Crypto-Currency 'Not Legal' In India, Says Finance Minister

With virtual currency gaining traction among investors, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday said that India does not recognise crypto currency as a legal tender.

Yesterday, virtual currency bitcoin touched a record high of $11,434, before declining 20 per cent.

"Recommendations are being worked at. The government's position is clear, we don't recognise this as legal currency as of now," Jaitley said when asked whether the government has taken any decision on crypto currency.

Earlier in August, Jaitley had informed Parliament that there are no regulations governing virtual currencies, including bitcoins, in India and the RBI has not given any licence to any entity/company to operate such currencies.

He had further said that taking cognisance of concerns raised at various fora from time to time on increasing use of virtual currencies (VCs) and the regulatory challenges, the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) constituted a committee with representations from DEA, Department of Financial Services (DFS), Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), RBI, Niti Aayog and SBI.

The committee has submitted its report and it is being examined.

Ironically, one thing that shows the confused state of government in which Arun Jaitley holds the profile of finance minister is that government itself is on verge of launching a crypto currency in line of bitcoin called Lakshmi Coin, to be launched by RBI.

While, just last week, BillDesk, which is India's largest payment solution provider, had launched India's first crypto-currency exchange called Coinome that plans to support 20 mainstream crypto-currencies including bitcoin in India, by 2018.

Going forward in same line, bitcoin exchange start-up BitBox announced introduction of the advanced marketplace for buying bitcoins in India. The exchange provides access to high liquidity order book for BTC/INR pair which allows an individual to buy or sell bitcoins instantly.

Union Minister Launched Online Census of MSMEs & Finance Facilitation Centres

As a new scheme towards easing the ways of doing business in India, Union Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs, Arun Jaitley launched two important initiatives of the Ministry of MSME; viz. MSME Databank Portal and Online Finance Facilitation Web Portal to offers collective funding options for MSMEs in India. Both these initiatives will help to save money and time of both the financial institutions and MSMEs when taking course of action of financing.

Online Census of MSMEs

Union Minister for MSME, Kalraj Mishra said, “For the first time the Ministry of MSME is making online Census of the MSMEs in the country by launching a comprehensive databank on http://www.msmedatabank.in . This initiative will not only save the efforts and money required for physical Census but will also enable the MSME units and the various Associations to furnish data online.”  The key objective of this initiative is to have one-stop- shop solution for key information of MSMEs so that financial institutions can get easy access of all type of information they required before financing MSMEs.

This will also help MSMEs to get funding from different financial institutions. MSME Development Rules, 2016 have also been notified making it compulsory for MSMEs to give the required information. The MIS dashboard of the databank will provide real time information on various types of the MSMEs registered on the databank. The databank will eventually will be used for public procurement purposes and the PSUs will make use of the data for procuring from MSMEs. Simultaneously, it will also aid MSMEs with online documentation and preparation of all bankable project proposals online.

Finance Facilitation Centres

The National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC), which provides suitable credit support to the various MSME units for purchase of raw material, has started an online Finance Facilitation Centre on http://www.nsicffconline.in.  The first six finance facilitation centres became operational at Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Peenya, Lucknow, Delhi, Guwahati. Through this portal the MSMEs will be able to apply for loans from the different banks by sitting at their units. To facilitate this initiative, NSIC has signed MoUs with 33 major banks, 14 of whom have agreed to associate with online Finance Facilitation Web Portal.

Moreover, the ministry will also follow various plans for capturing data of MSMEs and Associations. The process has started with the launch of both these initiatives. Government had launched many other new policies for helping MSMEs in India.

Big Push To Entrepreneurship As Cabinet Approves ‘Stand Up India’ Scheme

In a big push to entrepreneurship, the Union cabinet on Wednesday approved 'Stand Up India' scheme and creation of a credit guarantee fund to back the Mudra Yojana.

Loans under the scheme would be given for greenfield projects in the non-farm sector.

The cabinet also approved conversion of MUDRA Ltd (Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency), a non-banking financial company, into MUDRA Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) Bank, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SIDBI. Notably, 17.3 million people have so far benefited under the Mudra Yojana.

A credit guarantee mechanism would also be set up through the National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company (NCGTC) to support the scheme. Loans under the Stand Up India scheme will range between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 1 crore.

The 'Start-up India Stand up India' initiative was announced by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 15, 2015. The Start up India will be launched by Modi on January 16.

Under Stand up India the government aims to achieve the target of at least 2.5 lakh approvals in three years from the launch of the scheme.

