Delhi govt releases Draft Start-up Policy 2025

The Delhi government is coming up with an incentive-based draft start-up policy, targeting to facilitate setting up of 5,000 start-ups and make the city a global innovation hub by 2035.

Under the policy, the city government will establish a Rs 200 crore corpus for Delhi Start-up Venture Capital Fund to provide financial access to these businesses.

The draft of the Delhi Start-up Policy 2025 has been released in the public domain for feedback from stakeholders.

The policy, planned for a period of 10 years, will focus on start-ups in 18 key areas including healthcare services, hospitality, Fintech, automotive enterprises, e-waste management, logistics and supply chain management, gaming, green technology and robotics.

Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Internet of Things, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Biotechnology, Augmented Reality, Drones and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles will be other key areas, according to the draft policy.

Other focus areas may be identified and included as per the market demand and leading technologies after approval of the Start-up Monitoring Committee, it said.

The draft policy also proposes several fiscal incentives to promote the start-up ecosystem, including 100 per cent reimbursement of work space lease rentals up to Rs 10 lakh per annum for a maximum period of three years.

Further 100 per cent reimbursement was recommended for filing patent, trademark and copyright industrial design up to Rs 1 lakh on Indian and Rs 3 lakh on international patents.

Other incentives recommended by the draft policy include 100 per cent reimbursement of the exhibition stall or rental cost for participating in domestic (Rs 5 lakh) and international (Rs 10 lakh) exhibitions, and Rs 2 lakh as monthly allowance for a period of one year towards operational costs.

In order to be considered for incentives under the policy, eligible applicants may apply through the Delhi Single Window System with relevant supporting documents.

The nodal agency would scrutinise the application received and forward eligible applications to a Start-up Task Force to finalise the applicants for disbursement of benefits. The applicants will be notified of the decision via a start-up portal, it said.

The Delhi government will provide state-of-the-art infrastructure facilities and support systems to nurture the entrepreneurial ecosystem within the city, it added.

Delhi government will provide virtual incubation service to the start-ups through Delhi Incubation Hub network, to help the start-ups to tap into a network of experts and mentors. Also, the government will rope in industry associations to organise a start-up festival to enable them a platform to showcase their innovations and ideas and reach out to the global market.

The government’s industries department will be the nodal agency that will implement the policy through a monitoring committee headed by industries commissioner, and a start-up task force.