The Startup India initiative is a flagship program of the Government of India that aims to create a robust ecosystem for nurturing innovation and startups in the country, which will drive sustainable economic growth and generate large-scale employment opportunities . The program was launched on January 16, 2016, and is based on three pillars: Simplification and Handholding, Funding Support and Incentives, and Industry-Academia Partnership and Incubation . The Action Plan addresses all aspects of the startup ecosystem in India . The Government hopes to accelerate the spread of the startup movement through this Action Plan .
The Action Plan includes several measures such as self-certification based compliance regime, relaxation of norms of public procurement for startups, providing funding support to startups, income tax exemption for startups for three years, launching of the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) along with the Self-Employment and Talent Utilization (SETU) Program, among others .