Finance Minister Mr Arun Jaitley said the Department of Financial Services had put up the two proposals dealing with credit guarantee fund before the cabinet. The first, with a corpus of Rs 3,000 crore for 2015-16, will support the Mudra loans and the second, with a corpus of Rs 5,000 crore, will back loans given under Stand up India. Under Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana, the government has set a target of Rs 1.22 lakh crore for loans to be given by banks in the current fiscal to promote new entrepreneurs and "fund the unfunded".

This will help fund the unfunded section which gets loans by paying interest rates as high as 35% per annum.

Big Push To Entrepreneurship As Cabinet Approves ‘Stand Up India’ Scheme

In a big push to entrepreneurship, the Union cabinet on Wednesday approved 'Stand Up India' scheme and creation of a credit guarantee fund to back the Mudra Yojana.

Loans under the scheme would be given for greenfield projects in the non-farm sector.

The cabinet also approved conversion of MUDRA Ltd (Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency), a non-banking financial company, into MUDRA Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) Bank, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SIDBI. Notably, 17.3 million people have so far benefited under the Mudra Yojana.

A credit guarantee mechanism would also be set up through the National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company (NCGTC) to support the scheme. Loans under the Stand Up India scheme will range between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 1 crore.

The 'Start-up India Stand up India' initiative was announced by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 15, 2015. The Start up India will be launched by Modi on January 16.

Under Stand up India the government aims to achieve the target of at least 2.5 lakh approvals in three years from the launch of the scheme.

Finance Minister Mr Arun Jaitley said the Department of Financial Services had put up the two proposals dealing with credit guarantee fund before the cabinet. The first, with a corpus of Rs 3,000 crore for 2015-16, will support the Mudra loans and the second, with a corpus of Rs 5,000 crore, will back loans given under Stand up India. Under Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana, the government has set a target of Rs 1.22 lakh crore for loans to be given by banks in the current fiscal to promote new entrepreneurs and "fund the unfunded".

This will help fund the unfunded section which gets loans by paying interest rates as high as 35% per annum.

Rs 10,000 Crore Startup Fund Announced In 2014 Is Still Unused & Stuck Due To Bureaucracy

Indian governments for long have had the reputation of announcing things (schemes, funds etc.) that seldom see the day of light. And, as it turns out, the Narendra Modi government is no different.

The much ambitious Rs 10,000 crore startup fund announced by the Modi government in financial budget of year 2014 is still lying unused as no one is clear which government department is responsible for managing the scheme.

Allocated to the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) by the Reserve Bank of India, the capital has to be invested in Indian startups through a way of providing them soft loans, equity and other risk capital.

According to inside sources in the government, though the announcement was made way back in mid-2014, the RBI released the money only in May 2015. And till date, no startup has gained any benefits from the money.

Further, different officials in the Finance Ministry seemed to be on different pages when it comes to the initiation of the fund. While according to one, the Ministry will soon announce the first batch of investments from the fund, another officer confesses that he has no idea whatsoever about the allocation of the Rs 10,000 crore fund and passes on the responsibility to another department.

While the official in charge of the disbursement of the fund is Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) but the officials there are also not able to give any clarity on the future of the fund.

According to some industry experts, the implementation of the scheme would have been much easier if the government would have formed a board to select the startups eligible for the fund, as currently, no one has any clarity where he/she needs to apply if they want funds for their startup.

The government's interest in the industry is not all of a sudden. With a growth prospect of 40 per cent and a capacity to generate 80,000-85,000 jobs in a period of just two years, startups have obviously caught urban India by storm, and have thus also triggered the interest of the government.

Similar to the Rs 10,000 crore fund, was the Rs 5,000 crore one announced for small enterprises in the Budget 2012 by the then finance minister Pranab Mukherjee. The 5,000 crore still remains a non-starter with more than 90 per cent of it remaining untouched.

While the announcements of such schemes and funds are good for the industries and economy, the government needs to make special effort to foresee successful implementation of these policies. And, as far as the Modi government and the Rs. 10, 000 Crore fund is concerned, they need to understand one thing very clearly, while they might have announced the fund to woo the startup industry and young entrepreneurs, non-initiation of such schemes can draw major wrath and have a negative impact on the government's popularity and hence, its votes.

Rs 10,000 Crore Startup Fund Announced In 2014 Is Still Unused & Stuck Due To Bureaucracy

Indian governments for long have had the reputation of announcing things (schemes, funds etc.) that seldom see the day of light. And, as it turns out, the Narendra Modi government is no different.

