Burson-Marsteller study: World leader’s engagement on Facebook

According to the first installment of the 2016 edition of Burson-Marsteller’s annual Twiplomacy study, 90% of all governments have an official Facebook presence, and 87 heads of state, 82 heads of government and 51 foreign ministers maintain personal pages on the platform. The report further found that 169 of the 193 UN member states maintain an official Facebook page.

“This first study about governments’ use of Facebook provides valuable insights about the communications practices of political leaders around the world,” said Donald A. Baer, Worldwide Chair and CEO, Burson-Marsteller. “There is a great deal corporations, NGOs and other sectors can learn from the ways governments and their leaders use Facebook. By showing their human side, they are creating a closer relationship with their citizens.”

Over the past eight years, Facebook has become the channel of choice for community engagement with world leaders. Many politicians discover social media channels during election campaigns, such as the Barack Obama page, which was set up in late 2007 as an electoral tool for the former Senator of Illinois. Since then, a Facebook presence has become part and parcel of any social media political campaign and one of the best ways to engage with potential voters and citizens.

According to Facebook’s latest figures, 1.5 billion people have registered an account on the platform, of which 1 billion people are active on the social network every day. In 2015, the number of users on Facebook has become even greater than the population of China, the most populous country on earth.

Given this global audience, it comes as no surprise that governments and leaders of 87% of the 193 United Nations member countries now have a presence on the social network. The study further says that, over the past eight years, Facebook has become the platform of choice for world leaders and governments to engage with their voters and constituents. On 4 January 2016, all of the world leaders combined had accumulated a total of 230,489,257 ‘likes’ and had published a total of 302,456 posts.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the undisputed champion, with more than 215 million interactions on his Facebook posts in 2015, more than 5 times as many as the more popular Barack Obama campaign page. A closer look at the type of interactions shows that Narendra Modi leads in post likes and post comments, however the White House posts are shared slightly more frequently than those of Modi, while having only a fifth of Modi’s likes. Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri makes it into second position in terms of interactions on his posts, despite having far fewer (three million) likes on his page.

U.S. President Barack Obama is the most popular world leader on Facebook with 46m likes on his Barack Obama campaign page. Obama is closely followed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with more than 31m fans on his personal Narendra Modi page and 10.1m fans on his institutional PMO India page, which is in third position.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Indonesian President Joko Widodo and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi complete the top five list of the most popular world leaders with more than 5m likes each.

In November 2015, the US administration set up an official institutional page for the President of the United States (/POTUS) which has since attracted 1.3m likes in less than two months and is already among the 30 most popular pages of world leaders.

Modi has the most interactive fans, with more than 200m interactions in his Facebook ‘community’ in 2015 (the total number of post likes, comments and shares), more than five times as many as Obama. However, the White House’s posts, while attracting far fewer likes than Modi, are nevertheless shared more frequently.

Argentina’s new President, Mauricio Macri, is the most engaged world leader and has become the undisputed ‘Facebook president’ with a double digit engagement rate relative to the number of page likes of almost 12%.

The Facebook page of the Presidency of the Dominican Republic is the most prolific page, with an average of more than 27 posts per day in 2015. Almost as prolific are the governments of Botswana and the Philippines, each with an average of more than 20 posts per day. By contrast, the official POTUS page only publishes intermittently, but gathers more than 77,000 interactions per post.

Government use of Facebook varies from country to country. While some pages merely broadcast the daily activity of their leaders, others engage with their citizens, replying to the most salient comments and even allowing a free flow of visitor posts on their respective pages.

Indian government figures, including the President, the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister, dominate the ranking in the Asia Pacific region. The size of the country is clearly a decisive factor for these large audiences, however Facebook has been making inroads in other Asian countries and has become the platform of choice for Asian leaders. Philippine President Noynoy Aquino, Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak, Myanmar’s new leader Aung San Suu Kyi and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen all have sizeable audiences, each with more than one million likes.

The governments of only 24 countries have not yet set up a presence on Facebook, including China, where the social network is banned, and Switzerland, where the former president briefly set up a personal page in 2013 before deactivating it only four months later.

