DPIIT to soon approach cabinet for Startup India Vision 2024; proposes several support measures

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) will soon approach the cabinet to seek approval for implementation of a comprehensive vision document for startups which has proposed series of steps for budding entrepreneurs, an official said.

Under the Startup India Vision 2024, the department has proposed measures like easing regulatory requirements for startups such as reducing tax compliance time to just one hour per month and facilities of debt financing, the official said.

The other proposals include setting up of 500 new incubators and accelerators, creating innovation zones in urban local bodies, deployment of entire corpus of Rs 10,000 crore fund of funds, operationalise credit guarantee scheme, and establishment of a seed fund.

Further, the vision document has proposed providing work orders and pilot projects from government, ranking of ministries and central public sector undertakings for their increased engagement with startups, and organising a global startup event in the country.

"We are trying to take a consolidated view on startups - as in what sort of policy is required for them, what benefits we can give, how each ministry needs to deal with them, and how to reduce their compliance burden," the official added.

At present, startups comply with a plethora of requirements such as goods and services tax (GST) filings, tax returns and other local laws every month. Compliance to these processes takes a lot of time and cost.

Startup India is the flagship initiative of the government, launched in January 2016, which intends to build a strong ecosystem for the growth of startup businesses, to drive sustainable economic growth and generate employment opportunities. The Startup India action plan provides tax and other incentives.

So far, as many as 24,250 startups have been recognised by the department. They are eligible for different tax incentives.