Boost up in the start-up environment in India.This is the first time in the history of India that the country is witnessing such a great applaud and support to create a favorable ecosystem for the start-ups.
Thanks to the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ‘Start Up India’ program that aims at boosting entrepreneurship from the ground level, providing a fertile land for entrepreneurs. In the 2005 annual budget, Modi government took a solid step by allocating Rs 2,500 crore every year for start-ups. The fund is going to be released to SIDBI over next 4 years.
Very soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi rolled out the revolutionary ‘Start Up India program’ in January, without much delay DIPP launched the start-up portal. Easily accessible through the web and mobile app, it gives a single stop solution to the start-ups. Start-ups can easily register here without running and wasting time in various offices, saving their energy and focus better on their work. The start-up portal received huge response right from the start, in the very first month it got over 200 registrations. The eligible start-up can conveniently opt for various tax exemptions and other benefits from the portal itself.
Let’s have a look at some recent schemes and initiatives launched by the government in a bid to create a favorable and supporting environment for the start-up culture.
‘Kaushal Bharat, Kushal Bharat’
Through Skill India initiative government aims to equip 400 million population of the country with various job oriented skill by 2022. The government also plans to make the job available to them.
PMKVY ( also known as Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana)
It’s a flagship program of government for giving monetary rewards to those participants that successfully complete the training.
National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship
An integrated program launched in 2005 for imparting entrepreneurship and skill development simultaneously. A skilled person with the quality of entrepreneurship can generate not just wealth for himself, but also the much-needed employment for others too.
e-biz Portal
GOI launched the e-biz portal that brings the 14 vital regulatory clearances at one single point. With this, it fosters faster and easier clearances for setting up businesses. In the 2015 budget, the government has introduced the Microfinance Unit Development Refinance (MUDRA) bank to provide easy and hassle free loan to the entrepreneurs.
SETU Fund
SETU stands for Self-Employment and Talent Utilization. Under this fund, the government has allocated a fund of Rs 1000 crore to launch incubation hubs. It aims at creating new job opportunity and self-employment.
How start-ups can boost the shortcomings and limitations of our education system.
Various start-ups have come into the existence that is disrupting the conventional pedagogy and education system by using technology. The mundane education system has various shortcomings like the syllabus and books cannot be updated quickly and curriculum being less practical. But, the online contents and courses can be easily updated from time to time. The virtual process is not one-way learning, it is much more interactive where students can participate, discuss and share their views. You don’t just learn the theories, you get your hands on practicality too. Various new ways of offering course material in the form of games and interesting exercises help to grasp even the hard to digest theories easily. It activates your brain cells to higher levels. Technology is helping these educational start-ups to penetrate even far off and inaccessible places where there is no basic infrastructure. Their contents can be accessed by apps on your smartphone. In fact, most of the users are from accessing from various places other than the top cities of the country. It’s not only the student community, these educational start-ups are serving even the employed workforce to get various benefits. They are offering various updated courses like digital marketing, search engine optimization, and big data. The experienced professionals and companies who aims at being in the race with the fast changing market are readily using it. Professionals find it very convenient to sign up for online classes, course, and modules. It gives them the flexibility to attend classes and access materials as per your availability.
Challenges faced by the education startups.
Like most of the other start-ups, those in the education field are also facing issues like not getting finances easily to execute their business. They are having problems in applying for loans and getting the clearances. Though things have improved a lot from the past, still we have a long way to go. India has a third largest population using internet still the penetration is very low, 19.2% only. By 2017 we can expect around 500 million internet users in the country from present 243 million. These are some areas that need proper attention by the government.
Some facts and figures.
By the end of 2020, our country will record the world’s largest tertiary-age citizens and second largest graduate aspirants globally .This points to major growth in the education sector in the coming years. The education market in FY 2015-16 stood at about US$ 100 billion, which in FY 2016-17 is projected to be at US$ 116.4 billion. At this moment, higher education holds around 60% of the market share, at 38.1% school education stands second and pre-school at 1.6%, while multi-media and technology at just 0.6%. So, we can say, the possibility and space are all open for an educational start-up to explore the gap. In fact, the country’s youths and students have projected very positive incantation towards start-ups. Start-ups are seen to readily participate in campus recruitment at premier institutes like IITs and NITs. To compete with old visitors they are offering higher packages and incentives. They are not just in e-commerce there has been growth in various other niches including education. In the recent years, many premier institutes have seen a growing trend among the students opting for entrepreneurship and starting their own venture.
With all these, we can expect a bright future of start-ups in the education sector. In my next article, I will bring to you various cool and innovative EduTech start-ups that are changing the education sphere.
Author: Amit Kumar
Amit is the founder of YoursNews. This is a next generation blog, proved that blogging is an art; focus on valuable ideas and genuine stories, rest everything will fall into place.
