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.