PM’s Start up India :Comments from different industry Players

Mr. Manavjeet Singh, Founder and CEO, Rubique.com –“The passionate, energetic & straight from heart talks in the Startup India event today indeed created a lot of positivity & vibrancy in the Indian entrepreneurial clan. 

The cherry on the top was the Startup action plan declared by Hon. Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi. The government has hit the nail when it comes to dilemma an entrepreneur faces to execute an idea. Set up of incubation centers, guidance on compliance at no fees or funds of fund is definitely going to boost spirits of budding entrepreneurs to take the plunge in the market to make their dream a reality. Making the registration a simple process through an app & portal along with the reduction of 80% fees will make first few steps much smoother than what it was. The tax exemption for 3 years & exemption on capital gains is definitely will help us focus more on the strengthening our foundations rather than worrying about the tax outflow. Lastly, in the dynamic market scenario like today where it takes few days to replicate an idea, the decision to guide & make the patent process faster is definitely going to be game changer not just in India but worldwide. Overall a positive & encouraging move by the government to help flourish the startup ecosystem in India with these and many other initiatives.”

Mr. Aditya Kanoria – CEO India Red Ribbon Asset Management Plc,“The initiative to promote #StarttupIndia by our Honourable Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi would be a great support to the status community. It would motivate more and more investors to invest in startups which will largely solve the Access to Capital issue of startups, as we have seen best of concepts fail due to lack of capital . Entrepreneurs would definitely get a huge benefit from Capital gains. We expect some more clarity on capital gain tax on Angel Investments in following budget next month. More over yesterday he gave a new direction toStartups stateing Startups are not restricted to online or Apps based platforms only its more than that. This will indeed change the mindset of young entrepreneurs to think on other sectors like manufacturing where there is a huge scope of growth as well. I would say couple of years back it was Red Tape for Startups yesterday government through there policies have shown the Red Carpet now the right execution of policies would decide whether startups head towards Red ribbon or not “

Mr. Adhil Shetty, CEO & Co-Founder Bankbazaar.com – on Start Up India Initiative- “Start-ups in India have altered the business landscape beyond recognition, both in economic terms and from a socio-psychological perspective. India ranks third in the sheer number of businesses started. Incubators and supportive ecosystems too have seen a surge in frequency and density. Ventures like Flipkart, Freshdesk, Practo, and BankBazaar have leveraged these phenomena to deliver real-world solutions to issues that Indian consumers were grappling with not too long ago. The mood at the launch event and the expectations from the policy measures matched the scale of the event itself. The need for faster patent processes and start–up-friendly tax laws were a common refrain. There was also palpable anticipation of the enablement of paperless financial services, which could truly democratize the access and consumption of such services. The proposed policy measures covered in the Action Plan unveiled by the Honourable Prime Minister ranged from handholding initiatives like the Startup India Hub, fast-tracking of patent applications, setting up of sector-specific incubators, Tinkering Labs, and research parks, start–up-friendly tax regimes, and funding support through a Fund of Funds.”

Prafulla Mathur, Founder and CEO, WudStay welcoming the Start–up India Initiative.

“The initiative launched by PM Modi today will surely set an enabling and conducive environment for startups in India. We are overwhelmed to have such support from the Government which will certainly make a big boom in the Indian startup ecosystem to fuel the economy and create new age jobs. The policies announced today at the program, open doors for massive opportunities, boost further investments and innovations. We look forward to implementation of Tax framework for startups and how regulations are reduced to help smoother operations.”

Mr. Pramod Saxena, Chairman Oxigen Services- “The start-up India movement is set to boost country’s entrepreneurial spirit. Over the last 8 to 10 years many initiatives have come forward to uplift the start-up culture but with PM Modi’s encouragement, it is a matter of time where we’d be as impactful as Silicon Valley and others. We are in need of private enterprise of that scale that can promote these initiates like Silicon Valley.