The much ambitious Rs 10,000 crore startup fund announced by the Modi government in financial budget of year 2014 is still lying unused as no one is clear which government department is responsible for managing the scheme.

Allocated to the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) by the Reserve Bank of India, the capital has to be invested in Indian startups through a way of providing them soft loans, equity and other risk capital.

According to inside sources in the government, though the announcement was made way back in mid-2014, the RBI released the money only in May 2015. And till date, no startup has gained any benefits from the money.

Further, different officials in the Finance Ministry seemed to be on different pages when it comes to the initiation of the fund. While according to one, the Ministry will soon announce the first batch of investments from the fund, another officer confesses that he has no idea whatsoever about the allocation of the Rs 10,000 crore fund and passes on the responsibility to another department.

While the official in charge of the disbursement of the fund is Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) but the officials there are also not able to give any clarity on the future of the fund.

According to some industry experts, the implementation of the scheme would have been much easier if the government would have formed a board to select the startups eligible for the fund, as currently, no one has any clarity where he/she needs to apply if they want funds for their startup.

The government's interest in the industry is not all of a sudden. With a growth prospect of 40 per cent and a capacity to generate 80,000-85,000 jobs in a period of just two years, startups have obviously caught urban India by storm, and have thus also triggered the interest of the government.

Similar to the Rs 10,000 crore fund, was the Rs 5,000 crore one announced for small enterprises in the Budget 2012 by the then finance minister Pranab Mukherjee. The 5,000 crore still remains a non-starter with more than 90 per cent of it remaining untouched.

While the announcements of such schemes and funds are good for the industries and economy, the government needs to make special effort to foresee successful implementation of these policies. And, as far as the Modi government and the Rs. 10, 000 Crore fund is concerned, they need to understand one thing very clearly, while they might have announced the fund to woo the startup industry and young entrepreneurs, non-initiation of such schemes can draw major wrath and have a negative impact on the government's popularity and hence, its votes.

Post Budget: Amazon, Flipkart & Uber To Be Affected By New Increased Service Tax Rate

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the Super Budget 2015 on 28^th February and got a thumbs up from most of the industry people. According to a proposal under the newly presented budget, the ecommerce industry will now come under the new service tax rate of fourteen percent. This new proposal is surely going to have a huge impact on web base aggregators of bus operators, retail sellers, hotels and taxi owners like OlaCabs, Amazon, Snapdeal, Flipkart and Uber.

According to the new proposal, which became effective from March 1, all online aggregators that own and operate a web based application will now come under the tax net.

Related - Budget 2015: All Talks, No Work For Tech-Startups, Reacts Tech Industry

"All aggregators which by means of an application and a communication device, enable a potential customer to connect with persons providing service of a particular kind under the brand name or trade name; shall fall under the service tax bracket," said a notification issued by the Finance ministry's department of Revenue, effecting the amendments to the Service Tax Rules of 1994 introduced in the Union budget 2015 on Saturday.

“We applaud the government's decision to include specific language pertaining to aggregators in the 2015 Union Budget that will drive improvements to tax compliance,” said a statement given by an Uber spokesperson to the Economic Times.  This new proposal to include online commerce industry under the ambit of the new service tax can be seen as a result of intense discussions that have been taking place between Uber and the Indian Tax authorities over the last few months. The Tax authorities of India questioned Uber last year over the payment of service tax in the country.

Until recently, the service tax rules did not imply on the web based aggregators. According to Uber India, this new proposal will ensure that there is transparency in the flow of tax revenues directly to the Indian government.  On the other hand, OlaCabs is hopeful that such new rules will bring the foreign players and domestic players on a level playing field and give them equal chance to grow and flourish.

As per the new rules introduced in the Budget 2015, even if such web based aggregators employ just a country head or liaison, their officials will still be liable to pay service tax on the behalf of the company.

These new service tax rules will also be applicable to classifieds players, deal websites and online aggregators like Stayzilla, Quikr, Cashkaro, Zomato, Mydala, FoodPanda, Housing and Olx

Post Budget: Amazon, Flipkart & Uber To Be Affected By New Increased Service Tax Rate

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the Super Budget 2015 on 28^th February and got a thumbs up from most of the industry people. According to a proposal under the newly presented budget, the ecommerce industry will now come under the new service tax rate of fourteen percent. This new proposal is surely going to have a huge impact on web base aggregators of bus operators, retail sellers, hotels and taxi owners like OlaCabs, Amazon, Snapdeal, Flipkart and Uber.

