Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government Wednesday announced several incentives to women entrepreneurs bringing in certain amendments in the Odisha Startup Policy 2016.
The amendment to the Odisha Startup Policy, 2016, which was approved by the state cabinet, relates to enhanced vision, incremental benefits to startups led by women, transgender and social categories such as SC/ST, SEBC, PH. Presently, the vision of the Startup Policy is to emerge amongst top 3 startup hubs in India by 2020. An additional vision of unleashing the potential of women entrepreneurship in Odisha by encouraging at least 33% of the Startups with Founder(s) / Co-Founder(s) as women has been added to the vision.
The incremental monthly allowance has been enhanced to Rs.22,000 per month if the Startupfounder(s) / Co Founder(s) is a women or transgender or from social categories such as SC/ST/SEBC/PH. Similarly, Product development and Marketing / Publicity assistance has also been increased to Rs. 16 lakhs, if the Startup Founder(s)/ Co Founder(s) is a woman or transgender or from social categories such as SC/ST/SEBC/PH.
The revenue run rate has been reduced from 10 lakhs per month to Rs.2.5 lakhs per month during the preceding six months as one of the eligibility criteria for availing product development and marketing assistance.
The state government adopted the relaxed criteria for Starups on the lines notified by DIPP, government of India. Whereas earlier an entity to be declared as ‘Startup’ was required to have incorporation / registration not prior to 5 years, now it has been relaxed to 7 years in general and 10 years in case of Biotechnology startups.
It also approved a provision for recognised startups to avail subsidy benefit to the extent of 50% of monthly rental of the incubation space (subject to a maximum of Rs.5000/-) for a period of maximum one year, if the startup concerned is getting incubated at any of the incubators recognised by the Startup Odisha Initiative. It also approved a provision for extending travel / space support to the recognised startups for participation in national and international events of repute.
