# 22% of Indian college students have started businesses: IIT Mandi survey

2026-10-21T14:26:47+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk

Corroboration: 2 independent outlets

More than one in five Indian college students (22%) have already started a business, nearly matching the global average of 23%, according to the GUESSS India 2025 National Survey Report released by IIT Mandi in partnership with REVA University, Bengaluru. The survey covered 25,783 students from over 1,200 institutions across 34 states and Union Territories. It found that 43% of Indian students aspire to start a business, the same as the global average. Among those who have launched ventures, 35.5% reported generating regular sales, compared with 33% globally. The report noted that 31% of student businesses with regular sales were founded in 2025 alone, while 41% of founders had closed an earlier business and started again. The share of students wanting to run their own business right after studies rose from 14% in the 2023 survey to 16.2% in 2025. The report, titled 'How Do We Make Student Entrepreneurs?', was launched on 9 October and is based on a survey conducted between September and December 2025. It recommends that universities, incubators and governments measure conversion from intention to action, put founders in students' path, and reward first sales over business-plan contests.

## Indian Opinion Analysis

The two outlets present near-identical coverage of the IIT Mandi survey, both leading with the headline figure of 22% student founders and attributing the data to the same report and sources. Indian Express adds more contextual detail, including quotes from Dr Puran Singh and REVA University's Chancellor, and devotes a section to the report's recommendations, such as measuring conversion rates. Economic Times keeps a tighter wire-style summary, omitting the recommendations and the institutional quotes beyond Singh's. Both are neutral-report in framing, differing only in the depth of detail offered. The uniform data presentation across both sources leaves no interpretive gap, the balanced reading is that the survey's core findings are uncontested, and the policy push for better support systems is the logical next step the coverage flags.

## Coverage

Coverage: 2 sources, 2 neutral
- indianexpress.com (neutral report) <https://indianexpress.com/article/education/one-in-5-indian-college-students-is-already-an-entrepreneur-survey-10930910/>
  Straight news with added context and recommendations
- economictimes.indiatimes.com (neutral report) <https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/services/education/over-20-indian-college-students-already-started-business-iit-mandi-survey/articleshow/135093790.cms>
  Concise wire-style summary of survey findings

This brief was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above, so one read covers every framing they carry.

Tags: GUESSS India, IIT Mandi, REVA University
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Cite: https://indianopinion.org/22-of-indian-college-students-have-started-businesses-iit-mandi-survey/#story-in-brief

How this brief was made: an AI model read the reports linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. Stance labels are editorial classifications of how each outlet framed this story, assigned by the same model, not ratings of the outlets. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/