The private equity generally rushes in one direction but for the country’s perspective this should be seen differently. The government initiative should be to promote all round entrepreneurial development in support to start-up ventures that comes from different diversified fields which is huge in numbers; especially when we talk about agriculture, food and clean energy. Also, banks are not taking position to support early stage projects hence only areas of interest to VCs/ PVT Equity are seeing growth in startup’s. If government ensures a frictionless access to early stage capital to young entrepreneurs, we will see many more startup’s in areas of priority for country’s overall development.

In the payment sector we have seen a lot of development and government support. There are lot of other sectors which are open and need entrepreneurial and equity support.”

Ankita Jain, Co-founder, GoPaisa.com:“With government finally joining hands with startups, by way of incubation centers and dedicated fund, I believe the startups across sectors will be amongst top 5 employment creators in the next 5 years.”

She further added, “India for sure will be amongst world first in such a governmental level thrust for startups, and giving overall push be it easy funds, low taxes, dedicated incubation centers, 1 day company registration, we believe now India will shoot up to the top quartile in business friendliness index from the current bottom.”

Dr. Apoorv Ranjan Sharma, Co-founder of Venture Catalysts,, “It gives us great pleasure in launching our Mumbai facility in conjunction with the Government’s initiative to give the necessary thrust to India’s Start Up ecosystem. We have built an extensive angel network by involving the country’s high net-worth individuals, and a unique, innovation-driven platform to offer the most comprehensive single-point start-up solutions for upcoming ventures. Moreover, VCats has also tied up with several prominent global start-up facilitators, such as Plug and Play, to expose the Indian start-ups to strategic opportunities from across the globe, and connect with potential partners, investors and mentors from around the world. This puts us in a good position to empower start-ups in India and propel them to register a global impact.”

Mr. Uday Reddy, Founder & CEO, YuppTV said, “The start-up landscape in India is growing significantly and certainly has a promising future. We are elated with the recent announcement by our honorable PM towards the Startup India Stand Up initiative. It will definitely create a healthy startup ecosystems in the country and empower the Indian youth for a better economy. YuppTV is in complete support of this initiative and we look forward towards an ecosystem conducive to the growth of the startups”

Mr. Sanjay Krishna Goyal, CEO & Founder ACL Mobile “India is up for a startup revolution; with 3100 startups in 2014 the reports project the numbers to reach 11,500 by 2020. Tapping into this entrepreneurial gold mine gives form to innovation that can boost India’s economic prospects by creating jobs and wealth. The last decade has seen a boost in entrepreneurial activity because of significant amount of funding activities. But obstacles like costs, procedural complexities and delays still remain at large.

The new initiative focusing on startups is a welcome move. The government needs to create a favorable environment for small-ticket co-investments which can help early-stage entrepreneurs; consider matching investments for seed investments by central funding agencies. The government initiatives should focus on building a start up culture in the country by promoting all round entrepreneurial development and subsequently creating an eco-system for conducive growth of the startups. The movement must aim at reducing cost. This can be done by defining a startup, easing regulations and the procedures around the company registration process, and possibly exempting startups from direct and indirect taxes, at least in their initial years, to reduce cash outflows.”

Ms Ambika Sharma, Founder, Instappy, “Startup ecosystem is at a low with the numerous layoffs and unplanned hiring. Stability and long term planning will be a focus area for startups in 2016. The ecosystem will need to realign talent and work on attracting new talent. Support systems for startups and incubation will increase, average valuations seem set to increase but funding will be far more cautious then in the past year. Product based startups will show growth as will Logistics, utility services, lifestyle.

Start ups will have to become more agile and nimbler with a sustainable revenue process.  Government under the make in India and digitalIndia initiatives will fuel growth for Indian startups. So far the Indian economy has witnessed phenomenal growth for the Indian technologystartup ecosystem, driven by factors such as massive infused capital, acquisitions and consolidations, increasing Internet and smartphone penetration, and an ever growing domestic market will continue to infuse energy. B2B startups will show strength and numbers will increase in the coming year.”

