Kerala to see major shift in startup policy

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Startups in Kerala are pinning hopes on significant procedural relaxations to ensure ease of doing business in the Startup India policy to be announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday.

A primary concern of a majority of the startups in the country is the complex policies of the Centre, particularly in regard to international business.

"At present, any startup will have to deal with as many as 120 procedures spread across various departments and agencies of the government for doing international business. In this scenario, the majority of startups incubated in the country are shifting their base to places like Singapore, Silicon Valley or the UK," said Startup Village founder chair Sanjay Vijayakumar.

"To achieve our aim of Stay in India, List in India, ease of business has to be ensured."

It was roughly estimated that there were around 12,000 startups across
the country, of which around 200 could have got funding of above Rs 100 crore. In Kerala, there are around 600 'live startups' as of now.

Sources at the IT minister's office also said that that the state government was expecting support schemes for startups in the policy.

"The Centre had not sought our opinions. But we expect some favourable announcements to address the issues that startups face," said an official.
The state government did not receive any formal invitation to the event.

"World class incubators with incentive schemes for those coming up with innovative ideas are also essential ingredients of the start-up eco-system. At present we only have mini incubators with minimum funding," Mr Vijayakumar said.

Another expectation of the community is to have technical skills of students mentioned in engineering degree certificates. Entrepreneurship development programmes right from school levels were also essential.