THE FICTION
Goemkarponn desk
PANAJI: The Chief Minister, Dr Pramod Sawant, inaugurated the Goa Startup Conclave Entrepreneurship Summit “Anth Prerana” at a function organized by the Startup Promotion Cell in Collaboration with Goa Institute of Management at Donapaula today.
The Chief Minister said that it’s satisfying that IT policy 2018 and Startup policy 2017 on implementation have provided and approved approximately 궧 180 crores of financial incentives for certified Goan startup and approximately 궧 1.47 crores have been awarded under the Goa Startup policy.
“Plans of upscaling the connectivity and infrastructure in the State are already in motion, and the setup of various other incubation cells to encourage healthy startup investments to motivate promising young entrepreneurs,” he said.
The Chief Minister further said State Government intends to provide all support for the startup ecosystem in the State.
“This mega event will boost the startup ecosystem in the State. It is time for us to work to make the startup ecosystem in India the best in the world. Government with its all might will stand behind,” he added.
He appealed to the youth to contribute with the GovernmentGovernment to make Goa self-reliant in terms of the IT sector by starting start centres in rural areas of Goa.
Minister for Revenue Ms Jenifer Monserrate said through our startup cell, we’ve helped hundreds of investors, partners, incubators, and business mentors build a sustainable and growth intensive startup culture in our beautiful State.
Mrs Monserrate said, “through constant networking, community building activities, and mentoring sessions, our aim is to provide our Goan Startup with the exposure and opportunities to access global platforms. In the past, we’ve organized workshops and flagships events like the Global VC Summit, Microsoft’s 100 unicorns, the Goa IT Summit and Vibrant Goa 2019, to just name a few.”
Mrs. Monserrate said 111 startups have been certified by the GovernmentGovernment of Goa, out of which over 20 have been founded by woman entrepreneurs.
The policies have been tremendous in impacting more than 1500 entrepreneurs, & about 45 startups have been incentivized. According to the current startup Dosier, she remarked that startups are employing 788 individuals, out of which 558 are Goans.
Mrs Monserrate informed that the GovernmentGovernment is working up and ahead from here on.
“I extend my full support all the budding minds to come forward and present us with your vision so that we can help you make it a reality,” she added.
Ms Monserrate hoped that this conclave will end with all startups benefiting from the knowledge & experience. Guests speakers are here to share with us, giving our entrepreneurs the little nudge they need to succeed; she requested all the participants take advantage of this conclave to make Goa the best Startup destination.
In her address, Director Department of IT & CEO of Startup Promotion Cell Smt Ankita Anand said that Goa has been an emerging startup destination 2 years back. Still, today it is truly making a mark with the increasing number of successful Goan startups. Startups are emerging in a gamut of fields ranging from tourism to education, Agriculture to IT, just to name a few, she remarked.
Smt Anand said that the startup conclave – aims to build a more robust startup Ecosystem by boosting the Entrepreneurs within the budding startups and connecting them with various investors. The conclave will allow enabling direct startup- Investors. There would be experience sharing sessions by successful startups.
The central government and state government representatives would be explaining various facets of enabling startups growth. As the New Goa startup Policy is in the anvil, we would be enabling the changes that have been proposed to assist the Startup Ecosystem.
In fact, the event was a perfect amalgamation of all the key ingredients for nurturing the Start Ecosystem, Atal Incubation Center.
President of Association of Technologists, Mr Milind Anvekar and Ms Maria D’souza Chaudhary, Core Member IT Professionals.Vice-Chairman of Confederation Indian Industries Smt. Swati Salgaonkar also spoke on occasion.
THE FACT
While the Chief mInister and IT Minister went gaga over the Start-up policy, the startups are crying foul as the government has failed to pay the sanctioned amount.
Further, since March 2020, there have been no meetings to approve any startup policy.
Out of the 77 applications received since 2017, the government has sanctioned around Rs 180 cr, and shockingly, only 92 lakhs have been disbursed till now.
The startups say there is no support. In fact there is no policy called startup remaining now.
Goa Startup Policy 2017 expired on September 26, 2020 but have been extended till September this year. According to Startup Promotion Cell (SPC), 100 startups have been certified in the last three years under the Goa Startup Policy 2017. Each of these Startups employs about 6 to 15 people on average.
All the startups who have taken benefits under the policy, their employees and families dependent on them are facing the brunt of this policy lapse.
All the Startup Policy financial incentives are in the form of grants and reimbursements, which are rolled back into the economy through employee salaries, bill payments etc. In a strongly-worded statement, Goa IT Professionals said all these indirect beneficiaries are also being affected in the process.
Presently, eligible startups seeking promised benefits under the policy are being presented with excuses galore. They are being told that SPC is not processing any applications as they are awaiting policy extension. It is further claimed that the finance department has taken away SPC funds citing COVID emergency, and is not releasing the required funds amounting to less than Rs 3 crore despite follow-ups by SPC and IT Minister.
IT professionals who have dared to take up the tough challenge of being employment creators rather than employment seekers, with a hope that the Startup Policy will provide some initial support during the teething phases, have been left high and dry.
GITP lamented that when it comes to processing Startups requests, complaints have surfaced time and again that the processing by the SPC happens at a snail’s pace.
The IT Department, which is expected to be a torchbearer of automation and efficiency, and has a self-declared service-level agreement (SLA) of 45 days to review and approve or reject applications, has taken up to 6 months to do so even before and during COVID. Understandably, the process of initial registration-related verification of Startups can take time due to manual interventions.