India’s Prime Minister makes a strong showing among the Top 10 most engaged leaders with an engagement rate of 6.7% despite his massive fan count. However, the Barack Obama page, the most liked page, is at the bottom of the list with an engagement rate per follower of only 0.89%.

A Picture Says More than 1000 Words

The most liked post on the institutional page of the Indian Prime Minister is the new profile picture of Narendra Modi who overlaid his profile with an Indian flag to support the Digital India campaign.

One of the highlights of Narendra Modi’s social media engagement in 2015 was the ‘town hall’ meeting at Facebook’s headquarters in September with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, which was live-streamed on the platform. During the 50-minute interview, Modi described in detail his vision of a digital government: “Social media means daily voting, there is no scope for a gap in communication with the government like before. The governments now get an opportunity to correct themselves every five minutes and not every five years”

Source: IndianMediaBook - Digital

[Guest Column] Freemium games will continue to be a top grosser: Ankush Gera

The year 2015 was an exhaustive and interesting year for the online gaming industry and as the countdown to 2016 begins, it looks like we are heading towards a promising year of indulging in virtual rejuvenation. So here are the major trends that we analysed, all of which could completely change the way online games are made and played in the near future:

Predictions for Indian Gaming Industry in 2016

The year 2015 was an exhaustive and interesting year for the online gaming industry and as the countdown to 2016 begins, it looks like we are heading towards a promising year of indulging in virtual rejuvenation. So here are the major trends that we analyzed, all of which could completely change the way online games are made and played in the near future:

Freemium games will continue to be a top grosser

In spite of India being a money-savvy society, people are still reluctant to pay for mobile games, despite cheap gaming rates and mobile internet plans. In the “Freemium model” of monetization, users can play most of the game for free but will have to pay for virtual goods and in-app upgrades. The model stands suitable for the price sensitive online gamers of India.

Virtual Reality will slowly start integrating with gaming – Smart Toys on the rise

Cheap cardboard based virtual reality headsets are slowly coming into the market and can be simply attached to your smartphone for an immersive experience. Just like console gaming never really became mainstream in India due to the high price point, whereas mobile gaming took off, we’ll see similar parallels with Virtual Reality.

The Oculus Rift and similar headsets are at an unaffordable price point for most consumers. However, sub Rs 1000 paper based headsets are an actual reality and will make a difference in how VR integrates with gaming. Imagine being able to play cricket in a stadium, instead of just watching it from a 2D isometric or top down view.

Making way for a spectator experience

In the era of celebrity YouTubers, and Twitchers it is even more important for the developers to consider how their games will be viewed as well as played. The statistics in terms of the hours people spend playing games and watching games, suggests that the latter is trending. So, we are foreseeing that within the next one year, we’re going to see more developers trying to exploit this aspect, specifically aiming their games at YouTube and Twitch.tv

Players will be contributors

Come 2016 and gamers won’t just be watching future developments; instead, they’ll be contributing to it. Games will allow players to construct their own levels and decide the final direction of quests in-game and then share them online.

PaaS will make creating games easier

Catalyzed by PaaS (Platform as a Service), the mobile games and app market in India, projected to be worth Rs 2,700 crore by 2016 is growing at an unimaginable pace. PaaS is opening opportunities for Indian gaming startups to build games within the shortest possible time span, without worrying about the infrastructure.

Monetization would still be majorly dependent on Advertising but comparatively in-app purchases will notice surge.

Mainstream games will become services and platforms

We’ve seen how smartphone developers have turned their games into platforms by reacting to metrics data, tweaking difficulty accordingly, and then adding downloadable additions to their brands – rather than bringing out regular sequels. We have been observing that free-to-play design and ethos are coming into premium games. Developers are learning the usage of metrics to evolve games in the face of user data.

Source: IndianMediaBook - Digital

Laurent Le Moal appointed as CEO at PayU

Naspers’ payment services platform PayU announced the appointment of Laurent Le Moal as its new global CEO. In his role Le Moal will join the Naspers management team to lead its payments business, reporting directly to Bob Van Dijk, Group CEO, Naspers.

