Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal had presented the Budget in Assembly on Friday.
FINANCE MINISTER Manpreet Singh Badal on Saturday announced Rs 100 crore start-up fund in partnership with IKG Punjab Technical University besides establishing an incubator at Kalkat Bhawan, Mohali, to promote agricultural start-ups for which an executive committee comprising government officials and experts in the start-up sector would be constituted.
Delivering the keynote address at the TiECON held at Indian School of Business (ISB), Mohali, the Punjab Finance Minister also announced reimbursement of registration stamp duty to the first 100 start-ups every year. He said that the cost incurred on the Articles of Association and Memorandum of Association during registration of a company with the government’s Registrar of Companies will be reimbursed by the Punjab government. “These funds will be sourced from CSR funds available with Punjab CSR authority,” Manpreet said.
“Punjab is rightly positioned to tap into technology-led innovation to drive growth in the agriculture sector and fuel the state’s economy,” he said, urging the youth to come forward and the ride this wave of opportunities.
The minister said that 25 per cent of the start-up fund will be invested on women entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs belonging to Scheduled Castes. Further, he also said Start-up Punjab in partnership with Start-up India and the Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer, IIT Delhi, will organise capacity building workshops for women entrepreneurs across Punjab in March and April 2020. There will be four workshops of two days each to focus on providing mentoring to early stage women-led start-ups and aspiring entrepreneurs.
Earmarking agriculture marketing and support as potential areas for development, he said, “We need to innovate and come up with sustainable solutions to increase farmer’s earnings, who despite ensuring nation’s food security are distressed.”