The `Startup India’ action plan announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to encourage startups with a incentive package including tax sops was met with enthusiasm by most first-generation entrepreneurs, with some saying that it was a initiative long over-due and its success depended on how the plan was implemented.
“The tax sops and the fund for startups announced by the government will help in funding a large number of startups throughout the country. It is a big boost for small like us who could do with all help possible,” said Anoop Shukla from Eventweavers, an on-line company dealing in e-cards.
According to Sujai G Pillai, Founder & CEO, www.2tion.com, an online tutoring website, there was just no help available for startups when he started out in 2006, and it was the first time that startups were being celebrated. “With the kind of financial support and handholding to first time entrepreneurs the action plan seeks to provide, a large number of startups are sure to come up and the year 2016 will belong to entrepreneurs,” Pillai, who also mentors other startups, said.
Expressing similar sentiments, Manish Vij, founder and CEO, SVG Media said that for the first time in 11 years of entrepreneurship, he had seen the government support entrepreneurs. “The government’s action plan will inculcate the desire to become entrepreneurs among our youth throughout the nation. It addresses a lot of pain points of entrepreneurs,” he said.
Premjit Prabhakaran and Preetha Premjit from Kerala-based Indian Homemade Toys are equally jubilant with the ``recognition’’ for startups that the action plan provided. “The income tax exemption on profits provided for the first three years is a very positive step. It is a visionary plan for startups that the government has come up with which has recognized that startups are also important in creating employment,” Prabhakaran said.
Some entrepreneurs believe that startups have become successful in India mainly because of the angel investors and the entrepreneurs themselves and it was natural for the government to step in at this point. “Angel investors have played a vital role in giving a push to startups and if all that the government has announced today is implemented, it would provide them a further boost,” said Anuradha Acharya, CEO, Map My Genome.
(Wtih inputs from Chitra Narayanan)