The youngsters in India dream of becoming a doctor, an Engineer, a District Magistrate, an IPS officer and so on, but very few of them dream of becoming an entrepreneur. There is no dearth of ideas or talent in India, but we still lack the spirit and supportive environment for nurturing the entrepreneurship. In order to support the innovation and its implementation, the Government of India had initiated the Start Up India programme since April 2016. The flagship initiative intends to push for Entrepreneurship in the country by providing soothing environment for the businesspersons. This article tries to throw light upon various aspects of Start Ups in India.

 Features of Start Up India:

A Start Up is a young company that is just beginning to develop. Start Ups are usually small and initially financed and operated by a handful of founders or by one individual. Start Up is defined as an entity, incorporated or registered in India not prior to five years, with an annual turnover of not exceeding Rupees 25 crore  in any preceding financial year, working towards innovation, development, deployment or commercialization of new products, processes or services driven by technology or intellectual property. ‘Start Up India’ is a revolutionary scheme that has been started to help the people who wish to start their own businesses. These people have ideas and capability, so the government gives them support to make sure they can effectively implement their ideas and result into growth of our economy. Start Up companies are the most dynamic economic organizations in any market as they act as catalytic agents for change, which results in chain reaction. Once an enterprise is established, the process of industrialization is set in motion. All these activities foster entrepreneurship and create demand for various types of units and in turn, lead to overall development of an area due to increase in demand and setting up of more and more units. The Action Plan of Start Up India consists of- Simplification of procedures and Handholding by the Government; Funding Support and Incentives and Industry-Academia Partnership and Incubation.

Growth of start-up in India:

India is rapidly growing in technical innovation and has affirmed 2010-20 as the ‘Decade of Innovation’. The Government has stressed the necessity to articulate a policy to synergies science, technology and innovation and has also established the National Innovation Council. Presently, India is the 4^th largest ecosystem in the World for Starts-Ups, after the USA, the UK and Israel with a speedily evolving ecosystem, driven by an extremely young, diverse and inclusive entrepreneurial setting. According to NASSCOM, approximately 11,500 Start-ups would arise in India by the year 2020. These would create more than 2.5 lakh jobs, compared to the current 75,000 jobs. Start-ups hold the potential of creating adequate number of jobs, especially at a time when the manufacturing sector is already facing a slump. The easing of certification and compliance procedure, aided by technological interventions by the Government of India is boosting the investor confidence and would improve the credit-off take in the economy. Government of India is taking number of initiatives to facilitate the Start Up companies in India in terms of financing initiatives like Pradhan Mantri Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency Limited (MUDRA) and Start Up Action plan 19-point agenda consisting of incentives such as self-certification for complying with labour and environment regulations, a panel of facilitators to help file patent and intellectual property applications, tax exemptions for seed funding, capital gains and three year holiday on income tax as well as a Rs. 10,000 crore financing support through a fund of funds for four years.

Challenges & Way Forward-

The Start Up India programme does face the challenges of funding, patents and creation of intellectual property. There is a long process of registration of patents and lack of incentives for research and development. In fact, this is one of the reasons why many Start Ups prefer to be domiciled abroad. The real test for Start Up India would be re-domiciling of these Indian Start Ups back in India. The Government’s approach of targeting Start Ups to power growth over the next decade is well judged and needs easing of rules and creation of a favourable policy environment not only for the new Start Up companies but also to other business entities in India. India also needs Start Ups throwing up globally path-breaking products. An enabling environment for this would comprise of incubation centres which can plug into cutting-edge research happening in the country. An effective implementation of Start Up India programme would certainly carve the future of New India.

(The author of this article ,Lt Col (Dr) Satish Dhage, is an ex Army officer and has been qualified for IPS (Indian Police Services) through IPS LCE 2012. Presently, he is Director, MGM Institute of Competitive Exams Aurangabad.                                     For any queries or feedback, he can be contacted on email id : drsatishdhage@gmail.com)