New Delhi: Nearly six lakh jobs were created by Start-ups in the past four years including 192427 in till December 8 this year, said Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Som Parkash in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today. According to the data furnished by him, 93527 jobs were created in 2018, 142646 in 2019 and 169724 in 2020.  

The Government of India as part of Startup India initiative has implemented the Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS) scheme and Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS) across all States and UTs to promote private investment in the Startups through Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) and incubators.

Under FFS, a corpus of Rs 10,000 crore has been sanctioned spread over 14th and 15th Finance Commission cycles. Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) is the nodal bank under this scheme. The FFS scheme does not directly provide financial assistance to startups, instead supports SEBI- registered Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs), who in turn invest money in growing Indian startups through equity and equity-linked instruments.

Under the Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS), Rs 945 crore has been sanctioned for a period of 4 years starting from 2021-22. The funds are released to Startups through approved Incubators. Further, 49 key regulatory changes to enhance ease of doing business, raising capital and reducing compliance burden have been undertaken.

This includes insurers, EPFO, non-government provident funds, superannuation, and gratuity funds to invest in AIFs, thereby enabling billions of dollars’ worth of domestic capital being made available for the Indian startup ecosystem.

Furthermore, the requirement of prior turnover and experience has been relaxed to encourage startups to participate for tenders. Startups have been exempted from the requirement of earnest money deposit. ‘GeM Startup Runway’ has been launched with a dedicated corner for startups to sell products and services to the Government. As on 3rd October, 2021, 11,386 startups had been boarded on GeM, with 93,908 orders from public entities, said Parkash. /BI/