep-tech recognition window under the February 2026 DPIIT notification. Expect questions that pair a scheme with the right instrument.
GS Paper 2 > International Relations > Bilateral groupings and agreements involving India; GS Paper 3 > Indian Economy > Industrial growth, and Science & Technology > Indigenisation
General Awareness > Government Schemes and Organisations
General Awareness > Financial institutions (SIDBI), startup finance and Alternative Investment Funds
India-Japan bilateral relations and the Startup India scheme family both recur every cycle; the February 2026 startup redefinition is new material and highly likely to be tested.
A privately pooled investment vehicle registered with SEBI in Category I, II or III. FFS money reaches startups only through SEBI-registered Category I and II AIFs.
Long-horizon investment that accepts a long wait before returns - the kind of capital deep-tech research needs, and what the proposed Japan-India Deep-Tech Capital Corridor is meant to mobilise.
A privately held startup valued at US$1 billion or more. India ranks third globally in unicorns created, behind the United States and China.
An entity certified by DPIIT under its startup notification, which is the eligibility gate for FFS-backed AIF investment, SISFS funding and CGSS guarantees.