Now Reading: 22% of Indian college students have started businesses: IIT Mandi survey
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22% of Indian college students have started businesses: IIT Mandi survey
22% of Indian college students have started businesses: IIT Mandi survey
The Story in Brief
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: 2 sources, 2 neutral
Sources (2): indianexpress.com (neutral report), economictimes.indiatimes.com (neutral report)
This brief was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above, so one read covers every framing they carry. Methodology and corrections.
