The Indian Government has dedicated itself to building a great ecosystem that fosters innovation and entrepreneurship. In the last few years, we have seen many schemes and funds being dedicated to supporting startups. The main idea behind these government schemes for startups is to build a favorable environment for businesses to thrive.
Government schemes facilitate funding, collateral-free debts, accelerators and incubators, mentor programs, networking events, boot camps, tax holidays, and exemptions, to support the startup community. These schemes are meant for a diverse set of innovations, be it for services, manufacturing, defense, agri-tech, textile, or even food processing.
This article discusses some of the best Government Schemes for startups in India along with their benefits and eligibility.
Indian Government have launched multiple schemes to support startups and innovation in India. These schemes are intended to help startups to raise funding, drive innovation, and lower compliances.
Startup India is a flagship initiative of the Government of India, intended to build a strong ecosystem that is conducive to the growth of startup businesses and thereby foster innovation and entrepreneurship. The action plan envisages providing support to startups through several initiatives, exemptions, relaxations and funding.
Startup India also embeds multiple other schemes from both central and state government to provide founders with one stop information and registration point. Besides, it also has a huge knowledge base of courses, eBooks, and mentorship programs on its portal to promote skills and leadership.
Startup India Scheme Eligibility
Major Benefits Under Startup India Scheme
Tax holiday for any 3 consecutive years in first 3 years of incorporation.
Exemption from Angel tax after DPIIT certification.
Capital gain exemption for specified investments.
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The Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) is one of the largest schemes from Government of India to provide financial assistance to small businesses, startups, and entrepreneurs. The scheme was launched in 2015 with the aim to provide easy access to credit for small business owners and entrepreneurs. The main purpose of Mudra Yojana is to provide working capital and credit line to MSME units.
Loans of up to ₹10 Lakhs can be availed under PMMY by eligible applicants which can be used for working capital requirements, purchase of machinery and equipment, etc. The repayment period for loans availed under PMMY is between 5 years and 7 years depending on the nature and purpose of the loan amount used.
Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana Eligibility:
Major Benefits of PMMY:
Shishu: Up to ₹50,000
Kishore: From ₹50,000 to ₹5 Lakh
Tarun: From ₹5 lakh to 10 lakhs
The Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS) is a government initiative to provide financial assistance to early-stage startups for market entry, prototype development, product trials, commercialization, and proof of concept.
The scheme provides for a fund up to ₹10 to be disbursed to startups as seed funds. It is launched to support startup India initiative that mainly focuses on pre-revenue startup, helping them build their products to raise further funds in market.
Eligibility for Startup India Seed Fund Scheme
Major Benefits of SISFS:
Atal Innovation Mission is one of the largest government schemes for startups with a mandate to promote innovation and entrepreneurship across the country, with a focus on Tier-2 and Tier 3 cities. AIM provides a platform for the promotion of world-class Innovation Hubs, Grand Challenges, Sectoral Focus, other self-employment, and talent initiatives. The mission aims to provide people with easy access to information, resources, and infrastructure locally for innovation and entrepreneurship.
Atal Tinkering Labs, Innovation centers, Incubation Centers and Atal community Innovation Clusters are some of the major programs under the AIM scheme to foster research and development. The program aims to provide students with equipment like state-of-the-art computers, 3D printers, stable internet connections, etc. to promote creativity, curiosity, adaptive learning, and computational thinking.
Atal Innovation Mission Eligibility
Academic Applicants must be:
Non-Academic applicants:
Major benefits of Atal Innovation Mission;
Up to ₹10 crore financial support for setting up world-class incubators
Up to ₹20 lakhs financial support for sector-specific innovation
Up to ₹1 crore financial support for Grand Challenges
SAMRIDH scheme helps product startups to access the Indian market and to scale their product for the global market. The scheme was introduced by the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology to boost independent software vendors. The government scheme for startup aims to accelerate 300 startups by enhancing their product, customer connection, investor connect and international market.
The scheme also provides hand-holding support to product startups in the form of technical, regulatory, financial and market access mentoring. Unlike other schemes that provide funding and direct support to startups, SAMRIDH mainly focuses on integrating all the incubators and accelerators and giving them direct assistance.
SAMRIDH Scheme Eligibility
For Startups:
For Accelerators:
Benefits under SAMRIDH Startup Scheme
Venture Capital Assistance Scheme is the most popular government scheme for agricultural startups. Under this scheme, agriprenuers, small crop producers and farmers can receive interest free debt and OD to cover up their working capital.
This government startup scheme majorly focuses on the development of agro industry. The government has set up a fund of INR 10,000 crore under this scheme which will provide INR 2,500 crore as interest free debt financing to small and marginal farmers.
Venture Capital Assistance Scheme Eligibility:
Benefits under Venture Capital Scheme:
The Single Point Registration Scheme (SPRS) is a government startup scheme that provides a single window system for filing tenders to Micro and Small Enterprises and startups. This scheme is administered by the National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC).
The main objective of this scheme is to ease restrictions for startups applying for government tenders. SPRS minimizes the time, requirement and cost associated with participation in government tenders.
Single Point Registration Scheme Eligibility:
Benefits of Single Point Registration Scheme:
The Standup India Scheme is a government startup scheme that encourages entrepreneurship among Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Women by providing them financial assistance in the form of loans. This scheme was launched by the Prime Minister on 5th April 2016.
The main objective of this scheme is to promote entrepreneurship and employment generation for backward castes, tribes and women. Under this scheme, banks will provide collateral-free loans up to ₹1 Crore to at least one SC or ST borrower and one-woman borrower for setting up a greenfield enterprise. This is a first-of-its-kind scheme that aims to provide access to equitable financial support for SC/ST and Women entrepreneurs.
Standup India Scheme Eligibility:
Benefits of Standup India Scheme:
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In a Nutshell
Currently, India hold more than 50 Unicorn startups and Indian government is focused to add more name to the list with tax benefits, lower compliance, and better infrastructure. The government has launched several startup schemes to promote entrepreneurship and employment generation. These schemes provide funding, financial assistance, incentives, exemptions or any other to startups. Startup India Portal is the hub for all the entrepreneurs to know and avail the benefit of all these schemes.
FAQs Section
You can apply for the startup India scheme by registering on the startup India portal. You need to upload all the details and documents related to your company like Certificate of Incorporation or Partnership Deed, Aadhar, Patent registration, etc. and then wait for approval.
Some of the MSME schemes for entrepreneurs in India are Single Point Registration Scheme (SPRS), the Standup India Scheme, and Mudra Yojana. These schemes provide financial assistance, collateral free loans, and tax exemptions to MSMEs and startups.
There are several investment schemes for startups in India such as the Startup India Initiative, the Standup India Scheme, Startup India Seed Fund Scheme, and the Mudra Yojana. These schemes provide funding and collateral free debt loans to support growth and drive innovation.
Startup India Initiative is the Indian government flagship scheme to promote entrepreneurship and accelerate startups in the country. It provides tax holidays, exemptions, seed funds and many other benefits to startups.
There are multiple ways to get funding for startups. The most common ways are crowdfunding, government funding, debts, grants, angel investments and venture investments.
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