DIPP To Set Up $300 Mn Credit Guarantee Fund  For Startups

In a bid to promote entrepreneurship, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) has proposed to set up a Credit Guarantee Fund with a corpus of $300 Mn (INR 2,000 Cr).

The announcement was made at a conference on ‘StartUp India, Challenges and Sustainability,’ organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

As such, there no deadlines has been prescribed to set up the fund.

“The fund aims to support the ventures’ and entrepreneurs’ risk-taking abilities. With this fund in place, the startups would receive financial support from banks and financial institutions with a collateral-free guarantee,” says the Secretary, DIPP, Ramesh Abhishek.

Furthermore, he also mentioned that the issue of softening existing regulations for startups, would be taken up with entities such as the RBI, SEBI and Department of Corporate Affairs among others.

The Minister of State for HRD, Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey said, “Sufficient incentives and motivations should be given to those that wish to set up their venture with the spirit of innovations and also suggested that the spirit of innovations need to be promoted at the basic levels of Indian education system through vernacular mode of communications.”

Other dignitaries who participated in the event were Secretary of Department of Science and Technology, Professor Ashutosh Sharma; Additional Secretary, DIPP, Sanjeev Gupta; Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, Professor K Vijay Raghvan; and President, Alumni Association, IIT Kanpur Outer Delhi Chapter, Anurag Goel.

DIPP has been playing a keen role in executing the Modi Government’s ‘Startup India, Stand Up India’ mission. In the last one year, the department has taken several initiatives to encourage the startups.

In August 2016, it bid for a startup reality show along the lines of Shark Tank – an American reality television series where aspiring entrepreneurs from around the world, pitch their business models. It also hosted a startup festival in September this year in Hyderabad. Recently, DIPP also identified about 200 fake ecommerce companies. In March 2016, DIPP issued a uniform definition of the word startup.

Under the definition, a budding entrepreneur with a turnover of less than $3.6 Mn (INR 25 Cr) can avail tax breaks and other benefits for a five-year period.