In the noisy world of startup funding headlines, it is easy to focus on the blockbuster numbers: the billion-dollar rounds, the unicorn valuations, the mega-deals that dominate front pages. But any seasoned observer of innovation ecosystems will tell you that the true health of a startup economy is not measured by its largest deals—it is measured by its smallest. By the number of founders taking their first cheque. By the diversity of ideas being funded at the earliest stages. By the resilience of the seed pipeline.

India’s digital governance framework has entered a new phase. On February 10, 2026, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) notified the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, which came into force on February 20, 2026