Prime Minister Narendra Modi (File | PTI)
NEW DELHI: Prime minister Narendra Modi interacted with innovators and entrepreneurs from across the nation over the Na Mo app on Wednesday.
In his speech of encouragement, he promised that the government is taking several steps to promote young entrepreneurs and it is not confined to big cities. Smaller towns and villages are also emerging as vibrant start-up centres.
PM Modi said, “We in the Government understand that youngsters may face shortage of funds for their startups. That is why a ‘fund of funds’ has been started by the Government to facilitate more youngsters to innovate and ideate.”
He also said that the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) platform has been linked to startup India. GeM was suggested by the Group of Secretaries and aims to facilitate online procurement of common use Goods & Services required by various Government Departments / Organizations / PSUs.
"We have started an Agriculture Grand Challenge. We invite more youngsters to ideate on how to transform our agriculture sector," he added
Commenting on the issue of funding, Modi said the government has created a Rs 10,000 crore Fund of Funds to facilitate start-ups.
Easing the process for entrepreneurs the number of forms to be filled has been reduced from 75 to 8. Start-ups have also been exempted from tax for the first three years.
Modi further spoke to school children who were a part of the Atal Tinkering Labs, a government initiative to empower school kids with technology and innovation.
Watch- school children from Amritsar are interacting with PM @narendramodi. #InnovationKiBaatPMKeSaath https://t.co/oluIMkjbSV
— PMO India (@PMOIndia) June 6, 2018