According to the new proposal, which became effective from March 1, all online aggregators that own and operate a web based application will now come under the tax net.

Related - Budget 2015: All Talks, No Work For Tech-Startups, Reacts Tech Industry

"All aggregators which by means of an application and a communication device, enable a potential customer to connect with persons providing service of a particular kind under the brand name or trade name; shall fall under the service tax bracket," said a notification issued by the Finance ministry's department of Revenue, effecting the amendments to the Service Tax Rules of 1994 introduced in the Union budget 2015 on Saturday.

“We applaud the government's decision to include specific language pertaining to aggregators in the 2015 Union Budget that will drive improvements to tax compliance,” said a statement given by an Uber spokesperson to the Economic Times.  This new proposal to include online commerce industry under the ambit of the new service tax can be seen as a result of intense discussions that have been taking place between Uber and the Indian Tax authorities over the last few months. The Tax authorities of India questioned Uber last year over the payment of service tax in the country.

Until recently, the service tax rules did not imply on the web based aggregators. According to Uber India, this new proposal will ensure that there is transparency in the flow of tax revenues directly to the Indian government.  On the other hand, OlaCabs is hopeful that such new rules will bring the foreign players and domestic players on a level playing field and give them equal chance to grow and flourish.

As per the new rules introduced in the Budget 2015, even if such web based aggregators employ just a country head or liaison, their officials will still be liable to pay service tax on the behalf of the company.

These new service tax rules will also be applicable to classifieds players, deal websites and online aggregators like Stayzilla, Quikr, Cashkaro, Zomato, Mydala, FoodPanda, Housing and Olx

8 Startups' Expectations From Budget 2015-16

With the budget announcement for the year 2015-2016 around the corner, all eyes are set on Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and what all he has in store for the citizens, companies of the country. Every industry and citizen of India expects something in the budget which will help them/him grow strong financially.  Whether the designer briefcase is able to stand on their expectations is something which we will have to wait and watch. The new government’s first budget last year gave a ray of hope to all young entrepreneurs as it announced a sum of Rs. 10,000 crore to boost capital growth in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and startups in the country. What magic does the designer briefcase unfolds this year for the startups can only be seen on 28th February.

We at IndianWeb2 have put together a list of top 8 things the startup sector can expect in this year's budget.

1. Making starting up easier - The current procedure for starting a business requires the entrepreneur to run from corner to corner, office to office in order to get all the approvals, clearances and licenses for his new venture.The sector has been long demanding the setting up of one single window for all these approvals, so that the entrepreneurs can concentrate more on his business and less in running around.The sector hopes to get its long withstanding demand of a single window getting fulfilled in this year's budget.Young Entrepreneurs were quite encouraged when the Ministry of Entrepreneurship was set and there's for sure a need for someone to give this idea a push. In India there are about twelve different ministries operating their own startup and skill development programmes and there is an extremely urgent need to bring all these programmes, schemes etc. together so that they can prove to be effective for the industry.


2. Capital problem - While things have surely changed for good, entrepreneurs still face a hard time raising money for their new venture.The startup sector expects the budget 2015 to make capital more accessible and affordable for new businesses.Angel and venture investments needs to be encouraged in the country and there's an urgent need to sort out the issues surrounding the angel tax.Currently, the venture capital firms have to deal with three set of regulations for their each and every move.These are- CBDT Guidelines for Venture Capital Companies, 1995, Guidelines for Overseas Venture Capital Investments issued by the Department of Economic Affairs of Ministry of Finance in the year 1995 and Security and Exchange Board of India( SEBI)  1996.Each of these above said regulations come with their own set of rules and regulations that make it very difficult for a venture capital to follow. For an investor, time is money and the Venture Capital investors end up wasting a lot of their time fulfilling each and every rule and regulations set by these above said three regulations. The startups would be hugely benefited if the government is able to consolidate all these three regulations into one single regulation of SEBI.


3. Growth Scale - One of the primary concerns that startups have nowadays is the Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT). According to the current directions, an unlisted private company needs to pay MAT at 18.5% if the company is making a substantial amount of income under the Information and technology act, but  may not be showing profits on paper when income is calculated according to the rules under the Companies Act. For Startups this becomes a major hurdle as they have to pay a huge chunk of their incomes in taxes when they could have used the money to expand their businesses. Further, there are startups who are not making any profit at the moment but end up incurring loses due to taxes that they have to pay. This ends up affecting the cash flow of these startups.The budget this year can help such startups by making special provision of MAT for startups. The government can make special provisions where the startups don't have to pay MAT for an initial period of five years or make the top line 25 Crores. Such provisions will provide startups enough space for breathing to grow and set their business.


