Start-ups flags concerns related to cash flow, labour in meeting with Goyal

Problems related with liquidity crunch, cash flow, revenue and labour matters were raised by start-ups in their meeting with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday.

Goyal held the meeting through video conference with the stakeholders of the start-up ecosystem, including developers, angel investors and others, to assess the impact of Covid-19 and lockdown in the country.

"The start-up representatives raised the concerns, ranging from the question of liquidity crunch, cash flow and revenue problems, labour matters, and other difficulties in running the ventures due to lockdown, the commerce and industry ministry said in a statement.

After listening to the various problems and suggestions by the start-up stakeholders, the minister called for collaborative efforts to deal with the issues, according to the statement.

In the meeting, the minister said the country is passing through the unprecedented crisis, and this requires prompt remedial actions.

He sought cooperation in overcoming the hardships being faced by the industry, particularly the start-ups.

He welcomed the launch of the Action COVID-19 Team, which is starting a Rs 100-crore programme, aimed to seed over 50 initiatives through grants to combat the economic fallout of COVID-19 in India.

Many start-ups have been working on finding various solutions to COVID-19 issues with focus on preventive, assistive and curative aspects of the pandemic.

"Many of the ventures are in the final stage of launch and others will require some more time to take shape. These ventures will require access, funding, validation, scaling-up, and support," it said adding that a joint committee from various government departments and industry associations are evaluating these initiatives.

The meeting was also attended by the officers from the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, SEBI, CBDT, CBIC, NITI Aayog, and SIDBI. Representatives of MakeMyTrip, Zomato, Cult.Fit, and Naukri.com were present in the meeting.

In a separate information, the ministry said state-owned trading firm MMTC has decided to contribute about Rs 25 lakh to the Prime Ministers' Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situation (PM-CARES) Fund.