Odisha Govt Clears Amendments To Its StartUp Policy, Know What Benefits It Has In Store

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In a welcome move, the cabinet of Odisha led by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has approved a series of incentives to ensure that at least 33 % of the startups with founders and co-founders as women emerge in the state, reports The Times of India. It has done so by amending the StartUp Policy 2016 of the government, as reportedly said by state micro, small and medium enterprises secretary LN Gupta.

In the period of last eight months, about 175 companies have registered with the StartUp Odisha Initiative. Eventually, the state intends to become the top three startup hubs in the country by 2020.



Listed below are some of the benefits that the government has promised:

  1. Women, transgender or people from scheduled caste, scheduled tribes and differently-abled are to get a monthly allowance of Rs 22,000 for creating a startup.
  2. Product development and publicity assistance have been increased to Rs 16 lakhs if the startup is founded or co-founded by a woman or transgender or from social categories such as SC/ST/SEBC/ differently-abled.
  3.  Revenue run rates have been reduced from 10 lakhs per month to Rs 2.5 lakhs per month during the preceding six months as one of the eligibility criteria for availing product development and marketing assistance.
  4. Earlier an entity to be declared as a startup was required to have been registered for not prior to five years, now it has been relaxed to seven years in general and 10 years in case of biotechnology startups.
  5. Recognised startups can now avail subsidy benefit to the extent of 50 percent on a monthly rental of the incubation space (subject to a maximum of Rs 5000) for a period of maximum one year.
  6. The amendment promises travel and space support to recognized startups for participation in national and international events of repute.

CM Patnaik has also launched the Startup India-Odisha Yatra on 13 March. The Yatra van is due to travel to 60 educational institutions across the 16 districts of the state.

Selected ideas would be put to three days intensive acceleration programme and 50 best innovators would be provided incubation and mentorship support to convert their ideas into startups. Around 500 ideas were likely to be pitched during the Yatra.

We hope that the amendments to policy would bring about more involvement of the neglected and underprivileged in the society and help make Odisha government’s vision come true. 


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