Comm Ministry to Showcase Startup India Tableau at Republic Day Parade

The commerce and industry ministry on Tuesday said it will showcase a tableau on Startup India, which aims to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in the country, at the Republic Day Parade.

With the theme 'Startups: Reach for the Sky', the tableau will showcase stages of the lifecycle of a startup and the all-round support provided by the government, the ministry said in a statement.

"The front of the tableau depicts a creative mind, full of ideas to solve real world problems. The Startup India Tree, in the middle will represents different kinds of support given," it said. The staircase will denote stages of growth – proving a concept, creating a prototype, preparing a business plan, building a team, launching into markets and eventually scaling up.

The wheel will depict sectors of economy where Indian entities have driven economic growth and created employment opportunities on a large scale, it added.

Startup India is a flagship initiative of the government, intended to build a strong ecosystem to nurture innovation, drive sustainable economic growth and generate large scale employment opportunities.

The objective is to inspire and motivate youth to follow their dreams to generate wealth and become job creators and not just job seekers.

Under the Startup India Scheme, eligible companies can get recognised as startups by the ministry in order to access a host of tax benefits, easier compliance, IPR fast tracking and other incentives.

More than 26,000 startups from 551 districts of 28 States and 7 Union Territories have been recognized so far.

"Working across IT, Industry 4.0, education, healthcare, agriculture, energy, finance, space, defence and all other sectors of economy, Indian startups have attracted substantial global investments and created more than 2,91,000 jobs," it added. PTI

Next Ranking of States for Ease of Doing Business likely to be Released in March

The Commerce and Industry Ministry is likely to release the next index to rank states and union territories (UTs) in terms of ease of doing business in March, a senior official said.

"It will be released in end of February or March. Due to elections, the release got delayed," the official said. The exercise is aimed at triggering competition among states to improve business climate in order to attract domestic and global investors.

State governments are taking several steps such as setting up single window system for approvals to improve ease of doing business.

The parameters include areas such as construction permit, labour regulation, environmental registration, access to information, land availability and single window system.

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) in collaboration with the World Bank conducts an annual reform exercise for all states/UTs under the Business Reform Action Plan (BRAP).

In the last ranking released in July 2018, Andhra Pradesh topped the chart. Telangana and Haryana were at the second and third positions, respectively.

Others in the top ten were Jharkhand (4), Gujarat (5), Chhattisgarh (6), Madhya Pradesh (7), Karnataka (8), Rajasthan (9) and West Bengal (10).

The ranking is based on a combined score consisting of reform evidence score that is based on evidence uploaded by states/UTs and feedback score that is based on response garnered from actual users of services provided to businesses.

The report to be released this year will rank states for 2018.

In the World Bank's latest 'Doing Business' report, India's position improved to 63rd from 77th out of 190 economies.

The Commerce and Industry Ministry has prepared a blueprint to further improve India's ranking in the World Bank's ease of doing business index with a focus on six parameters, including enforcing contracts and starting a business.

The government is targeting to take India among top 50 in the index in coming years. PTI

Use of AI in Different Forms can Help Achieve $5 Trn Economy Target: Goyal

Use of artificial intelligence (AI) in different forms can help achieve the target of making India a USD 5 trillion economy in the coming years, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Monday.

He said various departments are working to see how AI, space technology and other modern tools can be used to push economic growth of the country.

"We in the government believe that AI can, in different forms, help us achieve the USD 5 trillion benchmark, which we have set for over (next) five years," he said here at a function.

The minister added that AI can also help expand in a more cost- effective and outcome-oriented manner.

Goyal, who also has the railways portfolio, said in railways, a team is focusing to see how "we could benefit from AI" as the potential is humongous.

"AI can help in every sector to do our job better," he said adding it can hep improve ease of living and ease of doing business. PTI

WhatsApp Announces Startup Challenge to Invest $0.5 Mn in Indian Startups

Facebook-owned messaging platform WhatsApp has announced its partnership with India's official investment promotion agency, Invest India, to launch 'WhatsApp Startup Challenge' to help the growth of startups and SMBs in India. The program will focus on the proliferation of startups, promoting economic growth and generating employment opportunities in India, announced Ministry of Commerce & Industry, today.

