Start-Up India will break licence raj: Arun Jaitley

Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday said the “Start-Up India” programme will encourage entrepreneurship in the country by giving them freedom from the government.

“Another very significant difference of what makes it a landmark event is a final break or the ultimate break that you have with the conventional licence raj of India,” said Mr Jaitley at the Start-up India conference.

He noted that India broke off from licence raj in 1991 but it was only partial.

“We did well to break off from it in 1991 but it was only partial. It was partial because those who would be funded saw that there was an invisible role of state, control over land permissions, foreign investment proposal and of course unless the political nods came to venture into newer areas which involved a lot of capital, a lot of energy going into it and an entrepreneur or investors was normally reluctant,” he said.

The finance minister said the government is easing the process of doing business to promote business. “Start-Up India will change conventions. Government will merely be a facilitator for start-ups,” said Mr Jaitley.

Meanwhile on ways to improve regulations for startups, corporate affairs secretary Tapan Ray said efficiency in registration is very important and in the next couple of months it will take only 24 hours to register a company.

“As of now there is some complaint that it takes a long time to register companies, so we are going through an action plan to revise the rules... Remove rules which are irrelevant for startups,” Mr Ray said. He further said, keeping the startups in mind, a committee has been set up to suggest amendments to Company Laws with regards to managerial remuneration, insider trading norms and private placements.

Economic affairs secretary said that the “Start Up” programme is a real game changer and will bring in investment and facilitate huge amount of job creation.