Speaking on the appointment, Dijk said: “Laurent’s impressive entrepreneurial and business development experience leading multiple teams in diverse global markets is a perfect fit for Naspers and PayU. His understanding of digital payments in markets with long-term growth potential is a great asset to the PayU team and we are delighted to welcome him to the Group.”

Le Moal brings extensive knowledge of digital payments and emerging markets to PayU. He culminated an 11-year career at PayPal as VP for Continental Europe, Russia, Middle-East and Africa, leading the growth of its consumer franchise across diverse geographies.

“I have always been impressed with the PayU team and its track record in addressing the opportunities and challenges in the global and local digital payments sectors. I’m looking forward to working with the team to continue to position PayU as an industry leader in markets across the globe,” expressed Laurent Le Moal.

He will lead PayU’s strategy and growth, building on the company’s position in high growth markets around the world and developing payment solutions which meet the local market needs of both consumers and merchants.

Source: IndianMediaBook - Digital

Industry scenario in the light of DAS Phase III

According to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB), 33.35 million TV households in India belong to DAS Phase III areas covering 29 states and five Union territories.

The idea behind converting analogue signals to digital is to provide audience with better quality services. With DAS, large number of TV channels with a variety of value added services can be provided and subscribers can choose bouquets basis their requirements.

DAS Phase III till date

As per the 13th task meeting held by MIB on the 31st December 2015, 86.25 per cent of TV households have been digitised in DAS Phase III.

According to Nagesh Chabria, Promoter, Riddhi Bhima, there are certain remote areas where digitalization process has not yet kick-started as they are still awaiting to receive the bandwidth from Telecom Companies.

“The states in which there is no Court stay order, districts and talukas will be converted from analogue to digital to the extent of 50-75 per cent and 30-50 per cent respectively by 15th January, and the process will take around 30 days more to reach 85-90 per cent. Whereas, the states in which there is a stay order there is very slight movement and conversion will be around 35-50 per cent by month end”, commented Chabria.

Out of 685 areas in total including West Bengal, 280 areas were removed soon after the Task Force meeting, 450 areas had less than 1000 TV households.

Rajiv Gupta, Partner, 9 Spheres Broadcasting Network, informed that DAS Phase III has covered only 30 per cent and a lot of time is required to cover the remaining 70 per cent. So the demand is huge without enough supply of STBs.

According to an MSO from East, implementation of digitalisation is happening in some pockets and this is almost negligible. According to MIB 80 per cent implementation of digitalisation has been completed and it is pegged at 25 per cent and 75 per cent is yet to be covered.

Likewise,Omeshwar Singh, Director, Den Enjoy Cable, only 30-35 per cent has been covered so far.

On the other hand, Punjab has successfully implemented Phase III. Fastway’s Peeyush Mahajan informed that Punjab has covered 100 per cent and in Himachal Fastway has covered 80 per cent, whereas overall around 50 per cent of implementation has been completed.

“In DAS Phase III so far we have converted about 45 per cent of our connection from Analogue to Digital. The STB movement was pretty good in the last week of December but has slowed”, opined Suresh Sethiya, Director, Indian Cable Net Company Limited.

Major issues

The major issues are scarcity of set-top boxes (STBs), unresolved issues related to interconnection agreements in Phases I and II, and cable operators’ plea for requiring more time to seed boxes.

“No re-work had been done for UP despite being the largest state in the country. There are many regions which have been included in Phase III but some of these regions should ideally be covered under Phase IV. Now, there is no scope left for phase IV and we are not prepared to cover all the regions in phase III itself,” commented Singh.

In comparison to the first two phases, DAS III is more gruelling, owing to its enormous geographical coverage as it covers more than 600 districts and over 7000 urban areas. So, the requirement is much greater than the supply. Whereas, comparatively Phase I and II did not have such a huge coverage and there were many players, so there was no shortage of boxes.

