Union Budget 2023-24: President Murmu Hails Indian Government For Nurturing Entrepreneurship

Indian President Droupadi Murmu applauded the Indian government for providing continuous support to strengthen India’s emerging start-up ecosystem.

In her speech during the pre-budget session, President Murmu appreciated the Government's endeavour to nurture India's start-up drive by saying that the country has 90,000 start-ups and the government has prioritised innovation and entrepreneurship.

In 2016, the Indian government launched the Startup India initiative with a focus on areas of ‘handholding and Simplification,’ ‘funding support and incentives,’ and ‘industry-academia partnership. In the same year, the government launched the Fund-of-Fund Scheme (FFS) with an investment plan of Rs 10,000 crore. With an allocation of Rs 7,527.95 crore, this scheme has played a pivotal role to foster the start-up drive in India. 

To add more boost, the government came up with two new initiatives in the subsequent years of 2021 and 2022. In 2021, it launched Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS) with a Rs 945 crore investment plan. In 2022, it rolled out Digital India Startup Hub and the Supporting Entrepreneurs in Transformation and Upskilling (SETU) programme. Additionally, PM Modi announced celebrating 16th January as the ‘National Start-Up Day,’ last year. 

This year, the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce organised the ‘Startup India Innovation Week,’ before the National Start-Up Day. Seventy-five cities across the country initiated various events to bolster the start-up culture in India. 

As the nation awaits the Union Budget 2023's announcement tomorrow, start-up founders are expecting to get a growth-focused spending plan with the impetus on investments in infrastructure development.