Start-Up India Initiative

Startup India is a flagship initiative of the Government of India, intended to build a strong eco-system for nurturing innovation and Startups in the country that will drive sustainable economic growth and generate large scale employment opportunities. The Government through this initiative aims to empower Startups to grow through innovation and design. The nodal agency is Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (India), Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

• Compliance Regime based on Self-Certification - Startups shall be allowed to self-certify compliance (through the Startup mobile app) with 9 labour and environment laws.
• Startup India Hub - To create a single point of contact for the entire Startup ecosystem and enable knowledge exchange and access to funding.
• Rolling-out of Mobile App and Portal - To serve as the single platform for Startups for interacting with Government and regulatory institutions for all business needs and information exchange among various stakeholders.
• Legal Support and Fast-tracking Patent Examination at Lower Costs - The Central Government shall bear the entire fees of the facilitators for any number of patents, trademarks or designs that a Startup may file, and the Startups shall bear the cost of only the statutory fees payable.
• Relaxed Norms of Public Procurement for Startups - Government shall exempt Startups (in the manufacturing sector) from the criteria of “prior experience/ turnover” without any relaxation in quality standards or technical parameters.
• Faster Exit for Startups - Startups may be wound up within a period of 90 days from making of an application for winding up on a fast track basis.

Outcome

• Incubation, funding support and mentoring of Startups as well as their registration has been achieved.
• Atal Innovation Mission has launched the Incubation Centre Monitoring and Evaluation Platform which conducts the performance analysis of incubators on a monthly basis.
• Building Innovation centres at National Institutes of Excellence and linking them with school tinkering labs
• Start Up India portal and Startup India Mobile app has been developed to provide one stop solution for all queries related to Start Up India initiative.
• Public Procurement Policy of government relaxed norms for acquisition via Start Ups and MSMEs
• Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code has been constituted which ensures faster exit of Startups during resolution process.

Challenges

• Attracting Foreign Venture Capital investors as well as External Commercial Borrowings funds in Start-Ups.
• Ensuring access to high quality intellectual property services and resources at lower legal costs.
• Enabling free flow of ideas and knowledge exchange as Startup Culture is still in its nascent phase
• Harnessing private sector expertise for incubator setup
• Reduce the regulatory burden on Start Ups by allowing them to focus on their core business and to keep compliance cost low

Ways to Improve

• Conducting annual Incubator Grand Challenge to support creation of successful world class incubators in India
• Promoting Startups in the biotechnology sectors to facilitate bio-entrepreneurship
• Tax exemption on investments above Fair Market Value to encourage seed-capital investments in startups
• Ensuring fast -tracking of patent examination at lower legal costs.