The Hindu BusinessLine: February 28, 2013
The Finance Minister’s proposals to set up technology incubators and linking this to the corporate social responsibility initiatives of a company has got a thumbs up from the industry. According to the Companies Bill, 2 per cent of net profit of a company can be used for technology-oriented incubation, or incubation at an academic or a vocational training institution. However, these institutions need to be recognised by the Government. “We surely foresee this to improve the positioning of India as a start-up nation,” said Praveen Bhadada, Director-Market Expansion, Zinnov. Saurabh Srivastava, Chairman, CA Technologies, India, said, “Around the country, incubation activity has seen increased and will see quality ventures come out of incubators.”Siddharth Shah, partner at law firm, Khaitan & Co said that while such a measure was laudable, the corporates should have been allowed to choose the sector they wanted to invest in.
In other bit of good news, Sunil Goyal, CEO, YourNest Angel Fund, said that the support provided through Small Industries Development Bank opf India and privileges for scaling up beyond three years shall enable micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to prosper. Besides, listing of MSMEs without IPO for informed investors shall create a market for the risk-capital starved sector. It will also create more options for investor exits.