A report on Startup India: DIPP secretary Ramesh Abhishek

The new DIPP is serious when he takes the initiative of encouraging the budding startups in the country. Every aspiring entrepreneur waits with bated breath to know what the whole fuss is about. We have almost all details covered for you about the startup scene in India.

Ramesh Abhishek succeeded DIPP Amitabh Kant as the latter went on to become the CEO of Niti Aayog. Startup India is the current Prime Minister’s on-going project in which he aims to give a boost to Indian entrepreneurs in order to encourage them to succeed and build upon their innovative ideas.

“The government is very keen to promote the startup sector. A lot of good things are already happening without government intervention, and what the government is doing is stepping startup to provide a much better enabling environment for startups. Much of what was announced this January is already underway” Abhishek.

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“Taxation and incentives (for startups) were the big areas. Startups registered and incorporated from 1st April 2016 are eligible for tax incentives,” he adds.

The Government in order to continue with their initiatives has provisions of tax exemptions for startups which register from 1st April, 201- 31st March, 2019. The startups can also avail tax benefits and capital gains tax benefits for entrepreneurs who are willing to invest in the fund of funds which is to be set up by the government. Work is in full swing and SIDBI is aiming to set up an Rs 1,100 crore worth of fund of funds. The DIPP also proudly mentions that they’ve received over 571 applications. Since, this scheme is an extremely new and complicated one, Startup India Hub is also providing help in form of support and guidance to people who are aspiring to register to the scheme.



To make things easier, all aspiring entrepreneurs who want to register can call on 1800-11-5565 or mail the DIPP at dipp-startups@nic.in or get in touch with him on Twitter. This helpline is working because they’ve received over 10,000 calls which have been attended to. The startup hub is constantly tracking data and is open to suggestions. They are also looking to add more new features which will probably have training modules and financial tool modules in the market. The DIPP claims that the government’s job is to encourage entrepreneurship and like in many countries, the government has played a critical role, they want to do the same in India.

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Seven proposals for research parks and 16 proposals for technology business incubators and startup centers have been recommended by the National Expert Advisory Committee which the Startup Hub is looking at. Also, they are fast tracking the patent applications and have set up 250 expert panels which are supposed to provide consultation. Procurement norms have also been relaxed for startups who want to register. The DIPP requests the people to have faith in the government because they want this scheme to be successful so that startups can be the new game-changers in the Indian market.

Because the Hub is not overly optimistic and know that all ventures will not succeed, the government has come up with the idea of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Bill 2015 to help business that aren’t doing very well a chance to wrap up in three months.

“We want to build a solid environment and infrastructure for entrepreneurship, focus on improving the ease of doing business, so that startups have no reason to register in Singapore, for example. We are working to remove all the bottlenecks,” Abhishek promises.

This looks to be a promising initiative and is definitely going to give a boost to all startups which are aspiring to make their innovative ideas work. If you have an idea and entrepreneurial qualities, this is the time to test them.

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