The UT administration is likely to roll out its dedicated start-up policy, which has been four years in the making, in the second week of October.
After Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled the Startup India Policy in 2015, UT and states were directed to frame their own policies, tailored to the needs of entrepreneurs in their respective regions. The Chandigarh administration started the process of framing the draft policy in 2018, and a draft policy, which included the IT sector, manufacturing, agriculture and services industry, was also prepared. However, it was not finalised. In August, the administration had again sought suggestions from different stakeholders.
UT industries director Sumit Sihag says, “We have received recommendations from different stakeholders and are in the process of incorporating them, which will be done in a week’s time. We are hopeful that the policy will be implemented by the second week of October.”
The administration is also planning to create a start up hub, and set up a seed fund with a corpus of ₹50 crore.
Earlier, in its draft policy, the UT administration had proposed providing assistance to entrepreneurs in getting different registrations, certificates, organising finances and labour, getting environment-related compliances and navigating other bureaucratic regulations. The administration had also planned to apprise entrepreneurs and techies of legalities and the policies they can avail.
Experts say that despite Chandigarh being a centre of education for youngsters from Haryana, Punjab, and Himachal Pradesh, there is brain drain due to paucity of jobs, an issue compounded by the absence of a dedicated startup policy.
Industries Association of Chandigarh vice-president Siddharth Gupta said, “Chandigarh has the potential to become a hub for start-ups and this policy will facilitate the same. We must work towards developing a synergy between the traditional industries and start-ups.”
{{/usCountry}}Industries Association of Chandigarh vice-president Siddharth Gupta said, “Chandigarh has the potential to become a hub for start-ups and this policy will facilitate the same. We must work towards developing a synergy between the traditional industries and start-ups.”
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