The Centre and State Governments need to push for incentives that would help develop an ecosystem for start-ups and encourage students to take up entrepreneurship, S. Gopalakrishnan, President-CII, and Executive Vice-Chairman, Infosys Ltd, said here on Wednesday.
According to him, steps need to be taken to support companies during their initial years. The steps should include providing incentives till the company achieves a certain level in terms of turnover.
“The ecosystem for start-ups needs to be developed. Providing (for) incentives to such companies in the initial years would be beneficial for the industry,” Gopalakrishnan said on the sidelines of CII-organised National Conference on Leadership.
In earlier instances, he maintained, when the Centre announced tax benefits through the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) scheme, he saw States compete with one another to attract industry. However, such competition between states to draw industry has gone missing over the last few years.
The need was to enable graduates or those out of colleges to turn to entrepreneurship rather than looking for jobs. “We should encourage students to be entrepreneurs and not just job-seekers,” Gopalakrishnan added.
Focus on other languages
Gopalakrishnan, meanwhile, also stressed on the need to cater to a larger global audience and move ahead from dependence on the US, Europe and other Latin American nations.
The need was to move ahead from an 'English-only-medium' and explore other language options.
“We have to see how we can cater to a greater global audience. While we have had English language training in schools, there is a need to go beyond that and invest in other languages,” he said adding that unless this is done, “it will be difficult to create jobs in the future”.