Budget 2015: PM Modi becomes the force for start-ups

Despite India's ranking of 142 in 'ease of doing business', India has emerged among the top four start-up nations, and has quickly demonstrated that it can create a few billion-dollar start-ups.

Government, as the largest enabler of the start-up ecosystem, underlined its importance by mentioning the word 'Start-up" at least five different times in the speech of the Finance Minister, making it a high focus area.

The government is expecting a job generation of at least 1 lakh jobs this year from new start-ups.

Ease of doing business

 

• Setting up an expert committee to study multiple permits being required to start a new enterprise and provide single window for all approvals is a major step in improving ease of doing business
• Replacing physical documents with digitally signed documents will both improve ease of compliance as well as cause a few start-ups to focus on this technology.

Attracting Risk Capital

 

• Setting up SETU (Self Employment and Talent Utilisation) fund of Rs 1,000 crore, which will act as techno financial and incubation support.
• MUDRA Bank (Micro Unit Development Regulatory) Bank with a corpus of Rs 20,000 crore and a guarantee fund of Rs 3,000 crore is a very big step in funding micro and small businesses.

Stable and predictable tax regime

 

• Pass-through status for Alternative Investment Funds, GAAR postponement and prospective application, no MAT for FIIs and no permanent establishment for FIIs are sending out a clear message to the global investing community that India is an attractive investment destination.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is significantly improving ease of doing business in India. Hence, India will climb up the ladder further and benefit from this trend. These are not just limited to the annual Budget exercise.

(The author is Founder & CEO, GOQii Inc)