It is heartening to observe that the UT of Jammu and Kashmir has been adjudged as the top performer UT among all the UTs and the North Eastern states of the country in respect of States’ Exercise 2021 on support to Start-Up ecosystems. This has been revealed through results of the 3rd edition of ranking and released recently by Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry . To assess the individual performance of the concerned states and the UTs , five categories that of Best Performers, Top Performers, Leaders, Aspiring Leaders, and Emerging Start-Up Ecosystems are classified for ranking purposes and Jammu and Kashmir has emerged as ‘Top Performer’ followed by Meghalaya as the best performer. Needless to mention, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has been conducting the exercise of ranking since 2018 to facilitate the ease of building a Start Up and doing business across the country . More and more states joining the exercise shows not only the vast scope of more and more Start Ups coming up , as in the recent exercise 31 participating states and Union Territories too part with their “performance cards” but how this exercise proved as a cushion and a solid support base to the participating states and UTs in promoting and strengthening the said ecosystem.
The exercise and its rankings ultimately result in giving further push to support base as states learn from one another how best results could be obtained. Evaluation process , again interestingly , is not that simple but a near cumbersome one with an aim to lend all seriousness to performance in that the Committee composes of officers from 19 Government departments and stakeholders from 29 Non-Government start up ecosystem (referring to the recent exercise, pointedly) so as to doubly ensure that utmost probity , transparency and fairness were made the basis of evaluation process. This Evaluation Committee conducts series of meetings , peruses various documents, verifies and tallies them meticulously. Under such a process Jammu and Kashmir performing superbly is really satisfying and , therefore, the UT administration , particularly the concerned department and the personnel working there , deserve appreciation for such a good performance.
We know , as the name suggests in itself, that a start-up is a business entity, a company or a project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop and validate a ”scalable” business model. Since lot of initiative including funding etc are being taken care of by the aspiring entrepreneurs themselves to start with but unless due and tangible support from Governmental agencies was forthcoming , these start Ups cannot be expected to come up in a viable and feasible manner. To what extent, such a support was forthcoming to these entrepreneurs and entities based on certain tailored schemes and policies, an exercise is carried out each year by the union ministry to find out the levels of support rendered and accordingly ranking is given. There are, therefore, set parameters but that notwithstanding , the element of competition for better performance results in putting in concrete and cogent support system by respective states/UTs.
As regards extending support to the entrepreneurs, it must first be decided what type of support was needed looking to and based upon peculiarities of the states and the existing ecosystems. Conducting workshops for providing knowledge as also which facilities, financial support, technical and innovative know-how , incentives provided and even trainings etc , to start with, in respect of acquainting the entrepreneurs with , were absolutely necessary. We have a good number of technology based start-Ups , voluntary organisations, institutions run by IITians, CAs and other young professionals. There are ecosystem actors who can do much in extending support to what kind of schemes could be carved out. In short, an ecosystem conducive to making Start-Ups really get going needs investors, incubators, professionals and experts that could contribute their mite in building the ecosystem. The important thing worth noting about the ecosystem is the element of interdependence or in other words, one member of an ecosystem cannot function or exist without others as they are mutually in beneficial relationship.
Besides, element of Digital Commerce had the potential to have more of Start Ups emerging and interestingly there has been so much rethinking and evoking of keen interest in the Start Ups that Indian ecosystem could become the best in the work. Hence, Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) had the inner strength and power to make it possible that thousands of Start Ups emerged and successfully too, the views duly endorsed by the Union Minister of Commerce and Industry. There could , therefore, be added more broad reform areas and action points so as to widen the support base to the Start Ups ecosystem to make Indian Start Ups really a global model.
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