Friday, September 6, 2019

Chandigarh, Sept 6 – Under the Entrepreneur and Startup Policy 2017, three government owned incubators established in the ‘Innovation and Start-up Hub’ Gurugram have been providing facilitation to more than 45 Start-ups, which have 30 per cent women entrepreneurs, with 130 team members in-house and multiple external startups from across the state.

While stating this here today, Principal Secretary, Information Technology, Electronics and Communication Department, Mr. Ankur Gupta said that the State Government is working towards providing a business friendly environment to the Haryana based startups. The State Government has permitted the Startups to file self-certifications to get exempted from inspections under the various Labour acts and rules. In addition, the State Government has also notified concession/benefits in Public Procurement to Startups to enable them in competing with other big companies and provide opportunities for new business in the government sector.

He said that to promote a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation among women entrepreneurs, the State Government has already signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with United Nation Technology Innovation Lab (UNTIL) for establishment of another Incubator in Haryana. The Incubator is expected to be operationalising in next couple of months. Apart from this, the State Government is working towards establishing Incubation Centres across Seven Universities in the state for which the IT Department has released the funds of Rs 30 Lakh each to four state universities under Technical Education Department. The proposals are also sought from other state universities for setting up Incubation Centres. These Incubators will specifically boost the student entrepreneurship and provide a platform for the exponential growth of the budding student's entrepreneurs. Another Incubator in Block chain technology in collaboration with Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), Government of India has also been planned to be set up in the state.

Mr. Gupta said that most importantly, the state IT Department has recently incorporated the long demanded changes/amendments in the Entrepreneur and Startup Policy 2017, which were creating major bottlenecks/hurdles for the startups to get them registered under the State Policy and avail the benefits/incentives being given by the State Government. Now, the Entrepreneur and Startup Policy has been well aligned in line with the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Government of India for providing benefits to the budding startups of the state and revised policy is expected to be notified shortly.

He said that the Startup Haryana is putting concrete efforts in bringing various incubators working in silos from the state on a single integrated Incubation network being facilitated by the Startup Haryana, which will definitely help the startup ecosystem stakeholders in leveraging the existing infrastructure already available in the state.

Mr. Gupta said that the Department had organized more than 120 events successfully for the growth of startup ecosystem in the state and is organizing Boot camps in every district of the state in the month of September, 2019 and various other events in order to have statewide sensitization and awareness about the state initiatives for the startups among the aspiring entrepreneurs and the youth of the State.

Mr. Gupta said that the State Government is putting up substantial efforts in line with the vision of Chief Minster, Mr. Manohar Lal to build up a healthy startup eco-system for nurturing Start-ups of the states by creating a State-owned Startup Ecosystem Network and, bringing various stakeholders (Startups, Incubators, Academia, Industry Partners and Mentors) at one platform.