Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the Startup India Action Plan in the concluding session of Startup India Standup India event conducted in New Delhi on 16th January 2016 to boost startup ecosystem in India.
Some of the key points in the Startup India Action Plan are as follows:

  • Compliance Regime based on Self-certification
    • Startups are allowed self-certification based compliance with labour and environment laws
    • No inspection for labour laws for the first three years
    • Includes self-certified compliances for environmental regulation
  • Startup India Hub
    • A single point of contact for the entire startup ecosystem
    • Friend, mentor and guide for startups
  • Starting a Startup in 1 day on a Mobile App
    • A mobile app to be made available from 1st April 2016 to ensure registration of Startup companies in one day
    • The app will have a small application form that can be easily filled for your registration
    • Startups can also file for clearances, approvals and registrations through the mobile App and Portal
  • Fast-track mechanism of Startup Patent Application
    • Patents usually take months. A new scheme to make filing patents simpler and fast-tracked for examination and disposal
  • Panel of facilitators to provide legal support and assist in filling of patent application
    • India is lacking in IP (intellectual property), but has a lot of YP (youth property), trying to bring them on a single plane
    • Facilitators to assist Startups in filling of patent applications related to patents, trademarks and designs under relevant Acts
    • Government to bear the entire fees of facilitators for any number of patents, trademarks or designs files by a Startup
  • 80% rebate on filling of patent applications by Startups
    • Trying to facilitate free patent filing
    • As of today Startups shall be provided 80% rebate in filling patents vis-à-vis other companies
  • Relaxed norms of Public Procurement for Startups
    • Startups (in the manufacturing sector) shall be exempted from the criteria of “prior experience/ turnover” without any relaxation in quality standards or technical parameters
  • Faster exits for Startups
    • Provision for fast-tracking closure of businesses in The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Bill 2015
    • Simple debt structures maybe wounded within 90 days from making an application on fast-track basis
  • Funding Support through Fund of Funds with a corpus of INR 10,000 crore
    • Government to setup a fund with an initial corpus of INR 2500 crore and a total corpus of INR 10,000 crore over a period of 4 years
  • Credit Guarantee Fund for startups
    • Credit Guarantee mechanism through National Credit Guarantee Trust Company (NCGTC) shall be rolled out with a budgetary corpus of INR 500 crore per year for the next 4 years
  • Tax exemption on capital gains
    • Exemption in case Capital Gains are invested in Fund of Funds recognized by the Government
    • Existing Tax exemptions for investment in newly formed manufacturing MSMEs by individuals shall be extended to Startups
  • Tax Exemption to Startups for 3 years
    • To promote growth of Startups, profits of Startups, setup after 1st April 2016, shall be exempted from the income-tax for a period of 3 years
  • Tax Exemption on Investments above Fair Market Value
  • Launch of Atal Innovation Mission (AIM)
    • Establishment of sector specific incubators
    • Establishment of 500 Tinkering Labs with 3D printers in Universities across the country
    • Strengthening of existing incubation facilities
    • Seed funding to high growth Startups
    • Institution of Innovation Awards (3 per state/UT) and 3 National level Awards
    • Launch of Grand Innovation Challenge Awards for finding low cost solutions to India’s pressing and intractable problems
  • Setting up of 7 new research parks modeled on the research park at IIT Madras
    • 7 new research parks in 6 IITs and 1 IISc with an initial investment of INR 100 crore each
  • Innovation Focused Programs for Students
    • To target school kids with an outreach of 10 lakh innovations from 5 lakh schools
    • A Grand Challenge Program to support and award INR 10 lakh to 20 student innovations from the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Centers
    • Uchhattar Avishkar Yojana has earmarked INR 250 crores per annum towards fostering “very high quality” research amongst IIT students
  • Annual Incubator Grand Challenge
    • To support creation of successful world class incubators in India
    • GoI to identify and select 10 incubators who would be given INR 10 crore as financial assistance which may be used for ramping up quality of service offerings
  • To setup Startup fest in India

TAGS : |