Govt wakes up to startup possibilities, to have policy soon

BHUBANESWAR: The state government is working on formulating a startup policy to promote and facilitate entrepreneurs in the state. The policy will provide a host of incentives to those who start their own businesses. The proposal will be ready by March 2016, official sources said.
With this announcement, Odisha is the latest state to join the bandwagon of launching startup policies along with states such as Karnataka, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Telengana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, which have already announced they formulate such a policy.
“Startup is the new buzzword and so much is happening in entrepreneurship. The state government has a vibrant industrial policy resolution, IT policy and MSME policy, which have been helping entrepreneurs do business in the state. Startups and downstream policies are in the pipeline and will be released soon,” said industry minister Debi Prasad Mishra.
The startup policy aims to create an ecosystem for new business ventures, attract investments, set up facilitation centre, taxation and providing infrastructure facilities. The Bhubaneswar chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), a global network of entrepreneurs on Saturday, submitted a draft of Odisha Startup Policy 2016 to the state government here.
”We are likely to finalize the policy by March 2016. The draft policy and suggestions made by TiE will help us know the challenges and requirements of the industry better,” said industry secretary Sanjiv Chopra.
There has been an explosion of IT-enabled or e-commerce businesses — from online booking of taxis to buying food and other items online or to provide web-based services — across the country in the past decade. In Odisha, there are around 60 startups so far with an approximate net worth of Rs 50 crore. However, the state is lagging behind states such as Karanataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh in entrepreneurship development.
Electronics and IT minister Pranab Prakash Das said, “Handholding of young entrepreneurs is important to make Bhubaneswar the startup destination of eastern India. The state government is ready with about five lakh square feet of a fully-developed incubation centre with Rs 20 per sq ft price for entrepreneurs in the city. The government has also tied up with various technical institutes to set up finishing schools. Besides, the curriculum of schools and technical courses are being revised according to the need of the industry.”
The draft policy has envisaged providing Rs 250 crore for youth entrepreneurship activities over the next five years or 1% of the state budget to be earmarked for the same, to set up 20 technology business incubators, and at least 1,000 technology product startups.
President TiE, Silicon Valley, Venk Shukla said, “Over the last few years, India has shown an upsurge in innovative business ideas and has attracted the attention of global venture capitals. In Odisha, where the government and administration are quite industry friendly, it won’t take more time to create an ecosystem.”