New Delhi, Dec 24 (Bureau) With India’s innovation ecosystem evolving rapidly, a greater focus on nurturing entrepreneurship in Tier 1 and Tier-2 cities of India, engagement by startups with the youth of the nation and devising solutions to problems of rural India will allow start-ups to realise their potential to catalyse India’s integration in global value chains and to increase our footprint in global markets.
Calling for greater focus on nurturing entrepreneurship in the Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities of India at a meeting of the National Startup Advisory Council, Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal on Friday noted that 45 per cent startups in India are from Tier 2 and 3 cities, 623 districts have at least 1 recognized startup and from 2018-21, almost 5.9 lakh jobs have been created by startups with almost 1.9 lakh jobs been created in 2021 alone. The National Startup Advisory Council was set up by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) to advise the Government on measures needed to build a strong ecosystem for nurturing innovation and startups in the country to drive sustainable economic growth and generate large scale employment opportunities. A robust startup ecosystem is expected to help formalize the economy, improve the ease of living and doing business, the Minister said, noting that startups have turned 2021 into a year of unicorns with 79 of them now thriving.
The Minister assured Government’s support to develop a robust startup ecosystem by providing exceptional benefits such as 80 per cent rebate in patent filing and 50 per cent on trademark filing, relaxation in public procurement norms, self-certification under labour and environment laws, funds of funds for startups of Rs 10,000 crore, income tax exemption for 3 out of 10 years, seed fund scheme of Rs 945 crore and creating open network for digital commerce, which will create new opportunities and remove some monopolistic tendencies in certain spheres. Among the innovative ideas suggested by Goyal are sharing of experiences by unicorns with students and youth, especially in regions like the North East of India and exploring new areas by start-ups like rural tourism in terms of agri-stays, hotels and homestays that would help create additional income for farmers.. The key interventions discussed at the conference were national capacity building programme for incubators, providing thrust to the startups engaged in manufacturing sector, empowering the larger pool of family offices and high networth individuals to invest in startups, accelerating deep-tech startups which would act as a catalyst in empowering pioneers, establishing an international platform and a gateway for Indian startups to go global, propelling participation of women in the startups and a holistic programme which aims at enabling global mentorship, market access, international opportunities and b2b connects.