G20 Praises India On Startup Funding, Ease Of Business

The countries participating in the G20 Summit have praised the Indian government for its efforts in the areas of startup funding, ease of doing business and labour reforms. The acknowledgment was made during the 2017 G20 Hamburg summit in Germany that was held from July 7-July 8, 2017. The meeting was attended by PM Narendra Modi along with a few of his officials.

G20 member countries include the US, UK, Germany, India, Australia, Japan, Russia, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Indonesia, Italy, South Korea, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, European Union (EU) and Turkey. Also, global institutions like the World Bank, IMF, WTO, OECD, ILO, WHO, and the Financial Stability Board (FSB) are partners to the G20.

The G20 summit has adopted the Hamburg Action Plan, which sets out “the group’s strategy for achieving strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth.” As per an ET report, the member countries of the G20 group noted in the Hamburg Action Plan that “in the financial sector, India is popularising a number of derivative instruments in exchanges or electronic trading platforms as part of measures to enhance the resilience of its economy.”

Also, India was praised for promoting inclusive growth in the country. This development comes after the increased efforts of the Indian government to provide security to workers and increase female percentage in the work force under the labour reforms. Also, as stated in the Hamburg Action Plan, India is facilitating external commercial borrowings (ECBs) by startups, thereby promoting ease of doing business in the country and encouraging innovation.

Earlier in October 2016, the World Bank had placed India at 130 globally out of 189 countries in ease of doing business in the country. At the G20 summit, the Modi government said that “it wants India to be ranked in the top-50 nations in terms of ease of doing business.”

With the launch of ‘Startup India, Stand Up India’ movement, the Indian government has created a number of initiatives to support startups in all possible ways –  finances, mentoring, tax reforms, patent protection, reforms & guidelines, tax exemptions and more. At the same time, the Indian government has recently included innovation and job creation capability as criteria for startups availing benefits under the Startup India Action Plan. All in all, PM Narendra Modi’s initiatives have raised the bar for the Indian startup ecosystem, globally. The recent acknowledgment at the G20 summit has added further significance to the adopted measures by the Indian government in boosting the country’s startup ecosystem.

(The development was reported by ET.)