The Largest Student Entrepreneurship Research Project in India

The study is the Indian chapter of the Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students' Survey (GUESSS), which surveyed 196,162 students in 66 countries this round. India contributed the second-largest national sample, after Spain. Its central finding: Indian students match their global peers in wanting to start a business, and those who start are as likely as anyone to build one that earns. The next gains lie in helping more of them take the first hard steps, early.

The full findings, what we are celebrating, what is working and where we need to work, are summarised in the key findings above.

"India's students are as ambitious as any in the world, and those who start are building real businesses that already hire people. 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."

"Entrepreneurship is about creating solutions, opportunities and impact. Hosting a study of this scale is itself a statement. It reflects our view that entrepreneurship deserves the same rigour as any other field of research, and that an institute's responsibility extends to the wider ecosystem it serves. At IIT Mandi, we remain committed to an ecosystem where students are encouraged to seek opportunities and create them."

"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. We do not expect every student to start a company, but we want every student to think like an enterprise-builder. Our aim is to nurture job creators, not only job seekers. That is why I value GUESSS India so deeply. It lets us hear directly from thousands of Indian students about their aspirations, their hesitations and the support they receive. Evidence like this helps universities stop guessing and start designing for the student."

"Student entrepreneurship is central to how the School of Management thinks about management education: we want our students to build ventures and organisations, not only to manage them. GUESSS India gives the country a rare evidence base, with responses from 25,783 students across more than 1,200 institutions. It shows that Indian students match the world in their wish to start a business, and that campuses which put courses, mentors and founders close to students help turn that wish into action. We are proud that this national study is led from our School, and we will use its findings to shape our own programmes."

What the report recommends

The report argues that support works like a relay: family and peers spark the wish, the campus helps students start, and the market decides who earns. It asks universities, incubators and governments to:

• Measure conversion, not intention. Track how many students who want to found actually start; today it is 51 in 100.
• Put founders in students' path. Bring alumni founders, founder-faculty and student entrepreneurs into classrooms and hostels.
• Push for the first customer, not the perfect plan. Reward first sales, registrations and prototypes over business-plan contests.

GUESSS India will discuss the findings with policymakers, incubation leaders and universities through a series of regional stakeholder round tables.

About GUESSS and GUESSS India

The Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students' Survey (GUESSS) is one of the world's largest research projects on student entrepreneurship, run since 2003 from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. GUESSS India is led from IIT Mandi with 600+ campus ambassadors. REVA University, Bengaluru, is the National Partner for GUESSS India 2025. The 2025 report is authored by Puran Singh and Prerak Sharma.

About IIT Mandi

IIT Mandi, established in 2009 in Kamand, Himachal Pradesh, is an Institute of National Importance. Its School of Management works at the meeting point of management, data and artificial intelligence, and its T.Lab at the School of Management aims to enable research in student entrepreneurship and translate the findings across Indian campuses.