4. Thinking outside India - The Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) scheme played a major role in the initial success of India's Information and Technology industry.  The government  needs to introduce such STPI like schemes for startups in order to encourage entrepreneurs to come with more and more unique ideas and startups.The STPI scheme initially provided the new IT companies with physical spaces to work. It later went on to provide statutory support and good infrastructure facilities to technology based companies. There's an urgent need for such a scheme for all the startups (not just IT companies) and ring fence these new businesses in order to protect them from all the infrastructural and regulatory hurdles. All these schemes can also be synchronized with the Modi government's Make in India campaign.


5. Ease of Business - India as a country has a very bad image internationally when it comes to doing business in the country. All the successive governments haven't been able to much about the issue but the Narendra Modi government seems to be promising. Most of the regulations and rules that one needs to follow to run a business in this country are mainly old and obtuse. There is an urgent need to change these archaic rules according to current situations and scenarios. Manufacturing startups particularly find it very hard to survive as the powers of an inspector makes the acquiescence cost very high.Different taxes like VAT, excise, octroi and service only add up to the startup's troubles as they find it extremely difficult to come in terms with the complexities at play. This budget, the government mantra should be rules and regulations that are easy to identify and follow.


6. Ease of Exiting - If opening a business is difficult in India, it is approximately ten times more difficult to close a failed business venture. As a country India should make sure that if an entrepreneur fails in his/her venture, he is able to close his venture without much difficulties and start afresh. The existing process of exiting can be made so much easier if India's government focuses on digitizing it.In this age of technology when everything from booking tickets to  mobile recharging can be done online, the government can make similar arrangements of filling documents for a new venture. This would make the lives of new entrepreneurs so much easier as they will not have to run from pillar to pillar to get the business started.


7. Encouraging Risk Financing - There's a paradox situation at play here. Currently. the Foreign Institutional Investor (FIIs) registered with SEBI are allowed to freely invest and disinvest without taking prior approvals from FIPB/Reserve Bank of India.However, foreign based Venture Capital firms wanting to invest in startups based in India are required to take prior approval from RBI or FIPB. Same is the process when a foreign based investor is looking to sell his/her stake in a startup to a another foreign Venture Capital firm. Majority of the PE and Venture Capital firms operating in India are from foreign lands and such lengthy processes of approval makes it very unattractive for investors.


8. A detailed outline of the Rs. 10,000 crore startup fund declared in last year's budget - While the government was able to gain much appreciation about its declaration of  Rs. 10,000 crore startup fund in last year's first budget, much wasn't released about how the fund will be used by the government. According to some experts, the fund must be used for promoting financing in the form of quasi-equity, equity and various other forms of risk capital. While another school of thought believes that the money should be used for promoting entrepreneurship in universities and colleges.

8 Startups' Expectations From Budget 2015-16

With the budget announcement for the year 2015-2016 around the corner, all eyes are set on Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and what all he has in store for the citizens, companies of the country. Every industry and citizen of India expects something in the budget which will help them/him grow strong financially.  Whether the designer briefcase is able to stand on their expectations is something which we will have to wait and watch. The new government’s first budget last year gave a ray of hope to all young entrepreneurs as it announced a sum of Rs. 10,000 crore to boost capital growth in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and startups in the country. What magic does the designer briefcase unfolds this year for the startups can only be seen on 28th February.

We at IndianWeb2 have put together a list of top 8 things the startup sector can expect in this year's budget.

1. Making starting up easier - The current procedure for starting a business requires the entrepreneur to run from corner to corner, office to office in order to get all the approvals, clearances and licenses for his new venture.The sector has been long demanding the setting up of one single window for all these approvals, so that the entrepreneurs can concentrate more on his business and less in running around.The sector hopes to get its long withstanding demand of a single window getting fulfilled in this year's budget.Young Entrepreneurs were quite encouraged when the Ministry of Entrepreneurship was set and there's for sure a need for someone to give this idea a push. In India there are about twelve different ministries operating their own startup and skill development programmes and there is an extremely urgent need to bring all these programmes, schemes etc. together so that they can prove to be effective for the industry.


