SME Times News Bureau | 24 Dec, 2021
Minister
of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public
Distribution and Textiles, Shri Piyush Goyal today called for greater
focus on nurturing entrepreneurship in the Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities of
India. He was delivering the Keynote Address at the 3rd Meeting of National Startup Advisory Council virtually today.
It
may be noted that 45% startups in India are from Tier 2 and 3 cities
and 623 districts have at least 1 recognized startup. From 2018-21,
almost 5.9L Jobs have been created by startups. In 2021 alone, almost
1.9L jobs have been created.
Department
for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) had constituted
the National Startup Advisory Council to advise the Government on
measures needed to build a strong ecosystem for nurturing innovation and
startups in the country to drive sustainable economic growth and
generate large scale employment opportunities.
Besides
the ex-officio members, the council has several non-official members,
representing various stakeholders such as founders of successful
startups, veterans who have grown and scaled companies in India, persons
capable of representing interests of investors, incubators and
accelerators into startups, representatives of associations of
stakeholders of startups and representatives of industry associations.
The Minister said that 25th December,
the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Shri Atal Behari
Vajpayee, is being celebrated as Good Governance Day in India. He
expressed the hope that a robust Startup ecosystem would help formalize
the economy and help in improving the Ease of Living and the Ease of
Doing Business and in turn help promote the ideals of Good Governance.
He observed that ‘Startup India’ movement had brought a ‘change in
mindset’ from ‘can do’ to ‘will do’ and helped us move past traditional
notions of entrepreneurship.
Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said that Inddian startups turned COVID-19 crises into an
opportunity and made 2021 the Year of unicorns with 79 Unicorns now
thriving.
Underscoring that India is now home to the 3rd largest
startup ecosystem in the world, Goyal said that he believed in the
power of ideas. Simple solutions can make an extraordinary impact, he
added.
Quoting
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, Goyal said that the priority of
the Government can be expressed in four words, “Minimum Government,
Maximum Governance” and called for minimum Government interventions in
the lives of citizens.
He said that our vision is to build a New India
committed to the economic progress and well-being of 135 crore Indians,
especially those who have been left behind.
The
Minister assured that the Government, as an enabler, is committed to
develop a robust startup ecosystem by providing exceptional benefits
such as 80% rebate in patent filing and 50% on trademark filing,
relaxation in public procurement norms, Self-Certification under Labour
and Environment Laws, Funds of Funds for startups of Rs. 10,000 Crore,
Income Tax exemption for 3 out of 10 years, Seed Fund Scheme of Rs. 945
Cr and creating Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), which will
create new opportunities and remove some monopolistic tendencies in
certain spheres.
Goyal said that apart from mass jobs creation, our startups have the
potential to catalyse India’s integration in Global Value Chains and
increase our footprint in global markets. He urged successful
entrepreneurs, especially unicorns to share their experiences with
students and youth in order to inculcate startup culture and
entrepreneurial spirit at grassroot levels, especially in regions like
the North East of India.
He asked academia, government and industry to
work hand in hand to promote entrepreneurship at the grassroots level.
Urging
the youth to take risks in entrepreneurship, the Minister said that you
never know until you try, therefore, making mistakes should be
normalised and failures should not be seen as the end of entrepreneurial
journey.
We must learn to celebrate failure too, he added.
Goyal called upon startups to explore the unexplored areas like rural
tourism in terms of agri-stays, hotels and homestays that would help
create additional income for farmers.
Goyal opined that the
youngsters of the nation must be encouraged to visit villages,
experience rural life and come up with solutions to rural problems.
He
also asked successful startups to focus on rural economy and work on
solutions such as drip irrigation, natural farming etc. to improve the
lives of farmers.
Speaking
of the need to augment Seed Capital, Shri Goyal said that we must
encourage the flow of domestic capital in our startups.
He added that
there was a need to make ‘Startup India’ a symbol of Self Reliance and
Self Confidence. The Minister called for a participative approach from
all stakeholders to achieve such an ambitious target.
Six
national programmes were presented to the Minister as part of the third
National Startup Advisory Council meeting to strengthen the startup
ecosystem in the country.
The key interventions discussed were National
Capacity Building Programme for Incubators, providing thrust to the
startups engaged in manufacturing sector, empowering the larger pool of
Family Offices and High Networth Individuals (HNIs) to invest in
startups, accelerating Deep-tech Startups which would act as a catalyst
in empowering pioneers, establishing an international platform and a
gateway for Indian startups to go global, propelling participation of
women in the startups and a holistic programme which aims at enabling
global mentorship, market access, international opportunities and B2B
connects.
The
video conference was attended by several Startup leaders, investors,
banks, senior government officials representing various
ministries/departments and key stakeholders of the startup ecosystem.