According to Startup India, this is one of the largest partnerships Invest India has made till date.

WhatsApp will invest quarter of a million dollars ($250,000) as seed funding to the top 5 winners of the 'WhatsApp Startup Challenge' and an additional $250,000 will be directed to a select few from the entrepreneurial community to promote their WhatsApp business number on Facebook and drive discovery of their businesses. This way customers will be able to find the business and start talking to them on that WhatsApp number.Invest India is also working with WhatsApp to drive awareness about its business tools in around 15 states impacting over 60,000 businesses in the coming months through tools such as Startup India 'Yatra' program and other in-person training events.

Commenting on the partnership, Mr. Chris Daniels, Vice President, WhatsApp said that India has a great ecosystem of startups which are making huge impact in all sectors of the Indian economy. Mr. Daniels further said that small and medium businesses are the back bone of India’s economy, employing 100 million people and contributing to a 3rd India’s GDP. WhatsApp cares deeply about helping businesses connect with customers and grow. The more opportunities that are given the more startups will become engines of India’s economic growth.

India's Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu, who were also present in the launch, said that WhatsApp is a startup that has grown into a community and is an example of how an idea can grow to become an integral part of our day to day life. The Minister went on to say that Indian startups in order to be successful have to learn to convert an idea into a business plan. He further said that the Startup community is the future of India and will be the platform through which the millions of youth of this country will be gain fully employed.

Launched on 16th January 2016 by the Prime Minister of India, Startup India, set-up under Invest India, is a flagship initiative of the Government of India and is intended to build a strong eco-system for nurturing innovation & Startups in the country that will drive sustainable economic growth and generate large scale employment opportunities.

In the last 2 years at the Startup India programme, there are over 13,000 startups registered with Startup India program that spread across 448 districts covering all 29 States and 6 Union Territories.

Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Ramesh Abhishek and CEO & MD of Invest India, Deepak Bagla, were also present on the occasion.

Ask Anything To Commerce Minister on #StartupIndia at Twitter Via #AskPrabhu Hashtag

In a major step to boost entrepreneurship in India, the Narendra Modi-led government has planned a live session to take on questions from the public. The session will be organised on Twitter, and those interested can send in their questions using the hashtag #AskPrabhu. “Dear friends I will be answering questions on #StartupIndia in a live session on 16th May. Send in your questions using hashtag #AskPrabhu .Select questions will be answered. Look forward to a fulfilling engagement,” Commerce and Industry minister Suresh Prabhu tweeted.

Dear friends I will be answering questions on #StartupIndia in a live session on 16th May. Send in your questions using hashtag #AskPrabhu .Select questions will be answered.Look forward to a fulfilling engagement pic.twitter.com/dawlcla40d

— Suresh Prabhu (@sureshpprabhu) May 11, 2018

Recently, Bibek Debroy, who is currently serving as the Chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM), said that 95% of the entrepreneurial attempts fail in India. He said that the small farmer or the street vendor showed more entrepreneurship skills than corporates in India

In March, we reported that a survey conducted by Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII), revealed that only 5% Indian adults take-up establish own business, underscoring that the Narendra Modi-led government’s dream to transform India into a hub of start-ups and innovation remains elusive. The recent survey further highlights that only 11 per cent of India’s adult population is engaged in “total early-stage entrepreneurial activity (TEA).”

The Narendra Modi-led government had launched the 'Startup India' campaign in January 2016 which provided various incentives such as tax exemptions, patent reforms, and incubation programmes aimed at providing the much needed thrust to start-ups. However, number of recent revelation in last 4-5 months, the campaign efficiency is at questions and this proved a wake-up call for the government.

In the same month, a report called Asia’s startup-friendly countries list, stated that India stands at 8th rank -- behind China and even Malaysia -- in startup friendly list of countries in Asia 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.

