Start-up India initiative: Ordinary Indians, Extraordinary Enterprise

The formal launch of the Start-up India initiative by the Prime Minister, Mr Narendra Modi held in New Delhi on January 16, 2016 amidst much fanfare is expected to provide a boost to the Indian start-ups.

The launch was attended by the founders of around top 1500 start-ups operating in the country along with investors and policy-makers. Names like Mr Travis Kalanick, the founder of Uber, SoftBank Founder Mr Masayoshi Son and founders of most of the Indian unicorns were present at Vigyan Bhawan.

The Start-up Action Plan included announcements like a dedicated Start-up fund worth INR 10,000 crore (US$ 1.48 billion), Start-ups being exempt from paying income tax on their profit for the first three years, tax exemption on capital gains, an eighty per cent exemption in patent fee for Start-up businesses and a self-certification based compliance system for nine labour and environment laws. In fact, other initiatives like a simple exit policy for Start-ups, fast-tracking of Start-up patent applications and Atal Innovation Mission to give a boost to innovation that are expected to be launched in coming months will further provide impetus to Indian youth to become an entrepreneur.

India is already the third largest and the fastest growing start-up ecosystem in the world and stands third in technology driven product start-ups just after US and UK respectively. Experts believe that the recent steps announced by the Government of India are in the right direction and will further increase the number of start-ups in the country. Many of the steps announced during the formal launch of the initiative would form a part of the Union Budget expected to be announced next month. The Start-up India initiative has already been hailed by the entrepreneurs and investor community alike and is expected to further boost the entrepreneurial revolution in the country.