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Wanted: Entrepreneurs ‘Made’ in India
Prime Minister Narendra Modi rolled out the action plan for the now popular ‘Start Up India, Stand Up India’ scheme at the Start Up India meet on Saturday. A lot has been written about the promises of the scheme and its intricacies flood the newspapers and the world wide web already, including steps like setting up of a Rs.10,000 crore corpus fund for startups, certain tax exemptions, a single point of contactfor entrepreneurs, investors and the government through a Startup Hub and encouraging women entrepreneurs to dive into this initiative as well.
For the uninitiated, a start-up is a young company offering goods or services whose business is initially funded by a single founder or group of founders. It serves many ends for a growing economy like India. It gives impetus to business ideas for products and services which are either not offered in the market yet or which the founders believe can be improved through their contribution. A startup also acts as a conduit for talented entrepreneurs, manifesting their innovative ideas.
But what has got the top level CEOs, investors, budding innovators as well as consumers so excited about this vision and mission of ‘Start Up India’? The innovators are twinkly-eyed for this scheme because it will enable them to start their business in a cost-effective way, provide palpable recognition and enable them to innovate freely rather than being subdued by failure. On the other hand, the investor would get easy and cheaper access to the research and development as well as technical acumen of the start up. Such a mutually beneficial ecosystem will create more jobs and a start up is a perfect example of efficient pooling of resources among like-minded people to partake in profits. Start ups would also improve the lifestyle of consumers and their access to goods and services.
With the action plan in place, the Government can now release funds from the Self-Employment and Talent Utilization (SETU) scheme as well as the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM). Under SETU, Rs.500 crore has been allotted for strengthening existing incubators in India, with the support of different departments and another Rs.500 crore has been used for setting up ‘tinkering labs’ where students can experiment and create prototypes with basic functions, before they are ready for funding. The AIM has been allocated Rs.150 crore where the focus will be on inviting aspiring entrepreneurs to solve India’s current problems through ‘grand challenges’ which offer rewards and incentives for innovation and winning ideas.
However, schemes and all are very well. What we need to be cognizant of, at this stage, is also to encourage the thirst to do research, keeping in mind a holistic perspective rather than a race for dividends and mushrooming of startups flooding the market without a revolution of ideas. This campaign will echo not just “Make In India” but also “Made In India” which is the line of argument that many Nobel laureates have also taken. Dan Schechtman echoed Professor David Gross’ opinion that India should give primacy to invention and discovery.
Here’s keeping our fingers crossed, for ‘Made in India’…
