GoI’s Action Plan for Start-ups

The Government revealed its new start up India document. It went beyond the plan and has released an Action Plan, a pdf document that you can find on the website of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, that makes its intent clear. The document maybe accessed here: StartupIndia_ActionPlan_16January2016

Indians everywhere perform well in businesses they engage, in the countries they inhabit. The primary differentiator for Indians abroad and Indians in India has been the conducive local environment and ability to engage in business easily. To start a business in a day and close it in 90 days can make all the difference between an idea germinating and an idea dying. The ability to birth an idea, get protection, take flight and equally winding down quickly with no taxes, government interference or credit risk issues, is an equalizer for Indian entrepreneurs with their foreign counterparts.

The model favored until now, of India entrepreneurs setting base in foreign capital and tax friendly jurisdictions including complex routing of capital even for start-ups through Mauritius and so on can now be avoided, saving significant administrative and decision making time for entrepreneurs.

The easy tax regime and capital gains exemption mechanism will also allow investors to not be painfully overcautious around tax structures. This will also allow investors across the globe to access the Indian start –up markets easily for entry and exit, thus adding more boldness to all the players in this field for start-up stock.

Doing Business reports of the World Bank for 2015 ranked India No. 42 in terms for people accessing credit that showed how herculean it was for individuals or start-up entrepreneurs to access credit. The new action plan that eases the access to credit and provides for fund access can catch the eye of not only a technology oriented start-up but can also benefit a brick and mortar or ancillary manufacturer starting a new process or product with much needed access to credit capital.

India is treading on par with US, China and Israel in the start-up ecosystem and this coming together of the various stakeholders has placed the Indian Govt. as the real unicorn and has added spunk to the help India race ahead with start-ups.