Tag: Spreadsheet for Business

The Government is the single largest buyer of a variety of goods. With a view to increase the share of purchases from the small-scale sector, the Government Stores Purchase Programme was launched in 1955-56. NSIC registers Micro & small Enterprises (MSEs) under Single Point Registration scheme (SPRS) for participation in Government Purchases.

Benefits of Single Point Registration Scheme

• Free of cost tender info
• Exemption from EMD (earnest money deposit)
• Advantage in tender participation
• Procurement from MSES

Eligibility

• All Micro & Small Enterprises having EM Part-II (Optional)/ Udyog Aadhaar Memorandum (UAM) are eligible for registration with NSIC under its Single Point Registration Scheme (SPRS).
• Micro & Small Enterprises who have already commenced their commercial production but not completed one year of existence.

Not eligible:

• The manufacturers of medicine and drugs are exempted from this scheme. Only the MSE (unit) engaged in manufacturing and supply of Ayurvedic, Unani, Sidha, and Homeopathic medicines can register.
• Wholesale trading, retail trading or commission agents are also barred from the scheme.
• The MSEs who have been blacklisted do not meet the eligibility for the SPRS till the expiry of such period.
• The SPRS also bars the MSEs whose proprietor/partner/director/Karta has been convicted for any criminal offence.

MSE category

All enterprises with a limited investment in the business, generally small, are termed as MSEs.

The enterprises are classified as micro or small based on their investment and turnover:

• A Micro Enterprise is one whose investment in plant and machinery does not exceed one crore rupees, and turnover does not exceed five crore rupees.
• The enterprise whose investment in plant and machinery does not exceed ten crore rupees, and turnover does not exceed fifty crore rupees is termed as a Small Enterprise.

Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) is a science and technology organisation headed by Omkar Rai. It was established in 1991 by the Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology with the objective of encouraging, promoting and boosting the export of software from India.

Domain centric centre of excellence is established in association with blue-chip companies and academic institutions. A Blockchain CoE is set-up in STPI incubation centre in Gurugram in year 2020.

• IoT OpenLab at Bengaluru
• Electropreneur Park at Bhubaneswar
• VARCoE at Bhubaneswar
• FabLab at Bhubaneswar
• National Data Repository at Bhubaneswar
• FinBlue at Chennai
• NEURON at Mohali
• MOTION at Pune
• IMAGE at Hyderabad
• Apiary at Gurugram
• MedTech CoE at Lucknow
• IoT in Agriculture CoE at Guwahati
• Animation CoE at Shillong
• Emerging Technologies; AR/VR CoE at Imphal

Electropreneur Park

STPI has established a joint venture to set up an ‘Electropreneur Park’ with the India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA). This is aimed at supporting 50 startups working on electronics product designing and development over the next five years. The initiative is a subset of the government’s ‘Make in India’ mission, aligned with entrepreneurial and innovation focus. Currently, there are 2 Electropreneur parks in New Delhi & Bhubaneswar.

Next Generation Incubation Scheme (NGIS)

Next Generation Incubation Scheme (NGIS) is one of the flagship incubation scheme by STPI To build innovative technology products and solutions in an indigenous manner by offering comprehensive support & services to budding start-up ecosystem in India. STPI envisioned setting up 21 Centres of Excellence in emerging technology across India to provide proper handholding to the startup ecosystem for building indigenous products and IPR creation.

STPI: India BPO Promotion Scheme

STPI envisaged under Digital India program launched the India BPO Promotion Scheme (IBPS). this scheme seek to incentivize establishment of 48,300 seats in respect of BPO/ITES operations across India. STPI is the nodal agency of this scheme under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. Director General STPI Omkar Rai has announced to launch 48,000 such seats across the country, with a target employment of 72,450 in the sector. The government provides financial support of up to Rs 1 lakh per seat under two plans; India BPO Promotion Scheme and North East BPO Promotion Scheme. The Scheme is distributed among each State in proportion of State’s population with an outlay of Rs. 493 Crore. 39,390 employment reported as of April 2021 under the India BPO Promotion Scheme (IBPS).

Visakhapatnam has created 10,000 jobs under the India BPO Promotion Scheme (IBPS), Andhra Pradesh state got 13,792 seat, out of 45,792 seats in India.

STPI Role

STP units exported software and information technology worth Rs. 215264 crore in FY 2010–11. The state with the largest export contribution was Karnataka followed by Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Haryana and Telangana. STPI has a presence in many major cities of India including the cities of Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Trivandrum, Kanpur, Patna, Bhubaneswar, Kolkata, Mumbai, Nagpur, Warangal, Gandhinagar, Kakinada, Lucknow, Pune, Surat, Tirupati, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam.

