India is emerging as world’s preferred start-up destination: Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh
Author: BI Bureau
New Delhi: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology on Friday said that India was emerging as the world’s preferred start-up destination. “The start-up culture must spread to India’s B-Towns as this is now mostly confined to Bengaluru, Hyderabad and other big cities,” said Dr Singh, while speaking as the chief guest at India’s First Tech Start-Up Conclave and Awards Summit here.
Dr Singh, who also holds the portfolio of MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, the robust ecosystem of Start-ups will play a critical role in ensuring that India achieves its goal of $5 trillion economy by 2025. He said that in 2016 itself, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced from the ramparts of the Red Fort about the Start-Up initiative, followed by Stand-Up India and several such visionary initiatives. Thanks to various schemes, focus and support system provided by Prime Minister Modi, 10,000 Start-Ups got registered in India in 2021 alone. India now has 50,000 plus start-Ups providing more than 2 lakh jobs in the country.
He said that the recent General Budget of 2022-23 is a ‘futuristic budget with scientific vision and Start-Up incentives.’ The Minister said that announcements of innovative new initiatives like Digital Rupee, Digital Banking units in 75 districts, Digital University and Start-Ups linked to Artificial Intelligence, Space Technology, and Drone Shakti are examples of digital push and innovative ecosystem that the government wants to promote. He said the exemption of tax for Start-Ups up to 2024 and other incentives for domestic and export sectors will enable India to take a lead in Start-Ups in the World.
The Minister said the growth of investment opportunities in tech start-ups in sectors such as state services, healthcare, agriculture, financial services, education, retail, and logistics can generate a huge number of job opportunities and contribute to India's economy. He, however, said that sectors like dairy, telemedicine and deep sea ocean mission must be fully tapped. He said the government is extending full support to promote domestic manufacturing, industry-led research, and the creation of a skilled workforce.
He said India is fast becoming a breeding ground for innovations and future trends show opportunities for start-ups to disrupt and innovate with technologies like blockchain, the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning. The Minister also emphasised that the Start-Up culture must spread to India’s B-Towns, as this is now mostly confined to Bengaluru, Hyderabad and other big cities. He, however, felt satisfaction over the fact that cities like Delhi, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Chennai, and Jodhpur have also witnessed an increase in economic and start-up activities.
Dr Singh said that no government in the world can provide salaried jobs to all its citizens and India is no exception to this. He said that on the other hand, Indian government promotes the culture of innovation and entrepreneurship by providing a platform for the generation and sharing of innovative ideas alongside an incubator to mentor and support innovators. He said, the government’s commitment to ensuring that young Indians are prepared to compete in the labour market is reflected in the variety of skill-building programs it has made available. /BI/
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The exports of agricultural commodities from March to June 2020 shot up by 23.24 percent on-year to Rs 25,552.7 crores.
As the economy comes to a standstill amid the coronavirus-led lockdown, India’s agriculture sector has taken the baton of economic growth in its hands. The exports of agricultural commodities from March to June 2020 shot up by 23.24 percent on-year to Rs 25,552.7 crores, according to the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare. The government said that self-reliant agriculture is critical for the goal of an Atmanirbhar Bharat and for this, agricultural export is extremely important as besides earning foreign exchange for the country, the exports help farmers, producers, and exporters to take advantage of the wider international market and increase their income.
The surge in exports has also resulted in increased production in the farm sector by increasing coverage area and productivity. The share of India’s agricultural exports and imports in the world agriculture trade in 2017 was 2.27 percent and 1.90 percent, respectively. Even during the difficult time of pandemic lockdown, India took care not to disturb the world food supply chain and continued to export, the government said.
Ministry of Agriculture has prepared a comprehensive action plan for the promotion of Agri trade; the twofold approach focuses on boosting Agri Export with emphasis on value addition and action plan for Import Substitution. Recently, the Agriculture sector has witnessed a series of reforms, giving more choices to the farmers to sell their produce at competitive rates.
To mention a few, the Export strategy focuses on the export promotion of fast-evolving niche markets of Wellness food/ Health-conscious food/nutraceuticals, Development of “Brand India” in campaign mode to help penetration into new foreign markets and of new products which automatically translates into higher value realization, Gulf countries have been identified as focus destination to increase the market share which is a strong market for India though presently India caters to only 10-12% share of their total imports. A product-market matrix has been made containing a list of products of strength that could be expanded in new geographies and a list of known markets which can be introduced with newer products.
At the behest of the Department of Agricultural Cooperation & Farmers’ Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture, product-specific Export Promotion Forums have been created to lead Agri exports to new heights. Each Export Promotion Forum shall be having exporters of the related commodity as its members along with official members representing concerned Ministries/Departments of the Central and State Governments. Chairman APEDA shall be the chairman of each of these forums. The forums will meet at least once every two months, to discuss recommendations on issues pertaining to the export.
The recommendations of the forum will be placed in the product committee / Authority of APEDA. The Forum will keep in close contact with the concerned organization of the Ministry of Agriculture such as MIDH, Extension, NPPO, etc., DGFT, Ministry of Civil Aviation, MoFPI, etc. to further the interest of agricultural export.
