Young Dreams Get Wings With Start-Ups

Chandan Kumar Choudhary

 Mayur Patil, a resident of Pune in Maharashtra, had a motorcycle. In 2011, he tried to increase the mileage of his motorcycle and successfully increased its mileage upto 62 km. In 2017-18, he developed the technology and tested it in buses. This reduced emissions by 40 percent and in 2021 he also got its patent. After receiving a grant of Rs 90 lakh from the Atal New India Challenge, he is now running his own start-up along with four of his friends. Today Mayur is making a device to reduce air pollution of vehicles and increase their mileage. While on one hand the environment is getting benefit from his unique work, he is also becoming selfreliant and giving employment to others. Mayur said that the mileage of the motorcycle which was 25 km earlier, has been increased to 39 km. Like Mayur, Angad Singh, who hails from Ahmedabad, wanted to do something different. This is the reason that when he got the opportunity, he started his own Start-up and started running a website to transport goods. Seeing the success of this Startup, some of Angad's friends have left their jobs and started working with him. If this change is happening in India today, it has been possible because of Start-up India, which was first announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 15 August 2015 from the ramparts of the Red Fort and was launched on 16 January 2016. Actually, the average age in India is 29 years now and the country is included in the list of world's youngest countries today. The average age of 65 per cent of our population is 35 years. So this is a country of youth whose dreams are also young and they want to do something different by going away from the traditional way, in which Start-up India is proving to be helpful for them and giving new flight to their dream.

The vision behind Start-ups

It is the dream of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the youth of the country should not be job seekers but job givers, be independent. For this, there is a need to show the right path to the dreams of these youth. The main objective of the Start-up India scheme is to promote overall entrepreneurship, which will increase employment opportunities in the country. The youth of today are the job creators of tomorrow and the leaders of the Fourth Industrial Revolution for Innovation. This is the reason that since the beginning of the Start-up Scheme, the recognized startups have now expanded to 623 districts and at present each state and union territory has at least one start-up. When this scheme was launched, 10,000 start-ups were able to start functioning in 808 days, 743 start-ups were recognized in the first year 2016-2017 of the scheme. In the year 2020-2021 alone, more than 16,000 startups have been recognized.

Start-ups changed the thinking of New India

These days we hear the buzz of start-up, start-up, start- up everywhere. This proves that this is the era of start-ups, and it is also true that in the world of Start-ups today, India is leading the way in the world. Record investments are being received in start-ups year after year and this sector is growing at a very fast pace. The reach of start-ups has increased even in small towns of the country. Till a few years ago, if someone used to say that he wants to do business or start a new company, then the answer of the elders of the family was - “Why don't you want to do a job? There is security in the job and there is salary. The hassle is also less”. But, today if someone wants to start his own company then all the people around him are very excited and also fully support him in this. This scheme became a turning point in the development story of India, after which now people are dreaming of not only becoming job seekers but also becoming job givers. With the Prime Minister's mantra 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas and Sabka Prayas', 'Start-up India' has become a symbol of national participation and national consciousness and is further strengthening India's position on the world stage. This is the reason why Prime Minister Narendra Modi says, “Wherever you look, go to any family, no matter how rich a family, an educated family, but if you talk to the young man in the family, what does he say. He goes out of his family traditions and says, I will start a start-up, I will go to a start-up. That is, his mind is jumping to take risks. Today the start-up culture is expanding even in small towns and I see signs of a bright future in it.”

Unicorn has become the focus point

The word 'unicorn' is in a lot of discussion these days. You all must have heard about it. This is a start-up whose value is at least 1 billion dollars, that is, more than seven thousand crore rupees. Till 2015, there were hardly nine or ten unicorns in the country. Now India is soaring high even in the world of unicorns. According to a report, there was a big change in the year 2021 and in just 10 months, India has created a unicorn every 10 days and India has added about 40 unicorns to the Start-up world in the last 50 weeks. This is also a big thing because our youth have achieved this success in the midst of the corona pandemic. Today there are more than 70 unicorns in India. That is, there are more than 70 start-ups that have crossed the value of more than 1 billion. The success of the start-ups have attracted everyone's attention and the way they are getting support from investors from across the country and abroad. May be a few years ago no one could have imagined that.

Youth started a start-up called Saaf-water

 Recently some youths have started a Start-up called Saafwater. The purpose of this campaign run by the youth is to spread awareness about the purity and quality of water with the help of artificial intelligence and internet. The campaign started by some youth aims to create awareness in the areas affected by water quality related matters. This is the next step for cleanliness. Considering the importance of this start-up for a healthy future, it has also received a global award

What is start-up?

Simply put, start-up means starting a new company. Young entrepreneurs start such companies on their own or in collaboration with two or three people. The person who starts the company along with investing the initial capital in the company also operates the company. This company works on relatively new products or services, and services that are not available in the market at that time. However, according to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), a Central Government Department, “Start-up company is a company which is registered in India within the last five years and whose turnover does not exceed 25 crores in any financial year so far. It is expected that such company should work in the direction of innovation, development, deployment, commercialization of new products, technology-based services or intellectual property”. Through Start-up India, the government not only provides financial assistance, proper platform and incentives to these new and small start-ups, but also through programs like Atal Incubation Center, they are taught the skills to grow in challenging environment.

Government facilities for Start-ups

If your business idea is liked, then the government provides necessary facilities. Also, the government provides the facility of funding. For this, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce can be contacted or information can be obtained from the Websitewww.startupindia.gov.in. Any entity has to apply and get recognized as Start-up by DIPP to avail various facilities under Start-up India Scheme. Besides, many other benefits are also available for start-ups, such as easy approvals, simple process of company winding up, legal aid, fast-tracking patent applications and filling information gaps. Income tax and capital gains tax exemption for eligible start-ups under Grants and Incentives; Fund of funds and credit guarantee schemes are available to infuse more capital into the start-up ecosystem. Along with this, there is also a provision for many incubators and innovation labs, programs, competitions and support under the Incubation and Industry-Academia Partnership. Apart from this, small business loans for setting up start-ups, easy access to funds, meeting other entrepreneurs, crowd funding facilities are other government benefits.

What is the current status?

Capital raising opportunities for start-ups have increased through the Rs 10,000 crore Fund of Funds scheme and Rs 945 crore Start-up India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS). At present, the number of DPIITaccredited start-ups in the country is 60,704. Food processing, product development, application development, IT consulting and business support services have the largest number of start-ups and currently 45% of start-ups in the country are led by a female entrepreneur in the team. In addition, with an average of 11 employees per start-up, a total of 48,093 start-ups in the country created 5,49,842 job opportunities so far and around 1.7 lakh jobs were created by recognized start-ups in the period 2020- 2021.

Organizing events in 2022

To mark the 6th anniversary of the launch of the Start-up India initiative, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) organized a week-long event “Celebrating Innovation Eco-system” in January 2022. The main objective of this Innovation Week was to bring together the entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers and other national, international stakeholders for a specially organized event on Innovation and Entrepreneurship and to exchange information about best practices for development of Start-up ecosystem. The initiative is likely to help in motivating youth for innovation and entrepreneurship and to develop the potential of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The innovation week will help in providing market access opportunities to the Start-ups and provide opportunities for investment in Start-ups from both global and domestic entities.

(The author is Assistant Consultant Editor in New India Samachar Journal. Email - chandanchoudhary84@gmail. com) Views expressed are personal.