Mangaluru To Have First Government Owned Co-working Space For Startups

Indian government is all set to launch first government-owned co-working space for startups in Mangaluru. The initiative is being led by Nirmala Sitharaman, Commerce and Industry Minister as part of the Member of Parliament Local Area Development scheme.

With this initiative, government wants to create space for hardware development and experimentation with readily available 3D printing equipment.

Co-working space will offer cutting-edge technology such as 3D printing along with new-age digital infrastructure, such as high-speed Internet.

To finalise the design and functioning of the Mangaluru facility, a team is consulting with some of the Delhi-based co-working space owners. If reports to be believed, the co-working space will be made available to startups at a price nearly half the market rate being charged by privately owned social workspaces. In this regards, government is trying to work out a sustainable revenue model for the facility designed to accommodate 100 people. Not only this, Minister’s office is also approaching other government departments and ministries to build synergies and meet the costs of getting the place up and running.

To help easy access for startups, at a later stage, a patent facilitation cell would also be made functional at the workspace. Nasscom has been roped in to provide the technological backup whereas the Kannada Chamber of Commerce is also pitching in.

Apart from this, the government is also working towards finalising the plan for setting up India’s first startup district in Mangaluru which would have specialised incubation centres, and 20 tinkering labs for schools for the areas such as agriculture, health and education.

Earlier, Minister has launched the Startup India Virtual Hub to encourage Indian entrepreneur. It is an online platform for all stakeholders to discover, connect and engage with each other. Not only this, during the launch, Minister has also announced a new initiative, wherein a Startup exchange program amongst the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) nations would be organized which will enable startups from South Asian region to exchange new ideas and promoting interaction among them.

Commerce And Industry Minister Launches Startup India Hub To Encourage Indian Entrepreneurs

Nirmala Sitharaman, the Commerce and Industry Minister yesterday launched the Startup India Virtual Hub to encourage Indian entrepreneur. It is an online platform for all stakeholders to discover, connect and engage with each other.

Commenting on the development, Sitharaman said, “Startup India Virtual Hub is an effort to create a marketplace where all the stakeholders can interact, exchange knowledge, and enable each other to grow. It will streamline the lifecycle of existing and potential startups, helping them access the right resources at the right time.”

The Virtual Hub is a dynamic and interactive platform that will facilitate learning and development, networking, mentorship, funding, etc. for startups. It will host startups, investors, funds, mentors, academia, incubators, accelerators, corporates, Government bodies and more. The basic principle behind developing this platform is to aggregate different offerings of the ecosystem and enable discovery by the right audience.

“The Hub attempts to solve the problem of information asymmetry and lack of access to knowledge, tools, and experts, especially in the nascent ecosystems across Tier II and III towns,” said the Commerce and Industry Minister.

The Hub will act as a nodal platform and will enable users to connect with ecosystem stakeholders, access free learning resources, tools and templates on legal, HR, accounting and regulatory issues and discussion forums. The Hub has also aggregated over 50 relevant Government schemes/programs.

In the next phase, the platform will also aggregate schemes available across various state governments. To provide a better user experience, the platform has been enabled to build smart intelligence along with Chat Bots to automatically collate, update information and respond to queries.

Startup India Hub has also partnered with various organizations to onboard entrepreneurs and investors, as well as build knowledge modules. To ensure accessibility across various platforms, dedicated apps are also available on both Android and iOS.

Not only this, during the launch, Minister also announced a new initiative, wherein a Startup exchange program amongst the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) nations would be organized which will enable startups from South Asian region to exchange new ideas and promoting interaction among them.

Speaking about the initiative, Minister said that she will be working towards having a SAARC country meet for startups and this event can act as a platform for exchanging ideas, which can be mutually beneficial and can be worked out. Further, she asked startups to share ideas about the people who can be invited for the meet.

In next couple of months, if ministry received the feedback then by December the meeting can be organised where Startups from SAARC country can come to India and share ideas.

Apart from this, the ministry is also planning to work in certain districts to identify schools and help them qualify to get tinkering labs under the Atal Innovation Mission.

“Ministry is working on modalities to facilitate the exchange of ideas between startups of India and Germany,” concludes the commerce and Industry Minister.