Gone are the days when people were happy with their 9 to 5 Jobs, pushing papers in monotony. With the onset of Start-up opportunities and leverages, it has become quite easy to float into one business and swing onto the other.
With increasing ease in running businesses, accompanied by encouraging government policies, the number of Small businesses in India (48 Million) is more than double of that of the USA (23 Million).
Let’s look at the breakdown of all industries in India:
Retail Sector (except motor vehicles)- 40{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616}
Cloth Manufacturing Industry – 8.75{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616}
Food & Beverage Industry – 7{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616}
Service Industry – 6.2{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616}
Auto (Maintenance, Repair & Sales)- 3.6{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616}
Furniture Industry- 3.2{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616}
Business in India
According to the World Bank’s “Doing Business 2016” Report, India has jumped to the 130th spot, from the 142nd position it held in 2014. It takes about 12 procedures and 29 days to begin a venture in India. The ease of starting a business in India has got better over the years, with encouraging signs for the coming years.
Welcoming Policies
With India becoming the land of rising entrepreneurship, there are encouraging policies put in place to help kick-start the career-path of entrepreneurs.
Start-Up India
Aimed at the promotion of banking finances and to boost start-up ventures, this campaign deals with the following:
• 10,000 crore Funding
• Fee for registration of patents trimmed by 80{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616}
• To ensure a 90-day exit window, modified Code for bankruptcy
• Capital Gain Tax Freedom for three years
• Tax in profits Freedom for three years
• Self-certification compliance
• Single Window Clearance even with the help of a mobile application
Stand-Up India
Like Start-Up India, Stand-Up India is a campaign designed to encourage women entrepreneurs and start-up ventures amongst SC, ST communities. The campaign is intended to suit the needs and requirements of the entrepreneur and to aid them in an appropriate manner.
With similar key points as Start-Up India, this scheme has a few additional points as follows:
• Facilitation of bank loans repayable up to 7 years.
• The loan to be backed by credit guarantee scheme for which the settler will be the DFS (Department of Financial Services) and the operating agency will be in the hands of the National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company Ltd.
• Up to 25{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} Margin money for composite loan
Opportunities and Challenges of Starting Business in India
Opportunities
The Demographics
India has the largest concentration of young population (10-24 year-olds) despite having a lower population than China. Youth provides the right skill set for creating, working and innovating. It’s the capabilities of the youth that drive a nation towards a bright future.
Rise in Mobile Penetration
The Tele-Density of India has reached 76.55{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616}, with a subscription base of 95.76 crores according to TRAI’s 2016 reports.
High mobile penetration is a sign of greater efficiency and an optimistic economy with rising disposable income.
Challenges
Every coin has two sides; with its promising opportunities, the Indian market poses a few challenges as well:
Policies
Even after a few promising policies, India still ranks at 130 out of 189 economies for the ease of doing business. It takes about 29 days to start a business in India which is quite a lot in comparison with OECD countries that only take nine days for such start-ups.
Skilled Manpower
It is often difficult to find skilled or semi-skilled employees for the job at hand. Often there are not enough resources for the skill set required by a start-up when compared to larger companies.
The Take-Away
While India poses some challenges in starting a new business, it is also a land of opportunities. With welcoming policies and an optimistic economy, India is undoubtedly emerging as a future hub for Start-Ups and Entrepreneurs.