“Start-ups” and “entrepreneurship” have definitely been the buzzwords in the Narendra Modi government as these words have found special mentions in the last two consecutive budgets.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has allocated ₹1,000 crore to establish a mechanism to be known as SETU (Self-Employment and Talent Utilisation).

This is intended to be a techno-financial, incubation and facilitation programme to support all aspects of start-up businesses, and other self-employment activities, particularly in technology-driven areas.

He has also announced a ₹150-crore Atal Innovation Mission for Grand Challenges in India which will provide grants to innovators.

The players in the segment felt that instead of allocation of more funds, the government should focus on efficient and speedy disbursal of these funds and implementation of the initiatives.

Besides, they also felt that skills and requisite talent is another challenge. In the last interim budget, the government had announced ₹10,000 crore for this segment, which is yet to be implemented.

Sumit Jain, founder of online property listing portal Commonfloor.com, said, “Though allocation of funds reiterates the government’s intent and purpose, the amount is not substantial. We can only hope that there will be fast and efficient disbursement.”

The FM’s proposal to decrease the rate of tax on payments by way of royalty and fees for technical services to non-residents from 25 to 10 per cent is a win-win situation for MNCs and start-ups in India, observed Sanchit Vir Gogia, CEO, Greyhound Research.

“It will help promote entrepreneurship and create more jobs for people rather than them being job seekers. MNCs will now be inspired to invest in India and create more demand for their services,” he said.

Implementation the key

While Bikash Barai, CEO of iViZ felt that implementation of initiatives announced is key to accelerate the start-up ecosystem; Alan D Souza, CEO of Vavia Technologies, says focus should be on utilisation of funds once they are created.

While the bankruptcy law reform will greatly help start-ups, the big miss is the lack of resolution on Sec 56, which taxes start-ups on investments they receive from Angels if it is above the fair market value, observed Saurabh Srivastava, co-founder, IAN.

A few start-ups were of the opinion that the funds announced should be used to promote start-ups in towns beyond the metros. Sanjoe Jose, CEO, Talview.com said, “This can lead to significant generation of quality employment at par with city counterparts for youngsters in these regions. .”

“The government’s move to establish a mechanism of ‘self-employment’ is a shot in the arm for entrepreneurs like us,” said Toshendra Sharma, CEO of start-up Wegilant, SINE IIT Bombay, summing up the sentiment.

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