The government is encouraging large corporates to collaborate with startups to address business challenges and problems as it would promote the growth of budding entrepreneurs, a top official said on Friday.
Secretary in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Amardeep Singh Bhatia also said measures like the abolition of angel tax are helping startups to come back and register their firms in India.
“Large companies may have sufficient work on their hands, and if they face any problems, instead of pulling more resources, they may like to collaborate with somebody outside the company to resolve the problem. So in that, we are pushing that you work with startups,” Bhatia told reporters here.
A number of big companies have come forward for this and have signed MoUs, he added.
The firms have shared problems with startups like developing new manners in which a glass can be sealed and new technologies for PCB manufacturing.
“We are hopeful that in the 10th year (of the Startup India initiative), we will be able to push private enterprises and companies to start collaborating more with startups, in the form of outsourcing some of the works to startups, collaborating with them to bring in new products, giving them assistance by way of mentorship, access to labs and testing facilities,” he added.
The secretary said the department is also looking at greater integration between Indian startups and international markets.
“What we want is for our startups to tie up with international companies where they can outsource their problems to our startups. We want that linkage,” Bhatia said.
When asked about the kind of collaborations that can happen with foreign countries, he said some of these nations have large sovereign and investible funds, and for some of these funds they would like to look for investment opportunities in Indian startups.
Speaking at the media briefing, DPIIT Joint Secretary Sanjiv said that Saudi Arabia has shown interest in participating in Startup Mahakumbh, which is scheduled in April.
The department has urged corporate houses to give orders and increase procurements from startups, he noted.
“This year, we plan to have 75 challenges in which companies will pose questions, and share problem statements. The emphasis is that startups will get work out of it, and they can become part of the supply chain of big companies,” Sanjiv said.
He added that all the manufacturing companies have been requested to come out with specific problems to share with the entrepreneurs.
He informed that the Ministry of Corporate Affairs has fast-tracked the process for startups who want to come from foreign countries and register in India.
“It is good that reverse flipping is happening,” he said.
To promote innovation and entrepreneurship, the government launched the Startup India initiative on January 16, 2016.
The DPIIT has recognised about 1.5 lakh entities as startups.
Under the Startup India initiative, the government is implementing three flagship schemes — Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS), Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS) and Credit Guarantee Scheme for Startups (CGSS) — to support startups at various stages of their business cycle.
SISFS provides financial assistance to seed-stage startups through incubators.
FFS has been established to catalyse venture capital investments and is operationalised by the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), which provides capital to SEBI-registered Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs), who, in turn, invest in startups.
CGSS is implemented to enable collateral-free loans to the DPIIT-recognised startups through eligible financial institutions. It is operationalised by the National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company Ltd on a pilot basis from April 1, 2023.
