Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday said the Centre would act as a facilitator for entrepreneurs and start-ups, while promising them utmost freedom in their operations as well as easy availability of capital and a friendly tax regime.

“The Centre has limited scope to create jobs,” Jaitley said at the inaugural address of the Start-Up India initiative, adding that entrepreneurial ventures are necessary as there is “no other option or alternative that an over-populated country like India has today”.

Promising a series of initiatives to enable start-ups, the Finance Minister said while some of the steps can be notified immediately, the others would require a legislative amendment, which can be done only in the Finance Bill at the time of the Union Budget 2016-17 in February.

“Our effort over the last few years has been to restrict the role of state as a facilitator or policy-maker,” he said, adding that the key difference would be felt when the start-up movement picks up.

“There will be eventual freedom from the state that Indian entrepreneurship will enjoy,” he stressed, while pointing to the instance of India’s booming IT sector that was able to grow only because there were no laws governing the field.

He further noted that Start-Up India will be the ultimate or final break from the conventional licence raj system.

Noting that the world economy has slowed down and instances of the headwinds of the global economy have increased, he said, “We are fully conscious of the adverse situation in which we are struggling to keep respectable growth rates in the Indian economy.”

He further noted that the private sector has over-stressed itself and the banking sector is also under duress.

Earlier in the session, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman too promised that the Centre would work as a facilitator and enabler to help scale up start-ups.

Noting that entrepreneurship is no longer just a matter of “jugaad”, she said that more than 4,500 start-ups have found angel investors.

She also said the Centre would encourage further dialogue with start-up leaders to ensure ease of doing business and also promised easier exit norms through the Bankruptcy Code that has been tabled in Parliament.

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