“Phase III requires getting bandwidth to remote talukas and municipal areas, where there is less public awareness about digitisation. On the other hand, the preceding phases covered the metros, where the level of awareness among people was much higher”, added Chabria.

DAS phase III was scheduled for completion by end of September 2014, however the government extended the deadline once and it further got delayed. This time around, when the government announced the final implementation date as 31st December, several operators expected another extension.

“One of the major issues faced is that the cable operators are taking it for granted and there is further lack of awareness in subscribers”, expressed Gupta.

Surprisingly, this time the Government did not approve to further extension and thus, released the fourth list of Provisional Registration of MSOs on 31st December. Unexpectedly, many States appealed for an extension and also managed to get an extension of about 2 months including Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Sikkim, Odisha etc.

Nand Chhapru, Partner, Konark Dossire IP believes that due to lack of awareness among the subscribers/audience, it will be difficult to meet the target in extended period as well. Chhapru further mentioned that there are many subscribers in phase III, who cannot afford the fees and installation charges.

“The cable rates in the slums are Rs. 100 to 150 per month and after DAS III it will easily cross Rs 250. That’s the reason those people want to opt for DTH services as they still provide packages from Rs 99 to Rs 150”, opined Chhapru.

In DAS I and II analogue delivery was not a concern, separate Analogue head ends were there but differentiating phase III and IV was little tough.

“A lot of networking changes had to be done for smooth DAS III and IV. Putting up offices in small towns was also done, added Sethiya.

DTH v/s MSOs

While MSOs are having a tough time across the country, DTH players have an opportunity to add more subscribers into their kitty.

Mahajan expressed that, 15 years ago there was no sign of DTH players in India and now DTH have reached to about 45 million subscribers, which is eventually covering 55 per cent of businesses.

On the other side, Sethiya pointed out that DTH will get benefitted only if the MSO’s fail to deliver STB’s in time, as far as we are concerned I do not see any opportunity for the DTH players.

Mahajan further doubts the growth of DTH players in rural areas. He however believes that to compete with DTH players MSOs will have to pay attention to the quality services provided.

To grab the eyeballs of rural subscribers, DTH players launched Rs. 99 pack, which consists of free to air channel.

“DTH players and DD Direct will get complete benefit and thus, it will increase piracy. In Rs. 99 DTH players are offering the services, which DD Direct is offering for free. Thus, these players are cheating the subscribers, commented Singh.

DTH holds an upper hand in rural market and MSOs are lacking behind, because of lack of infrastructure and interrupted services. If MSOs keep on working like this, eventually 50 per cent business will go to DTH players. Subscribers are currently seeking the best services and have a lot of options available.

However, Chabria is very positive. He mentioned that analogue will continue in the regions which have received 2 months extension, so there will not be any further opportunity for the DTH players. “Operators will get their boxes within 2 months and will be in a position to penetrate in these regions steadily”, expressed Chabria.

DTH players on the other hand have economic packages for as less as Rs. 99/- offering selective channels. Tata Sky’s My 99 pack offers upto 151 channels & services which include 147 SD channels & services, 3 HD channel + 4K Service. On the other hand, Dish TV offers Dish 99 offering 125+ Channels & Services. With such economic packages, DTH players have very few selective popular channels as part of the package giving it a miss to other popular channels which will surely impact its penetration in the long run.

Source: IndianMediaBook - Digital

How Start-ups are reacting on Modi’s Start-up India Action Plan?

With an income tax holiday for three years and exemption from capital gains levies on venture capital investments, Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled the Start-Up India Action Plan with an enabling eco-system to promote and nurse entrepreneurship.

Through this landmark programme, Modi is willing to create India as the international hub of entrepreneurship, an initiative to empower businesses and giving them freedom from the government.

Rohan Bhargava, Co-Founder, CashKaro, believes that the announcement of this plan is a very encouraging start. The direction of the plan shows that the Government understands the challenges of a start-up.

“This is shown in the fact that they have addressed taxation, recognised the need for mentorship through the Start-up India hub and created mechanisms for providing funding. Increased access to funding was a key expectation from this Plan and the Rs 10,000 Fund of Funds corpus is likely to be a huge support for start-ups,” commented Bhargava.

