Startups in India Get a Major Boost As Govt Allocates Rs 830 Crore for Fund of Funds for Startups in Union Budget 2021–22

New Delhi, February 3: With an aim to give a major fillip to the startups in India, the government has allocated Rs 830 crore for the 'Fund of Funds for Startup's in the Budget 2021-22. This is higher then the revised estimate of about Rs 430 crore. The government has set up a Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS) with a corpus of Rs 10,000 crore. The Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) is the operating agency for the FFS.

According to the Budget documents, the allocation for Startup India programme has been increased slightly to Rs 20.83 crore for 2021-22 from the revised estimate of Rs 20 crore in 2020-21.The government’s Startup India initiative aims at fostering entrepreneurship and promoting innovation by creating an ecosystem that is conducive to the growth of budding entrepreneurs. The allocation for the fund of funds in Budget 2020-21 was Rs 1,054.97 core, but it was later revised to Rs 429.99 crore.

Moreover, the government has earmarked Rs 300 crore for credit guarantee fund. The cumulative allocation for the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has been hiked to Rs 7,782.24 crore for 2021-22 as against the revised estimate of Rs 7,583.06 crore in 2020-21. Similarly, the cumulative allocation for the department of commerce has also been increased to Rs 4,986 crore for 2021-22 as against the revised estimate of Rs 4,600 crore in 2020-21.

The total allocations for export promotion schemes, such as Market Access Initiative and Interest Equalisation Scheme, has been increased to Rs 2,365 crore for 2021-22 as against the revised estimate of Rs 2,175 crore in 2020-21.