After over two years of launch of 'Start-Up India' initiative, 19 state governments -- out of 29 states total -- have implemented startup policies with a view to promote budding entrepreneurs in the country, reported many publication including TOI, Indian Express, citing commerce and industry ministry official statement.

Notably, at the time of launch of StartUp India initiative in January 2016, only four states had started startup policy, whereas 19 states have implemented startup policies now, said the commerce ministry in an official statement. In April 2016, there were only 7 states who had implemented startup policy.

At the launch of the initiative Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled a slew of incentives to boost startup businesses, offering them a tax holiday, inspector raj-free regime and capital gains tax exemption as part of the startup action plan.

Later in February this year, state/UT startup ranking framework has been launched in order to encourage states to take proactive steps towards strengthening the startup ecosystems within their jurisdictions.

Further, to promote innovation among startups, the ministry provides 80% rebate in patent filing fees and 50% on trade mark filing fees. However, the monster of so called Angel Tax still haunts the startups.

Related Reading - Here’s Brief Report Card of ‘Start-Up India’ Initiative, Till Date

The ministry also revealed that 423 patent facilitators and 596 trademark facilitators have been nominated to promote innovation among startups. The initiative has benefited 671 patent applicants, 941 trademark applicants along with 144 expedited examinations.

The ministry also said that international bilateral cooperation with countries having strong startup ecosystems -- Israel, Singapore, Portugal and Sweden -- have been entered into by Startup India Hub to facilitate market access and promote investments.

Time to time, the government is keep giving the report, facts and figures of its ambitious start-up India initiative but at the same time also hiding the bad figures & statistics when it comes to the ground results shown by the much hyped startup initiative. The commerce ministry is conveniently keeping ignorant when it comes to feedback and suggestion for startup ecosystem in India, be it from veteran industry bodies within the country or startup-related organizations outside India. Read our January 2017 story on the success Of ‘Startup India’ programme.

Few days back, a report a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce said that the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) could utilize only Rs 4 lakh (as on December 31, 2017) out of Rs 10 crore that were allocated to it for the promotion of StartUp India scheme in 2017-18.

The Committee expressed concerns about the “huge gap” that exists between the number of startups receiving funding, tax exemptions and the number of such entities that have been recognized and further said that the proposed Rs 2,000 crore Credit Guarantee Fund for startups, announced in January 2016, is still in the formulation stage and there has been no progress made.

Last year, a 91-year-old industry body FICCI, in its report, suggested that startups in India need government support to minimize the number of failures and revealed that startups success rate is not up to the mark in the country. The government, apparently busy in its religious obligations, didn't take FICCI seriously.

In the same month, a report by Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII) also revealed that only 5% of the country’s people went on to establish their own business or startups, which is among the lowest rates in the world. Moreover, business discontinuation in India is among the highest in the world at 26.4%, said the EDII report.

Also, an another report revealed that in this year's Asia's startup-friendly countries list, India stands at 8th rank behind China and even Malaysia because of the very fact that it is still the poorest country in Asia with GDP per capita of $1,710, in 2017 and a high unemployment rate.
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