A host of incentives unveiled by him for start-ups also included self-certification and a three-year exemption from inspections, an online portal and mobile app, an 80-percent cut in the patent application fee and a single-point hub for hand-holding.

According to Sudhir Singh, Partner – PwC India, the announcements by the Government will encourage further entrepreneurship within the country. Tax holiday, patent, ease of closing companies, investment fund, gateway for public procurement are measures that will definitely make it easier for companies to do business.

“We look forward to further details around these. The key will be how these are implemented. However, these measures alone will not help spurt Government’s ambition of having 300,000 start-ups,” expressed Singh.

The Prime Minister’s announcement of the Start-up Policy had quite a few important and measurable benefits that the start-ups can gain from.

Speaking on the launch, Himanshu Meena – Founder, Parsel, said, “The most refreshing aspect was PM’s pointed emphasis on minimum government intervention and promise to ease bankruptcy laws. These indicate the government’s willingness to provide space to entrepreneurs for experimentation, without worrying too much about archaic legalities.”

At an event at Vigyan Bhavan conference complex here to launch the “Start-Up India Action Plan”, the prime minister also announced a Rs.10,000-crore fund for new enterprises, equal opportunity in government procurement, a Rs.500-crore credit guarantee scheme and easier exit norms.

“While the entire summit was aimed at promoting start-ups, our expectations were limited to motivating the youngsters in taking initiatives for doing something they believe in. However, we truly feel that this summit has been worthwhile after listening to the announcements made by the PM. Policies like No Capital gain, No Taxes for 3 years and most importantly the Start-up Fest will allow us to build a healthy collaborative environment with an aim to grow in this competitive world”, opined Anurav Rane, CEO, PlanMyMedicalTrip.

The list of incentives also included 35 new incubators under the public-private partnership mode, 31 new innovation centres at national institutes, seven new research parks, five bio-clusters and a mission with sector-specific incubators, labs, pre-incubation training and seed money.

Commenting on the scheme, Uday Reddy, Founder & CEO, YuppTV, said, “The start-up landscape in India is growing significantly and certainly has a promising future. We are elated with the recent announcement by our honourable PM towards the Start-up India Stand Up initiative. It will definitely create a healthy start-up ecosystem in the country and empower the Indian youth for a better economy.”

Modi also mentioned that his government intended to club all related legislation involving start-ups and took a dig at the opposition in this regard. According to Modi, the difference that people will find today with governance in India was that on a Saturday, when it is an official day off, with no question of any activity after 6 p.m., such a grand event as today’s was taking place.

“This is the most serious bid to boost the entrepreneurial wave in the country and lead us to enviable levels of growth. Anyone looking for reason to start-up? Now is the time to take the plunge”, commented Sanjay Lakhotia, Founder & Director, Fitastik.

Modi also expressed that he wanted the youth today to transform themselves from job seekers to job givers. Businesses across the nation have welcomed this initiative with much positive sentiment. Many believe that it will help boost young entrepreneurs and catapult the growth of Indian economy.

According to Rahul Jalan, Director, IndiaOnline, Start Up India, Stand Up India initiative will simplify the things and doing business in India will be easier than ever. “Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has promised that he is going to announce a friendly tax regime in the Union Budget next month, which is really a big relief for the corporate sector”, commented Jalan.

Funding and financing for the start-ups is the key area where most of the young entrepreneurs are anticipating disruptive changes.

For Innefu Labs’ Co-Founder, Tarun Wig, it is a thriving initiative that will propel greater innovation and technology adoption, he said, “Liberal and friendly economic policies pertaining to taxes, registration and foreign investment proposals will help businesses a lot to perform and sustain both in domestic and international market.”

A study by Aspiring Minds revealed that as much as 47 per cent entry level hiring in start-ups today is comprised of non – technical roles.

