'Startup India' elicits encouraging response

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi Saturday launched the 'Startup India' programme in New Delhi, evoking phenomenal response from stakeholders. Here is what they had to say

Arun Jaitley, India's finance minister

"Start-Up India will change conventions. Government will merely be a facilitator for start-ups."

Nirmala Sitharaman, India's commerce minister

"The government is working on an exit policy, that is also required for companies. The Bankruptcy Code is before parliament."

Amitabh Kant, secretary, department of investment policy and promotion

"In 18 months time, we will bring our patent pendency level at the same level as US and Japan."

Travis Kalanick, founder, Uber:

"Have a champion's mindset. Put everything you have into it; any less and you will fail. Bounce back from knocks."

Masayoshi Son, founder and CEO, Softbank:

"Whenever I invest, I look at the eyes of the entrepreneur."

Kunal Bahl, founder, Snapdeal:

"It pays to get good customer at the beginning of your early stage."

Kabir Kumar, World Bank executive:

"India is one of the most exciting markets in the world for financial services innovation."

Vijay Shekar Sharma, founder, paytm:

"India will leapfrog plastic into digital money faster than any other country."

Nikesh Arora, president and COO, Softbank:

"Stay focused on effectively solving customers' problem - the money will come."

Pramod Saxena, chairman, Oxigen Services:

"If government ensures a frictionless access to early stage capital to young entrepreneurs, we will see many more start-ups in areas of priority."

Apoorv Ranjan Sharma, co-founder, 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 Startup ecosystem."

Uday Reddy, founder and CEO, YuppTV:

"We are elated with the recent announcement by our honorable PM towards the startup India Stand Up initiative."

Sanjay Krishna Goyal, founder and CEO, ACL Mobile:

"India is up for a start-up revolution; with 3,100 startups in 2014, reports project the numbers to reach 11,500 by 2020."

Ambika Sharma, founder, Instappy:

"Start-up 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."

Soumitra Gupta, founder and CEO, Togofogo:

"Togofogo.com as a startup shall play a leading role in environmental cleanup and help recycling old phones into re-use again."

Rahul Jalan, director, Indiaonline.in:

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Startup India, Standup India' initiative will simplify the things and doing business in India."

Tarun Wit, co-founder, Innefu Lab's:

"Liberal and friendly economic policies pertaining to taxes, registration and foreign investment proposals will help businesses."

Govind Bansal, co-founder, Aqua:

"Due to a slow procedure consumers are deprived of good options and businesses are unable to meet the market demand."

Rohit Mahajan, MD, Loofre.com:

"This can be the platform that India needs badly to increase motivation to its entrepreneurs and keep the talent within its shores."

Pratima Arora, founder, 230THK/INSIDESTUFF:

"'Startup India, Standup India' can be a powerful engine to keep this growth rate alive."

Ashish Srivastava, MD, Educulture Noida:

"Encourage Entrepreneurship, Encourage Innovation. We appreciate the campaign.

Amit Rathore, founder and CEO, Quintype:

"Today it is reserved for the elite. This needs to change."