As promised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day Speech, to initiate ‘Start-up India Stand up India’. The central government is all set to introduce this new initiative, as New Year gift for young entrepreneurs aiming to start a business or innovative projects.
The official launch of this initiative is scheduled on 16th January 2016, in an event that will see the participation of all major higher educational institutions through online connectivity, announcement of the same was made by Prime Minister in his Mann Ki Baat program on All India Radio.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi during Mann Ki Baat program said “On August 15, I had made an initial mention of ‘Start-Up India Stand Up India’. After that it has been discussed in all government departments. Can India become the start-up capital of the world? On January 16, the government will launch the full action-plan of ‘Start-up India Stand Up India’. I will come before you to discuss this in detail and would welcome your suggestions. I would request the state governments as well to take this forward.”
Further in the mass interaction Modi said “A poor person somewhere uses manual labour to earn a living. Some other young individual may create something new and innovative that can make the work of the poor labourer slightly easier. I will say even this is a start-up. I will tell the banks to support such individuals. I will tell the individual that he must move head. ‘Start-up India Stand Up India’ will bring a big opportunity for young people across the country, be in manufacturing, service sector or agriculture.”
He further added that all the Premier Institutes of country such as IITs, IIMs, Central Universities, NIT and other institution would be connected in a live in this launching event.
In a potboiler of ‘Start-up India Stand up India’ from the date of announcement earlier this year, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on 19th August 2015 had started two funds Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) – an aspiration fund for start-ups and SIDBI Make in India Loan for Enterprises (SMILE) – a soft term loan scheme for small enterprises.
The World Bank’s Doing Business Report 2016 which was recently released suggested that India has jumped 9 spots in the list of countries, which have a ease of doing business. Previously India ranked 155th. In spite of this massive jump it slipped six spots in terms of ease of accessing credit to 42, implying that it is difficult to have loans for starting a business.
The Mann Ki Baat program of Narendra Modi also came out with progress reports of various schemes run by the Government. Prime Minister in his interaction discussed about the ‘Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan’ (Access India Campaign) dedicated for the people with disabilities. He urged that we should use ‘Divyang’ (a divined limb) for such individuals instead of ‘Vikalang’.
The ‘Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan’ will next on the desk of planning commission, which will frame out the scheme in a proper shape for implementation.
