This refers to the editorial, “Entrepreneurs’ day out” (January 18). Prime Minister Narendra Modi has unveiled a slew of incentives to boost start-up businesses, offering young entrepreneurs tax holiday and inspector raj-free regime for three years, capital gains tax exemption and Rs10,000 crore corpus to fund them. The action plan looks like a mini-Budget, accompanied by promises and words of courage from the policymakers. It takes statesmanly imagination to kick-start such an initiative and Mr Modi deserves credit for this.
Though the move to include start-ups in the ambit of public procurement is sound, what is crucial, however, is not start-up specific policy, but the overall ease of doing business. For the Government, the challenge is to see that all obstacles are cleared in a fair way so that young entrepreneurs do not run roughshod over their less fancied entrepreneurial cousins or help tax evaders exploit legal loopholes meant to encourage risk-taking innovators and job-spinners.