In Pakistan, while still there is a hot debate on taxation, legal and structural problems of startups and how we need a better overall environment for the entrepreneurial community to grow, our mighty neighbor India has revealed a grand “Startup Action Plan” to make India the next startup nation.
Unveiled by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi today in New Delhi, the action plan is crisp, concise and has measurable goals. Let’s take a look at some main points one by one.
- Tax Exemption: Startups set up after April 1, 2016 are exempted from taxes for three years, while there are also concessions on capital gains tax.
- Compliance Regime based on self-certification: Startups will be allowed to self-certify compliance with labour and environment laws. They are exempted from labour law inspections for a period of three years while for environmental laws, startups under a special ‘white’ category would be able to self-certify compliance.
- Establishment of Startup India Hub: The establishment of a central startup hub which would be a single point of interaction between the government and the startups.
- Atal Innovation Mission(AIM): The establishment of 500 tinkering labs with 3D printers, 35 public-private sector incubators, 31 innovation centres at national institutes, 7 new research parks and 5 new bio-clusters for research and development.
- Innovation-focused programmes for students: The launch of an innovation-focused programme with an outreach of 5 lakh schools.
- Quick startups registration: Startups will be able to register themselves quickly by filling a short form through a website or mobile application. The portal is expected to launch in April.
- Patent filing rebate, legal advice and protection: Startups will get 80% rebate on filling of their patents, in addition to that, there will be legal advisers, who will help the startups in the best of their interests. Patent filing application of startups will be fast tracked.
- A collection of Rs. 10,000 Crore fund: Government will set-up a fund for sprouting innovation in the country. The initial funding collection is PKR 2,500 crore which will end at Rs. 10,000 PKR in 4 years.
- Startup Festivals – Government will organize startup festivals to create an active community of startups and involve more people in this movement.
With India becoming the hub of innovative new startups and budding entrepreneurs, the Indian Government plans to jumpstart a Startup Revolution and its newly-unveiled Startup Action Plan reinforces their goal, providing thousands of startups with a much better platform.
Indian netizens expressed their full support and cheered the Prime Minister for taking this initiative.
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Meanwhile in Pakistan, Government is yet to officially launch an investment fund for startups which was announced in the mid of 2015.
