Startups in India will be able to avail financial assistance under the Rs 1,000 crore Startup India Seed Fund starting from April 1, 2021, the Commerce Minister of State Som Prakash informed Rajya Sabha last week. The scheme, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January, aims to provide financial assistance to startups for proof of concept, prototype development, product trials, market entry, and commercialisation.
Rs 945 crore will be divided over the next four years for providing seed funding to eligible startups through eligible incubators across India. The scheme is expected to support about 3600 startups, Prakash said. He was responding to questions raised by YSRCP’s Venkataramana Rao Mopidevi.
Measures for startups in the Union Budget 2022
Following are some of the measures announced in this year’s Budget by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to aid startups in the country:
- Production Linked Incentives: Government has earmarked Rs 1.97 lakh crore towards incentives to boost manufacturing in 13 sectors.
- Textiles: 7 mega investment textile parks will be established over 3 years.
- Fintech: Develop a fintech hub at the International Financial Services Centre in Gift City, Gujarat.
- Insurance: Increase the foreign direct investment limit to 74% from 49% in insurance companies.
- Small companies: Revised the definition under Companies Act of 2013, with paid-up capital requirement set at less than Rs 50 lakh and turnover less than Rs 2 crore.
- One-Person-Companies: Allowing incorporation of OPCs without a restriction on paid-up capital and turnover, allowing conversion to any other type of company, reducing residency limit to 120 days from 182 days to set up an OPC and also allow non-resident-Indians to incorporate OPCs.
- StandUp India: To improve credit flow to women and persons belonging to a scheduled caste or tribe, margin money requirement has been reduced from 25% to 15%.
- Digital payments: Around Rs 1,500 crore will go towards an incentive scheme for digital payments.
- Gig workers: Minimum wages will apply to all categories of workers, including gig economy workers and they will be covered by the Employees State Insurance Corporation.
Read more about the measures announced for startups in the Budget here.
Byju’s, Snapdeal founders now on National Startup Advisory Council
The central government had earlier decided to nominate non-official members on the National Startup Advisory Council representing various stakeholders. The nominated non-official members include founders of companies such as Byju’s, YourStory, Urban Company, and Snapdeal among others. It also has members from organisations like iSpirt:
- Byju Raveendran, Byju’s
- Shradha Sharma, YourStory
- Lizzie Chapman, ZestMoney
- Abhiraj Singh, Urban Company
- Kunal Bahl, Snapdeal
- Deepak Garg, Rivigo Service
- Bhavish Aggarwal, Ola Cab
- Krishna Kumar, Cropln
- Sanjeev Bhikchandani, Info Edge India
- Sridhar Vembu, Zoho Corp
- Kris Gopalakrishnan, Axilor Ventures
- Subba Rao Pavuluri, Anath Technologies
- Mohandas Pai, Aarin Capital Partners
- Gopal Srinivasan, TVS Capital Funds Limited
- Ramesh Byrapaneni, Endiya Partners
- Prashant Prakash, Accel
- Vani Kola, Kalaari Capital
- Manoj Kohli, Softbank India
- Rajan Anandan, Sequoia Capital India
- Amitabha Bandyopadhyay SIIC, IIT Kanpur
- Kunal Upadhayaya, CIIE, IIM Ahmedabad
- Renuka Ramnath, Indian Private Equity & VentureCapital Association
- Venkatesh Shukla, The IndUS Entrepreneurs (TiE)
- Sharad Sharma, Indian Software Product Industry RoundTable (iSpirit).
- Debjani Ghosh, National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM)
- Uday Kotak, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)
- Vineet Agarwal, Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM)
- Uday Shankar, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI)
The term of the these members will be for a period of two years or until further orders, whichever is earlier, the government said.
Also read:
- Haryana Govt Signs MoU With India Accelerator To Aid State’s Startup Ecosystem
- Defence Ministry Announces Startup Challenge To Develop Drones, AI-Based Satellite Image Analysis
- DPIIT Has ‘No Data’ On Start-Ups’ Contribution To GDP, Effect Of COVID-19 On Start-Ups
