Rajasthan is all set to roll out its startup
policy. How different is it from other States’ policy?
Himansu sekhar samal
Entrepreneurship is the new cool in the country and State governments
are now scrambling to make things smoother and easier for startups. Karnataka, Kerala, Goa, Telengana and Andhra Pradesh already have aggressive plans to foster entrepreneurship, and now joining the group is Rajasthan.
Akhil Arora, Secretary ITes and Communications, Rajasthan government
told YourStory that Rajasthan’s e-Governance, IT/ITeS Policy 2015 and
the new startup policy were created to make the State the next IT hub of
the country.
Seeing how startups usually faced difficulties while participating or
dealing with the government, Rajasthan wants to make that process
easier.
It is envisaging a plan to implement this through the Be
Startup Empanelment Platform, which will make it easier for startups to
participate in the tendering process for large government projects. The government has also opened up its offices for feedback from startups.
Two months ago, Karnataka defined what a startup is and offered a host of benefits (read the Karnataka policy
here). Is the Rajasthan policy any different? One difference could be
that the government wants to work with startups rather than just
incubating them.
Image Credit: Aditya Ranade
What are the key points and takeaways from the policy?
Achievement of up to five lakh direct employable professionals in the ICT sector
Development of at least 2,000 technology startups in the State and prioritisation of IT/ITeS/ESDM sector
Increase in the current investment in IT/ITeS sector by 10 times.
Increase in the IT turnover to Rs 50,000 crore.
Increase in IT exports from the State to Rs 5000 crore.
50 incubators in Rajasthan
Angel and venture capital of Rs 500 crore (fund-of-funds) to be mobilised for startups
“Rajasthan is the first State to enable utilisation of
all its services and applications by startups and IT organisations by
the mechanism of API/web services, through Raj Sewa Dwaar, Rajasthan’s
service delivery gateway,” adds Akhil.
Tax benefits
All major benefits being provided through the Karnataka IT policy are
being provided in the Rajasthan eGovernance and IT/ITeS policy 2015, in
similar or better quantity. In addition, the government claims that the
following benefits are being provided only in Rajasthan:
Up to 100 percent VAT benefit
Customised package of benefits to enterprises
IT/ITeS, electronic system design and manufacturing (ESDM) and robotics declared as priority sectors
Subsidy on bandwidth for connectivity
Rajasthan Venture Capital Fund/SME Tech Fund RVCF II
Exemption from zoning regulations and land conversion
Interest subsidy
Reimbursement on patent filing costs and quality certifications
Outstanding performance awards
Manpower development subsidy
Funding and robust e-governance architecture
Currently, there are also two funds to invest in startups and
mid-stage companies operating in growth sectors, namely Rajasthan
Venture Capital Fund and SME Tech Fund II. The funds are supported by
15 investors, of which the lead investors are the Small Industries
Development Bank of India (SIDBI) and Rajasthan State Industrial
Development and Investment Corporation (RIICO).
The government has also begun taking several initiatives to make
Rajasthan the next IT hub in India. The State currently has its own team
of close to 3,000 IT professionals who have worked on the e-governance
architecture and framework.
Akhil says, “Rajasthan has been very aggressive towards
promotion of e-governance and ensuring transparent, reliable, efficient
and effective access to services and communication between people and
the government. The State took a conscious decision to move towards
service-oriented architecture and all applications were mandated to
integrate/migrate to the same.”
The aim of the government is:
Establishing seven Smart Cities in Rajasthan by 2020
Positioning Rajasthan as the best IT investment destination
Positioning and branding Jaipur as IT, ITeS and R&D Hub in north and west India
Rajasthan is the first State to have one integrated, centralised and
unified service delivery platform. The government is also working on the
following for service delivery:
Implementation of existing and future e-governance and m-governance
projects in the State with emphasis on service delivery, Right To
Information and grievance redressal.
E-enablement of all public services, which would include
e-submission of forms, electronic workflows, e-payments, use of DSC,
online/SMS-based status tracking and final delivery of services
electronically. It also includes (wherever required) cross-sharing of
data amongst various departments/ government agencies, and
e-authentication.
Uniform and unified datasets, collated centrally at a hub to take
care of issues like duplication, isolation and obsolescence. In complete
adherence to the State e-governance framework, such datasets follow a
common structure, are centrally located, controlled and managed, and
shall provide complete flexibility of expansion and integration using
state-of-the-art technologies.
Affidavits and notary attestation have been removed and datasets shall be used instead of documents for service delivery.
Secure individual, family, governmental and organisational e-space
shall be provided to residents and organisations to enable them to
secure their digital dialogue and to allow safe document storage,
sharing, e-sign and approval protocol to avoid providing attestation of
duplicate documents, enabling service delivery through all government
departments centrally, in a paperless fashion.
‘One Person One Identity’ shall be achieved with unique digital profile for each resident under a common framework.
For delivering e-services to citizens, government will promote the
use of upcoming technologies like NFC, cloud computing and social media.
Further, multiple channels like mobile phones, tablets, call centres,
TV etc., will be used for such delivery.
Efforts to provide all government services through mobile devices
for on-the-move service delivery. Endeavour will be to provide services
‘anywhere, anytime, any network, any device’.
Self-service kiosks are being installed across the State.
An integrated platform for reality check leveraging iFacts is being
used by the government to ensure end-to-end grievance redressal.
A system has been put in place to continuously analyse the behaviour
of the residents while using government portals, so as to constantly
improve them and make them more user-friendly.
Knowledge resources/digital library is under process of being put in
place that will maintain a repository of documents for use by general
public and government authorities. This would include official gazette
notifications, acts, rules, regulations, circulars, policies and scheme
documents for electronic access in a time-bound manner.
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