Soumitra Gupta, Founder & CEO, Togofogo said, “Togofogo.com as a startup shall play a leading roll in environmental cleanup and help recycling old phones into re-use again and also participate in lower imports by extending the life and use of an already imported phone inIndia.”

Mr. Akshay Verma, Co-founder & Director, Fitpass,“Startup India has provided strong encouragement and respectability to first generation entrepreneurs apart from smoothening processes. If the promises made are fulfilled timely, there is no doubt that India will be the global hotspot for job creators and problem solvers.”

Vijay KG, founder, Luxepolis,“Income and Capital Gains Tax exemptions game changers. One can expect India giving Silicon Valley run for its money over the next three decades. Today’s announcements are enormously positive in potentially making India (replacing USA) as the country that leads and drives future innovation in the world”

Raghav Chandra, Co founder, Urbanclap, This initiative of PM Modi is the right step in making the environment friendlier for entrepreneurs and thus encouraging them to start up. We will wait for the fine print to understand exactly what the next steps will be. However, I can only say that outcome will be in the positive direction and we are very excited!

Shaifali Agarwal Holani, Founder and CEO, EasyFix, “What an initiative and a great day for India. Most populated India has sharpest brains of all times and this initiative will give a platform to many enthusiastic but under confident talents to come out of their ordeal. Encouraging privatisation will speed the pace at which India is developing and we will become a developed country soon.”

For us, EasyFix is a labour development & construction focussed company, Mr. Modi said “he is trying to foster innovation and incubation” and our startup is looking forward to collaborating with Modi Govt for skill development and labour development initiatives. We want to be able to contribute to the society & transform the unorganised labour market by doing things right, and that is by better execution of skill development programs.

Prashant Rai, founder and CEO, OneTimeJobs.com, OneTimeJobs.com is in sync with the prime minister’s announcement on StartUp India. We truly appreciate all the initiatives that the government will be taking to support startups. On these initiatives, Government will be as successful as it was with the 100 smart cities concept. However, the concern of taxation on VC funding has not been spoken about, which still remains a roadblock.

Mr. Himanshu Meena – Founder Parsel (Dropbase Software Pvt Ltd)

“The most refreshing aspect was PM’s pointed emphasis on minimum government intervention and promise to ease bankruptcy laws. These indicate the government’s willingness to provide space to entrepreneurs for experimentation, without worrying too much about archaic legalities. With newer business models we see that existing legal frameworks are found wanting, as with shared economy models of AirBnb or Uber. In such scenario, PM’s rhetoric asking start-ups to ‘tell us what to do’, was very reassuring.”

Mr Dinesh Agarwal, Founder and CEO, IndiaMart.Com: I wholeheartedly welcome Prime minister’s action plan at the startup India standupIndia  mission

These policies should be applicable to all startups including MSMEs in manufacturing, trading, retailing and services sector In sync with Modi, I believe that the Startup definition must include every new business generating employment in any sectorWith the roadmap in place, I believe that the MSMEs will be the major beneficiaries apart from new age tech companies.

Mohit Mittal, founder and CEO of Voodoo has welcomed this delightful move by PM Modi of opening 7 research parks in different IITs with a 100 crore backing each. “Exposure to a facility like the research park facilitated many a budding entrepreneurs and friends with funding and guidance. Scaling it to seven other institutes would definitely help the budding startup enthusiasts right from their first day in college, and that’s really paramount to their future success. One has to start early and fail early to really learn the intricacies of scaling a company, college students should welcome this move with open arms” added Mohit, who started up his first company in his college days at IIT Madras.

Mr. LD Sharma,Group Vice Chairman of Shoogloo, “Liberal economic policies relating to taxes and foreign investment proposals will redefine the dynamics of startup India. PM Modi’s initiative will not just ascertain stability but also long term planning for sustainable startupIndia this year and beyond. We at Shoogloo believe in delivering pure performance and see the same being initiated by our PM for the nation.”

