Haryana Govt Sets Up Startup Policy With Focus On EVs, New Incentives And More

The Haryana cabinet chaired by CM Manohar Lal Khattar on Monday, June 27 approved the New Haryana State Startup Policy 2022 prepared by the Department of Information Technology (DPIIT), Electronics, and Communications, Haryana.

With the new startup policy, the state government aims to promote ease of doing business, innovation and encourage the entrepreneurial spirit in the state.  It also aims to build a strong policy ecosystem, while offering a robust infrastructure and liberal regulatory norms.

Under the new policy, any startup entity recognised by the DPIIT, for a period of 10 years from the date of its incorporation/registration and with an annual turnover not exceeding INR 100 Cr and located in Haryana will be eligible to avail major financial and non-fiscal benefits under the new policy.

Other DPIIT recognised startups operating through state-owned or supported incubators operating in Haryana, will be eligible to avail the benefits as well.

Benefits include subsidised incubation space, liberal norms for participation in Haryana government tenders, participation in mentorship events and other startup specific programs

A Startup Haryana Cell is being set up in the Department of Information Technology, Electronics and Communications to oversee the implementation of this revised startup policy and other institutional activities.

DPIIT recognises 3910 Haryana-based startups as of June 15, 2022. It is expected that in the next five years (within the policy period), at least 5,000 new startups will be set up in Haryana, providing direct and indirect employment to 75,000 persons.

The state also boasts of 20 unicorns out of the total 103 based out of Gurugram including Snapdeal, Zomato, MakeMyTrip, Policybazaar, Oxyzo, Mamaearth among others.

Here are some key initiatives announced under the new startup policy:

• 50% net SGST reimbursement for seven years
• Reimbursement of lease rental subsidy up to INR 5 Lakh
• 75% of the expenses incurred for cloud computing/storage at data centers located in Haryana up to INR 2.5 Lakh per startup per year for a period of five  years
• Up to INR 10 Lakh per startup for 100 startups in ‘A’ category blocks, 250 startups in ‘B’ category blocks, 750 startups in ‘C’ category blocks and 1,000 in ‘D’ blocks ‘Seed Grant for Startups’ category block
• Financial assistance to startups by reimbursing 100% of actual expenses subject to a maximum of INR  25 Lakh for domestic and international patent registration
• Up to INR 2.5 Lakh to participate in national acceleration programs and up to INR 5 Lakh for international acceleration programs.

State To Emerge As A Data Centre Hub

31 agenda items were discussed and approved at the Cabinet meeting. Along with the Startup Policy, the cabinet also approved a data centre policy to help the state emerge as a global data centre hub.

The state government aims to create a conducive business environment and facilitate establishment of 115-120 new data centres in Haryana. It is expected that investments of INR 7,500 Cr would be made to establish these data centres. Any data centre set up in Haryana with 1 MW and above of power consumption will be eligible for availing various benefits under the new policy.

Push Towards Electric Vehicles

Also,  it approved the State Electric Vehicle (EV) Policy 2022 with a goal of declaring year 2022 as ‘Year of the Electric Vehicles’ in Haryana. Apart from multiple financial incentives to EV manufacturers, the startup policy aims to provide for employment generation subsidies of INR 48,000 per employee per annum for 10 years in lieu of Haryana domiciled manpower being employed with EV companies.

The cities of Gurugram and Faridabad will be declared as model Electric Mobility (EM) cities with phase-wise goals to adopt Electric Vehicles (EVs), charging infrastructure to achieve 100% e-mobility.

“In addition to this, the Department of Town and Country Planning (TCP) shall mandatorily include the provisions for charging of electric vehicles in places such as Group Residential buildings, commercial buildings, institutional buildings, Malls, Metro Station etc., for enabling the overall ecosystem for uptake of Electric Vehicles,” mentioned the report.