With an aim to boost entrepreneurship, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday kick-started his ambitious Start-Up India with a slew of incentives ranging from a 3-year tax holiday, exemption on capital gains, to a corpus fund of Rs10,000 crore. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley initially inaugurated the Start-Up India mission and the closing address was given by the Prime Minister at the jam-packed Vigyan Bhawan in the national Capital.
While addressing the first conference of start-up entrepreneurs, Modi announced a self-certification scheme in respect of nine labour and environment laws and said there would be no inspection during the first three years of launch of the venture. Also, a liberalised patent regime is being brought to help start-up businesses register patents, for which the fee will be slashed by 80 per cent.
Modi also announced an action plan to boost such ventures which are seen as key to employment generation and wealth creation. India, which has the third-largest number of start-ups globally, will also support the ventures by removing the criteria of experience and turnover for bagging the Government procurement contracts.
“Profits earned by start-ups will be exempt from payment of income tax during the first three years of business. To boost financing, a 20 per cent tax on capital gains made on investments by entrepreneurs after selling own assets as well as Government-recognised venture capitalists will also be exempted,” said Modi in the event, adding that an unencumbered easy exit option will be provided under the bankruptcy Act so that start-ups can exit within 90 days.
The PM said the success of entrepreneurs depends on their ability to take risk. “With a risk-taking capacity and the purpose of adventure, we can give something good to the world,” he said, taking the example of US transportation network company Uber, which he said has become Kuber or the god of wealth due to its entrepreneurship.
As far as the governance is concerned, the Prime Minister concluded with his last advice to the entrepreneurs that minimum Government, maximum governance is the key to the success of Start-Up India. “Start-ups are driven by the passion to find solutions and innovate. An entrepreneur is willing to lose his sleep to solve the problems of others,” he said.
“Solution to all problems has become an app. And I have benefited greatly from this. I also have the ‘Narendra Modi App’,” PM Modi said amid applause. “Share your stories with me on the ‘Narendra Modi Mobile App’.”
Stressing that money is secondary, the Prime Minister said, “This start-up movement is not merely guided by money or name and fame. The purpose is beyond that. When we say Make in India, we also say ‘Make for India’ and India is a great market,” he said.
Among all business giants present in the event, Japan-based telecom and internet Corp SoftBank bet big on India and said it would be an emerging one which will be bigger than China. The company has already invested $2 billion in Indian firms in the last one year and will look to scale up the investment to $10 billion in the coming year.
“Internet and solar are the sectors that excite the corporation, but it wants the Government to develop a robust mobile phone infrastructure and resolve slow Internet issues. If I rescale, I will scale up. What will $10 billion become, I don’t know. If I have said that we will invest $10 billion in 10 years, we have invested $2 billion in a year. That’s over-pacing and I think we will accelerate,” said SoftBank Chairman and Chief Executive Masayoshi Son.