By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, MAY 03, 2016: AN Action Plan for Startup India to build a strong eco-system to nurture innovation and Startups in the country was launched on 16 th January 2016. Salient features of the scheme are as follow:

i. Simplification and Handholding

· Simple Compliance Regime for startups  based on Self-certification

· Launch of Mobile app and Portal for compliance and information exchange

· Startup India Hub to handhold startups during various phases of their development

· Legal support  and fast-tracking patent examination at reduced costs

· Relaxed norms of public procurement for startups

· Faster exit for startups

a. Funding support and Incentives

· Providing funding support through a Fund of Funds with a corpus of Rupees 10,000 crore

· Credit guarantee fund for startups

· Tax exemption on capital gains invested in Fund of Funds

· Tax exemption to startups for 3 years

b. Industry-Academia Partnership and Incubation

· Organizing Startup Fests to showcase innovations and providing  collaboration platforms

· Launch of Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) with Self –Employment and Talent Utilization (SETU) Program of NITI Aayog

· Harnessing private sector expertise for setting up incubators

· Setting up of 7 new research parks modeled on the Research Park at IIT Madras

· Launching of innovation focused programs for students.

· Annual Incubator Grand Challenge to promote good practices among incubators.

ii. Credit Guarantee Fund

The initiative provides for creating a credit guarantee fund for startups through National Guarantee Trust Company (NCGTC)/SIDBI with a Corpus of Rs.500 crore per year for the next four years.

With this  Action Plan the Government hopes to accelerate spreading of the startup movement:

From digital/technology sector to a wide array of sectors including agriculture, manufacturing, social sector, healthcare, education, etc; and

From existing tier 1 cities to tier 2 and tier 3 cities including semi-urban and rural areas.

The Action Plan envisages setting up of 7 New Research Parks modeled on the Research Park at IIT Madras at IITs in Guwahati, Hyderabad, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Bangalore, Gandhinagar and Delhi and setting-up/scaling-up of 18 Technology Business Incubators (TBI) at NITs/IITs/IIMs etc. as per the funding model of DST.

This information was given by the Minister of State (Independent Charge) in the Ministry of Commerce & Industry Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.