Startup India campaign’s flaws are beginning to tell

Around this time last year, the Narendra Modi government launched the Startup India, Stand Up India campaign. It announced a slew of measures—simplifying regulations, offering some handholding, a few tax breaks, and a fund-of-funds—to rev up the start-up engine and enable entrepreneurship, technological progress and innovation. Twelve months down the line, however, there has been very little forward movement. Only a handful of start-ups have bought into the plan, while the government is still struggling to get the nuts and bolts in place. Unfortunately, this was to be expected, given the fundamental design flaws in the campaign.