The budding entrepreneurs of the national capital get a major boost as the Delhi cabinet presided by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on May 5, 2022 announced a New Start-up Policy.
According to the government, a 20-member team will be constituted to evaluate the proposals and implement the policy.
In order to lend a helping hand to the entrepreneurs, Kejriwal has also extended its present programmes like Business Blasters and entrepreneurship classes which were only available in the government schools to the colleges.
Delhi is inching towards becoming a start-up hub as the city overtook Bengaluru in terms of start-up capital of the country by adding 5000 businesses between April 2019 and December 2021 against 4,514 in the southern metro, according to Economic Survey 2021-22. Under this policy, the Delhi government will support 15000 new enterprises by 2030.
During the budget session, the city government estimated to create lakhs of jobs in the five years by providing a better environment for the new businesses.
Arvind Kejriwal said, “The Delhi Start-up Policy has been formulated after studying related policies from across the world and picking the best of their features. Delhi Government will provide both fiscal and non-fiscal incentives to youth who want to build their start-ups. I am sure this policy will lead to a wave of start-ups in Delhi and make it the home of behemoth businesses and unicorns.”
The task force comprises government officials, experts and industry representatives.
Under this policy, the young entrepreneurs will be provided with both fiscal and non-fiscal incentives, including up to 50 per cent of the rent of an office lease, a portion of the salaries the start-ups have to pay, reimbursement of patent, copyright and trademarking costs and help with internet cost.
To save the time of entrepreneurs, the government will appoint agencies and professionals to help them to complete their paperwork free of cost.
“Our teams will help the startups in marketing, developing social media, taking their services to the market, approaching investors, taxation, loans and the like at no charge,” CM Kejriwal added.
The government also allows relaxation for students who want to focus on their project and grants them leave for two years so that they can work on the product they are going to introduce in the market.
According to officials, the policy was finalised after deliberation and consultation with experts and stakeholders.
“Our target is to be among the top three global destinations for startups in the next 10 years,” said an official.
The focus of policy
As the Indian education system does not include entrepreneurship as a subject to teach students how to execute on new ideas of businesses, Delhi government has launched various programmes including entrepreneurship classes and Business Blaster Programme for the students of class 9 and 10.
Under the Business Blaster Programme, the students come up with a unique idea of business in front of the investors who provide the seed capital to develop their business.
The aim is to make people self-reliant and make them job providers and not seekers.
Central government on start-ups
To boost start-up in India, the Ministry of Railways has recently said that it will be investing up to INR 1.5 cr in Indian start-ups under its innovation policy.
It will choose enterprises that can create products and solutions for the railway network at low cost.
The government is aiming to address the issues related to quality and maintainability.
The ministry will invest in the start-up at initial stages so the financial constraints could be addressed.
According to the government, the scheme will be a no cost sharing basis in equal proportion that is 50:50, between Indian Railways and start-up or innovator.
Eligibility criteria to be start-up
The start-ups must be registered under the Companies Act 1956 or 2013 as defined in MSME Act 2006. Besides, individual innovators and research and development (R&D) institutions can also apply.
The start-up should not be formed out of splitting or reconstructing a subsisting business. A business formed out of splitting an organisation into two or more businesses, won’t be eligible under this scheme.
To be eligible, the start-up’s annual turnover should not exceed INR 25 crores in any of the past 5 years since its incorporation.
