Chief Minister’s Startup/Innovation Projects/New Industries Scheme :

In order to turn the educated youth from job seekers to job creator and in order to give support to the ‘Startup’ and ‘innovative projects’ in the state and to provide skills to the youth and potential investors to develop entrepreneurship “Chief Minister’s Startup/Innovation Projects/New Industries Scheme” has been formulated. The scheme envisages various incentives for startups so as to enable the entrepreneur’s success in their ventures.

The scheme also makes provision of creation of incubation Centers in the host institutions in the State in order to build capacities, develop networking, establish necessary infrastructure and generate awareness. The basic objective of this scheme is creation of self-employment and employment generation, upgrading the skills of entrepreneurs and to provide them support to set up their units under professional guidance, promotion of innovation in focus areas, setting up of incubation centers, creating working space for startups and innovative projects, providing incentives, etc. This Scheme also aims at helping and hand-holding entrepreneurs to select viable projects in the potential areas in manufacturing and service sectors and train them to set up startups and subsequently manage and run their enterprises professionally.

Eligibility :

All Start-ups/ new industries/Innovation Projects would be eligible for availing applicable incentives for components covered under this scheme. The same incentives cannot be availed on the same component under State and Central Scheme.

Aims and Objectives :

 i. Self-employment/ employment generation and income generation. ii. To promote new ideas/ products and processes suitable for commercialization through startups. iii. Set up Incubators/Incubation Centers in the state. iv. Handhold new enterprises and entrepreneurs. v. Help entrepreneurs gain knowledge, expertise and avail assistance as provided under various schemes being implemented by State/Central Govt./Other institutions. vi. Facilitate and promote innovation vii. Facilitate startups and Innovation Projects viii. To facilitate creation of incubation space ix. Facilitate adequate investment to startups x. Facilitate venture capital funding xi. Promote Human Capital xii. To promote Industrial development in the State.

Infrastructure :

 In order to promote and facilitate innovation projects the Govt. will facilitate development of appropriate infrastructure, such as:- (i) Fully furnished and ready to use plug and play infrastructure along with computers with internet connection, electricity, water, meeting and conference halls, security and other office facilities would be provided as infrastructure support from the State Govt. for the HIs to set up incubators. (ii) The Govt. would facilitate creation of support infrastructure for development of startup ecosystem to attract new technology entrepreneurs, such as, common testing labs, design studios, technology centers, etc., enterprise software and shared hardware, shared services like legal, accounting, technology, patents, investment banking, other amenities required for development of startups. (iii) The Government would host a cloud server in the state data center that would connect all the incubation centers across the state. The server would be beneficial to all the startups at low or nominal costs. (iv) Will create venture funds to support the startups/innovative projects, if required.

Human Capital :

 In order to promote innovation at the school, college and university level it is envisaged as under:- (i) The student/student teams, who apply to the incubator for incubation support and if duly accepted by the concerned educational institutions, shall be given 5% grace marks and 20% attendance every semester. (ii) Final year projects of college students as part of degree completion have to be New and Innovative Projects. Incubators would create an online portal with details of all such projects so that students can post their projects online to avoid duplication. (iii) College and School Level Entrepreneurship Development Clubs will be established through incubators to foster innovation and entrepreneurial spirit at school and college level. (iv) The Universities will be advised to give credits to the students successfully completing notified online courses, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and their insertion as electives. The University in conjunction with Incubators operating in the state shall decide the number of credits and evaluation methodology for such courses. Students should be free to learn electives from first year of college as part of degree completion even though electives are available only from third or fourth year. (v) All educational institutions offering under-graduate courses may implement a mandatory scheme of internship/apprenticeship in the last year of the course in association with the industry. This may be waived off for students who are setting up their own startups in incubators.

Handholding and Support :

 The Scheme envisages practical exposure, orientation training, entrepreneurial guidance and handholding, etc. to potential entrepreneurs. The State Government shall provide financial support to HIs institutions so that they are able to provide requisite handholding and support to the new entrepreneurs/startups.

Self-Certification :

All the new enterprises in the State will be required to submit only selfcertified documents online or manually. All the concerned Deptt. will issue provisional registration within 15 days from submission of the documents. Selfcertification will reduce the regulatory burden on startups. Startups shall be allowed to self-certify compliance with labour laws and environment laws and any other statutory/mandatory laws.

Startup/New Industries Support Center :

 The HP Centre for Entrepreneurship Development (HPCED) would act as a support center for the startups in the State. In addition, it will document and propagate the success stories and also associate successful entrepreneurs in potential sectors. The Centre would also rope in/enlist pool of institutions such as IITs, IIMs, Technology Centre and other institutes dealing with industrial development, etc. to train, orient, and handhold the new entrepreneurs. The Center would work out costs for such activities in consultation with the concerned institutions and seek approval thereof from the Empowered Committee (EC).

Administering of Benefits :

 All admissible benefits shall be administered by Directorate of Industries through identified incubators as implementation partners or otherwise in order to speed up the process without compromising on due diligence in disbursal of fiscal incentives.

  Common Application Center :

 New entrepreneurs often suffer from lack of information and uncertainty regarding the exact regulatory requirements and incentives available to setup their businesses. In order to address this issue, a checklist of required Registrations, Licenses, clearances along with provision of online registration and making application for various incentives shall be developed and made available at one place in the web portal of industries department. In addition Department of Industries will create Single Window online portal for registration and providing incentives to the startups or innovative projects registered under scheme.

Annual Entrepreneurship Awards :

The State Government will also institute an Annual Entrepreneurship Awards in the State. All start-up/New Industry/Innovation Projects set up in State will be mapped by the Support Centre every year and success stories highlighted. Three successful entrepreneurs will be awarded each year with a citation case award of Rs. 1,00,000/-, Rs. 75,000/- and Rs. 50,000/- respectively and a publication on the success stories will be released every year.

 Monitoring and Evaluation :

 The scheme shall be reviewed, monitored and driven by an empowered committee consisting of the following:- Principal Secretary (Industry) – Chairman and other members.

The scheme will be reviewed on annual basis.