The National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) wants an encore of the STPI magic that had put the Indian IT industry on the global outsourcing map.
This time around, it wants the creation of such an agency to give start-ups a leg up to recreate the success that IT industry achieved.
The Software Technologies Parks of India (STPI) had played a phenomenal role in making the Indian industry a global force to reckon with. “We now want an STPI-like agency for technology start-ups. We have appealed to the Union Government to consider setting up one. They are actively considering the idea,” Nasscom Chairman BVR Mohan Reddy told
There, however, is a difficult hurdle – what is a start-up. With technology disrupting virtually every business, one can’t really define what exactly a start-up is.
This is crucial in order to zero in on candidates eligible for the sops.
Tax holiday“We want the government to announce a 10-year tax holiday for technology-related start-ups which might be working in a variety of areas, ranging from agriculture to manufacturing,” said Reddy, who is also the Executive Chairman of Cyient.
The STPI had played a big role in making India a top destination for IT outsourcing. “It helped a lot in developing the IT services industry. It is time we focussed on products and help start-ups to achieve scale,” he said.
The Nasscom Chairman, who accompanied Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his recent visit to Silicon Valley in the United States, said about 40 start-ups from India exhibited their products there.
Need to rework taxesStating that the bulk of investments into Indian start-ups came from funds and entrepreneurs in the US, Reddy said India needed to rework some taxes that were proving detrimental to the interests of the ecosystem.
He cited the example of the capital gains tax levied on investments made into start-ups.