Himanshu Aggarwal, CEO & Founder, Aspiring Minds, believes that start-ups will be the mainstay for the job growth for the next few years. “The start-up jobs vary form specialized technical roles to a large number of non-technical roles. We expect start-ups to create a north of 1, 00, 000 jobs this years with 80 per cent of non-technical roles benefiting large masses of youth in the country. The start-up India initiative has the capability to propel this further by helping ease setup and funding norms,” commented Aggarwal.

On the other hand, many players in the mobile handset category are expecting that this initiative, will help to resolve many on-going problems of the industry such as a delayed quality certification process by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).

Speaking on the initiative, Govind Bansal, Co-Founder, Aqua, said, “Due to a slow procedure consumers are deprived of good options and businesses are unable to meet the market demand with the right product at a right time. As Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has ensured that It is a final break from the conventional Licence Raj of India, we expect that things will be easier and simpler in future.”

Sharing his thoughts on the initiative, Sanjay Krishna Goyal, CEO & Founder ACL Mobile, said, “The new initiative focusing on start-ups is a welcome move. The government needs to create a favourable environment for small-ticket co-investments which can help early-stage entrepreneurs; consider matching investments for seed investments by central funding agencies. The government initiatives should focus on building a start-up culture in the country by promoting all round entrepreneurial development and subsequently creating an eco-system for conducive growth of the start-ups.”

India is up for a start-up revolution; with 3100 start-ups in 2014 the reports project the numbers to reach 11,500 by 2020. Tapping into this entrepreneurial gold mine gives form to innovation that can boost India’s economic prospects by creating jobs and wealth.

However, the last decade has seen a boost in entrepreneurial activity because of significant amount of funding activities. But obstacles such as costs, procedural complexities and delays still remain at large.

According to Manish Kumar, Co-Founder & CEO, GREX, Prime Minister and the Finance Minister outlined a change in the principle approach of the government towards the economy – that the government wants to stay away from deciding and directing on what needs to be done.

Expressing his thoughts about the plan, Kumar said, “The Government looks at a policy of arm’s length enablement. This stand is a bold new change in the government policy and disruptive in its own right.Venture debt was miserably missing in the ecosystem. Startups have only been used to equity as a mode of capital.

On the other side, Pramod Saxena, Chairman, Oxigen Services, believes that, the private equity generally rushes in one direction but for the country’s perspective this should be seen differently. The government initiative should be to promote all round entrepreneurial development in support to start-up ventures that comes from different diversified fields which is huge in numbers; especially when we talk about agriculture, food and clean energy.

“The start-up India movement is set to boost country’s entrepreneurial spirit. Over the last 8 to 10 years many initiatives have come forward to uplift the start-up culture but with PM Modi’s encouragement, it is a matter of time where we’d be as impactful as Silicon Valley and others. We are in need of private enterprise of that scale that can promote these initiates like Silicon Valley. In the payment sector we have seen a lot of development and government support. There are lot of other sectors which are open and need entrepreneurial and equity support”, commented Saxena.

A change in tax regulation can boost further investments into the start-up segment. India being a country of youths, needs a change, this can certainly be the best change one can see. Such campaign suits Indian conditions and will assist at all levels.

Rohit Aggarwal, Founder & CEO, Koenig Solutions, said, “This campaign can surely boost entrepreneurship and job creation. The initiative will lead towards new businesses or innovative projects and it will directly prove much helpful in improving the economic growth of the country and career growth of the youths.”

Source: IndianMediaBook - Digital

McDonald’s takes socializing a step ahead with The Social Burger

Starting 2016, McDonald’s India takes it #KuchPalOffline initiative to a new level with #ThodaTimeAur campaign. The new campaign encourages consumers to spend quality time over conversations with a bigger burger. With this campaign the age old Maharaja Mac is revamped as The Social Burger.

The brand further claims that owing to the social burger’s large size, the consumers can take some time in finishing it and as a result get more time to spend over the meal. Designed and conceptualized by Leo Burnett, the campaign has 6 ad films, each urging consumers to seek more time for laughter, fun and discussions.

