NITI Aayog calls for further easing of start-up norms

The NITI Aayog on Friday called upon the government to further improve the ease of doing business, to boost the culture of start-ups in the country. It also released the report of an Expert Committee on Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

The report said the government should digitise all its departments to help start-ups get all permissions and licences online. Around 200 owners of budding companies, incubation centres for start-ups and venture capitalists took part in the event.

"All tax laws, government notices related to taxation and responses related to taxpayers' queries should be available online," it said.

Sindhushree Khullar, CEO NITI Aayog, Arvind Panagariya, vice-chairman, NITI Aayog and noted academician Tarun Khanna, director, South Asia Institute, Harvard University, along with officials from Department of MSME, Biotechnology and members of the expert committee also took part in the event.

The Aayog had constituted the panel under the chairmanship of Khanna. The committee observed that formulation of the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) could be a defining moment in India's economic history, and the idea must be unfettered and allowed to flourish.

Meanwhile, expecting an upward revision of the first quarter GDP numbers, Panagariya said the Indian economy could still manage eight per cent growth rate this financial year.

"I have consistently maintained that economy is moving forward and we have seen the growth shift up to 7.4 per cent (in the second quarter) now," he said when asked if GDP will touch eight per cent mark as projected by him earlier.

"I still remain optimistic; perhaps, we will see somewhat revision in the first quarter figure also. So my prediction remains that by the time we get to the fourth quarter, we would get to about eight per cent," he added.

Panagariya's comments on the national accounts have come after the finance ministry, in a statement, said earlier this week the economy would grow in the vicinity of 7.5 per cent. However, the government had earlier projected a growth rate of 8.1-8.5 per cent for the current financial year.

According the Central Statistics Office data released earlier this week, the economy showed signs of recovery and grew at 7.4 per cent in the July-September quarter this financial year mainly on account of higher manufacturing growth of 9.3 per cent in the three-month period.

The economy had grown at seven per cent in the April-June quarter. During the first half of this financial year, GDP grew 7.2 per cent compared to 7.5 per cent in the same period of 2014-15. Earlier, Panagariya expressed disappointment over meagre expenditure on research and development, saying just one per cent of the GDP has been spent for the last many years.