The National Startup Advisory Council, which comprises several unicorns, investors and government officials from different departments met on Monday to discuss proposals to launch programmes to boost the startup ecosystem. Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, who chaired the meeting, also gave his in-principle approval to seven proposals put forth by the industry, according to DPIIT additional secretary Anil Aggrawal.
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The programmes ranged from a matchmaking platform for startups to raise funding, to getting LIC and EPFO to invest in the Fund of Funds for startups and using Indic languages and technology for innovations.
15-16 programmes were being worked on by National Startup Advisory Council members, since the first meeting in April.
7 proposals were presented to Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on Monday and the minister gave his in-principle approval to all seven, Aggrawal said.
Some of these include:
A platform to connect startups to investors which entails a proposal to get SIDBI to run the 'country's largest techdriven fund raising, capacity development and linkages platform for startups'. The DPIIT additional secretary called it a "matchmaking platform" to connect startups to investors.
There was also a proposal to encourage LIC and EPFO to invest in the Fund of Funds. LIC chairman MR Kumar was himself present at the meeting and Aggrawal said they have expressed interest.
Aggrawal said that while the interest rates have fallen for employee provident funds, the Fund of Funds for startups has given 9.5 percent return to investors in 3 years
Some of the other proposals included a National Mentorship Programme to help startups scale-up, and to also expand the programme to schools and colleges; a Labs to Launchpad scheme to convert research into real-time opportunities; building Indic language tech capabilities and encouraging use of indigenous mapping technology NAVIC in conjunction with drone technology.
Taxations Issues were also addressed and several industry members raised the issue of disparity in taxing of listed and unlisted shares, among other concerns.
