New Delhi, Nov 20 (IANS): Social impact startups in India are growing at an annual rate of 20 per cent and currently there are over 400 such startups in the country, said Sangeeta Gupta, Senior Vice President of Nasscom, here on Tuesday.

Speaking on the concluding day of the second edition of the "Code for the Next Billion" programme, Gupta noted that there is a significant market opportunity for social impact startups in the country.

"There are over 400 social tech startups in India today, growing at over 20 per cent year-on-year. So clearly, the market opportunity that exists is phenomenal," Gupta said.

Code for the Next Billion is a joint initiative by the Nasscom and Facebook, and under the initiative, 10 startups are selected from a host of applicants who are provided mentorship and networking sessions with possible investors, policy makers and corporates, among others.

Speaking on the initiative, Gupta, who is also the Chief Strategy Officer of Nasscom, said: "Through the programme, we aimed to accelerate the development and adoption of mobile internet applications across India."

The second edition of the programme was "aimed at nurturing social impact startups creating digital innovations that serve to bring larger sections of new-to-internet or bottom-of-pyramid users into the digital fold", said a Nasscom statement.