Delhi gets ready to host startup CEOs

According to DIPP secretary Amitabh Kant, 40 top CEOs and founders of start-ups, venture capitalists and angels investors from the Silicon Valley and 2000 CEOs and founders of start-ups from across the country. will attend the launch.

During the event, Google will conduct an innovative session titled Launchpad Accelerator" which will involve live pitches being made by early stage start-ups to potential investors. “Whosoever is able to get into the Launchpad Accelerator will get a cheque of $50,000 from Google... Equity funding into their start-ups,” Mr Kant said.

SoftBank president and COO Nikesh Arora will be interacting with participants on aspects relating to start-up funding.

Reacting to this, startup founders say that the Startup India initiative will take off only if the government offers a fav-ourable tax regime, provide investor-friendly environment, ease of capital flows and a complimentary public private ecosystem.

Rajeev Pathak, CEO & founder of Funtoot an online learning aid, said: “We are the only country where if a startup raises money more than its fair value, it has to pay taxes against the money raised.”

Shekhar A. Bhattach-arjee, the founder of SkillTree Knowledge Consortium, expects a resolution to issues that are commonly faced while setting up a firm.

“Currently, the common problems faced by the startups include, lack of access to funds, shortage of skilled manpower, and red tape among others delaying the projects,” he said.

The key ingredients needed for Mr Modi’s goal to make India the startup capital of the world is to have a great ecosystem such as demand, disposable incomes, technology adoption, mobile penetration, market size and, of course, investor appetite are all pointing in the right direction, said SaurabhTondon, COO, BetterPlace Safety Solutions.

Ashwin Jayasanker, country head of Wego.com, a travel search engine, says “To create an opportunity for success with many startups, bank financing and job creation go a long way to encourage entrepreneurship and employ necessary talent.”

According to Sudarshan Purohit, co-founder of Zenify, a complete rental solution for tenants and owners, the fund raising process should be made easy and short. He would also like the government to cut red tape in departments like service tax, police, and housing regulatory authorities.

Fundamentally, he said, “there are a lot of delays from such departments which really affect the progress.”