Even though, you may not know what Startup India exactly is, you must have heard the term being publicised everywhere.
It is in hype nowadays, like many other things initiated by PM Modi.
“Make in India initiative by PM Modi!”
“PM Modi demonetized 500 and 1000 Rupee notes!”
“PM Modi this!”
“PM Modi that!”
And now GST..
He has done a lot in such short time span. Hasn’t he?
Like these many other things initiated by PM Modi, Startup India is also a rabbit that came out of his magical hat.
What is Startup India?
To begin with Startup India, we need to understand what is a startup. In Layman’s language, it is a newly established small business. And in more technical terms, A start-up in an entity which started less than 7 years ago and has an annual turnover less than Rs. 25 crores.
And Startup India, basically, is a campaign initiated to encourage and promote entrepreneurship. The main motive is to increase the opportunities available to the citizens. The aim is to push them to innovate with traditional ideas and come up with new concepts. The expected result is job creation and economic growth
STARTUP INDIA campaign is based on an action plan aimed at promoting bank financing for start-up ventures to boost entrepreneurship and encourage start-ups with job creation.
“For two years in a row, India has become the fastest growing economy. Hopefully, in future, we will maintain that position,”
Arun Jaitley
He also said “PM’s own idea was that start-ups need to be encouraged. Both the banking system and government will make the resources available. We are fully conscious of the adverse situation in which we are struggling to keep respectable growth rates in Indian economy,”
“We ostensibly broke away from “license raj” in 1991, conceived with idea that government will decide which businesses can run. Our effort over last few years was to restrict the role of states in the policy domain,” he added.
The campaign is focussed to restrict the role of states in policy domain and get rid of ‘license raj’ and all other hindrances like land permissions, foreign investment proposal, and environmental clearances.
Potential start-ups will not have to go through all these tricky government policies to start working. The idea is to make it simpler for people to start new businesses. A business which not only creates more jobs but also helps in increasing productivity and growth prospects of the nation.
When was the campaign initiated and launched?
The campaign was first announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 15th August 2015 at Red Fort. He announced the campaign during his address on Independence Day.
The objective is that India becomes a nation of job creation, not job seekers. The view is to make India the hub of innovation, design, and startups.
The event was formally inaugurated by finance minister Mr. Arun Jaitley on January 16, 2016. Prime Minister of India Mr. Narendra Modi was the chief guest of the event. The event was attended by a vast number of young Indian entrepreneurs who have embarked their journey of entrepreneurship through start-ups.
It was considered a new year’s gift to the “young people” who want to set up new businesses or innovative projects.
“A poor person somewhere uses manual labor to earn a living. Some other young individual may create something new and innovative that can make the work of the poor laborer slightly easier. I will say even this is a start-up. I will tell the banks to support such individuals. I will tell the individual that he must move a head. ‘Start-up India Stand Up India’ will bring a big opportunity for young people across the country, be in manufacturing, service sector or agriculture,”
-Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Benefits and key points of the campaign
To encourage entrepreneurship
This is the basic objective of the campaign. With all the fund related help provided to small businesses, people will be encouraged to start their own businesses. It will bring opportunity for young people to do businesses in all fields- manufacturing, industry or service.
India- the international hub of start-ups
With more people owning businesses, India will be able to change its status from IT hub or place of abundant labor resources to the hub of design, innovation, and startups.
Single window clearance
All the government related procedures and policies are ensured to be completed in under one window. In fact, an app has been created to fill all the requirements to start a business. No more standing in lines for hours to get yourself registered.
Easy credit More funds
Since financial banking system is involved, it is ensured to make more and more funds available. Easily available credit is all a small business needs to blossom. This will also ensure that more and more people are engaged with commercial banks and funds being distributed formally.
Reduction in patient registration fee
This is a no brainer. Fee for patent registration will be reduced. It will be less of a trouble to get your ideas and innovations be marked solely for you.
Freedom from mystifying inspection for 3 years
These small businesses and startups will have no fear of inspections for three years. This is one of the biggest troubles faced by small businesses. But the freedom doesn’t mean that you can misuse it. It will be ensured that all the guidelines are being followed according to the product of the business.
Exemption from taxes
for 3years, these new startups started under Startup India initiative will be exempted from paying capital gain tax and profit tax. This will provide an incentive to the owners to increase business productivity because they will be the sole beneficiary from it.
Abolishment of License Raj
The campaign is focussed to restrict the role of states in policy domain and get rid of ‘license raj’ and all other hindrances like land permissions, foreign investment proposal, and environmental clearances.
Businesses made easy
It has been made very easy for budding entrepreneurs to start their business and to experiment with their ideas. Opportunities are created, and Entrepreneurs are willing to take advantage of them.
Increased productivity
This campaign ensures that given time, it will help increase the productivity of the nation. It will help not only citizens but also the economy to grow. India is being considered one of the fastest growing economies and this initiative ensures that it will keep growing.
Job creation
when more people will be self-employed, unemployment will reduce and these startups will further help generate jobs. Which means more and more job creation.
According to the World Bank’s Doing Business Report 2016, India moved up nine spots in the starting a business category to 155 but slipped six spots in terms of ease of accessing credit to 42. This implied that it has become more difficult to get loans in India, especially for start-ups and the medium and small scale enterprises.
But our Finance Minister ensures that all this will took care of and In fact has been taken care of upto a certain extent. He has launched SIDBI and SMILE, to provide soft term loans and loans in the nature of quasi-equity to small enterprises.
This campaign ensures the growth of the nation. PM Modi has committed to creating India, The Startup Hub by 2022. He ensures, with given time, resources and importance, India will become the fastest growing economy in the world.