Looking Beyond Gurugram: Haryana All Set To Unveil Startup Policy To Foster Entrepreneurship In The State

The Haryana government is all set to launch its Startup Policy, focussing beyond Gurugram to encourage entrepreneurship in the state. The Haryana Startup Policy will be unveiled at the Digital Haryana Summit next month.

The summit will be organised on September 15 in Gurugram. As per officials of the IT department, the Haryana government has worked with KPMG and NASSCOM, for over two years now.

A senior IT department official said, “For a while now, the state government wanted to launch a state policy on the lines of Karnataka. It will be finally be launched in the presence of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar next month, at the Digital Haryana Summit.”

The policy was initially stated to be launched in 2015, then in 2016. On both occasions, it hit a roadblock. The state government did release a draft policy, ‘Startup Policy 2017’ in May 2017.

Gurugram is the only part of Haryana that has considerable startup activity. Multiple startup bigwigs like Zomato, Grofers, Ola, Snapdeal, ibibo Group, etc., are based in Gurugram. The draft policy suggests the establishment of an IT Startup Hub in Gurugram. Apart from Gurugram, the draft policy also looks to build an Incubation centre in all parts of the state.

Uday Lakkar, founder, CoHo, a Gurugram-based startup told TOI, “Startups in Gurugram have the advantage of targeting the city’s millennial crowd and experiment with new ideas. However, they look for the government’s backing, such as cheap/free office spaces, as real estate is quite expensive, also with policy support for exemption from state tax rules, capital pool, networking opportunities and support for other towns.”

Earlier in September 2016, on the occasion of Haryana’s Golden Jubilee Year, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had announced that the State Government will set up a $150 Mn (INR 1000 Cr) fund for industries, focussing upon small and medium-scale enterprises (MSMEs). In addition to that, the government will provide collateral-free loans up to $150K (INR 1Cr) to startups. The same month, the Bihar government launched the state’s startup policy, with a venture capital fund of $750 Mn. In the same month, the Chhattisgarh government started the ‘Startup Chhattisgarh’ initiative.

Haryana is not the only state looking to formalise its startup policy. In July 2017, the Government of Assam joined hands with Invest India, the parent organisation of the Startup India initiative, to launch its first startup policy.

Prior to that in June 2017, Goa launched its startup policy aimed at creating 5,000 new jobs in the IT sector, over the next five years. It will also work towards putting Goa on the global startup ecosystem map by 2025.

With the launch of the Haryana Startup Policy, the state will look to align itself with the ‘Startup India’ flagship initiative of the Govt. of India and encourage entrepreneurship beyond its hub in Gurugram.

(The development was reported by TOI)