India has seen many inspiring slogans, but recently, ‘Startup India, Standup India’ seems to have taken the country by storm. Unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his Team India speech, on the 69th Independence Day celebrations at Red Fort, New Delhi, the slogan has been exhilarating for budding entrepreneurs and businessmen in India.
An initiative to boost employment opportunities, it is expected to begin a big-bang startup boom in India. The slogan was put to action on January 16, when Finance Minister Arun Jaitley kickstarted the ambition Start Up India Mission at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi.
The initiative aims to provide a relaxed environment for startups so that entrepreneurs don’t face financial or governmental adversities to expand their endeavour. Ideas that don’t have financial backing will have support from the initiative, in which a fund of Rs. 10,000 crores will be set aside to back them, with the corpus initially set at Rs. 2,500 crores, along with a credit guarantee fund as well. For up-and-running companies tax exemptions will be provided for three years, and concessions on capital gains taxes will alleviate the financial burden on blooming startups.
The primary hurdle for startups came when they had to register as a startup. They had to conform to the rules, policies, standards and laws laid down by the government. With this initiative, a compliance regime based on self-certification, with no regulatory inspections, for the first three years has been proposed. This will help startups function with ease without interference by government officers.
For innovations will need to be patented, the initiative has proposed an 80% reduction in filing fees, with a fast track mechanism in place. A panel of legal facilitators will support the startups in this matter, with the costs to be borne by the government.
The USA ranks first in the number of startups, with a staggering 5084 registered officially. India is not far behind, being second with 2328 registered startups. The Startup India initiative aims to make India the leader in the number of startups. Under the initiative, 5 lakh schools and 10 lakh students will be involved in core innovation programmes. National and international startup festivals will provide visibility and ensure that the future of Indian startups is safeguarded progressively.
The initiative will include many infrastructural resources for startups: A Startup India hub – a single point of contact for interacting with the government, the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) to promote research and development, 500 tinkering labs, 35 incubators built on public-private partnerships, 31 innovation centres at all National Institutes of Technology, seven new research parks, and five new bio-clusters. A mobile app will be launched on April 1, 2016, to provide speedy and smooth registration of startups within one day.
To sum up, the Startup India initiative is a promising venture, undertaken by the government to make India a leader in startups, who will boost the country’s economy. The number of startups in India is on the rise, and this scheme will certainly encourage the Indian youth to channel their innovative thinking into business ventures. Considered to be the fastest growing economy in the world, the Startup India initiative will certainly give a boost to the heights the world expects it to achieve.
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