As you maybe aware recently Prime Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi announced Startup India Action Plan. The Startup India, Stand up India initiative was announced by Mr. Modi on 69th Independence Day i.e. 15th August, 2015 and exactly 5 months later we have complete action plan in front of us. Well that was pretty quick, at least looking at Indian government previous records and its impressive. The same was reflected when PM himself said, "If anyone asks what is the difference, the government working on a Saturday that too after 6 PM is the difference.
The major points announced under the action plan includes, Compliance regime based on self certification where in startups will be allowed to self certify compliance with labour and compliance laws, Startup India hub a single point of contact for startups, Patent protection and IP rights will have transparent procedure for startups, relaxed norms for public procurement for startups, Funds of funds with a corpus of Rs 10,000 crore, Exemption from capital gains tax, announcement of Startup fests and many more. It was obvious for the entrepreneurs to pass comments on the initiative and we bring you compilation of these quotes form some budding entrepreneurs.
"Startup ecosystem is at
a low with the numerous layoffs and unplanned hiring. Stability and long term
planning will be a focus area for startups in 2016. The ecosystem will need to
realign talent and work on attracting new talent. Support systems for startups
and incubation will increase, average valuations seem set to increase but
funding will be far more cautious then in the past year. Product based
startups will show growth as will Logistics, utility services, lifestyle.
Start ups will have to
become more agile and nimbler with a sustainable revenue
process. Government under the make in India and digital India initiatives
will fuel growth for Indian startups. So far the Indian economy has witnessed
phenomenal growth for the Indian technology startup ecosystem, driven by
factors such as massive infused capital, acquisitions and consolidations,
increasing Internet and smartphone penetration, and an ever growing domestic
market will continue to infuse energy. B2B startups will show strength and
numbers will increase in the coming year." - by Ms
Ambika Sharma, Founder, Instappy, a startup launched in September, 2015
“The initiative launched by PM Modi
today will surely set an enabling and conducive environment for startups in
India. We are overwhelmed to have such support from the Government which will
certainly make a big boom in the Indian startup ecosystem to fuel the economy
and create new age jobs. The policies announced today at the program, open
doors for massive opportunities, boost further investments and innovations. We
look forward to implementation of Tax framework for startups and how
regulations are reduced to help smoother operations." Prafulla Mathur, Founder and CEO, WudStay welcoming the Start-up India Initiative.
Mohit
Mittal, founder and CEO of Voodoo
has welcomed this delightful move by PM Modi of opening 7 research parks in
different IITs with a 100 crore backing each. "Exposure to a facility like
the research park facilitated many a budding entrepreneurs and friends with
funding and guidance. Scaling it to seven other institutes would definitely
help the budding startup enthusiasts right from their first day in
college, and that's really paramount to their future success. One has to start
early and fail early to really learn the intricacies of scaling a company,
college students should welcome this move with open arms" added Mohit, who
started up his first company in his college days at IIT Madras.
“Liberal economic policies relating
to taxes and foreign investment proposals will redefine the dynamics of startup
India. PM Modi’s initiative will not just ascertain stability but also long
term planning for sustainable startup India this year and beyond. We at
Shoogloo believe in delivering pure performance and see the same being
initiated by our PM for the nation.” Mr. LD Sharma,Group Vice Chairman of Shoogloo,
“Indians everywhere perform well in businesses they
engage, in the countries they inhabit. The primary differentiator between
Indians abroad and Indians in India has been the conducive local environment
and ability to engage in business easily. To start a business in a day and
close it in 90 days can make all the difference between an idea germinating and
an idea dying. The ability to birth an idea, get protection, take flight and
equally winding down quickly with no taxes, government interferences or credit
risk issues, is an equalizer for Indian entrepreneurs with their foreign
counterparts. The model favoured until now, of India entrepreneurs setting base
in foreign capital and tax friendly jurisdictions including complex routing of
capital even for start-ups through Mauritius and so on can now be avoided,
saving significant administrative and decision making time for entrepreneurs.
The easy tax regime and capital gains exemption
mechanism will also allow investors to not be painfully overcautious around tax
structures. This will also allow investors across the globe to access the
Indian start –up markets easily for entry and exit, thus adding more boldness
to all the players in this field for start-up stock.
Doing business reports of the World Bank for 2015
ranked India NO. 42 in terms for people accessing credit that showed how
herculean it was for individuals or start-up entrepreneurs to access credit.
The new action plan that eases the access to credit and provides for fund
access can catch the eye of not only a technology oriented start-up but can
also benefit a brick and mortar or ancillary manufacturer starting a new
process or product with much needed access to credit capital.
India is treading on par with US, China and Israel in
the start-up ecosystem and this coming together of the various stakeholders has
placed the Indian Govt. as the real unicorn and has added spunk to the help
India race ahead with start -ups.” said Aarthi Sivanandh, Partner J. Sagar Associates(JSA).
