Gujarat’s new industrial policy tightens startup screening

Gandhinagar: The Gujarat govt’s proposed new industrial policy has rolled out multiple fresh incentives for startups while tightening the selection mechanism governing them. The draft of the new policy, likely to be unveiled in the coming days, has introduced an added layer in the startup selection process and brings in a new feature to encourage collaborations between Gujarat-based startups and those from other countries.The draft of the policy has also proposed merging various schemes floated by different departments to support startups.In the existing industrial policy, a nodal institute recommended startups to the office of the industries commissioner, which then forwarded them to the state level empowered committee (SLEC) for final approval. The new draft states that the nodal institute will now send proposals to the industries commissioner’s office, which will refer them to a pre-scrutiny technical committee comprising members from GVFL, iCreate and relevant sectors. This panel will assist the SLEC in finalising startup approvals.In another new feature included in the draft, the Gujarat govt has introduced a scheme offering assistance of up to Rs 1 crore to startups for prototyping, marketing and piloting products developed jointly with a foreign startup. The draft cites examples such as the India-Israel Innovation Bridge, which runs joint programmes in agri-tech and water-tech.The draft policy has also introduced a mechanism to track the lifecycle of startups in the state. “A system to enable data-driven decisions, identify challenges early and provide targeted support at every stage of startup growth has been incorporated in the draft of the new industrial policy,” an official said.