Policy level intervention needed to strengthen startup ecosystem

Hyderabad: There are total seven lakh startups in the US, while in India, the number of DPIIT (Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade) registered startups stands at 1.20 lakh. Policy level intervention can strengthen the startup ecosystem and fuel the nation’s economic growth, said Dr BVR Mohan Reddy, past Chairman of CII Southern Region, and Founder Chairman of Cyient.

Reddy was delivering the keynote address at a Conclave organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) - Southern Region on ‘Co-Creating the Future Responsibly,’ under the theme, ‘Progressing Through Reforms,’ in Hyderabad on Friday.

Speaking about the need of policy level intervention to ensure success of startups, Reddy said that there is lack of incentives for entrepreneurs. Citing an example about a cumbersome Angel Tax, he said, “The Angel tax for startups is being refined every time which has made it more cumbersome, while startups have been asking for it to be withdrawn. The result is lack of incentives for entrepreneurs to come forward, and put in more amount of effort to see that entrepreneurship will grow and more jobs will be created. Angel tax is one of the examples that has been haunting startups.”

While India has 1.20 lakh DPIIT registered startups, in the US the total count is 7 lakh. For the number of successful startups to increase, not only government’s policy intervention has to be in place but also, the onus lies on industries. “As we do not see much of capital formation coming from the domestic industries for startups,” he added.

Sai D Prasad, Chairman, CII Telangana, in his welcome address, spoke about discussions being held between industry leaders and the government officials around policy advocacy for bringing in reforms in the State of Telangana. He pointed out that in the last decade, the State’s has been growing at a CAGR of 140 per cent, and to continue this momentum, he informed, CII TS is ideating with the government to ensure that the right policies are in place.

C Shekar Reddy, Chairman, CII Telangana Public Policy Taskforce, in the theme address, urged the State government to further facilitate ease of doing business. He termed the State government as a bottleneck for industrial growth due to the time taken by government departments in issuing permits (NOCs) to new industries that look forward to set up their facility here.

In his keynote address, Dr S K Jha, CMD, Midhani, spoke about the manufacturing opportunities the State of Telangana possesses in the sectors of Defence, Aerospace/Space, and Biomedicals. Addressing the industry representatives present in the gathering, Jha listed out the challenges these sectors face while procuring materials and equipments from the international and domestic market. He suggested industries and entrepreneurs to enter the supply chain to further scale up production and cater to material requirements. Jayesh Ranjan, Special Chief Secretary – Industries, Telangana in his inaugural address spoke about strong policies brought out by various State’s and Centre, which lacks implementation on ground.