Besides regulating the STP scheme, STPI centers provide a variety of services including high-speed data communication, incubation facilities, consultancy, network monitoring, data centers and data hosting. STPI provides physical hosting for the National Internet Exchange of India.

The tax benefits under the Income Tax Act Section 10A applicable to STP units has expired since March 2011. While the Government has chosen not to extend the Sec 10A benefits against the demand by the IT units, most of the STP registered SME units will be affected, and now will have to pay income tax on profits earned from exports.

A new incentive scheme for IT and ITES companies is under discussion. It will help dispersal of IT industry in smaller cities and also support STPI-registered units which have not come under SEZs as well as other units which are not covered under any incentive scheme. This incentive scheme is seen as an alternate scheme to compensate the STPI units, but the same would be restricted to those units located in tier II and III cities.

Venture Capital Assistance is financial support in the form of an interest free loan provided by SFAC to qualifying projects to meet shortfall in the capital requirement for implementation of the project.

The Small Farmer’s Agri-Business Consortium (SFAC) has launched the scheme named Venture Capital Assistance (VCA) Scheme for the welfare of farmer-entrepreneur to develop their agri-business. This scheme intends to assist in the form of the term loan to the qualifying projects of the farmers to meet their capital requirements for the implementation of the project.

Th primary aim of the scheme is to target Agri-business entrepreneurs through financial participation. It targets following people:

• Farmers
• Self Help Groups
• Producer Groups
• Companies
• Agriculture Exporters
• Units in agriexport zones
• Agriculture graduates either individually or collectively to start a agribusiness projects.
• Partnerships or Proprietory Firms.

List of Qualifying Projects:

(i) Project should be in agriculture or allied sector or related to agricultural services. Poultry and dairy projects will also be covered under the Scheme.

(ii) Project should provide assured market to farmers/producer groups.

(iii) Project should encourage farmers to diversify into high value crops, to increase farm incomes.

(iv) Project should be accepted by Notified Financial Institution for grant of term loan.

Objectives of the Scheme

• To help farmers, producer groups, and agriculture graduates to participate in the value chain through the Project Development Facility.
• To support the entrepreneurs in setting up an agribusiness venture which is approved by the banks, financial institutions regulated by the RBI.
• To strengthen the previous stages of state and central SFAC.
• To promote training and visits of agri-entrepreneurs in setting up agribusiness projects.
• To assist the backward linkages of agribusiness projects with producers.
• To provide assured markets to the producers to increase rural income and employment.

Business incubator is an organization that helps startup companies and individual entrepreneurs to develop their businesses by providing a fullscale range of services starting with management training and office space and ending with venture capital financing. The National Business Incubation Association (NBIA) defines business incubators as a catalyst tool for either regional or national economic development. NBIA categorizes its members’ incubators by the following five incubator types: academic institutions; non-profit development corporations; for-profit property development ventures; venture capital firms, and a combination of the above.

Business incubators differ from research and technology parks in their dedication to startup and early-stage companies. Research and technology parks, on the other hand, tend to be large-scale projects that house everything from corporate, government, or university labs to very small companies. Most research and technology parks do not offer business assistance services, which are the hallmark of a business incubation program. However, many research and technology parks house incubation programs.

Types of services

Since Startup companies lack many resources, experience and networks, incubators provide services which helps them get through initial hurdles in starting up a business. These hurdles include space, funding, legal, accounting, computer services and other prerequisites to running the business.

According to the Small Business Administration’s website, their mission provides small businesses with four main services. These services are:

• Plan your Business: Turn your great idea into a great business plan.
• Launch your Business: Turn your business plan into a reality (register, file, and start doing business).
• Manage your Business: Master day-to-day operations and prepare for success.

Grow your Business: Find new funding, locations, and customers when business is good and it’s time to expand.

• Help with business basics
• Networking activities
• Marketing assistance
• Market Research
• High-speed Internet access
• Help with accounting/financial management
• Access to bank loans, loan funds and guarantee programs
• Help with presentation skills
• Links to higher education resources
• Links to strategic partners
• Access to angel investors or venture capital
• Comprehensive business training programs
• Advisory boards and mentors
• Management team identification
• Help with business etiquette
• Technology commercialization assistance
• Help with regulatory compliance
• Intellectual property management

Types of Incubation Services:

Since startup companies lack many resources, experience and networks, incubators provide services which helps them get through initial hurdles in starting up a business. These hurdles include space, funding, legal, accounting, computer services and other prerequisites to running the business.

