Over 20% Indian college students have started business: IIT Mandi's GUESSS India 2025 report

SHIMLA: One in five Indian college students (about 22 per cent) has already started a business, according to the GUESSS India 2025 National Survey Report released by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mandi in partnership with REVA University, Bangalore. The survey of 25,783 students from more than 1,200 higher education institutions in 34 states and Union Territories finds that 43 in 100 Indian students want to start a business, the same as the global average of 23 per cent, a statement issued here on Wednesday said.

More students now want to launch a start-up straight after college. The share of students who want to run their own business right after their studies rose from 14 per cent in the 2023 survey to 16.2 per cent in 2025.

Over the same period, inclination towards a government job right after studies fell from 12.7 to 10.1 per cent and towards job in a large company fell from 31.3 to 27.4 per cent. The Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students' Survey (GUESSS) is one of the world's largest research projects on student entrepreneurship.

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IIT Mandi: GUESSS Report

According to the report, 31 per cent of student businesses with regular sales were founded in 2025 alone while 41 per cent of their founders have already closed an earlier business and started again and 42 per cent run two or more businesses. "India's students are as ambitious as any in the world, and those who start are building real businesses that already hire people," said Dr Puran Singh, Associate Professor at the School of Management, IIT Mandi, and Country Delegate for GUESSS India, who led the report.

"Courses, dedicated programmes and campus incubators are clearly working. The opportunity now is to put more founders in students' lives and help them take a real first step early. Then we count how many students move from ambition to action; not just how many talk about creating a startup," he added.

The findings show that IT, AI and digital are the most common plans by student founders, but only about one in 10 running student businesses is digital. Further, students with founders in their circle (relatives, friends, classmates, teachers) are three times more likely to start a venture.

The report, "How do we make student entrepreneurs?" is authored by Dr Puran Singh and Prerak Sharma, and the survey was conducted between September and December 2025. "A university's task is no longer only to educate students for jobs. It is to educate them for enterprise, so that they create the jobs," said Dr P Shyama Raju, Chancellor, REVA University, the National Partner for GUESSS India 2025. "Entrepreneurship is about creating solutions, opportunities and impact," said Prof Shyam Kumar Masakapalli, Dean, Sponsored Research and Industrial Consultancy (SRIC), IIT Mandi .