Question : Turnover for Start-ups

(a) whether the Government will increase the maximum turnover for a firm to be considered as a start-up from its current figure of Rs. 25 crore and if so, the details thereof;

(b) whether the Government plans to increase or reduce the percentage of apprenticeship in start-ups from its current range of 2.5% to 10% of the total workforce and if so, the details thereof;

(c) the list of facilitators in Karnataka and benefited start-ups till date from the Start-ups Intellectual Property Protection Scheme; and

(d) the number of Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) and the funds disbursed under the Fund of Funds for Start-ups from AIFs, State-wise till date?

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THE MINISTER OF COMMERCE & INDUSTRY
(SHRI PIYUSH GOYAL)

(a): Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) vide its notification number G.S.R. 127(E) dated 19th February 2019 has increased the maximum turnover for a firm to be considered as a start-up to Rs. 100 crore from earlier criteria of maximum turnover of Rs. 25 crore.

(b): The Apprentices Act, 1961 makes it obligatory for employers to engage apprentices in “designated trades” and “optional trades” for all employers who have a workforce of 40 employees or above (sum of total regular and contract employees), across the manufacturing, services, trading sectors, etc. For establishments having workforce of 6 to 40 employees, engagement of apprentices is optional. However, establishments with 5 employees or less are not permitted to engage apprentices. The Apprentices Act, 1961 does have any provision for “Start-ups”. As per sub rule (3) of Rule 7-B the Apprenticeship Rules, 1992, each establishment shall engage apprentices in a band of 2.5% to 10% of the total strength of the establishment including contractual staff.
The Government has no plan to increase or reduce the percentage of apprenticeship in establishments, at present.

(c): The list of facilitators in Patents and Trademarks from Karnataka, registered with Intellectual Property office under Start-ups Intellectual Property Protection (SIPP) scheme as on 31st May 2019 is at Annexure I (a) and (b). As on 31st May 2019, more than 900 applications for Patents and more than 1900 applications for Trademarks have been filed by startups through facilitators under the SIPP scheme.


(d): Government of India has established Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS) with corpus of Rs. 10,000 crore, to meet the funding needs of startups. DPIIT is the monitoring agency and Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) is the operating agency for FFS. As on June 24, 2019, SIDBI has committed Rs 3123.20 crore to 49 SEBI registered Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs). These funds have raised a corpus fund of Rs. 27,478 crore. Rs 483.46 crore have been drawn from Fund of Funds for Startups. Further, the AIFs have invested a total of Rs. 1,625.73 crore into 247 startups. State/UT-wise details of funds invested by the AIFs are at Annexure II.


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