2. Capital problem - While things have surely changed for good, entrepreneurs still face a hard time raising money for their new venture.The startup sector expects the budget 2015 to make capital more accessible and affordable for new businesses.Angel and venture investments needs to be encouraged in the country and there's an urgent need to sort out the issues surrounding the angel tax.Currently, the venture capital firms have to deal with three set of regulations for their each and every move.These are- CBDT Guidelines for Venture Capital Companies, 1995, Guidelines for Overseas Venture Capital Investments issued by the Department of Economic Affairs of Ministry of Finance in the year 1995 and Security and Exchange Board of India( SEBI)  1996.Each of these above said regulations come with their own set of rules and regulations that make it very difficult for a venture capital to follow. For an investor, time is money and the Venture Capital investors end up wasting a lot of their time fulfilling each and every rule and regulations set by these above said three regulations. The startups would be hugely benefited if the government is able to consolidate all these three regulations into one single regulation of SEBI.


3. Growth Scale - One of the primary concerns that startups have nowadays is the Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT). According to the current directions, an unlisted private company needs to pay MAT at 18.5% if the company is making a substantial amount of income under the Information and technology act, but  may not be showing profits on paper when income is calculated according to the rules under the Companies Act. For Startups this becomes a major hurdle as they have to pay a huge chunk of their incomes in taxes when they could have used the money to expand their businesses. Further, there are startups who are not making any profit at the moment but end up incurring loses due to taxes that they have to pay. This ends up affecting the cash flow of these startups.The budget this year can help such startups by making special provision of MAT for startups. The government can make special provisions where the startups don't have to pay MAT for an initial period of five years or make the top line 25 Crores. Such provisions will provide startups enough space for breathing to grow and set their business.


4. Thinking outside India - The Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) scheme played a major role in the initial success of India's Information and Technology industry.  The government  needs to introduce such STPI like schemes for startups in order to encourage entrepreneurs to come with more and more unique ideas and startups.The STPI scheme initially provided the new IT companies with physical spaces to work. It later went on to provide statutory support and good infrastructure facilities to technology based companies. There's an urgent need for such a scheme for all the startups (not just IT companies) and ring fence these new businesses in order to protect them from all the infrastructural and regulatory hurdles. All these schemes can also be synchronized with the Modi government's Make in India campaign.


5. Ease of Business - India as a country has a very bad image internationally when it comes to doing business in the country. All the successive governments haven't been able to much about the issue but the Narendra Modi government seems to be promising. Most of the regulations and rules that one needs to follow to run a business in this country are mainly old and obtuse. There is an urgent need to change these archaic rules according to current situations and scenarios. Manufacturing startups particularly find it very hard to survive as the powers of an inspector makes the acquiescence cost very high.Different taxes like VAT, excise, octroi and service only add up to the startup's troubles as they find it extremely difficult to come in terms with the complexities at play. This budget, the government mantra should be rules and regulations that are easy to identify and follow.


6. Ease of Exiting - If opening a business is difficult in India, it is approximately ten times more difficult to close a failed business venture. As a country India should make sure that if an entrepreneur fails in his/her venture, he is able to close his venture without much difficulties and start afresh. The existing process of exiting can be made so much easier if India's government focuses on digitizing it.In this age of technology when everything from booking tickets to  mobile recharging can be done online, the government can make similar arrangements of filling documents for a new venture. This would make the lives of new entrepreneurs so much easier as they will not have to run from pillar to pillar to get the business started.


7. Encouraging Risk Financing - There's a paradox situation at play here. Currently. the Foreign Institutional Investor (FIIs) registered with SEBI are allowed to freely invest and disinvest without taking prior approvals from FIPB/Reserve Bank of India.However, foreign based Venture Capital firms wanting to invest in startups based in India are required to take prior approval from RBI or FIPB. Same is the process when a foreign based investor is looking to sell his/her stake in a startup to a another foreign Venture Capital firm. Majority of the PE and Venture Capital firms operating in India are from foreign lands and such lengthy processes of approval makes it very unattractive for investors.


8. A detailed outline of the Rs. 10,000 crore startup fund declared in last year's budget - While the government was able to gain much appreciation about its declaration of  Rs. 10,000 crore startup fund in last year's first budget, much wasn't released about how the fund will be used by the government. According to some experts, the fund must be used for promoting financing in the form of quasi-equity, equity and various other forms of risk capital. While another school of thought believes that the money should be used for promoting entrepreneurship in universities and colleges.