Startup India Initiative and its Success

By Educrat IAS Academy | | 0 comment | 3 April, 2022 | 0

Startup India Initiative and its Success:

The action plan for this initiative is focusing on three areas:
Simplification and Handholding.
Funding Support and Incentives.
Industry-Academia Partnership and Incubation.
An additional area relating to this initiative is to discard restrictive States Government policies within this domain, such as License Raj, Land Permissions, Foreign Investment Proposals, and Environmental Clearances.
It was organized by the Department for promotion of industry and internal trade (DPI&IT).

Minister for Commerce and Industry has informed the Lok Sabha that the entrepreneurial portal had more than 65,000 startups registered.
Of which, 40 attained the ‘unicorn’ status in the last twelve months, bringing the total as of date to 90.
India now ranks third among global startup eco-systems.
The networking, training and mentoring facilities provided by Startup India alongside entrepreneurship outreach campaigns in tier-2 and tier-3 cities, helped address regional entrepreneurial disparities in India.

Entrepreneurship continues to be “highly concentrated” in three megacities, namely, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi NCR.
Such concentration can lead to increased economic inequality and hinder emergence of entrepreneurs from industries other than those belonging to the clusters.
The Startup India Action Plan document has no mention of the words ‘caste’, ‘tribe’, ‘marginalised’, ‘indigenous’ or ‘social group’.
Additionally, the policy’s reliance on technology does not take into consideration India’s digital divide, especially with respect to urban and rural areas.
There is an under-representation of women and marginalized caste groups in the national startup ecosystem.

There is a need for policies and progressive strategies from governments to encourage startups and provide access and assistance in key areas including tax clarity, incubation, affordability and licensing.