A research report published in last November said that with four out of five southern states of India -- Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, having a strong startup policy in place, Tamil Nadu lags behind when it comes to supporting startups in terms of having a policy.

Now, after much wait by young entrepreneurs and startups in India's southern state of Tamil Nadu, the state government is finally preparing to come up with a policy for startups in the state, reported Business Line.

The process of drafting a startup policy has already begun and for same the Entrepreneur Development Innovation Institute (EDII) has been given the ownership. Currently, EDII is seeking suggestions from industry stakeholders in preparing the draft policy.

For seeking inputs, EDII has just held a meeting with several industry association in Coimbatore and is planning to hold similar meetings in Chennai and Madurai very soon.

In Coimbatore meeting, Shajeevana, Additional Director of EDII said in a statement that Tamil Nadu would get a start-up policy when it releases the MSME policy.

The policy to be drafted is expected to cover startups in technology, manufacturing and in the services space. There are around 600 beneficiaries for NEEDS (New Entrepreneur cum Enterprise Development Scheme).

NEED is a scheme which was launched in the state in 2013 by then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu in order to assist educated youth to become first generation entrepreneurs by assisting them to avail terms loans from Banks/Tamil Nadu Industrial Investment Corporation (TIIC) with capital subsidy at 25% of the project cost not exceeding Rs.25 lakhs and soft loans with 3% interest subvention.

Around 1,000 entrepreneurs is to be trained each year under this scheme. When this scheme was launched it was decided that under this scheme, at least 50% of the beneficiaries have to be women.

Although, Tamil Nadu is yet to come up with a startup policy nonetheless the state is already a home to many of India's legacy startups such as Zoho, Freshdesk, Bankbazaar and Caratlane, among others. Moreover, in a report called India State Innovation Report published in 2016, the state was among top innovative economies of India.

By preparing a draft policy of its own, Tamil Nadu will join the list of several other Indian states that have launched their own startup policies to encourage entrepreneurship and startups in their region. (Read Here)
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