To tap the entrepreneurial talent in the state, Bihar unveiled its start-up initiative, the Bihar Startup Policy 2017, along with an initial corpus to identify and develop new markets.
"We have given the youth and entrepreneurs a revised start-up policy, and set up a Rs 500-crore fund to encourage and facilitate entrepreneurship," Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said at the 4th Bihar Entrepreneurship Summit on Tuesday.
States that already have their start-ups policies in place include West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka and Kerala.
Bihar will drive its start-up initiatives with the formula YUVA — Yes to start-ups (awareness, networking and mentoring campaign), Unleash (regulatory enablers for supporting start-ups), Vibrancy (in education system to encourage and facilitate start-ups) and Access (to finance and incubate).
The policy document lists many features of the initiative aimed at fostering entrepreneurship among young people in the state.
Highlights of the policy:
It will be effective for five years.
It will facilitate development of Entrepreneurship Development Centers in divisional towns and Nagar Nigam(s), and Entrepreneurship Facilitation Centers to increase awareness and promote entrepreneurship.
Start-ups shall be exempted from licensing/registration for operations under various State Acts for a period of five years. However, statutory licenses (such as Drug License, FSSAI, Building Plan, Fire Fighting) shall be required to be obtained by the start-up if its nature of business/activity may lead to potential threat to life and safety, in such cases the government shall bear the cost of license(s).
Start-ups shall be exempted from inspections by government regulatory agencies for a period of five years unless there is threat to life and safety. In case a unit has to be inspected for certain reasons the permission of the District Magistrate shall be obtained.
The state government shall allot 10 percent of spaces in forthcoming industrial parks, SME Clusters and Hub for Start-ups/lncubators/ Common Shared Infrastructure on preference.
Financial assistance for setting up of new incubators and expanding state-supported incubators, reimburse cost of incubating a start-up maximum up to Rs 2 lakh per incubatee to government recognized private / state supported incubators and fiscal incentive to incubators @ two percent of the investment received by its incubatee from SEBI registered AIFs (Alternate Investment Funds) into Bihar-based start-ups.
