Startup India – Vision 2030

The startup ecosystem has been growing exponentially in India since the last decade. Over the period, we have seen multiple startups building successfully in India, like Paytm, Nykaa, Urban company. Considering the huge success of startups in our country PM Narendra Modi introduced the “Startup India” campaign in January 2016. The idea behind this campaign was to uplift entrepreneurship, economic growth, and employment across India.

On 16th January 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi came upfront and unveiled the action plan of Startup India in front of the country. Their objective of launching this scheme was to

• Spread the startup culture in every nook and corner of India
• Build a strong ecosystem to nurture innovation in the country
• Generate large scale employment opportunities for the residents of our country
• Provide all the necessary support to the emerging startups
• Connect the entire startup ecosystem at one common platform
• Inspire regional entrepreneurs in transforming their ideas into business ventures.

Over the five years, the government of India enforced numerous policies and reforms such as huge tax incentives, funding support, prioritizing startups in public procurement, etc to uplift Indian startups. From the launch of the scheme in 2016 to August 2020, our country witnessed immense growth in the startup ecosystem. Over 35k new startups were recognized over this period and out of this around 8k startups received Intellectual Property Rights fee benefits. Not only this, over 2.5 lakh people enrolled themselves in Startup India’s entrepreneurship-focused learning courses.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, in 2021 the economy of India was badly impacted. The GDP of the country fell down drastically. Reflectively, the speculations were being made that the pandemic might also impact the startup ecosystem. However, the speculations could not turn into reality because in 2021 India emerged as the third-largest startup ecosystem in the world.  The introduction of “Startup India, Standup India” brought a revolution in our country. The startup growth over the period has been exponentially large.

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Major takeaways for startups in Budget 2022

Since the proclamation of Startup India, the government of India has been very focused on building a strong startup ecosystem in our country. They have introduced various reforms over the five years to help existing as well as emerging startups. Taking the startup vision in focus, Nirmala Sitharaman introduced Budget 2022, in February. This budget was said to be a “Budget for Digital India.” This is because of the slew of proposals and announcements made by the Finance Minister, focusing on all the Indian startups. This will open up many opportunities for budding entrepreneurs in India.

Some of the major takeaways from the budget that are important for startups are as follows:

• Extension of tax holiday scheme for startups incorporated till March 2023
• Capping of Long term Capital Gain at 15%
• Digital rupee or crypto currency to be issued by RBI in 2022-23
• Agritech startups to get a big push
• Encouraging Drone startups for agriculture
• Defense Research & Development to be opened up for startups, etc.

Conclusion

Over the period of five years, PM Narendra Modi and the government of India have brought the startup ecosystem in our country to great heights. Their vision behind this scheme is to spread the startup culture to every nook and corner of the country by the year 2030. Up until now, 30 states have launched startup policies while in other states plans are being made for the implementation of this scheme. It would be interesting to see what new reforms the government introduces in the support of Indian startups.