Sudhir Singh, Partner – PwC India, With reference to the announcements made during the Start–up India launch yesterday,

“India has been home to entrepreneurs and start-ups. The announcements by the Government yesterday will encourage further entrepreneurship within the country. Tax holiday, patent, ease of closing companies, investment fund, gateway for public procurement are measures that will definitely make it easier for companies to do business. We look forward to further details around these. The key will be how these are implemented.

However, these measures alone will not help spurt Government’s ambition of having 300,000 start-ups. Today entrepreneurs require world class infrastructure to build world class companies. Basics such as electricity, internet connectivity, roads, clean environment and curbing corruption require immediate attention for building a strong foundation to achieve our ambition.”

Manish Kumar, Co-founder & CEO GREX ,“The Prime Minister’s announcement of the Startup Policy had quite a few important and measurable benefits that thestartups can gain from. Most importantly, the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister outlined a change in the principle approach of the government towards the economy – that the government wants to stay away from deciding and directing on what needs to be done. Instead, the Government looks at a policy of arm’s length enablement. This stand is a bold new change in the government policy and disruptive in its own right.

Venture debt was miserably missing in the ecosystem. Startups have only been used to equity as a mode of capital. GREX is completely poised to launch venture debt in a few weeks’ time. This will help our partner Banks and NBFCs walk the road along with us more aggressively as credits become guaranteed.

Another big thing that was anticipated but not announced is the addressal of concerns around notional valuation gains to investors over and above the fair market value. The incidence of such tax deductions today lie at startups’ end. The ecosystem will expect more details on this front. However, the Prime Minister’s assurance on this is welcome. Some other welcome steps in favor of companies and therefore their investors are retention of profits by the company for three years.”

Dinesh Goel, Co-Founder & CEO, AasaanJobs-a recruitment portal for entry level and blue collar jobs

The salient points of the Startup India initiative announced by PM Narendra Modi – tax exemption for incubators and startups, IPR protection, patent fee reduction, setting up of research parks across IITs and IISC and a corpus of Rs. 10,000 crore to be utilised for startups – all look quite promising in terms of attracting the best talent from far and wide to help India reach its potential. Other measures such as the exemption from capital gains tax when investing one’s own wealth in a startup will ensure that many jobs are created in every level and human resource and talent acquisition will no longer be a bottleneck. Apart from this, no inspection for the first 3 years and self-certification for statutory compliance will enable startups to hire in bulk and scale up their operations, creating a cascading effect as far as job creation is concerned.

The true test of the government will now lie in how the policies are unfurled in the future to cut down red tape and ‘escape the License Raj’, as pointed out by Mr. Jaitley in his speech. Apart from this, it would take further efforts on the part of all the stakeholders – the government, the investors, entrepreneurs and the customers – to truly create a smooth ecosystem.

Shaifali Agarwal Holani,Founder & CEO,EasyFix, What an initiative and a great day for India. Most populated India has sharpest brains of all times and this initiative will give a platform to many enthusiastic but under confident talents to come out of their ordeal. Encouraging privatization will speed the pace at which India is developing and we will become a developed country soon.

For us, EasyFix is a labour development & construction focused company, Mr. Modi said “he is trying to foster innovation and incubation” and our startup is looking forward to collaborating with Modi Govt for skill development and labour development initiatives. We want to be able to contribute to the society & transform the unorganised labour market by doing things right, and that is by better execution of skill development programs.

Mr Kiran Murthi, CEO, AskmeBazaar said,“Startups are no longer small and are slowly but surely going mainstream. I believe that the ‘Start up India’ launch is timed well to catapult this trend into a mass movement which will see India grow much faster than the world. We welcome the announcement around the inclusion of institutional support in schools, institutions, incubators, research facilities as well as tinkering labs and on government procurement. Steps like these will help multiply the current base of start-ups manifold. Small business financing including debt is a major thrust area and we are seeing increasing traction for the same even on our platform. We are glad that the Prime Minister has announced a variety of schemes to address the challenges of small business financing. To sum it up, we see the announcement as a concrete step towards achieving the Prime Minister’s vision of the youth of India becoming job creators and not job seekers.”