Chief Minister Nitish Kumar announced the launch of Bihar StartUp Policy 2017 on Tuesday, March 21st, 2017 at the 4th Bihar Entrepreneurship Summit (BES) which was organized by the Bihar Entrepreneurs Association.
The policy was first introduced in 2016 when Bihar became one of the few states that had drafted and launched a startup policy. Suggestions to change parts of the policy made the state repeal the policy so that the changes can be incorporated.
The revised policy, launched this week is meant to motivate the younger generation to move into entrepreneurship and it is focused towards women empowerment. During the launch of the policy, Kumar announced that the state has set up a 500 crore fund towards the encouragement and facilitation of the entrepreneurs.
In order to facilitate entrepreneurship, the government aims to provide transparency in the process of initiating a startup by establishing development cells and facilitation centres in addition to mentoring the startups and awarding those who excel.
The government also plans to empower SC/ST, women and differently abled entrepreneurs by handholding them through the process of setting up the startup. It aims to make Bihar the preferred destination for startups and budding entrepreneurs.
Jai Kumar Singh, Minister of Industries, Government of Bihar also spoke at the event, regarding the fact that the policy is aimed to attract more startups to be rooted in Bihar.
The policy has four main pillars which have been termed as YUVA which is an acronym that expans into:
Y – Yes to Startups
U – Unleashing regulatory enablers
V – Vibrancy in the education system to encourage and facilitate startups
A – Access to financing and incubation startups
The policy is intended to provide transparency and it hopes to encourage more startups by helping the entrepreneurs.