Srinagar: Slump in business notwithstanding, Jammu and Kashmir witnessed a huge jump in the registration of Startups last year.
An official document accessed by The Kashmir Monitor reveal that as many as 64 new Startups were registered by Entrepreneurship Development Institute (EDI) despite lockdown last year.
This is nearly 50 percent more than 2019. In 2019, only 38 Startups were registered in Jammu and Kashmir.
“We received a large number of applications for Startup registration before the lockdown last year. The pace of the registration process gathered steam after the government relaxed norms in August,” an official from the EDI said.
As per the document, 25 new startups have been registered by the EDI this year so far. “The process has been simplified in Jammu and Kashmir. We are expecting a large number of startups coming up this year,” the official said.
In 2018 and 2017, 47 and 15 startups respectively had come up in Jammu and Kashmir with most of them associated with the hospitality sector. In 2016, only two startups were registered by the EDI.
On January 16, 2016, the Government of India launched Startup India, a flagship initiative to foster entrepreneurship. It was also aimed at promoting innovation by creating an ecosystem that is conducive to the growth of startups. Since, the launch of the Startup India initiative, a total of 44,534 Startups have been recognized by DPIIT till February 24, 2021.
In Jammu and Kashmir, so far 191 startups have been registered so far. The union territory ranks at 21st number in the list of states with maximum startups.
Maharashtra tops the list of leading 10 states with 8327 registered startups followed by Karnataka (5979), Delhi (5557), Uttar Pradesh(3857), Gujarat (2586), Haryana(2475), Tamil Nadu (2329), Kerala (2040) Rajasthan (1334) and West Bengal (1272).
To enable the start-up ecosystem and create awareness, outreach and scouting of start-ups, www.startupjk.com has also been launched by the Jammu and Kashmir administration with a focus on food processing, agriculture, renewable energy, handicrafts, and handloom.
The Government of India has announced Rs 945-crore Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS), which will be operational from April 1, 2021, to 2025 to promote and boost the ecosystem across the country. It will support an estimated 3,600 entrepreneurs through 300 incubators in the next 4 years. The scheme has been notified on 28 January 2021. Startups are exempted from taxation as per provision of Section 56, (2) (vii b) of the Income Tax Act 1961.
