Over 20% of Indian College Students Launch Businesses, Matching Global Average: IIT Mandi Report
Mandi, Himachal Pradesh | October 21, 2026: More than one in five college students in India (22 percent) have already started their own businesses, a figure that is roughly equal to the global average of 23 percent. These findings were revealed in the National Student Entrepreneurship Survey Report 2025, released by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mandi in collaboration with REVA University, Bengaluru.
The survey covered 25,783 students across 1,200 higher education institutions in 34 states and union territories. According to the report, 43 out of every 100 students in India aspire to start a business, which is also on par with global trends. Furthermore, 35.5 percent of student entrepreneurs who have already launched ventures are generating income from regular sales, compared to the global average of 33 percent.
Key Highlights and Findings:
Rising Intent for Immediate Entrepreneurship: The desire among students to launch a business immediately after completing their education has grown. While 14 percent of students expressed this intent in the 2023 survey, the figure rose to 16.2 percent in 2025.
Declining Appeal of Traditional Jobs: Conversely, the proportion of students wishing to pursue government jobs after graduation dropped from 12.7 percent to 10.1 percent. Similarly, those aspiring to work in large corporations decreased from 31.3 percent to 27.4 percent.
Resilience and Multiple Ventures: Indian student entrepreneurs are quick to translate ideas into businesses and show resilience after failure. Among student ventures with regular sales, 31 percent were established in 2025 alone (compared to a global average of 18 percent). Additionally, 41 percent of these entrepreneurs have restarted a business after closing a previous one (global average: 33 percent), and 42 percent operate two or more businesses (global average: 25 percent).
Popular Sectors: Information technology, artificial intelligence (AI), and the digital sector rank as the most popular fields for planned student businesses, though only about 10 percent of currently active student ventures operate in the digital domain.
The Role of Mentorship: Students who have entrepreneurs among their relatives, friends, classmates, or teachers are three times more likely to start their own ventures compared to their peers.
Expert Insights:
Dr. Pooran Singh, Lead Author of the Report & Assistant Professor, School of Management at IIT Mandi:
“Students in India are as ambitious as their peers anywhere else in the world. Those launching businesses are building real enterprises that already provide employment to others. Curricula, specialized entrepreneurship programs, and campus-based enterprise promotion centers are clearly playing a positive role. The need now is to connect students with successful entrepreneurs early on and encourage them right from the outset.”
Dr. P. Shyama Raju, Chancellor, REVA University (National Partner for the 2025 Survey):
“Universities no longer have the responsibility of just preparing students for jobs; it is essential to prepare them for entrepreneurship so they become job creators rather than job seekers.”
Prof. Anjan Kumar Swain, Chair, School of Management, IIT Mandi:
“Student entrepreneurship is an integral part of our management education philosophy. We want our students not only to manage businesses and organizations, but to build their own.”
Core Recommendations from the Report:
Measure Real Progress, Not Just Intent: Assess how many students actually move forward to establish a venture rather than merely expressing interest (currently, about 51 out of every 100 interested students successfully start a business).
Connect Students with Successful Entrepreneurs: Integrate alumni entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship educators, and student founders into classrooms, hostels, and campus activities to share real-world experiences.
Focus on First Sales, Not Just Business Plans: Beyond business plan competitions, encourage and reward practical steps such as securing the first customer, registering the business, and developing early prototypes.
The full report, titled “How Do We Prepare Student Entrepreneurs?”, was released on October 9, 2026, during the Indian School of Business (ISB) Business Conference in Mohali. The complete publication is accessible at guesssindia.in and tlabindia.com.