Following are the most common incubator services:

(i) They help with business basics

(ii) They provide Networking activities

(iii) They provide Marketing assistance

(iv) Incubators help in Market Research

(v) They provide High-speed Internet access

(vi) Incubators Help with accounting/financial management

(vii) They help in providing Access to bank loans, loan funds and guarantee programs

(viii) Incubators help with presentation skills

(ix) They link to higher education resources

(x) They link to strategic partners

(xi) They provide Access to angel investors or venture capital

(xii) They organize Comprehensive business training programs

(xiii) They act as Advisory boards and mentors

(xiv) They help in Management team identification

(xv) They help with business etiquette

(xvi) They provide Technology commercialization assistance

(xvii) They help with regulatory compliance

(xiii) They provide Intellectual property management

Three Stages of Business Incubation Development:

(i) Physical facility support: Business incubation provided within physical facility

(ii) Support service: Business incubation as business support service

(iii) Networking facilities -Business incubators provide networking facilities to the members.

Types of Incubators:

There are a number of business incubators that have focused on particular industries or on a particular business model, earning them their own name.

(i) Virtual Business Incubators:

These are also known as online business incubators.

Business incubators began in the 1950s and took off in the late 1990s as support for startup companies who need advice and venture capital to get their ideas off the ground. As the dot-com bubble burst, many high-tech business incubators did so too. Now the model of a business incubator is changing.

Several of the incubator companies who survived the dot-com bubble switched to a virtual model. The old incubator model required a startup venture to set up shop at the incubator’s site. The virtual model, on the other hand, allows a company to garner the advice of an incubator without actually being located at the incubator site.

This new model suits those entrepreneurs who need the advice an incubator offers but still want to maintain their own offices, warehouses, etc.

(ii) Medical Incubator:

This is a business incubator focused on medical devices & biomaterials. For encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship in medical technologies, through technology, busi­ness incubation support is given to innovators, start-ups and industry.

(iii) Kitchen Incubator:

It is a business incubator focused on the food industry. Specialty foods are typically high-value and, at least in the beginning, low production. Starting a commercial kitchen from scratch can cost a huge amount of investment. The average food entrepreneur has to spend plenty before even making their first batch of food item.

This need for low-cost kitchen space has led to the development of shared commercial kitchens that can be rented for hourly or monthly rates. But finding a place to make specialty food products is only the first step. Entrepreneurs who want to make a profit have to successfully package, market, and sell their products, too and the food incubators provide help with all this.

(iv) Public/Social Incubator:

This is a business incubator focused on the public good. Social incubators aim to provide social entrepreneurs with the tools to expand their business. The challenging economic environment is changing the landscape of how we do business. At one end, some businesses avoid their social responsibility and, at the other, charities have to find ways to be more business savvy to survive. India has embraced the concept, with a twist, creating the idea of “social business”.

(v) Seed Accelerator:

This is a business incubator focused on early startups. Seed accelerators, also known as startup accelerators, are fixed-term, cohort-based programs, that include mentorship and educational components and culminate in a public pitch event or demo day. While traditional business incubators are often government-funded, generally take no equity, and focus on biotech, financial technology (“FinTech”), medical technology (“MedTech”), clean tech or product-centric companies, accelerators can be either privately or publicly funded and focus on a wide range of industries.

Unlike business incubators, the application process for seed accel­erators is open to anyone, but highly competitive. There are specific types of seed accelerators, such as corporate accelerator, which are often subsidiaries or programs of larger corporations that act like seed accelerators.

(vi) Corporate Accelerator:

It is a program of a larger company that acts akin to a seed accelerator. A corporate accelerator is a specif­ic form of seed accelerator which is sponsored by an established for-profit corporation. Similar to seed accelerators they support early-stage startup companies through mentorship and often capital and office space. In contrast to regular programs, though, corporate accelerators derive their objectives from the sponsoring organization. These objectives can include the wish to stay close to emerging trends or to establish a funnel for corporate venture capital investments.

Corporate accelerators differ from Business incubators, which usually have a continuous intake, due to their fixed-term, cohort-based or­ganization (similar to seed accelerators) and are distinct to corporate venture capital which is a direct, targeted investment.

(vii) Startup Studio:

This is a business incubator with interacting portfolio companies. Startup studio, also known as a startup factory, or a startup foundry, or a venture builder, is a studio-like company that aims at building several companies in succession. This style of business building is referred to as “parallel entrepreneurship”.

Idealab, founded by Bill Gross in 1996, was one of the first to introduce the ‘incubator industry’, and has started over 75 companies. Idealab was founded to test many ideas at once and turn the best of them into companies while also attracting the human and financial capital necessary to bring them to the market.

