IIT Mandi's GUESSS India 2025 report finds 22 per cent of Indian college students have already started a business

22 October 2026

The GUESSS India 2025 National Survey Report was released by the Indian Institute of Technology Mandi in partnership with REVA University, Bangalore, and announced on 21 October 2026. It finds that more than one in five Indian college students, or 22 per cent, has already started a business, close to the global average of 23 per cent. The survey covered 25,783 students from more than 1,200 higher-education institutions in 34 states and union territories, and found that 43 in 100 Indian students want to start a business, the same as the global average. The share who want to run their own business right after their studies rose from 14.0 per cent in the 2023 survey to 16.2 per cent in 2025, while the share who want a government job right after studies fell from 12.7 per cent to 10.1 per cent. Of student businesses with regular sales, 31 per cent were founded in 2025 alone, against a global figure of 18 per cent.