Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Piyush Goyal on Thursday called for further strengthening of ethics and corporate governance norms in startups.
He was addressing the 'Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)- Global Unicorn Summit- Shaping 1,000 Unicorns by 2030' in New Delhi.
Observing that India is home to 95 unicorns, Goyal said, "We needed just one more sixer to hit a Century of Unicorns. The government's efforts to reduce regulatory compliance burden has encouraged innovation and promoted commercialization of IPR and made it easier to begin, operate, grow and exit businesses."
Expressing his desire that startups must incorporate in India and list in India and not move to tax havens, Goyal urged them to approach the government if they face any issues and assured that it would strive to resolve problems.
He stressed that instances of fudging revenues, data fraud, tax evasions and other malpractices have to be curbed at an early stage or it would kill the entrepreneurial spirit of young startups and have a very damaging effects to the startup ecosystem.
Speaking of the tech revolution that Indian economy has been witnessing, with unicorns emerging in Fintech, Edtech, Healthtech, e-Commerce and media among other sectors, the Minister reminded that within 2-3 months of Startup India Global VC Summit 2019, National Startup Advisory Council (NSAC) was formulated, which, he said, had done a stellar job in promotion innovation and startups.
Goyal stressed that Indian startups are now offering some outstanding, high-quality solutions to the modern problems faced by society. He cited examples of Qure.ai, the Mumbai-based Startup that uses deep learning algorithms to interpret X-rays and CT scans in seconds and Bengaluru based CropIn Technology which provides one-stop SaaS based solutions to farmers - real time weather updates and predicts crop yields.
Speaking of the need to encourage startups whose business model is based on high tech innovation in engineering, defence or significant scientific advances, the Minister said that technology makes the impossible, possible! With rise of digital commerce metaverse new opportunities for the users and providers to connect will be unlocked, he said and asked for the metaverse to be leveraged to boost trade and commerce.
Quoting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Goyal said "Don't just keep your dreams local, make them Global' and added that many of India's startups were already venturing out beyond the borders of India and making a mark for themselves in both emerging economies and developed world by being scalable and affordable".
Asking the nation to buy from startups and encourage B2B procurement from startups, the Goyal further said," Startups must also be stimulated by subscribing to their IPOs and giving them access to domestic capital".
The Minister also called for the creation of a Gen-next National Council which would serve as an advisory body to nurture entrepreneurial talent and potential of our youngsters and to give both continuity and change to the startup ecosystem through its structure and functioning.
( With inputs from ANI )
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