Sunday, December 22

Government working to make start, exit easy for startups, says Nirmala Sitharaman

The government is working to make it easy for budding entrepreneurs to start a business or exit from it, giving boost to the Indian startup ecosystem, Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said at Startup India Event.

“I understand that starting a startup is as much important as somebody wants to exit from it. The government is working to make the exit also (easy),” Sitharaman said at the ‘Startup India’ conference.

She said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is working “hard” on the Bankruptcy Code. The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2015, which seeks to provide an easy exit option for insolvent and sick companies, has been referred to a 30-member joint committee of the Members of Parliament for further scrutiny.

“I am sure with these (measures), we will be doing the right thing for the startups” so that they stay here in India “and not look at having a domicile somewhere else,” the Commerce and Industry Minister said.

She also said that after the announcement by the Prime Minister about ‘Startup India’, the ministry was engaged with different departments to create an enabling ecosystem for such ventures in the country.

“We have to see how best we can remove the clutter in such a way that your (startups) core business interest are the ones in which you are going to focus rather than think about what compliance have to be attended to,” she added.

Further, the minister said that the number of youths looking for government jobs is fast coming down and those providing some employment are actually growing.

“…that entrepreneurship is no longer being condemned in the name of ‘jugaad’. It is not ‘jugaad’. Indians have come back to establish for themselves and to prove for themselves that they have something to contribute,” she added.