#ThodaTimeAur is an initiative that welcomes the brand to its 20th year. With this, McDonald’s India takes a step ahead and focuses on further expansion with new varieties to socialize with. Commenting on the initiative, McDonald’s India – West and South marketing and digital director Kedar Teny said, “The New Maharaja Mac offers a fulfilling dining experience to customers and is a meal in itself. The build of the burger is such that it takes more time to finish, thereby giving people more time to socialize. This proposition takes forward the brand’s agenda of building sociability at the heart of everything it does. The campaign strikes up a conversation with consumers that largely focuses on gaining their share of time.

In 2015, McDonald’s focused on initiatives that would let consumers an opportunity to socialize and spend good time with friends and family. The #KuchPalOffline campaign, encouraged consumers to spend quality internet free time. The campaign went viral and was acknowledged by masses. Another initiative was the introduction of customized sharing packs for 2, 3 and 4 people. The brand’s focus has mainly been on communicating across the message of spending time with real people while being with them instead of talking to masses virtually.

McDonald’s India has been actively promoting the brand through advertisements and promotions across several social media platforms. The brand has more than 2 lakh subscribers on its Youtube page and more than 13 lakh likes on its Facebook page.

Source: IndianMediaBook - Digital

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Start-Up India Action Plan

The most anticipated and awaiting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Start-Up India Scheme unveiled at the event held in New Delhi at Vigyan Bhawan. The launch event has been attended by CEOs and Founders of top start-ups from across the country and abroad.

Speaking at the launch of the ambitious Start-up India campaign, Modi said, “Start-ups are not just because of entrepreneurial capabilities, but also for the aspect of risk-taking. This start-up movement is not linked to money or name and fame. It is about finding solutions to the problems of common people. Start-ups don’t have to be billion dollar ventures. Even if it employs five people, it is contributing to the Indian economy. We want to focus on hand holding for start-ups.”

According to Arun Jaitley, Finance Minister, the new Start-Up India scheme of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to promote and nurse entrepreneurship will ensure minimum interference from the government with attractive tax incentives.

Speaking on the event, Jaitely said, “Start-Up India will change conventions. Government will merely be a facilitator for start-ups. We ostensibly broke away from the license raj in 1991, conceived with idea that the government will decide which businesses can run. Our effort in last few years has been to restrict role of the state in policy domain,” assuring Start-Up India scheme will follow that path.

The Star-up India Action Plan is aimed at acting as a facilitator to start-ups by ensuring a friendlier regulatory regime, easier capital availability and quicker exit norms through a bankruptcy code.

Speaking at the event, Nirmala Sitharaman, Commerce Minister, said, “Our intention is not to come down heavily as government, but only to facilitate. How to remove the clutter so that the core business work can be attended to is our aim. It isn’t jugaad. The government looks forward to engaging with entrepreneurs to remove all the burdensome regulations for start-ups”.

The highlights

Modi announced a three-year income tax holiday for start-ups and exemption of capital gains tax for venture capital investments in them, as part of a host of incentives to promote new enterprises in the country.

He also announced self-certification and three-year exemption from inspections, an online portal and mobile app, an 80-percent cut in the patent application fee, a single-point hub for hand-holding, equal opportunities in government procurement and a Rs.10,000-crore dedicated fund for start-ups.

No inspection of start-ups for three years on labour and environment law compliance post-self-certification and there will be no interference from government. Credit guarantee scheme will be introduced for start-ups in next 4 years; funds of around 500 crores will be given every year.

The patent fees for start-ups will be cut by 80 present to support and protect intellectual property rights of new entrepreneurs. He also said start-ups will be helped through facilitation centres by lawyers to file patents without any charges. Delays in patent approvals, he added, need to be reduced.

He also unveiled that a mobile app will be launched to register start-up in a day and Atal Innovation Mission to give impetus to innovation and encourage talent.

The list of incentives also included 35 new incubators under the public-private partnership mode, 31 new innovation centres at national institutes, seven new research parks, five bio-clusters and a mission with sector-specific incubators, labs, pre-incubation training and seed money.

Source: IndianMediaBook - Digital