The startup studio trend had really begun to gain momentum around 2008. Betaworks is one of the pioneers of this model. Today, there are over 65 startup studios across the world, of which 17 have been built since 2013.

(viii) Venture Builder:

These are similar to a startup studio, but builds companies internally. Venture-builders are also called tech stu­dios, startup factories, or venture production studios: They are organizations that build companies using their own ideas and re­sources. Unlike incubators and accelerators, venture builders do not take any applications, nor do they run any sort of competitive program. Instead, they pull business ideas from within their own network of resources and assign internal teams to develop them such as Engineers, advisors, business developers, sales managers, etc.

Venture builders develop many systems, models, or projects at once and then build separate companies around the most promising ones by assigning operational resources and capital to those portfolio companies.

In its most basic form, the venture-building company is a holding company that owns equity in the various corporate entities it helped created. The most successful venture builders are, however, much more operational and hands-on than holding companies- They raise capital, staff resources, host internal coding sessions, design business models, work with legal teams, build MVPs (minimum viable products), hire business development managers, and run very effective marketing campaigns during their ven­tures’ pre-and post-launch phases.

• Start-ups will be reimbursed a fixed amount for the seats occupied by them at co-working spaces/ incubators/ accelerators listed by the SPC. The benefits at the co-working spaces can be availed maximum for a period of two years per startup, at incubators can be availed maximum for a period of 1 year per startup and at accelerators will be for a period of 3 months per startup.
• The startup will be reimbursed 50% per seat cost offered by the co-working spaces listed by the SPC or a maximum benefit of INR 3000 per seat and can claim this benefit for a maximum cap of 8 seats only.
• The startup will be reimbursed 50% per seat cost offered by the incubators listed by the SPC or a maximum benefit of INR 5000 per seat and can claim this benefit for a maximum cap of 8 seats only.
• The startup will be reimbursed 50% per seat cost offered by accelerators listed by the SPC or a maximum benefit of INR 6000 per seat and can claim this benefit for a maximum cap of 8 seats only.
• The reimbursement in this scheme can be claimed on any of the plans offered by the co- working spaces/ incubators/ accelerators listed by the SPC.
• A total of 100 seats in co-working, 50 seats each in incubator and accelerator will be subsidized under this scheme each year.
• For certain deserving startups determined through the internal guidelines of the SPC, the SPC may choose to reimburse up to 100% of the amount paid to co-working/incubator/accelerator by the startups.
• Under no circumstance shall the benefits under this scheme be considered an entitlement. The SPC shall reserve the sole right to accept or reject applications.

Eligibility Criteria:

Start-ups certified by the Start-up Promotion Cell (SPC) are eligible for the benefits of subsidized seats offered by the co-working spaces/ incubators/ accelerators listed by the SPC.

All the startups have to pay digitally to co-working spaces/ incubators/ accelerators listed by the SPC. In case digital payments are not possible then it shall be up to the decision of SPC as per its guidelines to admit the expenditure.

The bank accounts of the Director/s of the start-ups should be linked to Aadhaar.

Link: https://www.startup.goa.gov.in/StartupIncentives

Startups are known to switch between accelerators as they naturally gravitate towards or start to seek value. Amid such a dynamic landscape what must an accelerator do to differentiate itself in the market? For starters, a truly successful accelerator must define a clear USP for itself and align with others to ensure true value for the ecosystem. Designing a sustainable program that helps a startup in every situation of its journey along with providing access to a robust set of expert mentors are vital to the success of an incubator or accelerator.

Business incubation has been identified as a means of meeting a variety of economic and socioeconomic policy needs, which may include job creation, fostering a community’s entrepreneurial climate, technology commercialization, diversifying local economies, building or accelerating growth of local industry clusters, business creation and retention, encouraging minority entrepreneurship, identifying potential spin-in or spin-out business opportunities, or community revitalization.

• They offer marketing and PR assistance to new companies to set up a brand name.
• Help a start-up to start basic operations and financial management.
• Business incubators have a strong network of influential people, and therefore, they can connect the business with the same to grow.
• Incubators also provide assistance and resources for conducting market research.
• They also help the start-ups in sorting their accounting books.
• Incubators bring credibility to the company. This helps the company to get loans and credit facilities from financial institutions.
• Often the start-ups do not know how to create an effective presentation to impress angel investors, venture capital and other investors. Business incubators, with plenty of experience behind them, help these companies with the presentations as well.
• Business incubators also act as mentors and advisors and assist the start-ups in all sorts of business-related issues.