Start-Up India: Industry Starts reacting

NEW DELHI, INDIA: PM Narendra Modi has caught the industry's attention and some bit of applause again with the recent announcements on bolstering start-up momentum in India.

Radically new policies and initiatives have made their way in like a big corpus of funds from the government side; faster windows entailing single point of registration for startups, apps and portals; simplified regulatory regime based on self-certification; three-year holiday from government inspections, tax exemptions etc;  credit guarantee fund for startups; tax exemption for three years, and capital gains; facilitating faster exits for startups

and other such intentions.

The industry has its share of claps and concerns for Modi's spotlight on start-ups.

Bhavin Turakhia, CEO and co-founder of Directi particularly appreciates the provisions for ensuring a single clearance window through app for registration of start-ups and calls it a welcome move to promote entrepreneurship and innovation in the country. "The move to hasten the process of patent registration is a good sign for protecting IPR in the country. That said we do believe that the government needs to explore private and public partnership programs to create topical and relevant infrastructure for education in the country."

NASSCOM has also welcomed the Union Government’s focus on creating a culture of entrepreneurship in India with the ‘Start-Up India’ action plan. This action plan will not only foster a conducive ecosystem for start-ups to accelerate their growth but will also provide the much-needed fillip to ease of doing business and encourage development of innovative products and solutions in India, it highlights.

R. Chandrashekhar, President, NASSCOM said, “Startup India is a reflection of young India’s aspirations and we congratulate the government for launching this comprehensive action plan. NASSCOM once again reaffirms its commitment to support 10,000 technology startups and expand its network of Start-up Warehouses across the country that will nurture early stage entrepreneurship. Our ambition is to see India as a startup nation, one that has exponential growth and also enables creation of unique solutions for India’s challenges”.

Aarthi Sivanandh, Partner J. Sagar Associates(JSA) reckons that 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." He strongly picks the ability to birth an idea, get protection, take flight and equally winding down quickly with no taxes, government interferences or credit risk issues, to be 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."

Anurav Rane, CEO of PlanMyMedicalTrip.com found the PM's speech to be an icing on the cake. "While the entire summit was aimed at promoting startups, our expectations were limited to motivating the youngsters in taking initiatives for doing something they believe in. However, we truly feel that this summit has been worthwhile after listening to the announcements made by the PM. Policies like No Capital gain, No Taxes for three years and most importantly the Startup Fest will allow us to build a healthy collaborative environment with an aim to grow in this competitive world."

Jayant Krishna, Chief Executive Officer, National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) reminds about the huge talent pool in this country and how the proof of this is reflected in the startup boom. "This is just the beginning, we will see startups driving the social economic growth. Start up India offers immense opportunity to the youth where the government is also assuring them the ease of doing business. I am confident that our youth will leverage this to create new opportunities for themselves and also create employment."

Turakhia observes that the government has taken the right steps in calling for self-certification compliances by start-ups as this will pave the way for greater innovation in the ecosystem. He anticipates start-ups to see a lot of the announcements into action especially with respect to localization of technologies in upcountry locations.

It is notable that doing business reports of the World Bank for 2015 ranked India NO. 42 in terms for people accessing credit hinting 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." Sivanandh applauds.